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Cries of sabotage (and free beer) in Atlanta mayoral race

3:27 pm August 22, 2009, by jgalloway

The mayoral campaign of Lisa Borders had a block party this afternoon near downtown Atlanta on Marietta Street.

But the Borders operation is saying that a rival campaign — no name mentioned — tried to sabotage the event by flooding it with homeless people and the promise of free beer.

This from the Borders web site:

[Campaign manager Stacey] Abrams said the campaign made a donation to the Gateway facility, a downtown Atlanta homeless service center, when people began coming to block party with a fake flyer that promised free food and beer.

“We are deeply saddened that another campaign would use the most vulnerable members of our community in an attempt to disrupt our event to say thank you. By misusing our logo and handing out these flyers, they misled men and women who have faced more than enough difficulty. We were glad to work with the Gateway Center to feed and shelter those in need.”

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30 comments Add your comment

Preachers

August 22nd, 2009
4:07 pm

Just when you thought this was going to be a clean race on the issues…SMH

Voter1009

August 22nd, 2009
4:11 pm

How shameless! I can’t believe they’d ruin a party by lying to the homeless. I just saw Borders, Reed and Norwood at the SEABA event and was impressed with Borders and Norwood. But Ms. Borders’s decision to help the homeless rather than overreact speaks volumes of her. I’ll be giving her a closer look.

LaKeisha

August 22nd, 2009
4:52 pm

i was down there near centennial olympic park and there was someone handing out those same flyers rite on the corner of marietta across from the cnn center i stopped by and coudlnt believe it!!! thats sick someone wuld try and mess up the block party – the homeless issue in downtown is bad enough without stuff like that going on. it don’t even make no sense so i knew the flyer was fake. there was a jonas brothers concert at phillips and a kids event at the park. i don’t know who was doing this, but the lord will have his justice.

Gotcha

August 22nd, 2009
4:57 pm

Thats almost as bad as offering people food and money to vote.. oops.. We already did that. :(

Bryan

August 22nd, 2009
5:02 pm

This saddens and horrifies me. The campaign that did do this (Kasim Reed) should be thrown in jail. Exploiting the homeless is about as low as a campaign can go. Kasim and his thugs should drop out and leave the professional politics to the campaigns who have character. Today’s actions speak volumes in how an Atlanta run by Kasim Reed would work.

That ain't right

August 22nd, 2009
5:16 pm

Heck, I wouldn’t want to point the finger at the wrong camp. But it isn’t hard to narrow this down to a candidate who is running way behind and despises Borders. If HE didn’t do it, HE had better find a way to convince people HE didn’t before everybody starts believing HE did.

ATLisMine

August 22nd, 2009
5:26 pm

Stupid move. plus the other campaign broke the law. got one of the fake things in my mailbox in sw. ILLLEGAL!!!!! why give the other side free publicity and sympathy. im not a fan of any of them but this seems to give boarders another day of people talking about her. guess the pretty lady is doing good with them chasing her tail.

Politics At Its Finest

August 22nd, 2009
7:19 pm

Borders did it to gain sympathy. Whoa is me…

I can’t keep my campaign staff together. I can’t raise money. I can’t get the Firefighters endorsement after riding on all those trucks.

Maybe this way, I can get people to come to my events…even if they are homeless.

ATL Transplant

August 22nd, 2009
7:55 pm

Politics At Its Finest: do you really think the Borders camp would do this to gain sympathy? Seems to me they have plenty of other real work that will keep them plenty busy. You don’t make up 18 points in three months planning pity parties! This campaign is on the upswing and the competition knows. Why else would they stoop that low, but then again it’s pretty obvious they already reside in the gutter to pull a stunt like this. Just shameless!

To Tell The Truth

August 22nd, 2009
7:57 pm

I wouldn’t put this on Reed. He’s so far down, why risk it? And Borders had no reason to do it to herself. with all the black preachers in line to support her, they could just send their congregations. sounds more like Mary Norwood, who has C.T. Martin on the payroll so she can
win the black community thats still 52% pf ATL despte wishful thinking. Check out her fb pages…the
pruple repub who talks out of both sides of her mouth. Talks about privatizing the airport and ending the MBE program and “its our turn” on the northside, then it’s all about making the homeless pick up trash on dangerous hwys when she’s slummin in the swats. dont sleep on Mary – remember she’s the one who pretends that in 8 yrs she couldn’t read a budget but voted for them evry time. and you fools believe…

ATL by way of Texas

August 22nd, 2009
8:00 pm

I’ve always believed there is a special place in hell for those who harm children, the elderly and animals. I hope there’s room down there for people who exploit the homeless. I mean really, would a campaign that is clearly on the upswing (if you keep track of the polls) concoct a scheme such as this? For what? They’re getting all the good press and endorsements. And now the competition is helping them get free press. Clearly there are no smart people in those other camps. I don’t want to see those other people running the city, they are clearly a bunch of idiots.

I luv Atlanta

August 22nd, 2009
8:11 pm

Has it really come to this? Is this how we sling mud in Hotlanta? I don’t which camp is responsible: the first place candidate or the third place candidate. Glad to see that team Borders camp was willing to step up and look out for those less fortunate. Keep your eyes and ears open team Borders, it will probably get even uglier in the days to come. Your competition is desperate and willing to do anything to take you down. Keep fighting the good fight, the cream always rises to the top!

Politics At Its Finest

August 22nd, 2009
8:41 pm

This seems very reminiscent of the Karl Rove play book. The polls have been very skewed. Is Mary really that far ahead? Is Reed really that far behind when he came in first with fundraising the last quarter?

To Tell The Truth: you made some good points. Norwood knows that if she is a runoff with Border’s she is most likely to win.

I think this is going to be another race where the young voters will determine the winner. Let’s see how the under 40 crowd polls.

