The Race for City Hall: We question the candidates live — today
With less than one month to go until the Nov. 2 Atlanta elections, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is hosting a 90-minute forum with the top mayoral candidates tonight.
Starting at 5 p.m., your Race for City Hall hosts will question Councilman Antonio Brown, Councilman Andre Dickens, attorney Sharon Gay, City Council President Felicia Moore and former Mayor Kasim Reed about topics including crime, gentrification, Buckhead cityhood and — perhaps most importantly — what sets them apart from the rest of the field.
Many of the questions will come from AJC subscribers.
The event, part of the newspaper’s ongoing Community Conversation series, will be streamed on ajc.com, and on the AJC’s Facebook and YouTube accounts. You can RSVP ahead of time at AJC.com/conversation.
Watch the replay
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Last week was busy on the TV airwaves — for most of the campaigns, at least — as the mayoral candidates look to increase their visibility before early voting starts next week.
A Democratic operative familiar with recent ad buys tells us that Dickens spent about $125,000 on TV ads last week. The two-term councilman polled in the single digits in our survey last month, but is looking to make a late surge before voters head to the polls. He just released his second commercial of the campaign season, a 30-second spot called “10,000 Lights” and focused on his crime-fighting plan.
Through last Thursday, Moore had about $80,000 worth of ads on the air, and Reed had $50,000.
Gay, meanwhile, hasn’t been on the air since Sept. 12, our source said.
An attorney for Dentons who has largely self-funded her campaign through personal loans, Gay came out of the gate early with her first ad in August. We reached out to her camp for more information about why she’s no longer running TV ads, and they said the campaign doesn’t comment on internal matters related to strategy and operations.
Last Thursday was the deadline for the latest fundraising reports, which will show donations spanning from July through September — one of the most important fundraising periods for the candidates. Those could be released later this week.
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Felicia Moore gathered with supporters outside Grady Memorial Hospital on Friday to release details on her plan to combat violent crime — focusing on children, cops, courts, community and code enforcement.
She said her administration will partner with Atlanta Public Schools to provide paying job training programs to teenagers. She also wants to develop after-school programs and partnerships with unions to support single parents with paid jobs and opportunities for home ownership.
Moore promised to provide incentives to rehire at least 200 new officers within her first 100 days. She also wants to expand community policing and vowed to reform the department with several actions: the creation of a comprehensive system for officers to report misconduct; a new independent police investigation unit to root out corruption and abuse; and a policy of releasing body cam video footage from police shootings within 72 hours.
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The leading candidates for mayor spoke with our colleague Anjali Huynh about their plans to tackle affordable housing and gentrification in Atlanta, issues that came second only to crime as the most pressing issues to voters in our poll.
Though experts said gentrification is unlikely to subside regardless of who’s elected, some candidates, like Reed, have pushed back on those concerns.
“If we all start rowing in the same direction … we can significantly increase the affordable housing stock,” he said. “I do not believe we should simply throw our hands up and yield to naysayers regarding gentrification who’ve never run a government.”
Candidates’ proposed solutions range from implementing community benefits agreements and local contracting (Dickens’ plan) to getting Fulton County or the school board to cap taxes for legacy residents (Moore) to addressing “generational poverty” through creating funds for poorer residents (Brown’s idea).
Gay, meanwhile, said “rapid gentrification” is the most concerning trend.
“There hasn’t been a lot of what people sometimes refer to as displacement,” she said, “because we have a lot of room to grow.”
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Monday is the last day to register to vote if you want to participate in the mayoral and City Council elections. AJC elections expert Mark Niesse has the details on how to register and check your status.
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Amid the debates over the Buckhead cityhood movement, a city councilman who represents much of Buckhead is asking the mayoral candidates to take the “Buckhead Pledge.” Councilman J.P. Matzigkeit’s challenge touches on many of the concerns that have fueled the push for “Buckhead City,” and asks candidates to back 10 specific policies related to crime, infrastructure, zoning and solid waste services.
