Barack Obama and the Atlanta mayor’s race

A dotted line can be drawn between the election of President Barack Obama and the rising status of Councilwoman Mary Norwood in Atlanta’s startling race for mayor.

The connection has nothing to do with Obama’s status as the nation’s first African-American president, or Norwood’s pale complexion.

This is about cash — large amounts of it. And about a population of voters angered, and no doubt frightened, by higher taxes, furloughed cops and disappearing paychecks.

One of the most important, but least-discussed, aspects of the $787-billion federal stimulus package passed in the early days of the Obama administration was where the money would flow: through state capitols, in part to prop up suddenly shaky, billion-dollar state budgets. Including Georgia’s.

On Tuesday, a small group of big-city mayors met in Washington with Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council and Obama’s top economic advisor. Mayor Shirley Franklin, one of the most influential Democrats in Georgia, was among them.

The mayors’ aim was to bring a withering fact to the attention of a president who was elected with an overwhelming majority of American’s urban vote: Less than 1 percent of the federal stimulus has gone directly to cities.

Billions went to states to help them avoid layoffs and furloughs of employees. No such fiscal assistance was offered to cities.

The result, the mayors noted, has been furloughed or laid-off workers, diminished services, and higher taxes and fees of every kind.

Throw in higher rates of unemployment — in Atlanta, the jobless rate is more than a full point higher than the state’s level of 10.2 percent — and you have the makings of a surly electorate.

“It’s all about the unemployment monster at Halloween. People are in a visceral mood right now. Anyone that’s an incumbent, they just want to get rid of them,” said Tom Cochran, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, who was also at that meeting with White House officials.

Voters in Atlanta are only part of the epidemic.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who seeks a third term on Tuesday, has seen his lead shrink to single digits. Advisers are fearful of a dismal turnout by voters.

This month, Richard Berry became the first Republican mayor of Albuquerque, N.M., in 24 years, winning a three-way race against two Democrats — one the incumbent.

Berry took 44 percent of the vote in his city — which is about where Atlanta polls had Norwood before her final TV blitz began this week.

Norwood has disavowed her Republican past, but she has also run a classic anti-incumbent campaign, against a mayor who won’t be on Tuesday’s ballot. Franklin responded this week by questioning the councilwoman’s competence and ability to handle big-city affairs.

Norwood’s chief rivals, former state senator Kasim Reed and City Council President Lisa Borders, have attempted to paint the candidate from Buckhead as part of the problem — pointing to her opposition to property tax increases designed to avoid police and firefighter furloughs.

But in a marathon, 150-minute debate on Tuesday, sponsored by a pair of radio stations, Borders and Reed were also pressed to admit that Franklin — who during much of her eight-year tenure has been considered the most popular female political figure in Georgia — has committed missteps.

Her sins have been minor, both candidates have said — she has been too loyal to inept City Hall bureaucrats. But in hard times, and in a city where 26,172 were counted as unemployed in September, small mistakes and inefficiencies can loom large.

The radioactive nature of the Atlanta electorate can be measured by the Democrats who have stayed out of the mayor’s race. The Rev. Joseph Lowery said last week that he might involve himself in get-out-the-vote efforts. But he won’t endorse a candidate.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, whose endorsement may be the most prized in Atlanta, is also likely to stay on the sidelines.

In the contest’s final days, the loudest endorsement in the mayor’s race may come from the late Maynard Jackson. The Reed campaign on Thursday will launch a radio ad featuring Atlanta’s first black mayor and his daughter Brook Jackson-Edmond.

“Wake up, Democrats!” Jackson says in a recording from his address to the 1992 Democratic National Convention. Jackson’s daughter calls Reed “the only true Democrat in this race.”

Which brings us back to the federal stimulus and the value of a mayor with Democratic connections.

Of the three top candidates for mayor of Atlanta, Reed without question has the strongest ties to the Obama administration — the former state lawmaker was an early and essential organizer during the Georgia campaign.

But even in Obama-loving Atlanta, the current drought from Washington could make this asset a harder sell. A pipeline to a dry well does no one any good.

Editor’s note: Given the impending Atlanta mayoral election, instant commenting has been closed on the Political Insider blog. Readers are invited to submit comments on all posts, which will be published as soon as possible after review.

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