Mayor Reed Will Lose this Election for Himself
Yes, Kasim Reed is term-limited but let’s be honest: His hand-picked candidate, Keisha Lance Bottoms, will be Mayor Reed the Second if she is elected.
And right now I doubt she will*.
The slew of endorsements for Mary Norwood from virtually every one of her erstwhile opponents and Mayor Shirley Franklin are stunning–for their anti-Reed sentiment and the radical change in opinion on Norwood.
- Let’s start with the biggest whopper: Reed served as Franklin’s campaign manager. And then took to belittling Mayor Franklin once he was elected to the post. Shockingly enough, Franklin didn’t like that and backed a possible Republican.
- Cathy Woolard said only in October that a Norwood election would doom Democrats in Georgia for a generation. But that’s ok now as Woolard threw her weight behind Norwood on Wednesday.
- When John Eaves endorsed Norwood it was partly the result of the Reed administration saying Eaves “played no role” in keeping the Hawks in Atlanta.
- Peter Aman, who served as Reed’s Chief Operating Officer at City Hall obviously wants no continuation of that administration. And he endorsed Norwood after dismissing her as “another corrupt career politician.”
- There’s too much to document the Reed/Mitchell fights and it would only be newsworthy if Mitchell supported Bottoms.
That leaves only two serious candidates: Kwanza Hall, who endorsed Bottoms, and Vincent Fort. Reed said Fort would be “a disaster” as mayor. The “Bernie-Sanders-style-Democrat” is probably not going to endorse the Republican, methinks.
Yeah.
That’s a stunning record from someone who believed every skirmish needed to end in him scattering the ashes of his opponent no matter how minor the perceived slight. And even more shocking when he started his time in office highlighting his ability to work with Republicans to get stuff done.
It’s really quite a shame. Mayor Reed qua mayor is excellent.
But Mayor Reed qua politician is horrifically bad.
If Mary Norwood wins next Tuesday, Reed will only have himself and his lack of allies to blame.
*I’m voting for Bottoms but only so that a GSU grad can run City Hall.
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“That’s a stunning record from someone who believed every skirmish needed to end in him scattering the ashes of his opponent no matter how minor the perceived slight.”
A tinge of a Donald characteristic perchance?
https://www.georgiapol.com/2017/08/03/mayor-reed-shows-president-trump-fight-media/
Reed as a person is dreadful (petty and vindictive) and I won’t miss having to read about his insecurities on display.
I wish you were right, but I know Keisha is going to turn out her voters and people aren’t voting for Mary because they like her, which always makes Turnout more difficult. I also don’t know how aware voters are of these endorsements.
If KLB loses this election, and I’m not so sure about that, Reed is to blame but for a different reason. The Mayor presided over the massive gentrification and displacement of his constituents. He is largely responsible for MAWA (Making Atlanta White Again).
I don’t say this as a pejorative but as an observation. Reed barely won in 2009 and he then proceeded to hasten the exit of many of his natural base of voters. He catered to the likes of Arthur Blank, Tyler Perry, Tony Ressler and a select few vendor/donor types and pretty much ignored his base of voters who used to live in the city. Yes, he opened a few rec centers and did the obligatory “hands up don’t shoot” photo but little else.
In many ways Reed was good for Atlanta but to the under-served (0r the least of these) he was a huge disappointment.
I acgree completely with your assessment of Reeds tenure. And unfortunately neither KLB or MN are going to improve the trajectory of that traditional Atlanta constituency.
Glad I dont live in the city limits to have to make the decision between these two.
Reed could have been a transformational figure. He came in at the bottom of the recession and knew that things were only going to get better. He “decided” to ride the wave and ignore his natural base who have been loyal and elected one mayor after another from Jackson to Reed. His focus was on moneyed interests and he largely failed to do anything that would cement a positive legacy for him. Two stadiums? Selling city assets? Closing homeless shelters with nothing in place to replace them? Another corruptions scandal? And…he may finally destroy the political machine that iconic Mayor Maynard Jackson put in place.
Reed wants to be governor. It won’t happen. People will critically examine his tenure as mayor and his base won’t fall for it.
Finally, even if KLB wins she will find it much harder to govern amid the broken alliances caused by Reed’s trumpian tendencies. He has been good for some consituencies but not the ones that voted him into office.
I originally started to write a rebuttal this, but the more I wrote the more I began to agree that this might be a significant factor.
I would like to see some demographics of this “massive gentrification” though. Not sure if it’s massive enough to turn the election, and even if it is massive, millennials aren’t voting much so that could be a big loss for whoever they were going to vote for.
https://atlanta.curbed.com/2017/11/14/16640524/atlanta-gentrification-article-citylab-gaurdian
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/atlanta-gentrification-maps-demographic-data.html
https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-atlanta-changes-mayoral-candidates-take-on-gentrification-1511704386
There is plenty more if you care to research it. This didn’t start with Reed but he put it on steriods with his focus on monied interest to the exclusion of all else.
Thank you Gregs. Interesting stuff.
No. So, long as you vote for Felicia.
I think this election is a good example of how Ranked Choice Voting is helpful.
I think many people try to vote strategically in an election like this. If you like, say, John Eaves, but he’s doing poorly in the polls, you might choose to vote for one of the top two or three in the polls so that you don’t waste your vote. But in RCV, there are no wasted votes. Every votes counts. If your first choice is eliminated, your second choice is counted, etc., until someone gets 50%+1.
With RCV, you can vote your conscience as your first choice, knowing that if they are eliminated, you can still have a voice.
It is easy to imagine that we would be looking at a different outcome than we currently are facing with RCV. And I submit that this outcome will very probably not be the true will of the people. This is a compromise choice dictated by a flawed system.
And, there is no need for an expensive runoff election in which something like what, 10% , of eligible voters will vote.
http://www.fairvote.org/rcv#rcvbenefits
I’ve communicated the latter to some of my Democratic party representation.
As to Reed the Second, Bottoms may well be her person as Mayor. But it’s no sure thing and the opportunity certainly would not have occurred without Reed’s backing.