Bidness group ‘endorses’ Lisa Borders for mayor
September 29, 2009 at 12:44 pm by Scott Henry in News
It shouldn’t be shocking news to anybody, including her opponents, that Council President Lisa Borders has received the highest candidate evaluation score from the Committee for a Better Atlanta.
As a protege of uber-developer Tom Cousins, Borders is certainly the favorite of Atlanta business community. But the Metro Atlanta Chamber decided a while back to keep its favoritism at arm’s length by creating the CBA to rate candidates by how they score on a questionnaire and in a face-to-face interview.
Today those scores were released (PDF) and, no surprise, Borders came out on top, with a 95 percent. Frankly, the only real surprise was that state Sen. Kasim Reed scored so closely behind her, with a 93.
For the Council president’s race, Council members Ceasar Mitchell and Clair Muller tied with 92.
In other races, Alex Wan was deemed the best candidate in District 6, Keisha Lance Bottoms topped the field in District 11, Michael Bond got the nod for Post 1 at-large and Amir Farokhi and Aaron Watson tied for Post 2 at-large.
I don’t mean to sound overly dismissive of the CBA’s ranking process, but it should be recognized for what it is: namely, a clever way for the city’s leading business group to boost certain candidates without sullying its hands with direct endorsements (or violating federal tax law, since it’s a non-profit group).
The complicated scoring system notwithstanding, any process that uses essay questions and oral interviews to evaluate candidates can’t avoid a certain level of subjectivity.
What am I trying to say? Merely that it was a foregone conclusion that Lisa Borders would get the high score, however those numbers needed to add up. And that’s OK because most folks will look on this result for what it is: a de facto endorsement from the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.
September 29th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
No word of Kasim Reed? Why is this ALL ABOUT Lisa Borders? Stephanie Ramage will hear about this, Scott.
September 29th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Scott,
You sound like a disgruntled Loaf Reporter. The reason you are still writing for a living is because a private equity firm bailed you out. Maybe if you look at business in a more positive light, you would realize that the propensity to consume would be higher.
Warmly,
Britt
September 29th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Come back Liz, all is forgiven? I mean if bidness loves Alex, taxpayers must love his presumptive leading oppo, no? Cos in this town, bidness is about robbing the taxpayer blind and leaving the resident with no services. Hell, most bidness lives OTP so why would they care?
September 29th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Why the hell can’t you people spell “business”? Bidness…how racist.
September 29th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Bidness as usual. The only one who scores as high as in-their-pocket Lisa is Howard Shook!. Howard has presided over all the city’s current financial debacles – the unaffordable sewer program, the pension giveaway and total mismanagement of the finance department. There’s a man who can be trusted never to ask questions, never to rock the boat and never to put ordinary Atlantans first.
September 29th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
britt seems like a winner – just the warm type of girl your mother warned u about.
when it comes to business groups, she definitely means bidness.
but in scott’s defense, he seems reasonably gruntled to me.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Far be it from me to sound as though I’m in the pocket for Lisa, but, what effect should this have exactly on the mayoral race? The vast majority of voters, as far as I know, don’t listen to business associations for their cues to vote. All this truly means is that, as you said, she’s big at Cousins.
October 1st, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Borders is clearly the Cousins candidate, which is inherently corruptive.