Atlanta made history in 1973 when it became the first major city in the South to elect a black mayor and voters have the opportunity to make history again if they cross the racial divide next Tuesday and elect the city’s first white mayor in four decades.
That possibility loomed larger in the closing days of the campaign as City Councilwoman Mary Norwood, a white politician from the north side of town, appeared to be nearing the magic 50 percent mark against two African American opponents in late polls.
Those final polls had former state legislator Kasim Reed slipping into second place ahead of City Council President Lisa Borders, but also had Norwood well north of the 40 percent support level.
A SurveyUSA poll for WXIA-TV showed Norwood at 46 percent, Reed at 26 percent and Borders at 17 percent.
Norwood has essentially spent the past eight years as a city council member running for mayor and has built a network of support in the in-town neighborhoods that could work to her advantage if she is pushed into a runoff with Reed or Borders.
While Atlanta’s voting base is still majority black, it is not as strong a majority as it once was because of changing demographic trends within the city limits. Even in a runoff campaign where the black-white issue becomes more prominent, Norwood’s field organization could give her the edge in a low-turnout election.
On the ideological issues, there are not many deep differences among the three leading candidates. Norwood is a political type familiar to Georgia politics, a person who could just as easily be a moderate Republican or a conservative Democrat.
Reed and Borders are more liberal but also have ties to conservative interests. Borders worked for Cousins Properties and has been aligned with Lynne Riley, a Republican member of the Fulton County Commission. Reed was respected by Republicans who served with him in the state Senate and in the last session was named by the GOP leadership to an important conference committee dealing with highway tax legislation.
In the closing days of the mayor’s race, the Georgia Democratic Party has attempted to intervene on behalf of Reed and Borders, sending out campaign mailers that attack Norwood as being a Republican: “Norwood’s campaign is financed by the same Republican money men who funded John McCain’s hate-filled campaign against Barack Obama, and who have given to George Bush, the Republican National Committee, Sonny Perdue and the Georgia Republican Party.”
Norwood does have financial support from Republicans, but she has voted in Republican and Democratic primary elections over the past 15 years. She has clashed openly with Republican gubernatorial candidate John Oxendine on transportation issues. Her campaign is being run by Roman Levit, a Democratic consultant who managed John Barrow’s successful campaign for Congress and has served as Barrow’s chief of staff.
The party’s attacks on Norwood have raised questions even among Democratic activists.
“I'm all for the DPG flexing its muscles to promote Democrats, but was this really the right strategy?” wrote Bernita Smith on the Blog for Democracy website. “Does this hurt the Party in Atlanta and around the State? Would they have done this if this was a Democratic primary election and Mary was on the Democratic ticket?”
“I very much like, admire, respect and have high regards for Mayor Shirley Franklin,” blogged Sid Cottingham, a party activist in Douglas. “I understand her feelings for Mary Norwood and her reasons for wanting to go public with them . . . But the state Democratic party jumping into this race . . . I just don't get it, and I don't think it advances our cause.”
If Norwood does win the mayor’s race, her victory would signal the final demise of the political machine that elected Atlanta’s first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, and has had a strong influence over every city election since.
Shirley Franklin, a close political ally of Jackson and an agency head during Jackson’s administrations, was elected in 2001 with the support of the slowly crumbling Jackson machine (her campaign organization has headed by Reed).
Franklin got high marks for her willingness to take on an issue that past mayors from Ivan Allen through Bill Campbell had ducked: fixing the city’s dilapidated water and sewer systems (she was also under considerable pressure here from the federal courts). The rebuilding of the water system has been a largely successful project for Franklin.
During Franklin’s second term, however, the city offered a lucrative pension buyout to municipal employees that plunged Atlanta deeply into debt and will be a financial issue that the city will have to deal with for years. Franklin has also been tangled up with budget cuts in public safety and an unfortunate incident where undercover police officers shot and killed a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid.
The second term mishaps have provided Norwood with plenty of ammunition to use for political attacks in her campaign, which has practically been a non-stop criticism of the Franklin years.
Franklin has returned fire against Norwood, contending that Norwood “has not demonstrated vision, competence or integrity in her public life.”
Other elections
Several special elections will be held around the state Tuesday to fill vacant seats in the General Assembly.
Down along the coast, former House member Buddy Carter of Pooler is running for the Senate seat that Eric Johnson left to run for governor. Former House member Ann Purcell, a Democrat-turned-Republican from Rincon, is running for Carter’s House seat.
