City-data poll - Mayor of Atlanta

[MJay]

Who are you going to vote for and why?

Mary Norwood or Kasim Reed?

[LovinDecatur]

Mary Norwood. I was frankly disgusted (but not surprised) by Kasim Reed's cheap tactics and demagoguery over the last couple of weeks. Apparently he got some traction from it, though.
It will be interesting to see if the 'race card' finally gets played this month. It really hasn't made a direct appearance yet, although the 'Republican' allegations were IMO 'code' for white.

[Atlantasfinest]

Kasim Reed

I will be headed out on December 1st to cast my vote for Kasim Reed once again. I wanted to give Norwood a chance and intially was voting for her (Up until I really listened to her message and debates) but I really had to take a look at the total picture and she just doesn't have the experience and saavy across both party lines necessary to make Atlanta better. Kasim Reed's experience (8 year State Senator) who has worked across party lines with Republicans/Democrats in the Senate on key legislation wins out for me and I hope people are mobilizing and will turn out in force to make sure he's elected in December.

And can we limit this poll to people who actually live in the City of Atlanta? I know most of the folks here are OTP'ers or don't even live in the city so this poll doesn't mean a thing!

[aries4118]

Kasim Reed...definitely. I was also willing to give Mary Norwood a chance, but I realize she does not have a clue and will be ineffective/incompetent. Also, it is very apparent that the super-majority of her supporters are only supporting her for one reason--because she is...um..."light".

Lady Norwood is playing that race card like a fiddle at hoppin' up-country hoedown...!


(However, I do think Lisa Borders was the best candidate out of the big three...)

(And I've always thought Cathy Woolard would have been a great future mayor of Atlanta...better than Borders or Reed!)

[LovinDecatur]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Kasim Reed...definitely. I was also willing to give Mary Norwood a chance, but I realize she does not have a clue and will be ineffective/incompetent. Also, it is very apparent that the super-majority of her supporters are only supporting her for one reason--because she is...um..."light".

Lady Norwood is playing that race card like a fiddle at hoppin' up-country hoedown...!


(However, I do think Lisa Borders was the best candidate out of the big three...)

I wouldn't say a 'supermajority' of her supporters. One interesting thing about this election is that polls have revealed that support for the candidates has not correlated to race...one third of black poll respondents were supporting Norwood. Most of the white residents of Atlanta that I have talked to were supporting Reed, citing his experience, contacts and perceived leadership abilities.
Aries, I am curious as to how you see Norwood playing the race card; I haven't really picked up on that, save for her prominent placement of black supporters behind her every time she's in front of a microphone.

[noah]

Mary Norwood, because she voted Against the 40% property tax increase. Its time to put a stop to this. If city government cleans up their finances then I can support a tax increase although 40% is huge.

[billy214]

Mary Norwood. I have contiually been appalled at the status quo's belief that my money is theirs to take with nothing more than a wave of the hand. At least she paid lip service to the concept of personal property by voting against the latest tax hike. It will be interesting to see what see does from here, though.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

I wouldn't say a 'supermajority' of her supporters. One interesting thing about this election is that polls have revealed that support for the candidates has not correlated to race...one third of black poll respondents were supporting Norwood. Most of the white residents of Atlanta that I have talked to were supporting Reed, citing his experience, contacts and perceived leadership abilities.
Aries, I am curious as to how you see Norwood playing the race card; I haven't really picked up on that, save for her prominent placement of black supporters behind her every time she's in front of a microphone.

Hello Lovin...thank you for your response.

*Actually, once the election took place (yesterday), they found that the results did follow racial lines. Norwood swept the majority-white districts.

*By playing race card, it's more covert, subtle. The white establishment has established Norwood as the great white hope. Norwood plays this by her relentless bashing of Franklin, etc. Norwood knows she can't come out and say "the black Franklin (and Jackson, etc) administration," but she can attack black and play up white in this way (we all know about Atlanta politics and code-speak, etc.). This appeals to a lot of people. Norwood is obviously unqualified, but has been propped up because she "sucks the least" among potential candidates that certain groups desire. Her appeal has been that she is not the "other." I think it is sad that many people in the city attribute any negatives to the fact that all of the mayors since 1973 have been black (!).

(Now, I'm not saying Franklin's reign has been all glorious...but it hasn't been bad either).

[BringBackCobain]

I was also interested to hear how Mary Norwood is playing the race card, until I considered the history of the person making this comment, who probably dislikes Norwood solely for the fact that she is a "whitey."

Her interactions with black people is not surprising... After all, Atlanta is a majority black city. Thus, the frontrunner (Norwood) would have to have support from the black community, which Norwood does. This is common sense.

Kasim Reed is touting an endorsement from Ludacris like it is something to be proud of. That says enough about the type of guy he is. I wonder if the reason he was so late to his own election night party was because he was up in that hotel room smoking a blunt of Ludacris' "Blueberry Yum-Yum"

[J2rescue]

Norwood.

Reed's call for "750 new police officers" without any clue how we're going to pay for 200 additional officers let alone 750 seems like pandering to me. I also don't like some other ideas I've heard him mention such as "tax districts" and dedicating a certain percentage of city funds for public safety. These are nothing more than gimmicks that don't address the underlying issue of better management of the city's finances.

I'm not completely convinced that Norwood can change the culture of the city government that she's already been a part of for 8 years but I think she is more likely to get the city on sound financial footing than Reed.