Who’s best of Atlanta’s 3 great mayoral candidates?
If you stick around long enough, you see some surprising things.
Forty years ago, I saw a man walk on the moon; five years ago, I watched the Boston Red Sox win their first World Series in 86 years. Heck, I’ve even seen a black man elected president.
But early next month, we’ll be treated to something just as unlikely. When they go to the polls Nov. 3, Atlanta voters will see three smart, experienced, honest and hard-working candidates for mayor on the ballot. Given the dearth of leadership that has plagued the city, that’s something to be celebrated.
The city faces a lot of serious problems, and many of those problems are self-inflicted. But the fact that it can produce mayoral candidates of the quality of Mary Norwood, Kasim Reed and Lisa Borders has to bode well.
(A fourth candidate, Jesse Spikes, is a successful corporate lawyer who is also smart and honest. What he lacks is political experience, which matters more than many people think. Michael Jordan was a great athlete, perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time. But when he tried his hand at baseball, he barely hit .200 at Double A level. The skills that make you a star in one field don’t mean much in another.)
The tone of the mayoral campaign and the reception the candidates have received also suggest that Atlanta has matured. All three major candidates — a white woman, a black woman and a black man — have built impressive coalitions across boundaries of geography, race and class. As a result, the divisiveness that might mark such a campaign in many other diverse cities — and in the Atlanta of previous years — hasn’t really played out yet. If the pattern holds in the remaining days of the race, that too bodes well for the city’s future.
Choosing among the three is difficult, in part because all three agree in general terms about the major tasks facing Atlanta’s next mayor. They each stress making the city bureaucracy work better, solving its stubborn financial management issues and improving public safety. But each brings something different to the race.
Norwood is a veteran City Council member with extensive business experience. Through a lot of hard work, she has made herself familiar with every corner of the city, and every corner of the city is familiar with Norwood. Her energy and networking skills are legendary.
Norwood is also the candidate focused most intently on resolving the city’s significant financial management problems. Given the state of the city when she took office, incumbent Shirley Franklin has accomplished an awful lot in her two terms as mayor, but fiscal reform largely eluded her. Norwood pledges to give that issue the deep attention it clearly demands, and she has the tenacity to see it through.
Kasim Reed, an Atlanta attorney and veteran state senator, stresses the importance of public safety in his campaign, promising to hire 750 additional police officers by the end of his four-year term. Given the city’s financial situation, that is a hugely ambitious and probably impractical goal, but Reed says he is committed to achieving it.
Reed also highlights his record of consensus building in the state Senate, where he served as a minority urban Democrat in a chamber dominated by rural and suburban Republicans. As Reed tells it, he was able to build relationships across party lines that allowed him to buck the odds and serve effectively on behalf of his Atlanta constituents.
That ability, he says, will allow him to build support for his policies with members of an often fractious City Council. Perhaps just as important, he says, those relationships with state legislative leaders will pay dividends for the city as metro Atlanta seeks assistance and cooperation from an often antagonistic state government.
Like her opponents, Lisa Borders has an extensive record both of public service and private-sector leadership. As City Council president, she too knows the city and its problems, and she too pledges to improve the efficiency of the city bureaucracy. She evinces a deep passion for the city and the intellect and energy needed to make it a better place. Her main advantage over Norwood, with whom she serves on the City Council, may be her ability to build council support for the tough financial and personnel decisions that lie ahead.
Trying to choose among such well-qualified candidates is a welcome chore, but at this point, I’ll cast my vote for Reed. The record of legislative consensus-building that he describes is very real. Given that some of the metro region’s biggest challenges cannot be solved without the assistance of state leaders, an Atlanta mayor with such connections would be a major asset.
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331 comments Add your comment
Normal
October 23rd, 2009
9:24 am
Gave up on downstairs, huh?
Normal
October 23rd, 2009
9:27 am
I’ll take Norwood…does she bite?
USinUK
October 23rd, 2009
9:31 am
I guess there’s only so much mileage you can get from penis-eating worms …
Mrs. Godzilla
October 23rd, 2009
9:31 am
Don’t have a dog in this fight……I wish the City of Atlanta well….
Joan
October 23rd, 2009
9:31 am
I’ll go for Norwood because business sense is what is needed today–at the local, and the federal level. Heaven spare us the politicians and their crooked little cronies.
Mrs. Godzilla
October 23rd, 2009
9:32 am
Would that be MPP?
Doggone/GA
October 23rd, 2009
9:33 am
“Don’t have a dog in this fight……I wish the City of Atlanta well….”
Me either…and me too.
Doggone/GA
October 23rd, 2009
9:34 am
“Heaven spare us the politicians and their crooked little cronies.”
You seem to be saying that having “business sense” means she is free of connections to “crooked little cronie”…it don’t necessarily follow, you know.
USinUK
October 23rd, 2009
9:35 am
““Don’t have a dog in this fight……I wish the City of Atlanta well….”
Me either…and me too.”
can we move on to traveling music???
