Franklin has yet to endorse Atlanta mayoral candidate

The audience of 200 Atlanta power brokers let out a collective “oooh” when the question was posed to the city’s top mayoral candidates.

On a scale of 1 to 100, they were asked at a Leadership Atlanta forum to grade the incumbent mayor, Shirley Franklin.

Glenn Thomas, a former city employee, gave the mayor the lowest score, an 80. City Council President Lisa Borders gave Franklin the highest grade, a 90. City Councilwoman Mary Norwood, state Sen. Kasim Reed (D-Atlanta) and attorney Jesse Spikes respectively graded the mayor an 85, 88 and 85.

Franklin is prohibited by term limits from serving a third consecutive term and so far has not endorsed any of the candidates running for her seat — but clearly she is a factor in this mayor’s race.

In what may be her most tangible influence to date on the mayor’s race, Franklin pushed for a property tax increase she said was needed to save the city’s budget. Her tax increase proposal, which passed last month, created some of the clearest divisions among the candidates thus far. Councilmembers were in the position of increasing tax bills in an already bad economy, or leaving the city’s budget in the red.

Borders and Spikes said the increase was necessary. Thomas and Norwood were against it. Reed pushed for a smaller increase and budget cuts.

Clark Atlanta University political science professor William Boone says the mayor can help a candidate round up money and other resources critical to victory. The question, he said, is how much that support would be diminished by votes lost from people who dislike Franklin.

“If I were a candidate, that’s what I’d have to decide,” said Boone.

Franklin has consistently declined comment on whom she’s supporting as her successor in the Nov. 3 election.

When asked whether she’s favoring one mayoral candidate, Franklin said in a recent e-mail, “I am concentrating on a variety of issues with a primary focus on finances and budget. Haven’t made any announcements about the mayoral candidates.”

Matt Towery, a former state lawmaker, believes a Franklin endorsement will sway some city workers and longtime cab drivers — groups who typically vote in large numbers. A Franklin endorsement might sway some women voters since she was the first woman elected mayor of Atlanta.

However, many believe the mayor’s popularity has dipped in recent months because of the city’s budget crisis and the rise in property crimes.

“The last year-and-a-half has been a rocky one for her,” said Boone.

Many believe she’ll endorse Reed, who ran both of her successful mayoral campaigns and served on her transition team. She briefly appeared at one of his initial fund-raisers.

Reed says he’s not sought her support, but his senior adviser and communications director, Goldie Taylor, said, “We would absolutely welcome it, but we know it has to be earned.”

Towery, chairman of Insider Advantage Georgia, which has done polling on the mayoral race, believes the mayor will support Reed, probably late in the campaign or in a likely runoff.

Towery speculates Franklin’s political inheritance is the key to her potent political endorsement. She was backed by voters who had earlier supported mayors Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young. It’s likely those same voters would cast a ballot for the politician she endorses as her successor.

“That is the $1 million question,” Towery said. “If she does [endorse], and that transfers to Kasim Reed, then he wins. If she does not, it’s anybody’s ballgame.”

A poll done in February for the Norwood campaign found 68 percent of its 400 respondents had a favorable impression of the mayor, although 65 percent felt the city was on the wrong track.

Franklin’s political strength has been in neighborhoods west of I-75, where she won more than 60 percent of the vote in 2001, the closest of her two mayoral races. In 2005, Franklin campaigned for several council members in tough re-election bids. All of the incumbents won.

Criticism of the mayor by any of her potential successors is scant. Taxes is the one topic on which some of the candidates have been willing to disagree with her.

Earlier during the Leadership Atlanta forum, the candidates were asked how their leadership style would differ from Franklin’s. The candidates responded by talking about their own leadership styles.

Asked a similar question at an April forum, Reed said he’d act “somewhat differently” from the mayor by firing underperforming officials. He noted Franklin “has a more nurturing style when it comes to her management team.”

Borders often showers the mayor with praise. For months, Borders’ Web site had a photo of Franklin, with her arm draped over the council president’s shoulder. Borders often calls Franklin her “sister in service.” Franklin congratulated Borders in one e-mail for her appointment as head of Grady Memorial Hospital’s fund-raising arm.

Boone suggests predictions of a mayoral endorsement for Reed is no slam-dunk, noting how well Franklin and Borders have largely gotten along. A Borders campaign spokeswoman said it would welcome a mayoral endorsement.

One of the few public skirmishes between the two women took place a year ago when the council bucked Franklin, refusing to approve her property tax increase proposal. The mayor said the council’s actions would prevent the city from reaching its longtime goal of having a police force of 2,000 officers. Borders disagreed.

“The mayor has been in office for nearly seven years and we haven’t gotten to 2,000 officers,” Borders said in uncharacteristically sharp comments at the time. “When you look at the attrition rate, the recruitment rate, the morale in the Police Department, I would submit that the leadership needs to look at those to get to that 2,000 number.”

In recent months, Norwood has been critical of the Franklin administration’s financial management, voting against the tax increase. In January, the candidate blamed rising crime in some neighborhoods on police department furloughs, comments that drew a sharp rebuke from the mayor.

Norwood said of Franklin at the forum, that she “is straight as an arrow, tough as nails and has taken on the tough challenges.”

One of the candidates will soon be faced with handling some of those challenges. For now, the questions are which candidate and whether Franklin will help that person get elected.