Friday, October 30, 2009
News Borders, Reed write off Buckhead in mayor's race
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 1:22 AM
In the final days before next Tuesday's mayoral election, it seems both Lisa Borders and Kasim Reed have ceded Buckhead to Mary Norwood and are focusing their remaining efforts on Southside Atlanta.
What makes us say this? Consider the evidence:
Last night, both were no-shows at a candidate forum hosted by the Pine Hills Neighborhood Association, a group that includes residents who live south of Lenox Square between Lenox and Roxboro roads.
Also, both have gotten into a war of words over who makes the better choice for Democratic voters, an argument that is unlikely to resonate with a good percentage of Northsiders.
Borders is now taking every opportunity to say she's a Democrat, from her latest TV ad to ongoing phone solicitations in which callers ask the called to "Vote for Lisa Borders, Democrat." And those calls are going out to Buckhead.
Meanwhile, Reed has launched a radio ad that uses a clip from a 1992 speech by Maynard Jackson entitled, "Wake up, Democrats!" Then, as an R&B song plays in the background, the late mayor's daughter, Brooke Jackson-Edmond, endorses Reed and tells listeners, "The Democratic agenda my father championed must continue." Click here to listen.
I'm not sure why Borders has allowed Reed to draw her into this contest because she can't possibly out-Demo him. As a prominent legislator, Reed has earned a reputation as a big wheel in the state party (for what that's worth in GOP-controlled Georgia). All Borders can do is try to reassure voters that she, too, is a Democrat. Again, it's a message that could do her more harm than good on the north side of town.
We've heard through the grapevine that Borders' strategy for the last few days of campaigning is to go after black female voters. Certainly, her new TV ad would seem to underscore that notion.
Comments (14)
Showing 1-14 of 14
Borders and Reed didn't write off Buckhead, Buckhead wrote them off months ago. All of the recent poll cross tabs show Norwood with nearly all of the GOP support and over 70% of the white support. No need to focus energy on that vote if they've already decided to vote in a block.
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Both the Borders and Reed camps are floundering fast. Reed has spent the last five months and a lot of money trying to get where he is now in these last few weeks (and two good polls), but unfortunately, his people are getting squirrelly and running off fumes from this recent bit of momentum. His cash is also running out after months of spending on solutions which are just starting to come to fruition. His senator pallies are getting restless too since their constituents are now aiming at them for spending more time on a mayoral campaign than on the actual positions they hold under the Gold Dome. Borders has run a hellish campaign. She dropped out of the race for eight months, and has had three changes of staff. The third change was undoubtedly the worst, and I think Borders is falling in the polls because her amateur staff is failing her left and right. Taking care of the parents probably looks really good right now. Norwood is doing the really smart thing right now...which is nothing! She's running above all this back and forth Black candidate fighting, adopting the same public persona in debates and forums, and generally not saying anything (which in this race seems to be better than saying something positive). Tuesday will be interesting, mainly because the polls aren't telling the real story. There's still a lot of undecideds out there, and with the bickering between Borders and Reed, Norwood is standing out because she's being silent, not because she's White. Race isn't really an issue except for the old Black and White establishments in Atlanta. Election day will be very, very, VERY interesting.
Scott, I'm frankly surprised at the explicit race-baiting in this article. All of Atlanta has seen this race turn into one filled with coded language. Democrat, SWATS, R&B = Black. Republican, Buckhead = White. This article has perpetuated the ugliness that runs through this city, especially at a time where the city needs to work together. For the sake of race relations in Atlanta, I hope that Reed and Norwood don't end up in a run-off because the radio and TV ads will quickly turn us into a city divided.
C'mon guys, attendance at YET another little community meeting proves nothing. Nobody's been showing up to these things except the candidates' own groupies and a handful of self-important community 'activists' anyway. Lisa might as well send a mannequin and a tape of her canned response lines anyway, since nobody could tell the difference. At least with Mary you can't foretell how she'll make an idiot of herself. And listening to Kasim respond thoughtfully to the questions you just might learn something.
Donny, it's Reed and Borders who are doing the race-baiting. It's the elephant in the room that someone must address.
Reed and Norwood are both disastrously polarizing figures. The old white guard and the GOP desperately want Norwood while the Maynard machine and the old black establishment will stop at nothing to promote Reed. You'll notice that both of these bases are comprised of old Atlanta, and the powers that have been. What's been lost in this discussion is what YOUNG Atlanta is going to do in this election. While I'm aware that older voters greatly outnumber younger voters in terms of turnout, I'm more getting at the everyday race relations in the city and how different demographics view this upcoming election. I don't claim to be a scientific pollster, but the vast majority of conversations I've had with 20- and 30-somethings (over happy hour beers, in the elevator, at the gym) have characterized Norwood as a ditz who means well, Kasim as a career politician willing to race bait, and Lisa Borders as the happy medium business candidate. I don't have a crystal ball, but I think that if the Borders camp can get it together and get past the general election she has the best chance of defeating Norwood in a runoff. Things are getting interesting...
@rptrcub You must need a crash course on race-baiting. That term refers to individuals who use race as a wedge to divide people. From my perspective, all of the candidates have been focused on winning different groups at different times but only Norwood has tried to divide the city with her emphasis on a "city hall" that has failed us for too long. Sounds like "a Black mayor system" that has failed us.
@rptrcub: I have heard Mary Norwood say on multiple occasions that Atlanta "doesn't have issues with race relations" and that "all of Atlanta's neighborhoods are equally diverse." There are only two options for how someone could possibly suggest such absurdity: 1) they are blind, deaf, and stupid 2) they are disingenuous and hoping to coast into the mayor's office by being the 'nice white lady'. If you consider bringing up race as a legitimate topic of discussion for its divisive potential as race baiting, then sure I guess the blacks are race baiting. I don't dislike Mary Norwood (she's my #2). I just don't think she can build the bridges that Lisa Borders can build to move the city into the 21st century. Oh yeah, and address that little revenue issue we're facing...
Race is how to change the subject from the real crisis - but it is also how to get blacks fooled by Mary's effective wooing to think twice about what she'd actually be capable of doing in office (clue: not much). It's the financial bust, not race, that is going to divide this city if we have any more refusal to get real about what we can afford. Any mayor who gets the city's house in order will be welcomed by property taxpayers, who see the bills and are mostly white. Water consumers too, maybe. Reed is the only one who takes the task seriously.
Donny, if my blunt analysis of the campaign seems like race-baiting, that certainly isn't my intent. Rather, I'm simply trying to keep readers informed about what's going on in the mayor's race — and what's going on is that the leading two black candidates have determined that they aren't likely to make much more headway among white voters, so they're focusing their efforts on undecided black voters. I understand how it may sound like an implicit criticism merely to point this out, but it's a long-standing and legitimate campaign strategy to go where the votes are. Personally, I think it's a shame that mayoral candidates have to consider race so heavily when they campaign, but when polls show that 70 percent of white Atlantans plan to voter for Norwood, it's a factor that cannot be ignored.
@Scott Henry. Yes, and 80% of African Americans are voting for a black candidates. Identity politics are nothing new. What's worth noting is that neither candidate invested ANY campaign resources on the northside. And it isn't a recent development. It happened long before Norwood gained any steam. In over a year of canvassing, Reed never knocked on one northside door. That's worth reporting.
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