Atlanta’s mayoral hopefuls crisscrossed the city in the final days before Election Day as part of their last efforts to energize their supporters and convince undecided voters to cast their ballots for them.
Amid a slow early voting period, the candidates are planning a blitz of advertising, events and door-to-door canvassing efforts before Tuesday’s vote. They delivered their stump speeches at local pubs, rolled out endorsements from political groups, and schmoozed with residents at barber shops.
“Absolutely anything can happen. Let’s see if we can make magic happen,” attorney Sharon Gay told supporters at Manuel’s Tavern.
“I’m here to be able to make sure this city is prospering, equitable, but also safe. ... I will be able to do so much more when I’m mayor,” City Councilman Andre Dickens told residents at the Asbury Harris Epworth Towers in Greenbriar.
The week before the election was also marked by negative attacks lobbed by former Mayor Kasim Reed at City Council President Felicia Moore. Both candidates, who are frontrunners in the race according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution polls, said they are confident their bases will propel them to a Nov. 30 runoff if no one gets more than 50% of the vote on Tuesday.
Reed hammered Moore over a video her campaign posted featuring a supporter who made racist remarks online, and criticized a call she had with a police union leader in August in which she said she wanted to poll the impact of an endorsement from the union.
The former Atlanta mayor predicted at a press conference Monday that the other candidates and their top endorsers would rally against him in a runoff.
“I’ve been to this rodeo six times,” he said, referencing the number of mayoral races he has been closely involved in. “And every time time I’ve been to the rodeo, I left the champion.”
Credit: enni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: enni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Moore said the recent attacks show Reed is “obviously very desperate, and very afraid of the momentum that we have. He’s attempting to take away some of the votes or some of the support that I have.”
Dickens, Gay and Councilman Antonio Brown have struggled with low name recognition in some polls but are hoping to make a late surge and secure a runoff spot given the high number of undecided voters. Dickens and Gay argue they could win over voters who are familiar with Moore and Reed but aren’t enthused about voting for either of them.
A recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll showed most of the electorate knows the two frontrunners, while support for both candidates hovered under 25%. A striking 41% of the electorate were still undecided earlier this month.
With early voting numbers looking “disturbingly low,” political consultant and strategist Eleina Raines said, now is the time for candidates to “leave it all on the field.” That involves targeted get-out-the-vote efforts like talking to voters on their doorsteps and giving them resources to vote.
“There is a large population of people that’s still waiting to hear that message that resonates with them,” she said.
Moore said she has planned meet-and-greets and fundraisers throughout the city up until Election Day. She’s scheduled an event for Saturday afternoon to celebrate support from the National Black Church Initiative and other endorsers. Gay plans to run TV ads through Election Day, in addition to new digitally targeted ads on YouTube and other social media.
Reed said he had dozens of events this week and planned more for this weekend, including a fundraiser planned for Halloween night. He also said the campaign is doing a 48-hour get-out-the-vote push beginning Sunday. “We have 100 barbershops and beauty salons that we’re visiting between now and Election Day,” Reed said Tuesday.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
Dickens told the AJC he visited voters in neighborhoods citywide last week, in addition to ads and direct targeting. He also plans to host a vigil and prayer “for the soul of the city” Monday evening.
“No sleep till victory,” Dickens said.
‘Gloves are already off’
The final stretch of an election wouldn’t be complete without negative attacks from the candidates, Raines said.
“The margins are really tight and the gloves are already off,” she said.
Moore and Dickens have taken jabs at Reed throughout the election over the federal corruption into his administration, and a PAC supporting Moore has released ads targeting the former mayor.
This week, Reed held press conferences on four consecutive days, highlighting new endorsements and criticizing his opponents.
On Wednesday he joined the national president of International Brotherhood of Police Officers union, which endorsed him earlier this month. During the press conference, union leaders presented a transcript from part of call in which Moore mentioned the possibility that the union could release a negative endorsement against the former mayor if they didn’t proactively endorse anyone.
Moore said on the call that she would love to have the union’s endorsement, but said she was polling to see the impact such an announcement would have, according to the transcript. That prompted a rebuke from Reed and the union, who questioned her support for the police.
Moore has said she did want the union’s support, and the conversation in the transcript was a frank reflection of the current relationship between the police and the public.
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
But Reed’s most visible attack occurred last Tuesday, when several local leaders joined him at a press conference in the Sweet Auburn area to disavow statements made by a Moore supporter.
In a now-deleted video Moore’s campaign posted on social media, she stood with a man who said every Atlanta mayor for the last 40-plus years lacked “a conscience” and was “not interested in anything except lining their own pockets.”
Reed and other supporters called the comments offensive, since every Atlanta mayor since 1974 has been Black and includes leaders like Maynard Jackson and Ambassador Andrew Young, who has endorsed Reed. The press conference also featured several poster boards displaying previous racist comments the man made on Facebook.
I am appalled at the recent post from my opponent Felicia Moore. Her agreement with the dog whistle bigotry of Lee Clevenger has no place in our city. I call on Ms. Moore to return all of Mr. Clevenger’s contributions to her campaign and publicly denounce his support. pic.twitter.com/hDiecEE8YF
— Kasim Reed (@KasimReed) October 26, 2021
Moore said in a statement that she should have walked away from the “long-time constituent” beside her in the video. She said she was unaware of his hateful social media content, and emphasized she does not share his views.
This race has been dominated by debates over who is best suited to curb violent crime in Atlanta. That’s a top priority for Jennifer McGlynn, a 38-year-old Candler Park resident who is still undecided but plans to cast a ballot. She called recent campaign ads “laughable, both good and bad.”
Lisa Francis, a Mechanicsville resident, said the next mayor needs to tackle affordable housing and crime. The 43-year-old told the AJC earlier this month that she was voting for Reed, but said she ultimately voted for Moore after the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP criticized Reed, a move it later apologized for.
“If the NAACP had a reason to not endorse him, and to go as far as to say, ‘Do not vote for him,’ there’s a real problem with him beyond his personality and the way he’s ruffled a lot of feathers,” said Francis.
Although Brown has polled last among the leading candidates, he recently debuted TV ads and is doing grassroots digital messaging.
During a campaign event in Adair Park last Tuesday, he criticized the mudslinging as distractions from the issues of housing and income inequality.
“All this petty back-and-forth is unfortunate,” Brown said, “when we have residents struggling to survive in this city and a pandemic still ravaging our communities.”
AJC’S COVERAGE OF THE 2021 ELECTION
The Atlanta-Journal Constitution is working on your behalf to be an indispensable resource for information about the election of Atlanta’s next mayor. Please visit ajc.com for complete coverage of the race for City Hall.