In Milledgeville, there is a crowded special election to replace Bobby Parham, who resigned from the House to sit on the State Transportation Board.
Longtime lobbyist Rusty Kidd is running as an independent in that race, Darrell Black is the Democratic candidate and Republican contenders include Angela Gheesling-McCommon and Casey Tucker.
There are off-year elections in other states that are being closely watched to see if they provide any insights into the 2010 election cycle.
Much of the media attention has focused on upstate New York, where a congressional seat that has been in Republican hands since the Civil War has become the focus of a fight between the Republican Party establishment and the party’s more conservative wing.
Dede Scozzafava, the moderate Republican candidate, has fallen behind in the polls to Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. The Republican split on this race could be a harbinger of the 2008 presidential primaries: Newt Gingrich is backing Scozzafava while Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty have endorsed Hoffman.
The Republican divide in this three-way race has opened up the possibility that Democratic candidate Bill Owens could squeak through to a win.
In Virginia, where voters went for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008, Republican Bob McDonnell has a comfortable polling lead in the governor’s race over Creigh Deeds, who won a hard-fought Democratic primary but followed it with an inept general election campaign.
McDonnell’s pending victory in the Old Dominion will be spun by national Republicans as a good omen for GOP chances in 2010, but it is more a continuation of the state’s political trends for the past 20 years. In every gubernatorial election since at least 1989, Virginia’s voters have elected a candidate of the opposite party from the party that had won the White House in the previous year.
In New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine has gained ground in late polls against Republican nominee Chris Christie, who earlier had a strong lead over Corzine. The presence of independent candidate Chris Daggett makes this race too close to call.
“Whatever the outcome of this year's New Jersey and Virginia governor's races, the results will depend on conflicting factors that are unlikely to be replicated in many contests next year,” political analyst Charlie Cook wrote. “Beware, then, of drawing sweeping conclusions.”
Tourist head
Kevin Langston has been named deputy commissioner of the tourism division for the Georgia Department of Economic Development. He will replace Charlie Gatlin Dec. 1 upon Gatlin’s retirement after 24 years with the agency.
Langston has been assistant commissioner of the tourism division since May 2007, earlier working as director of international operations and director of projects. He was assistant deputy commissioner for the tourism division, in charge of marketing, sales and product development.
Greg Torre has been named division director of the marketing and communications division for the department, responsible for the strategies, execution and results of marketing and communications programs.
Tech colleges growing
Enrollment in Georgia’s 28 technical colleges grew to a record 110,254 students during the fall quarter. That’s a 24 percent increase over last year’s enrollment of 88,725 and breaks the system’s all-time record enrollment for one quarter, 91,838, that was set in 2003.
“If there’s an upside in this down economy, it’s that the state’s technical colleges are helping tens of thousands of Georgians learn highly marketable skills and find their new place in today’s changing workforce,” said Ron Jackson, commissioner of the Technical College System.
Halloween is paganistic . . . or is it?
There have been some interesting role reversals among Georgia politicians on the issue of Halloween, which will be observed with the usual round of tricking-and-treating on Saturday.
Many conservative Christians associate Halloween with satanism and paganism because of the kids who dress up as witches and ghosts, with some churches celebrating the more blandly named “Fall Festival” instead.
Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, a Republican candidate for governor who has been catering to the party’s hard-right faction, sent out a campaign statement Friday that did not denounce the observance but instead urged supporters of “Team Oxendine” to have a “Happy Halloween.”
It was the more liberal Democratic figures who were working against the traditions of Halloween.
Rep. Rob Teilhet (D-Smyrna), a candidate for attorney general, announced Friday he will sponsor legislation that would require sex offenders to post “No Candy Here” signs on Halloween at the risk of jail time and a $1,500 fine.
“This law is aimed solely at protecting our children on Halloween,” Teilhet said. “This is already working in Florida, Indiana and Maryland and it is something we should be doing to protect our children in Georgia.”
DeKalb County Reps. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield and Michele Henson are working with Kool Smiles, a network of dentists, to sponsor a “candy buy back” program for young children.
Under their proposal, “the first 100 trick-or-treaters (ages 2-16) can trade three or more pounds of candy for a $5.00 gift certificate to Subway Sandwich Shop. From November 1st to the 6th, kids can drop off the candy to Kool Smiles to receive the gift certificate.”
"While candy in moderation is fine, we want kids to know that too many sweets can cause tooth decay,” Henson said.
© 2009 by Capitolimpact.com |
