Race Enters Atlanta Mayoral Vote
By VALERIE BAUERLEIN
ATLANTA -- The campaign for mayor of this city, which has long promoted its racial tolerance, veered into controversy Thursday with the release of a memo urging black voters to unite around an African-American candidate and block the election of a white mayor.

A local group known as the Black Leadership Forum called for African-Americans to consolidate their support around Lisa Borders, president of the Atlanta City Council and one of several African-American candidates, according to a memo circulated on the Web and to local media.

Rich Addicks/The Atlanta Journal Constitution The local Black Leadership Forum has urged African-American voters to unite behind mayoral candidate Lisa Borders, above, to block the election of another candidate, Mary Norwood, below.
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The group said Ms. Borders had the best chance of winning support from white business leaders and defeating Mary Norwood, a white city councilwoman and a leading candidate for the Nov. 3 election, according to polls.

"For the last 25 years Atlanta has represented the breakthrough for black political empowerment in the South," read the memo. "In order to defeat a Norwood (white) mayoral candidacy we have to get out now and work in a manner to defeat her without a runoff, and the key is a significant Black turnout."

The memo was the sharpest signal yet of overt racial politics creeping into the competition to replace Shirley Franklin, elected as the city's first female mayor in 2001. Atlanta was the first major Southern city to elect an African-American mayor, Maynard H. Jackson, in 1973. No white candidate has mounted a serious campaign for the office since then.

But Atlanta's demographics have shifted drastically in the past decade. The city of about 440,000 people remains a majority African-American city. But the proportion of voting-age residents who are white or Hispanic has grown. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125142077588465507.html#printMode

Is this about race or is it about issues. Due to the memo send out to black voters it seems that many are wondering.

"In order to defeat a Norwood (white) mayoral candidacy we have to get out now and work in a manner to defeat her without a runoff, and the key is a significant Black turnout."

(continuation of your cited article -- please note that Ms. Borders and Mr. Reed are both black candidates in this race...-where4)
[...]
The call for black unity drew sharp criticism from Ms. Borders and her closest African-American competitor, Mr. Reed, who both insisted in separate news conferences Thursday that Atlanta must not choose its next mayor based on his or her race.

"We have had two Atlantas for far too long," Ms. Borders said.

Mr. Reed called the memo "racially charged and vitriolic" and said it "dishonors the legacies" of the black and white mayors who led Atlanta through the civil-rights movement and beyond. "This campaign should be waged on the merits of each candidate, not the color of their skin," Mr. Reed said.

Ms. Norwood, an at-large member of the city council who has campaigned on a pledge to improve crime-fighting and reorganize city government said, her candidacy is based on public safety and fiscal management.

"Race," she said, "does not play a role."

The Black Leadership Forum is an ad-hoc group of African-American leaders who include Aaron Turpeau, a well-known entrepreneur who worked in the administrations of Mayors Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young. Messrs. Jackson and Young had held the office in various terms for 20 years since 1973.

Mr. Turpeau, who contributed $500 to Ms. Borders' campaign, defended the memo's message.

"You shouldn't vote solely on having a black candidate," he said. "You have to deal with the credentials and skill set first. After that, it's a feeling of pride that we've had for 35 years in this town. Ego gets important."

Liz Flowers, a spokeswoman for Ms. Borders, distanced her candidate from the memo.

Ms. Flowers said the campaign found out about the memo late Wednesday, and Ms. Borders immediately called Mr. Turpeau. "She told him that she loved him and thanked him for his support, but she was disappointed in the message," Ms. Flowers said.
—Corey Dade contributed to this article.

Write to Valerie Bauerlein at valerie.bauerlein@wsj.com

EXCERPT:
The issue of race heated up this summer, when a memo written by two Clark Atlanta University professors caused a firestorm. The message warned that black Atlantans should rally around Borders to foil a Norwood victory and maintain black political control of City Hall.

For their part, the candidates denounced and distanced themselves from the memo. The incident soured Rev. Joseph Lowery, a revered civil rights leader whose support is coveted, on endorsing either Reed or Borders.

Race puts Atlanta election on national media's radar
By Kristi E. Swartz
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

You would think the media would have election-coverage fatigue.

Between a never-ending Democratic presidential primary to an animated Republican vice presidential nominee, the press spent countless hours and big money following the 2008 election.

So why pay attention to who's going to be the next mayor of Atlanta, as national newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times have done?

"It's the first time in decades that a white candidate may be poised to win the mayoral race in Atlanta," said Sam Feist, the political director for CNN.

Feist is talking about frontrunner Mary Norwood, currently a member of Atlanta's City Council. Her chief competitors are City Council President Lisa Borders; former state lawmaker Kasim Reed; and Jesse Spikes, an attorney at the law firm of McKenna, Long & Aldridge.

Sure, it may seem easy for CNN to take a look at what's going on in Atlanta because the cable news network is headquartered there. But Feist and the bulk of the network's political shop is in Washington, D.C.

Reporter and anchor Don Lemon is preparing a segment on Atlanta's mayoral race for The Situtation Room, which will air later Monday, Feist said.

New York, Boston, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Houston also top CNN's list of interesting elections to watch Tuesday, Feist said. Houston, one of the nation's largest cities, has a leading candidate who is openly gay.

But at this point, any election can make for a great story, said Paul Levinson, chairman of Fordham University's communication and media studies department.

And whatever stories traditional media choose not to cover, there's always the blogs, YouTube and Twitter. Those outlets can quickly turn a local story into a national or international one, Levinson writes in his new book, "New New Media."

