Borders, Reed turn up heat on campaign rhetoric
October 19, 2009 at 5:12 pm by Scott Henry in News
Borders with sinister City Hall puppet-master Tom Bell!
Folks, there are scarcely two weeks left before the Nov. 3 city elections. Two damn weeks! It would seem the mayoral candidates are mindful of this because they’ve shifted into attack mode.
Last Friday, City Council President Lisa Borders challenged opponent Kasim Reed to pledge to “end nepotism” in City Hall, while pointing out that his brother works as a contract compliance officer for the city.
Now, the Borders folks told me about this months ago, hinting at some vague conflict of interest. But it isn’t nepotism because, while candidate Reed is close to Mayor Franklin, he’s never worked for the city. And if he used his influence to help his brother get the job, that’s not illegal or even, I would argue, necessarily unethical.
Still, the Borders campaign continues to hammer away by portraying the connection in unsavory terms, as in this press release from the last hour:
Tracy Reed, Kasim Reed’s brother, works for the Mayor’s Office of Contract Compliance, where he oversees minority contracts at the airport. To date, Mr. Reed has received more campaign money from airport vendors than all of the other candidates in this election combined. Nineteen airport vendors who might owe their contracts to his brother Tracy have given money to Kasim Reed’s campaign.
I assume the Borders strategy here is that the best defense is a good offense. While Reed’s airport money — and his wealth of out-of-state contributions — are arguable red flags, it’s Borders’ own connection to the development community that has spawned the most campaign-season conspiracy theories.
I’m told the Reed campaign will soon hit back with a release pointing to Borders’ manna from Cousins Properties. After she re-entered the mayor’s, her former boss, Cousins’ then-CEO Tom Bell, hosted a May fundraiser that netted Borders $270,000 — about two-thirds of the total contributions she collected in the second quarter of the year.
Again, to some the Cousins connection is a bright red flag, but it’s not illegal, improper or even, by itself, a conflict of interest.
The irony, of course, is that while Borders and Reed sling insinuations and whispers at each other, Mary Norwood gets a free ride.
October 19th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Borders and Reed are idiots. Norwood is in the home stretch and is walking away with this race. Voters don’t care about this nonsense. Instead of discussing how they will improve the City’s bottom line, they’re doing these crazy attacks on each other instead of Norwood. The only person with enough guts to attack Norwood is Franklin, which is why she is the mayor and Reed and Borders will likely never be.
October 19th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
I have to agree with S. DeKalb here. I know it’s unusual, but he makes a good point.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
C’mon Scott, both Kasim’s airport contract money and Lisa’s Cousins-sourced money (and long-time Cousins salary) are massive conflicts of interest. Mary doesn’t have anything comparable. The questions are: will the conflicts cost us residents and are there still reasons to support either of the two?
The airport does not cost Atlanta taxpayers a thing. ATL no doubt could be a run a bit more efficiently and honestly if the conflicts weren’t there, but that would not contribute a nickel to the city budget. (It might make airfares a tiny bit cheaper and would probably make food at the airport better value, but would do nada for our prop and sales taxes.) Against that, Kasim is more likely than the other two to take the tough action to get the city budget under control – esp pensions. He’s smart and effective, unlike the other two, and I judge that to be worth the price of the airport conflict.
Lisa cannot see Atlanta except through a developer’s eyes. As a resident, I’m tired of being taken for a ride by developers. From an horrendously expensive sewer program – made costlier by adding capacity to allow more construction – to the TAD and abatement malarkey that starves the city budget of funds – to crappy and congesting development that is anything but smart, there is a very real conflict between residents and developers. A vote for Lisa is not in any ordinary resident’s interest.
The Mary case is about competence and coherence, sadly suspect. But she’s the least conflicted, no question.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
I don’t know what the Borders camp was talking about but If Reed becomes mayor, I wouldn’t want his brother working in the office as well. Borders made that promise and I expect that of the other candidates. If Reed can’t committ to that, it raises a red flag for me.
I would also be interested to know what role Reed had in hiring his brother as a chair on Franklin’s transition team, if any.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
I hope Kasim does put on more of us. The city needs more competant Black folks.
October 19th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
The Vote-O-Meter sees the mayoral race tightening in the final two weeks. It forecasts that if the election were held today, the votes would be Mary Norwood 36%; Lisa Borders – 29%; Kasim Reed – 25%; Jesse Spikes – 6%, Kyle Keyser – 4%; Peter Brownlowe – 0%. Norwood’s lead continues and her strategy of trying to make no blunders may prevail. Borders remains strong but Reed is gaining some traction. Spikes and Keyser are keeping their small but committed followers, plus Keyser is picking up some protest votes. As Election Day nears, uncertainty about and lack of confidence in who to vote for seem to be growing.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:15 am
Borders is bought and SOLD by Cousins Properties!
October 20th, 2009 at 1:50 am
The larger conflict here for Ms. Borders has to do with her long-standing friendship/working relationship (and financial support) from Lynne Riley — an advocate for the re-creation of Milton County (a move that would be disastrous to the City of Atlanta). The media is head over heels with the Tom Bell “red flags”, but with the exception of Jim Galloway, has largely been silent on a much more glaring conflict of interest.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:55 am
Borders conflict is waaaay larger without a doubt.
October 20th, 2009 at 3:00 am
Smoke and mirrors from the Borders campaign. She’s the only puppet candidate in this race. When Tom Bell and Republicans of his stature invest that much money in you, they expect a return.
October 20th, 2009 at 3:06 am
This says it all:
http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0523.html
October 20th, 2009 at 3:08 am
Lisa Borders should stay as far away from this issue as possible:
http://www.sundaypaper.com/More/Archives/tabid/98/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/4525/Lisa-Borders-ethics-problem.aspx
October 20th, 2009 at 10:27 am
These stories about Reed have been circulating for weeks:
http://www.notkasim.blogspot
October 20th, 2009 at 10:30 am
I keep hearing about some sort of implication between Lisa Borders and Tom Bell. What is the impropriety, that she used to work for him? Someone please answer this for me.
If that’s it then I’m probably beholden to the Gap. I hope they don’t call in any sweater-folding favors this winter.