I have a GREAT-GREAT-GREAT contribution this week !!!
Doggone/GA
October 23rd, 2009
9:36 am
“I guess there’s only so much mileage you can get from penis-eating worms …”
But it was fun while it lasted. I vote Normal for the best post!
USinUK
October 23rd, 2009
9:38 am
“But it was fun while it lasted. I vote Normal for the best post!”
but-but-but … what about jt!!!???!!!
jt
October 23rd, 2009
9:41 am
Great.
Two frustrated women.
ATL Handicapper
October 23rd, 2009
9:42 am
For those interested in another forecast, the Vote-O-Meter (usually posted on Creative Loafing) sees the mayoral race clarifying in the final weeks. It forecasts that if the election were held today, the votes would be Mary Norwood 37%; Lisa Borders – 29%; Kasim Reed – 24%; Jesse Spikes – 6%, Kyle Keyser – 4%; Peter Brownlowe – 0%. Norwood’s lead continues and her strategy of trying to make no blunders is working. Borders remains a strong second, with Reed just holding on. Spikes and Keyser are keeping their small but committed followers, and Keyser is picking up some protest votes. As Election Day nears, uncertainty about who to vote for seems to be growing.
jconservative
October 23rd, 2009
9:42 am
“Well I’ve seen a horse fly
I’ve seen a dragon fly
I’ve seen a house fly”
But……………
My apologies to the cast of “Dumbo”
Doggone/GA
October 23rd, 2009
9:42 am
“but-but-but … what about jt!!!???!!!”
Nah, jt made me smile…but Normal had me grinning for 5 minutes. No contest!
Normal
October 23rd, 2009
9:42 am
“But it was fun while it lasted. I vote Normal for the best post!”
Nah, mine got pulled. jt wins!
Mrs. Godzilla
October 23rd, 2009
9:44 am
and one guy who sounds like he’s speaking from a closet…..
as the Munchkins so touchingly sang…come out come out wherever you are….
Angry Black Man
October 23rd, 2009
9:44 am
Had Reed served his constituents well, Atlanta traffic wouldn’t be so bad, right?
I’d say Norwood is odds-on favorite barring any shenanigans (sp.).
Doggone/GA
October 23rd, 2009
9:45 am
“Nah, mine got pulled”
Not the one about a figure of speech..which is the one that I vote for.
Brad Steel
October 23rd, 2009
9:46 am
With the the past low expectations and realizations, this lot of candidates, does seem too good to live up the expectations. Hell, the Sox won, but then there are the Cubs. I hope Atlantans won’t be like Cubs fans.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
October 23rd, 2009
9:46 am
At the end of the day, it’s still the City of Atlanta.
ew
~~~~~~
Sensing that victory in the race for Virginia governor is slipping away, Democrats at the national level are laying the groundwork to blame a loss in a key swing state on a weak candidate who ran a poor campaign that failed to fully embrace President Obama until days before the election.-Washington Post
Hardee har har, the rest of us know he will lose because Obozo, mmm, mmmm, mmmmm, has been hung around his neck.
Normal
October 23rd, 2009
9:48 am
Doggone/GA
October 23rd, 2009
9:45 am
“Nah, mine got pulled”
Not the one about a figure of speech..which is the one that I vote for.
Funny, on my screen it said I was moderated after some of y’all answered. Go figure…
Doggone/GA
October 23rd, 2009
9:48 am
ABM – did you see my reply to you downstairs?
Gale
October 23rd, 2009
9:52 am
Also not an Atlanta city resident, but I would go for Norwood and hope Borders stays on city council. I think the city will need both people.
CP Jen
October 23rd, 2009
10:00 am
Norwood for me.
Normal
October 23rd, 2009
10:03 am
UH, Jay? Looks like this one is done too…just sayin’
USinUK
October 23rd, 2009
10:06 am
so … a devout muslim and an orthodox jew walk into a boxing ring …
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/boxingandmma/6414759/Amir-Khan-expects-tough-defense-against-unbeaten-Dmitry-Salita.html
Paul
October 23rd, 2009
10:06 am
“Don’t have a dog in this fight……I wish the City of Atlanta well….”
Me either…and me too.”
Me three.
I was amazed at the deluge of comments on the prior thread in such a short time. Who’da’ thunk “penis eating worms” would bring together people of all political persuasions?
I just hope Axelrod and Dunn don’t think there’s a lesson here…
Truth
October 23rd, 2009
10:09 am
Atlanta is Atlanta. Luckily, I don’t live there. I do, however, think that politics is a dirty game and one person that doesn’t fit the mold of a politician and that would have been a great canidate is Clark Howard.
Angry Black Man
October 23rd, 2009
10:09 am
Doggone
About the spiders? Yeah, I can’t remember the name of the spider that does that. I’ve seen it before though. If it’s on Nat Geo or Discovery, I’m gonna watch it.
Doggone/GA
October 23rd, 2009
10:12 am
“About the spiders?”