"Once something is tweeted, it's international," Levinson told the AJC. "The big media pick up on that. They are highly receptive of what's being tweeted."

State GOP denies funding anti-Norwood robocall

2:17 pm November 2, 2009, by Jim Galloway

The state Republican party says it had no hand in a robocall that went to GOP voters over the weekend, chastising Atlanta mayoral candidate Mary Norwood – not for her alleged Republican proclivities, but for her denial of them.

It was clearly an attempt to envelope Norwood in a kind of pincer movement. State Democrats last week accused her of closet Republicanism.
[..]

OP, thank you for including the link in your post. Please, now, don't discontinue this practice in the future. At least you give the more curious among us the opportunity to ferret out knowledge of the larger picture.

Of course many are resentful of the national attention, they should be because the poll numbers support the Fact that many Blacks do vote based on the color of the Candidate....

This also occurred during the Presidential campaign many black radio stations,magazines and TV shows advocated for African Americans to vote for Obama, the premise being that they should vote for him because he was Black, there was little or nothing mentioned about his stance on the issues.

Phony Flyer Tells Virginia Democrats to Vote Wednesday, November 5

by Karen Hatter | October 28, 2008 at 06:05 am

Citing " .... larger than expected voter turnout ....", associated with this year's election process, a flyer being distributed, with logos that mimic the appearance of an official state of Virginia seal, are being distributed instructing Republicans and Independents, supporting Republican candidates, to vote on the actual election day, Tuesday, November 4, while telling Democrats and Independents, supporting Democratic candidates, to vote on the wrong day, the day after the election, Wednesday, November 5.

The bogus flyer ends with contact information alleged to be for the Virginia State Board of Elections.

* Maryland Voting Guide: A voting guide distributed in Prince George's County, Md., falsely suggested that prominent state Democrats were endorsing Republican candidates in the 2006 election.
* Letter to Hispanic Voters in Orange County: Originally written in Spanish, the letter warns that it is illegal for immigrants to vote. (English Translation)
* Milwaukee Black Voters League: The phony group distributed a flier in 2004 warning people found guilty of anything, including traffic tickets, to stay away from the polls or face possible imprisonment.
* Franklin County Flyer: A fake flier pretending to be from the county board of elections in an Ohio county tells Democrats to vote on the wrong date.

Democrats Want Law Against Voter Deception

by Pam Fessler
June 8, 2007

Congressional Democrats want to make it a federal crime to intentionally deceive voters to prevent them from casting a ballot.

The move comes in response to recent elections, in which voters were told to go to the wrong polling place, or to vote on the wrong day.

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee took up the issue, as Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) talked about a flier that was handed out to Milwaukee, Wis., voters in 2004.

"It states that you can only vote once a year, and if you're found guilty of anything, even a traffic ticket, that you cannot vote in a presidential election. And that if you violate any of these laws, you can get 10 years in prison and your children can be taken away from you."

The flier was distributed by a phony group called the Milwaukee Black Voters League.

Committee members were also shown other fliers and letters, some of which looked official. A Pennsylvania flier was printed on government letterhead stationary. It said voter turnout was expected to be so high that Republicans should vote on Tuesday and Democrats were to vote on Wednesday. The letter even apologized for any inconvenience.

Cardin noted another letter sent to Hispanics in Orange County, Calif., last year. It warned immigrants that it is a crime for them to vote — even though naturalized citizens are permitted to vote.

"Now, what's in common with all seven of these exhibits is that they were targeted [at] minority communities in an effort to suppress the minority vote," said Cardin.

Senators complained about a deceptive flier in November, and that is when Justice Department lawyers told them there are no clear-cut laws to prevent some of these practices.

In that instance, a Republican flier that was distributed in Prince George's County, Md., implied that the county's black, Democratic leaders supported the Republican candidates for the Senate and governor.

The county's executive, Jack Johnson, said he had to spend all day trying to convince people that the flier — which had his picture on it — was a hoax.

"Phone calls came early and often that Election Day — angry citizens wanting to know why I was a turncoat and why I had abandoned the Democratic Party. This was a falsehood, and I do not believe at all that it is free speech protected by the First Amendment," he told the committee.

Election law attorney Bill Canfield said he's worried about the unintended consequences of a law that makes deceptive practices a federal crime. He noted that savvy campaign managers could use allegations of criminal activity to harm an opponent in the hectic days before an election.

"To empower federal agents to have some sort of role in making determinations as to whether certain announcements are fraudulent or intended to suppress the vote tends, I think, to give a role to the federal government I don't think is appropriate," Canfield said.

Sponsors of the legislation said that's why they have tried to limit the prohibition. It would only apply to those who knowingly provide false information about the time, place or manner of voting, a person's eligibility to vote, or a candidate's endorsements.

The statements also have to be made within 60 days of the election and with the clear intention of suppressing the vote.

Violators could get up to five years in jail.

Also, the OP insists she was Anti-Bush yet she is extremely Anti-the "black" man currently residing in the White House. What is that all about?

Seriously, isn't it time to give up that whole 'racism behind every action' paranoia, and begin to live in the world

Much ado about nothing.

Most striking in Ms. Norwood's numbers is her level of support among widely fractured African-American voters. An InsiderAdvantage poll on Oct. 16 showed Ms. Norwood leading all candidates among black voters, with nearly a third of African-Americans supporting her.

When everytime someone disagrees with Obama and they throw up the race card they are demeaning everything that was done in the 60s by MLK to get our nation to where it is today.