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Cynthia Tucker

Here’s to a run-off on issues, not race

7:05 am November 4, 2009, by ctucker

With a run-off, will the Atlanta mayor’s race become overtly racial?

To the credit of all the candidates, the mayor’s race hasn’t sunk, so far, into blatant racial appeals. Yes, there was the infamous memo, written by two Clark Atlanta professors, which declared an urgent need to keep a black person in the mayor’s office. But, to their credit, the top candidates all disavowed it.

Now, however, the race could get sharper and meaner. Both Mary Norwood and Kasim Reed will need to whip up supporters to energize them to return to the polls. Since whites are still a minority in the city, Norwood cannot afford to alienate black voters with appeals to whites.

But what about Reed? He’s not been the kind of legislator who resorted to racially-coded tactics, but the stakes are higher for him now. Will he or his surrogates be tempted to run, say, radio commercials on urban music stations that appeal to racial pride?

Perhaps Reed can prove that both he and the city are more mature than that.

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