Not too long ago, the famous friendship between Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Gov. Nathan Deal was hailed as a national model of bipartisanship.
Now, amid a growing federal probe into alleged corruption at City Hall and damaging reports about Reed’s use of taxpayer funds, any embrace of the Democrat could be a liability.
Shortly after reports surfaced that Republican Hunter Hill supported a state takeover of Atlanta's airport if elected governor, GOP rival Clay Tippins accused him of accepting an endorsement from Reed for his 2016 state Senate re-election campaign.
"Kasim Reed's record of corrupt dealings and severely liberal positions would normally put him at odds with a tough-talking conservative, as Hunter Hill is portraying himself to be,” said Tippins.
Hill's campaign said Reed, also a former state senator, didn't endorse his candidacy but did attend a fundraiser for the Republican, who represented an affluent slice of north Atlanta. Campaign records show no record of Reed donating to Hill.
But it underscores how drastically the political winds have shifted around Reed, once the state’s most prominent Democrat.
Reed has pledged to fully cooperate with federal investigators and said the expenses under scrutiny are "legitimate." And he could yet emerge unscathed from the probe, free to carry out his plan to run for statewide office in the not-so-distant future.
But for now, though, even Democrats haven’t cozied up to him.
He has yet to endorse either former House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams or ex-state Rep. Stacey Evans. And though his successor, Keisha Lance-Bottoms, has contributed to Evans, she has not yet formally endorsed her campaign.
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