“I think that the next mayor is gonna have a lot to do with how people feel about the city of Buckhead,” Matzigkeit said. He said he formulated the policy list based on what he’s heard from constituents, and added that many of the concerns are shared by residents citywide.
Matzigkeit is not running for reelection to the District 8 seat this year; former councilwoman and mayoral candidate Mary Norwood is running unopposed for the post. He sent the details of the “Buckhead Pledge” to the leading mayoral candidates Sunday, and plans to share their responses by Oct. 15. Here’s the full list of policies.
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The endorsement corner: Andre Dickens celebrated shows of support from two well-known local Democratic figures last week. State Sen. Nan Orrock and former state Sen. Vincent Fort both came out in support of the councilman.
Fort, a progressive who served in the Legislature for 20 years and launched an unsuccessful bid for mayor four years ago, said Atlanta has become a “tale of two cities,” and pitched Dickens as the best candidate to tackle issues like affordable housing and crime.
“The time has come for transformative leadership at this transformative moment,” Fort said at a press conference at the corner of Cascade Road and Benjamin E. Mays Drive, which he called the “crossroads of southwest Atlanta.”
Orrock, who has a represented a large swath of the Eastside and Southside in the Senate since 2007, stood with Dickens in Grant Park on Monday and said she has “actually hoped for the day that he would be on the ballot for mayor of Atlanta.”
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In other endorsement news, the Committee for a New Georgia, a PAC affiliated with the New Georgia Project Action Fund, released a list of City Council candidates it’s supporting in November.
The group, which support campaigns that address “underrepresented and underserved communities,” according to its website, say it backs Jodi Merriday for the citywide Post 3 seat. For the district races, the PAC is supporting Kelly-Jeanne Lee (District 1), Jason Dozier (District 4), Liliana Bakhtiari (District 5), Devin Barrington-Ward (District 9) and Jason Hudgins (District 10).
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What’s coming up:
- On Tuesday at 6 p.m., the League Of Women Voters of Atlanta/Fulton County is hosting a mayoral forum at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church. There’s an option to watch it virtually or in person.
- The Atlanta Regional Housing Forum will ask the mayoral candidates about issues related to affordable housing on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.
- Leadership Atlanta is hosting a mayoral debate at The Gathering Spot on Thursday at 5 p.m.
- The Atlanta Police Foundation and WSB-TV will host a mayoral debate on public safety on Sunday at 7 p.m. that will be broadcast on Channel 2.
Greg Bluestein contributed to this report. As always, please send us any story tips or feedback at Wilborn.Nobles@ajc.com and jdcapelouto@ajc.com.
Wilborn P. Nobles III covers the Atlanta mayor's policies for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Wil (not "Willie" or "William") previously covered Baltimore County government at The Baltimore Sun, but he never finished "The Wire." He also covered education for the Times-Picayune in his hometown of New Orleans, so he tries to avoid discussions about football. Wil used to play tuba for his high school marching band, but he eventually put down his horn to intern at The Washington Post. The Louisiana State University graduate enjoys gardening, comedy, and music.
J.D. Capelouto is a local news reporter covering City Hall and all things intown Atlanta for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His work focuses the City Council, neighborhood issues, public safety, housing and transportation. J.D. was born and raised in Atlanta and has lived in the city all his life, except for four years at Boston University, where he studied journalism and learned how to dress for cold weather. He’s been with the AJC since 2018, and has previously written for The Boston Globe and the Thomson Reuters Foundation. When he’s not reporting or scrolling through Twitter, J.D. enjoys pop culture podcasts, “Survivor” and visiting various pools around Atlanta.
About the Authors
J.D. is a local news reporter covering intown Atlanta and Atlanta City Hall for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Wilborn P. Nobles III covers Atlanta City Hall for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He began covering DeKalb County Schools for The AJC in November 2020. He previously covered Baltimore County for The Baltimore Sun and education for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans. He interned at the Washington Post. He graduated from Louisiana State University.
