If anyone had any doubts about Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s influence among Georgia Democrats, he put them to rest this week.
He urged fellow Democrats to focus on next year's Senate race rather than a challenge against Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, a friend and sometime political partner who Reed said was likely to be re-elected.
Minutes later, he became the most prominent figure to call for the resignation of embattled party Chairman Mike Berlon, who soon cited Reed in the announcement that he was stepping down.
Now Reed and his allies will play a prominent role in tapping a new leader for Georgia Democrats at a defining moment for the party's future. Republicans sense that Georgia's growing minority population could threaten their dominance of state politics, and Democrats see a chance to capitalize.
The mayor’s call for the party to marshal its resources rather than mount a campaign against Deal could irk some Democrats who view the incumbent as vulnerable. But it could also earn him recognition for working across party lines and emboldening a party that has been largely on the sidelines.
“You pick the contests that you have. You lose the second fight by not focusing on the first,” Reed said. “My opinion is Governor Deal has done a good job as governor. The most important effort in the state of Georgia is the 2014 Senate race and, in my mind, the 2016 presidential race.”
He added: “I’m pragmatic and I believe in winning. When you have limited resources you have to put your energy and efforts in winning.”
The next Democratic chairman will weigh that strategy while trying to shape the party’s message, stabilize its finances and recruit candidates to chip away at the Republican hierarchy. The GOP now holds every statewide office, both U.S. Senate seats, nine of 14 congressional jobs and commanding majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly.
And whoever is picked will have to pass muster with Reed.
“He is going to be involved in the direction of the party because he wants to make sure Democrats are in a good position to run a good campaign, whether it’s for Senate or other seats, to move this state forward and get a Democrat elected,” said Tharon Johnson, a Democratic strategist with McKenna Long & Aldridge and Reed protege.
The sudden job opening came after Berlon said he would resign Wednesday amid a spate of recent legal troubles and the revelation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of several other pending lawsuits against him.
Nikema Williams, the organization's first-vice chairwoman, is next in line for the leadership post, but her background as a director of public policy at Planned Parenthood's regional office unsettles some Democrats.
State Rep. Calvin Smyre, a past party chairman; former House Minority Leader DuBose Porter; ex-state Sen. Doug Stoner; and Johnson, Reed’s former campaign manager, are said to be in the mix to succeed Berlon on a more permanent basis.
“I think by July you could see a Georgia Democratic Party that has a new strong chair, a really good Senate candidate and money flowing in,” said state Sen. Jason Carter, D-Decatur, who is often mentioned as a possible statewide candidate.
Activists and other elected officials will have a say in the nomination process, as will Michelle Nunn, the nonprofit executive who is the party's most coveted potential candidate in the race to replace Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss. But expect Reed to assert himself during the process.
“We are in uncharted waters now, without a chair, without a governor and without any constitutional officers,” Smyre said. “The mayor has to be involved because of his political savvy and the tentacles he has in Washington. He’s going to be instrumental.”
Berlon's successor inherits plenty of problems, and Reed said the biggest is the party's lingering financial issues. Federal records show $30,000 in cash on hand by April's end, compared with more than $630,000 for the state GOP. The next chairman, the mayor said, must rescue an organization "bordering on insolvency."
There's also an ongoing debate within the party over its failure to recruit more candidates in the aftermath of its disappointing 2012 performance. With a more targeted approach, Reed hopes he'll boost the chances of Hillary Rodham Clinton, a potential presidential candidate, to take Georgia in three years.
Reed’s open embrace of Deal — he stopped short of calling it an endorsement — may make some in his party squeamish. But some say he’s got the political capital to try to make any case he chooses.
“Kasim is the highest-profile Democrat here, and he’s been doing such a good job as mayor that he has an enormous amount of credibility,” said Carter, the Decatur Democrat. “A lot of us follow his lead, without a doubt.”
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