By: Carrie L. Williams
ATLANTA – In the face of no coverage by corporate media of Atlanta’s mayoral elections, and in the absence of televised mayoral debates, Atlanta Planning and Advisory Board (APAB) Candidate Mixer sealed the envelope regarding the Atlanta community leadership’s impact on the city’s November 5th elections. For the first time in the campaign season, Mayor Kasim Reed appeared publicly in the same room as Mayoral Candidate Al Bartell, as well as the other two Mayoral Candidates, Fraser Duke and Glenn Wrightson, in an election-related event.
Translation: Mayor Reed is having to confront the momentum of community leadership supporting non-Reed candidates, and the non-Reed sentiment it represents. There was no accident in his appearance at the city’s premier collective of community and neighborhood leadership – APAB and the Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU) leaders. Nor was it an accident there were no network television news cameras, AJC reporters, or Black media to cover his presence.
Held at the Civic Center’s Piedmont room, comfortably catered and packed with Neighborhood Planning Unit leaders, community stakeholders, and citywide candidates, the APAB mixer brought all of the citywide candidates into the same room, sitting at tables designated by the seat being sought. The Mixer also had them debate, discuss, and give one-minute statements to the key community leadership in attendance, all at the same time. That meant city-wide elected incumbents sitting next to their competition, for School Board candidates, as well as for the City Council and Mayoral candidates.
Except for Mayor Kasim Reed.
Although incumbent City Council members were delayed in arriving due to the emergency afternoon session of Council, they arrived in time to participate in the one-minute statements that each candidate was provided to make from the U.S. flag-flanked podium, to the packed audience.
However, Mayor Reed entered the Piedmont room nearly a half hour after City Council members arrived, in the midst of Atlanta Board of Education candidates completing their statements, sitting down at a table separate from the table provided for Mayoral candidates.
Soon after his arrival, APAB President Cathy Richards went up to the podium to announce that, due to the Mayor’s busy schedule, he could only stay for a few moments and then would have to leave, at which time she brought him up to address the attendees, gently reminding him she could only give him one minute.
Having been downtown at Creative Loafing offices earlier in the evening, Reed was quiet and subdued in his demeanor and in his remarks, addressing a room now full of Atlanta City Council members, intertwined with NPU/community leaders and sixty or so citywide candidates, including Post 2 At-Large Candidate Mary Norwood, whom Reed narrowly beat in 2009, for the Mayor’s seat. Also in the room was Post 3 At-Large Candidate Andre Dickens, backed by former Mayor Shirley Franklin, whom Reed succeeded.
“I’m Kasim Reed and I’d like to be your Mayor for another four years,” were the Mayor’s first words to the quieted audience. He then cited the usual statistics he is known to cite regarding his Mayoral leadership: the increase in city budget reserves, the increased number of police officers, the re-opening of the recreation centers, and the cessation of city employee furloughs and firings, also mentioning that all city employees now receive at least $10/hr or more for their pay.
Continuing in a quiet way, Mayor Reed concluded, reiterating, “I’d like to continue doing the job for another four years” and then “May God cover and bless you.” With that, he left the Civic Center, having stayed no longer than 10 minutes.
And then it was time to bring up the other Mayoral Candidates. President Richards brought up Mayoral Candidate Al Bartell first.
