Mayor, City Council qualifying ends … here’s the list
September 6, 2009 at 3:29 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsJesus, and we thought the Atlanta City Council District 6 race was crowded.
Atlanta City Councilman Jim Maddox’s surprise decision not to seek re-election has apparently caused a District 11 free-for-all. At the end of qualifying on Friday, nine candidates had filed to run to represent the southwest Atlanta district.
There are some familiar names who wants to take over Maddox’s office. Former Fulton Commissioner Reginald Eaves, Jr., is one. He’s got a interesting past. Another is Morris “Mo” Finley, a former councilman whose last attempt at office was city council president in 2001. (He won only three percent of the vote.) Keisha Lance Bottoms, who last year ran an unsuccessful bid against Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford for his seat, also wants to represent the district.
Councilmembers Carla Smith, Kwanza Hall, Natalyn Archibong, Howard Shook, Felicia Moore and C.T. Martin will run unopposed, which essentially means they’ve already won another term. The only way to make it on the ballot now is as a write-in candidate. And good luck with that.
There are a lot of familiar names in the races. Perennial candidates, former elected officials, rabble-rousers and the like. See who you can spot.
After the jump, the list of who qualified to earn a place on the Nov. 3 ballot.
If you don’t know your district, you can download a PDF map. You can also view the city’s official list of candidates here.
Atlanta Mayor (citywide): Lisa Borders, Mary Norwood, Kasim Reed and Jesse Spikes. Kyle Keyser, founder of the 10,000-member Atlantans Together Against Crime, successfully raised the $4,425 needed to qualify for the race. Peter Brownlowe, a former police officer and political newcomer, also qualified this week.
City Council President (citywide): Ceasar Mitchell, Clair Muller and Dave Walker. (Why should people care about the council position? Let CL’s Scott Henry tell you.)
City Council District 1 (includes Grant Park, Ormewood Park and Summerhill): Carla Smith (i)
City Council District 2 (includes Old Fourth Ward and downtown): Kwanza Hall (i)
City Council District 3 (includes Vine City and parts of the Westside): Ivory Young (i), Darrien Fletcher, Kendal Richardson
City Council District 4 (includes Castleberry Hill, West End and parts of southwest Atlanta): Cleta Winslow (i), LaShawn M. Hoffman, DeBorah “Sister” Williams, Sidney Wood
City Council District 5 (includes East Atlanta): Natalyn Archibong (i)
City Council District 6 (includes Virginia-Highland, Candler Park, Morningside and Midtown): Bahareh Azizi, Steve Brodie, Tad Christian, Liz Coyle, Miguel Gallegos, Alex Wan
City Council District 7 (includes Buckhead and northeast Atlanta): Howard Shook (i)
City Council District 8 (includes parts of residential Buckhead and Chastain Park): Yolanda Adrean, Richard “Rick” Coleman
City Council District 9 (includes northwest Atlanta): Felicia Moore (i)
City Council District 10 (includes much of west Atlanta): C. T. Martin (i)
City Council District 11 (includes much of southwest Atlanta): Ray Abram, Keisha Lance Bottoms, Johnny Dixon, A. Reginald Eaves, Morris “Mo” Finley, Silas G. Kevil, Edith Ladipo, Alvelyn Sanders, Juanita M. Smith
City Council District 12 (includes Capitol View and Sylvan Hills): Joyce Sheperd (i), Curtis Davis, Jr., Keisha LaShawn Waites
Post 1 At-Large (citywide): Michael Julian Bond, Adam Brackman, Dwanda Farmer, Chris Vaughn
Post 2 At-Large (citywide): Amir Farokhi, Weslee Knapp, Aaron Watson
Post 3 At-Large (citywide): H. Lamar Willis (i), Shelitha Robertson
Some candidates don’t seem to have a Web site. That or the Google machine couldn’t find it just yet. If you know of one we missed, please drop me a line or let us know in the comments.
September 6th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Insiders say Lisa Borders has a 6-figure salary as President of the Grady Foundation and might have also received a 6-figure bonus. If true, how does this square with Lisa Borders spending about half her time as Atlanta City Council President and at least half her time running for Mayor? What are Lisa Borders’ duties and accomplishments as President of the Grady Foundation? How does she have time to fulfill her responsibilities at the Grady Foundation? Does the money for Lisa Borders’ salary/bonus come from operating funds and is this a good use of Grady Foundation funds considering the time she spends on City Council and election activities? Is the amount being paid to Lisa Borders a “back-door” way to finance her mayoral race without having to disclose the money as a campaign contribution? What can Creative Loafing tell us about this situation?
September 6th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Lewis, I think these are excellent questions. Frankly, I don’t think Council Members should have other jobs. They already make a yearly salary close to the Area Median Income. But during the last year, several Council Members have held other jobs (Ivory Young an architect, Ceasar a lawyer…) What you’re saying about Lisa Borders, though is interesting, though, because these are public dollars funding both her salaries–I seriously doubt she could justify a 6 figure salary with the actual hours spent on Grady.
September 7th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Lewis and APN Editor – You can speculate and make whatever judgments you wish regarding Lisa’s job and salary (or Kasim’s or Jesse’s. Or Kyle’s for that matter). That comes with the territory when you run for Mayor.
However, her salary is easy to gather info on. Like any nonprofit foundation, the salaries of Grady Foundation’s staff comes from the donations made to the foundation. These are not public dollars. If you’re going to pretend to be a journalist and run a web site with “News” in the name, APN Editor, then please get the facts straight.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Interesting! I called down to the Grady Foundation and they told me that Borders is on leave right now. So there’s the answer as to how she’s able to campaign and work at the same time. I think she’s still at least City Council President until November, right?