In Atlanta, a Long Line of Black Mayors May Be Broken
Major Debacle
ATLANTA � Since 1973, this Southern capital has elected a
succession of black mayors, sometimes to the consternation of
residents in the largely white, prosperous neighborhood of
Buckhead to the north.
But the current race to succeed Mayor Shirley Franklin in the
Nov. 3 election has upended normal expectations here in what
Chris Rock, in his new documentary, �Good Hair,� calls �the city
where all major black decisions are made.� The front-runner,
Mary Norwood, is one of Buckhead�s own, a white Junior Leaguer
running as a populist outsider.
All three candidates have maintained that Atlanta has moved
beyond using race as a qualification for public office. But the
ascendancy of Ms. Norwood may also reflect the decline of the
city�s black majority and the recession�s sour effect on the
mood of the voters.
The city has changed significantly since Mayor Franklin squeaked
to victory without a runoff in 2001. It has grown by more than
100,000 people since 2000, according to census estimates, and
the influx of many whites and Hispanics has narrowed the black
majority to 56 percent from 61 percent.
Atlanta is still a draw for black professionals, and the
percentage of blacks in the metropolitan area has grown
slightly, but in the city the pool of likely black voters is
estimated at just barely a majority. Many of the city�s public
housing projects, where black votes once could be marshaled in a
bloc, have been demolished.
Ms. Norwood, who has held an at-large City Council position for
eight years, and tirelessly attended neighborhood meetings
across the city, has galvanized white voters and managed to
attract significant support among blacks. Though she has often
voted in Republican primaries in this heavily Democratic city,
some polls about the six-way race show her with more black
support than either of her two top opponents, who are both
black: Lisa Borders, the president of the city council, and
Kasim Reed, a lawyer and former state lawmaker who resigned his
office to run for mayor.
Many analysts say the election will probably result in a runoff
between Ms. Norwood and Mr. Reed or Ms. Borders, although Ms.
Norwood is so far ahead that there is talk she could win
outright.
�It would be a major game change in this town if a Buckhead
Betty became mayor,� said Tom Houck, a former newspaper
columnist here, who is white, using a mocking term for the well-
heeled women of the north side. �Atlanta is a symbol for black
Americans, more than Los Angeles, more than Chicago, more than
Baltimore.�
Mr. Houck spoke recently to a primarily black audience at a
forum about race in the campaign, where some of those present
were intent on electing a black mayor and others asked what
good, exactly, black leadership had done the city.
Ms. Norwood has addressed the race question only obliquely,
though her campaign photographs and videos emphasize her
interactions with black voters.
�Dr. King said we should be evaluated on who we are, not what we
look like,� she said in an interview on Tuesday. �I�m focused on
public safety, city service delivery, quality of life issues and
growing the city. That�s what the citizens of Atlanta are
interested in.�
Ms. Norwood has set the tone by relentlessly attacking the
Franklin administration�s record on crime and city finances,
forcing the other candidates to distance themselves from the
mayor.
�When you attack City Hall, you�re also implicitly attacking, to
a degree, black politics,� said Michael Leo Owens, a political
science professor at Emory University. �And this is a message
that in some ways plays well with the white electorate.�
At a time of high anxiety over taxes and crime, it also
resonates with voters of all races. The candidates have spent
the bulk of their time in debates and forums arguing over who
has the experience necessary to fix the city�s money problems
and who has the best public safety plan.
Some voters, particularly younger ones, seem to agree that race
should not be a factor in their choice at the polls.
�This is a majority white country and Barack Obama�s president,�
said Tyronia Morrison, a black 30-year-old lawyer, after a
candidate forum in southwest Atlanta. �We need to rise above
that and get back to the issues.�
Asked if she thought black voters cared about the race of the
mayor, Ms. Borders said: �Folks that do not have what they need,
who�ve been marginalized in some way, they want someone that
they think, �Hey, I can relate to them.� If you feel like you�ve
been treated fairly, then your sensitivity is not that high.�
Ms. Borders and Mr. Reed also disavowed racial politics after a
memo from an ad hoc group, the Black Leadership Forum, surfaced
in August, suggesting that blacks unite behind Ms. Borders, whom
the memo described as the most electable black candidate. Mr.
Reed was the first to condemn the memo, and Ms. Borders joined
him, saying, �We have had two Atlantas for far too long.�
The controversy over the memo obscured the fact that, as Steve
Suitts, an Emory lecturer, wrote in an op-ed article Tuesday in
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, �White voters, not black
voters, end up voting most often for a candidate of their own
race in the South.�
This mayoral election is the first for an open seat since the
death of Maynard Jackson, the city�s first black mayor and a
political kingmaker, in 2003.
�Maynard basically was able, because of the esteem in which he
was held, to pick his successors,� said Bob Holmes, the author
of a new biography of Mr. Jackson. �If he endorsed them, then
the black community united behind them. And he�s no longer here.�
Presumably, the mantle of the Jackson machine would have fallen
to Mr. Reed, who ran Ms. Franklin�s campaigns and who has been
endorsed by Andrew Young, who succeeded Mr. Jackson as mayor.
Mr. Reed has raised the most money in the race, according to the
latest filings, but has lagged behind in the polls.
Both Mr. Reed and Ms. Borders have battled voter fatigue after
the presidential election and struggled to differentiate
themselves with recession-sized campaign treasuries. �None of
them is considered a charismatic leader,� Mr. Holmes said of the
three candidates.
That bodes well for Ms. Norwood, who has positioned herself as
the candidate of change.
�In this instance,� Mr. Owens said, �difference equals white.