Lisa Borders bows out of mayor’s race
August 11, 2008 at 10:46 am by Scott Henry in NewsAtlanta City Council President Lisa Borders is expected to announce shortly that she will discontinue her campaign for mayor. Borders, one of the favorites in an already-crowded field of hopeful successors to Shirley Franklin, became the first declared candidate in April 2007.
No, her decision has nothing to do with the Atlanta Dream’s terrible WNBA record (she’s a team advisor), or her rumored fling with ex-presidential candidate John “Loverboy” Edwards (OK, we made that part up).
Actually, if we may be serious for a moment, we’re told Borders is stepping aside to spend more time with her ailing parents, Dr. William H. and Gloria T. Borders.
Last December, Borders left her position as senior vice president of marketing and communications at real-estate giant Cousins Properties to head her own consulting firm, LMB LLC and concentrate on her mayoral campaign. She will continue her term as Council president. No word yet on whether she plans to run for re-election or rejoin Cousins.
With the election nearly a year away, Borders’ departure significantly opens up the race for Atlanta mayor:
- Last week, Councilwoman Mary Norwood finally shifted her “exploratory” stance into a full-fledged campaign, announcing a schedule of citywide meet-and-greets.
- State Sen. Kasim Reed, a close Franklin associate who ran her two mayoral campaigns, announced his bid in March.
- Last month, Councilman Ceasar Mitchell threw his hat into the ring.
- Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts is an all-but-guaranteed candidate.
- Attorney Jesse Spikes, a senior partner with McKenna Long & Aldridge, is also taking the plunge.
And, with Borders out of the picture, there are likely to be others, especially coming from the business community, since Borders was widely seen as its chosen candidate. Stay tuned…
UPDATE: While I was posting this, Borders issued a statement. Read it here.
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August 11th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
You gotta hope she doesn’t know something nasty that we’re all gonna find out when the new mayor comes in. Like that the sewer boondoggle is three times over budget and Atlanta thus effectively bankrupt? (3x $4 billion really is more than this poor little city can carry.)
That seems more likely than someone knowing something really bad about her. We’ve known that she’s the big developer’s front person and that has not stopped us electing her, though it should.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
How about we elect new council members across the board. What we have in office suck.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
I wonder if this would blow open the doors for Clark Howard to reconsider a run.
August 13th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Real talk.
Lisa Borders was going to be our next mayor. Anyone honest bout how our politics works knows this. This also means that the era of Black mayors in Atlanta has ended one term sooner than I thought possible. Shirley Franklin will be the last Black mayor of the ATL for some time, I’m thinking.
October 31st, 2008 at 5:18 pm
[...] to replace her. The collective assumption is that City Council President Lisa Borders – who abandoned her campaign for mayor for personal reasons in mid-August – would get back into the race. In a campaign cycle lasting [...]