Unfinished business: Looking at the Dec. 1 runoffs
The mayor’s race could get ugly if racial politics takes center stage
On Dec. 1, an abysmally small percentage of Atlanta voters will return to the polls for the city runoffs:
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MAYOR
As the city saw on Nov. 3, Kasim Reeds an expert finisher who passed Lisa Borders heading into the home stretch and now carries that momentum into the runoff.
But it wont be easy to beat Mary Norwood, whose supporters hail from all corners of the city and arguably are more enthusiastic than Reeds, and thus more likely to flock to the polls on Dec. 1. Last week’s results also confirmed previous polls that suggest Norwood seems to have a lock on north Atlanta’s white vote, which may convince the Reed campaign to try to peel away her strong support among black voters. If Reed decides to employ racial politics, the race could turn ugly and divisive.
“Reed has to increase his black voters, but it would be to his detriment to make an overt racial appeal,” says Emory political science professor Michael Owens. ” I suspect you’ll see his surrogates and supporters do that for him.”__