Race for Atlanta council president mirrors mayor's race

One candidate is an African-American man who lives west of the Downtown Connector. The other is a white woman who lives in Atlanta's northern edge.

He supported raising property taxes earlier this year to end furloughs on police officers. She voted against the tax increase.

He's an Atlanta native and an attorney. She was born outside Atlanta and began her public career as a civic activist.

Sounds like the Dec. 1 runoff for mayor between Kasim Reed and Mary Norwood?

It's actually the race between veteran council members Ceasar Mitchell and Clair Muller for City Council president.

The similarities between the two contests end there. The Mitchell-Muller race has received far less attention, largely because the candidates agree on virtually every issue and they've been congenial to each other.

For example, during a recent Atlanta Press Club debate, Muller lauded Mitchell's efforts to "participate" in council matters.

"Mr. Mitchell, your turn to flatter Ms. Muller," said the moderator, Tom Haynes.

On cue, Mitchell returned the flattery, lauding her "wealth of knowledge."

The president's race has been a technocratic affair, with both candidates discussing the finer points of recycling incentives as opposed to arguing over which campaign ad is the most misleading.

Mitchell's platform includes putting more police officers on foot patrols, hiring more 911 operators and aggressively fining the owners of abandoned properties. Muller says she'll focus on working with regional leaders to ease traffic congestion and improve the region's water supply. She will also work to keep more police officers from leaving for greener pastures.

Council president is the second-most important position at City Hall. If the mayor dies or must leave office, it's the council president who takes charge of city government. The council president decides who leads the committees that review legislation from the mayor's office. The president also breaks tie votes. Mitchell served as interim council president in 2004..

Mitchell actually came within 1.34 percent (917 votes) of the 68,738 ballots cast on Nov. 3 of winning the election. The runoff was forced by Dave Walker, who's best known for grilling council members and city officials .  He won nearly 10 percent of the vote although he didn't spend a penny campaigning.

Walker announced (during a council meeting, of course) that he was endorsing Mitchell because he questioned Muller's commitment to Atlanta's southside, bringing up perhaps the biggest question about her candidacy. Muller has been on the council for 20 years, but represents the northernmost part of Atlanta with the largest percentage of white residents in a city that is majority black. She's responded by noting her 14 years of work to improve traffic throughout the city as a member of the Atlanta Regional Commission board.

Last week, she announced an endorsement from Lonnie King, a longtime civil rights leader who went to jail in defiance of segregated public facilities during the early 1960s in Atlanta.

Muller has mailed voters glossy fliers mentioning that the city's ethics office fined Mitchell $15,000 earlier this year for paying his brother from his council account for organizing town hall meetings, outings for senior citizens and "Ceasar Mitchell" T-shirts. Mitchell admitted he erred and paid the fine.

Two of the city's three largest unions have endorsed Mitchell, who's served the entire city on the council for nearly eight years. The largest union, the 1,100-member International Brotherhood of Police Officers, Local 623, has not endorsed anyone in the race.

The union's president, Sgt. Scott Kreher, said it couldn't support Mitchell because he was the first council member to discuss the idea of furloughs in 2008 to balance the budget. The union is also miffed that Mitchell, the son of a former Atlanta police officer, has introduced legislation pushing for more police foot patrols and expanding the department's RED DOG unit.

"(Mitchell) has tried to legislate our manpower and I think that's a bad idea," Kreher said.

Mitchell, who is still working to get the union endorsement, said he is trying to "step up" on public safety issues.

As for Muller, the union leader said she's "been a non-existent entity on public safety. It's an afterthought to her."

Muller said public safety is the "Number One issue" for her and noted that she's supported suggestions by the union to keep more officers on the force.