No, not that one…the one about evolving from a single cell.
jt
October 23rd, 2009
10:13 am
ABM-
Noted and acknowledged sir.
Thank you.
Angry Black Man
October 23rd, 2009
10:13 am
Oops, missed that one. Going back to read
Bosch
October 23rd, 2009
10:14 am
Me four.
Normal’s post downstairs was like
– did I just read what I thought I did. And “mine got pulled” – I am so not that clever with puns.
Paul,
“Who’da’ thunk “penis eating worms” would bring together people of all political persuasions?”
We yearn for knowledge.
Bosch
October 23rd, 2009
10:15 am
Doggone,
I saw that book at the B&N last night – so you are enjoying it? I might have to pick that one up after I finish my brain candy book I got last night.
USinUK
October 23rd, 2009
10:15 am
“We yearn for a chance to dust off our 3rd grade-level sense of humor.”
there. fyt.
jt
October 23rd, 2009
10:19 am
And in closing-
Everyone in Georgia DOES have a dog in the Atlanta mayoral race. Bad ones cost everyone, good ones help us all.
As a rule in Georgia, for the most bang for the buck and decent leadership, go for the one who is NOT an attorney.
Angry Black Man
October 23rd, 2009
10:21 am
Doggone
Read it. I think the woman that was quoted must have skipped biology class. I think my 1 year old could have explained that to her.
ATLshirt.com
October 23rd, 2009
10:22 am
all three of the front runners currently hold a position in Government for the city or the state… I think that all three are part of the problem and not a solution…
more police = more taxes = greater strain on business = more job loss in the city = greater crime rate!!
stands for decibels
October 23rd, 2009
10:22 am
“We yearn for a chance to dust off our 3rd grade-level sense of humor.”
Dust off?
Eric
October 23rd, 2009
10:24 am
Last September during a rather disturbing rash of crime in my neighborhood I sent letters to Norwood, Borders, Franklin and other city leaders pleading for some action to help protect me and my neighbors from the outlaws that were roaming our streets. We had rapes, murders, robbings, home invasions and burglaries happening all around us. What response did I receive from our leaders? Not a single word. Nothing! Maybe they were all too busy planning their campaigns. Since Reed was the only one I didn’t contact, I guess he gets my vote by default.
Paul
October 23rd, 2009
10:26 am
Off topic
So much for mending relations with Europe.
“Disappointed Sarkozy shifts gaze from Washington”
“There is an annoyance about what the French see as naivety in the Obama administration,” said Bruno Tertrais, a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research.
Sarkozy’s frustrations spilled into the open at the United Nations last month, when he appeared to chide Obama publicly.
“I support America’s outstretched hand. But what has the international community gained from these offers of dialogue? Nothing but more enriched uranium and centrifuges,” he said…”
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-43390720091023?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0
Doggone/GA
October 23rd, 2009
10:30 am
“I saw that book at the B&N last night – so you are enjoying it?”
Yes, I did like it…but I damn hear had to read it with a dictionary in the other hand. He’s a good scientist, but he doesn’t have Stephen Hawking’s knack for writing for “the masses”
Dan
October 23rd, 2009
10:31 am
I think being a current member of this city’s government should disqualify anyone from being a candidate.
ATLshirt.com
October 23rd, 2009
10:31 am
I just wish one of the candidates would focus thier time on bringing jobs to the city.. adding 50 police to the force is not the answer.. It helps a little, but what do police focus thier time on ?? They are not hunting down bad guys.. they are writing tickets to people for speeding, or parking illegally.. We need those police to walk the streets of high crime areas.. instead of trying to generate revenue for the city who is low on cash from the many years of corrupt politicians who have ran this city into the ground!!
Angry Black Man
October 23rd, 2009
10:31 am
I thought we didn’t like the French. My question to Sarcozy would be, “What have you done to stop the enriched uranium and centrifuges?”
Doggone/GA
October 23rd, 2009
10:32 am
“I think my 1 year old could have explained that to her”
No kidding!
Angry Black Man
October 23rd, 2009
10:32 am
Dan
Who would you get to run then?
Angry Black Man
October 23rd, 2009
10:34 am
Doggone
She’s probably the same person on the news who start’s off her eyewitness testimony with, “See, what had happened was…”
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
October 23rd, 2009
10:34 am
Well, if anybody with white skin wins that race, it will be like the KKK electing Jesse Jackson to lead them. So this Norwood will get beat like a rented mule in the runoff. All you can say right now is she must be the biggest White librul in the country.
So it’s between this Reed and Borders. The men voters will all be out chasing crack on runoff day, so lay your money on Borders to be the next mayor.
It don’t matter to me. I stay away from Atlanta like I stay away from jails. Us Conservative Republicans got no use for Atlanta. Long as those folks keep paying their taxes so we can get our roads and stuff out here where the real GA is, they can do what they want.
Like they said back when Barry Goldwater was running, in your heart you know I’m right. Have a good day everybody.