Black Latino Council

August 22nd, 2009
8:47 pm

OKAY – PEOPLE LET’S GET BACK FOCUS AND KEEP OUR EYE ON THE PRIZE -
THE BOTTIOM LINE – THIS MAYOR’S RACE HAS NO SPRUNK – IT HAS TO BE THE MOST BORING MAYORAL RACE IN THE LAST 30 PLUS YEARS..AND THE FRONT RUNNER HAS NO MESSAGE…LISA & KASIM NEED TO STEP UP THEIR GAME AND GET OUT THE AIR CONDITIONER AND SWEAT…DO GET COUGHT UP IN TODAY SHINANGANS….RUN YOUR RACE AND and stat FOCUS

pat

August 22nd, 2009
9:06 pm

The Black Latino Council (Lance is that you?) Is right. Norwood is a fake. Her goons were the ones that did this. I have met some of them and they are slime. Norwood is faking the funk and she is catapulted to frontrunner? The polls that were conducted is another sham. How can you say she is a frontrunner from talking to 400 people? 400 people live on one block. It’s a joke! The news media outlets in Atlanta want you to believe she is the frontrunner and than you don’t vote because she has already won. That’s the propaganda they want us to buy. Reed and Borders definitely need to step up their A game to 5th gear and get out of the goddamn air conditioning.

Mechanicsville

August 22nd, 2009
9:18 pm

Though very nice of Borders to make a donation I’d wonder if she’d be giving the homeless money if they were in her neighborhood as they’re within a steer of mine. The rich love to throw money at a problem as long as it’s not in their hood.

WOMEN FOR PROGRESS

August 22nd, 2009
9:18 pm

Women For Progress will not tolerate these distractions. I don’t care if someone tried to sabotage their block party, steal their yard signs (that will be the next cry of foul) or put out fake fliers. I just want to know what any one of the mayoral candidates are going to do for the homeless women and children. Stop whining to get media attention and do something constructive. You are wasting the voters’ time with this nonsense..

Number One Dem

August 22nd, 2009
11:30 pm

To Women for Progress and Mechanicsville: Get your storys straight. Lisa lives downtown and works for Grady. She sees the homeless every day and doesn’t turn them or herself away. She finds help for them now and isn’t waiting until she’s mayor. what about the rest of them? Like To Tell the Truth said, all Mary Norwood has said about hte homeless is make them pick up trash before you feed them. Nice compassionate conservatism. Don’t know where Reed stands and I’d like to hear more than he went to the gateway.

I luv Atlanta

August 23rd, 2009
1:10 am

@ Number One Dem: well said! Raising money for Grady is no small undertaking, especially during this economy. As a level one trauma center, we ALL need Grady Hospital to stay in business!

GirlDem09

August 23rd, 2009
11:58 am

I wouldn’t put it past Lisa’s campaign to have actually done this. Also, there are 14 people in this mayoral race. It is unheard of for a front-runner, who just got a HUGE endorsement by Andrew Young, raised the most money in the last quarter, is on radio, and in my mailbox every week, would stoop to the level of this. Its classless and Kasim Reed has more class in his little finger than some of these other candidates.

Augustine

August 23rd, 2009
12:07 pm

There are at least a dozen other mayoral candidates. It makes a lot more sense that someone considerably further down the roster would do something this “close to the street.” You people are either morons or you work for the Lisa Borders campaign and are using this opportunity and the comments section of this blog to torpedo Kasim Reed. That’s exactly the kind of corporate skullduggery we can expect from her campaign.

That ain't right

August 23rd, 2009
12:55 pm

Kasim might have some class, but I wouldn’t put it past his brother. He probably did it on city time.

vince neil

August 23rd, 2009
1:44 pm

What’s next Kasim….bumfights at Mary Norwood’s meetings??????

Donny Fairplay

August 23rd, 2009
3:17 pm

this has kasim written all over it. anyone that would throw their “mentor” under the bus along with the police chief that they handpicked is not above exploiting the homeless. with reed having the most money raised, borders is the one feeding and donating to the homeless? that’s class!

Dumb

August 23rd, 2009
5:51 pm

There’s nothing worse than the smell of desperation in the morning.

SWATLalltheway

August 23rd, 2009
11:19 pm

Reed did it. I like Mary. She seems honest and hardworking. She can’t be bought off. The City of Atlanta is broken. Mary seems like the only one with a chance of fixing it.

Bill Campbell

August 24th, 2009
9:52 am

I seriously doubt if Reed did it. He is polling at 8%! Why would someone polling at such a low percentage point do something so stupid! Mary’s people did. She has Michael Langford working for her who was a well known operative for Bill Campbell and works very close to the homeless. Kasim wouldn’t know where a homeless shelter was even if he was walking on Peachtree and Pine itself.

I luv Atlanta

August 25th, 2009
1:45 am

@ GirlDem09: There’s a reason he’s on radio and in your mailbox everyday…he’s in single digits, he has to be!!!! I wouldn’t characterize his lone endorsement as HUGE. But if you choose to, Borders has the faith based community in her corner. “I’ll see your Technically, he would be considered a front runner as a solid #3 in a field of 12. But we all know there won’t 12 names on the ballot come November.

Moe Lane » Yes. This would be *wrong*. And *cruel*.

October 7th, 2009
11:09 pm

[...] – am carefully and explicitly saying that nobody should do this. And that goes for similar tricks, too.  It’s rude and mean.  It even might make the other side [...]

Yes. This would be *wrong*. And *cruel*. - Redhot - RedState

October 7th, 2009
11:10 pm

[...] Reynolds – am carefully and explicitly saying that nobody should do this. And that goes for similar tricks, too. It’s rude and mean. It even might make the other side [...]