Atlanta council: Mitchell elected president

By Steve Visser

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Ceasar Mitchell said Tuesday his decisive win to become the next Atlanta city council president showed that voters were more motivated by issues than by race, gender or sexual orientation.

Mitchell defeated Clair Muller, a colleague on the Atlanta City Council, in a race that in many ways mirrored the mayoral race between Kasim Reed and Mary Norwood, in which charges of race baiting surfaced. Both Mitchell and Reed are black males from the south side of Atlanta, while both Muller and Norwood are white females from Buckhead.

“I want to take my hat off to Clair Muller. She has served with distinction for 20 years on the council and she is someone I have admired," Mitchell said. "I think that is what transcended the question of race and gender and even the generational divide. Positivity transcended race. I think that is a lesson for all of us in this city.”

Aaron Watson,  a former Atlanta school board member, said he thought political experience was what attracted voters to him in his win over Amir Farokhi, a lawyer,  for an at-large city council seat. “I think people were interested in qualifications and I had a record of reform beginning with the school board,” he said. "We're looking at tough challenges facing us and they (voters) wanted seasoned leadership."

Turnout was big in north, west and south Atlanta; but seasoned political observers said the runoff between Alex Wan and Liz Coyle for Atlanta's 6th District City Council seat was a key battleground. "The sixth could be pivotal -- there is no two ways about it," said state Sen. Vince Fort (D-Atlanta), whose legislative territory includes parts of the district. "In the last 20 years, I've been looking at numbers ...those precincts have been the difference between Democrat and Republican and African-American and white candidates."

Wan beat Coyle in the sixth district where voter turnout rivaled -- or in some cases, surpassed --  turnout in last month's general election.

"All the candidates have spent a lot of time and energy in the district," said Wan, 42. "They’re saying it looks like we’ll meet, if not exceed, the numbers that we saw on Nov. 3, which is unprecedented for a runoff.”

Coyle, a 46-year-old mother and community activist and organizer, said high turnout was to be expected in a district with a reputation for deciding elections.  "We've worked very hard to energize our voters and get them to the polls and it has worked. I think that is why the mayoral candidates and the at-large candidates have spent so much time in district six."

Mitchell said the district was especially important because  the council seat runoff brought out more voters, but also because historically a high percentage of its voters turn out routinely. "We spent time all over the city but I will tell you that I spent a lot of time personally walking door to door in district six," Mitchell said. "It has become very important" electorally.

The district includes some of Atlanta's oldest neighborhoods, such as Ansley Park, Druid Hills, Midtown, Morningside and Virginia-Highland.

It also has more registered voters than any district in the city. Most residents are white and many are gay. Wan, an Asian-American who is gay, said he thought the gay community had been particularly energized in the race.  That could be credited in part to the mayoral race where both Mary Norwood and Kasim Reed courted gay voters, but Reed was criticized for saying he supported gay rights but not gay marriage.

Mitchell said he would use the council president position as a bully pulpit to rally support for the issues he thought were important. The council president decides who leads the committees that review legislation from the mayor's office and breaks tie votes. Mitchell served as interim council president in 2004.

Mitchell's  platform includes putting more police officers on foot patrols, hiring more 911 operators and aggressively fining the owners of abandoned properties.

Muller said she would stay involved politically. "Atlanta needs to continue working with the region and the state," she said Tuesday. “Win or lose, I plan to stay involved and work with our region and state to improve our relationship. We need to work on water and transportation.”