WTF? ‘Able’ Mable Thomas endorses Mary Norwood
October 22, 2009 at 7:11 pm by Scott Henry in News
What's in it for Mable?
Just yesterday, one of our commenters predicted — jokingly, or so I thought — that former state Rep. “Able” Mable Thomas would endorse Councilwoman Mary Norwood for mayor.
Well, it’s happening. I just got an e-mail alert from the Norwood campaign about an endorsement photo-op scheduled for Friday.
How weird is this? Anyone who’s been around Atlanta any length of time knows “Able” Mable — herself a former Council member who most recently ran against U.S. Rep. John Lewis — to be a career politician and lip-service populist who never gives away what she can sell.
So, the question is, what did Norwood offer her in return? Just askin’.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Scott, you’re dead-on with this one. This one is more transparent than wax paper. You know “Able” got her palms greased for this one.
And if people want to think that Mable is always on the up and up, check out Mr. Henry’s article from a few years ago — http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A312136.
Mable is all about the money, and Mary paid her off. Period. There’s no end of Mary’s pandering to Black Atlanta. It’s shameless, and unfortunately, there are lots of gullible Black Atlantans who will fall for this one.
Mary’s rarely delivered substantively for folks in this City, and she thinks attending every community meeting qualifies her to become Mayor, and “leaders” like Mable are eating at the trough. Shameful.
Thanks for this one, Scott.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Mable for sale? Where in the world would you get an idea like that from?
Proof again that Norwood is playing the game better than the others.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
What did Norwood get? She got money, fool. Unless she eats at the Beautiful. Then she probably got some of the best sweet tea this side of Peachtree.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Cost of the endorsement of a perennial candidate: probably around $10K (but I guess we’ll find out on the next round of financial disclosures, according to the city).
Cost of the black vote on worming your way to Mayor: apparently priceless
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:13 pm
You can’t really blame Dis-Abled Mable for taking the bribe, times are tough. I heard Norwood’s first choice was Wanda Sykes, but she wanted $15K. Show me the money!
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:20 pm
The real question is will the black folk know that she has been paid? This election has got more screws than a tool shed. White council members paying black folks for support, racist memos, and Islamic all factors in this race. Amazing! I hope someone is recording this for the history books.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Don’t you know? This picture is of Able on the chopping block selling herself off to the highest bidding politician. She should really be ashamed of herself, but I know she’s not. She’ll take that money all the way to the Black bank.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Yeah, yeah, yeah… State Rep. Rashad Taylor is pulling down $6K a month from Reed. Not sure what the difference is. I’m all for Mable getting paid. Norwood is just playing the game… only better.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:06 pm
The difference between Mable and Taylor is that Taylor’s payments are disclosed and he has staff position with the Reed campaign. I seriously doubt Norwood will disclose a payment to Mable and as far as I know she is not part of Norwood’s staff.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Hey everybody. If you’d seen Mable’s speech at Mary’s big fundraiser in Southwest Atlanta last weekend, you would not be surprised at this endorsement. Face the fact that Mary Norwood IS the populist candidate in this race. It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but that’s what makes it interesting.
If I could count the politicians in this City who I would consider progressive activists, I could probably do it on one hand. And Able Mable Thomas is one of those people on this list. Atlanta Progressive News’s Board of Directors endorsed Mable for US Congress in 2008 and took a lot of heat for it; sound familiar?
In my opinion, what really needs explaining is why Civil Rights Movement veterans and current progressive leaders like Rev. Lowery, Rev. McDonald, and Joe Beasley–all people I admire for their work and their service as civic leaders–are supporting the corporate candidate Lisa Borders.
I also find Creative Loafing’s baseless insinuation that Mable Thomas is taking some kind of payment for this endorsement to be just offensive. Mable is an upstanding citizen and does not deserve to be defamed in this way by Creative Loafing.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:51 am
Just when you think CL is becoming the “paper of record” in Atlanta, they write baseless drivel like this. WTF! I could get more credible articles from the Atlanta Voice.
You don’t have to like Mary, but your disrespect of her, and now her supporters, has gone too far.
What makes you think the candidate who is leading in every poll would feel the need to buy an endorsement?
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:39 am
I’ve been around Atlanta for 11 years and I don’t know Mable Thomas as “a career politician and lip-service populist who never gives away what she can sell,” as you allege. Do you have any additional facts to educate?
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:47 am
What’s even funnier is that Mable’s endorsement is generating any press at all. This has got to be a first for Mable. I guess it is news when a pol from the ‘hood endorses a Buckhead Betty.
Let me clarify my earlier statement about Mable taking money. I doubt Mary cut Mable a cut or gave her a bag of money. Rather, Norwood is probably giving an organization that Mable controls money to do GOTV, which is Mable’s specialty. Mable gets her cut from that organization for managing the process. This isn’t uncommon, or even illegal, but you have to question the integrity of the person doing it.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:58 am
Wasn’t Mable Thomas the one who said “we” needed to get the Hartsfield name off the airport while “we” still run the city?
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:04 am
Able Mable “Bought and Sold is Her Label” Thomas.
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:13 am
Fasten you seat belts: Is Derek Boazman’s endorsement the next Norwood sucker punch?
This is too funny!
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:15 am
Another day, another victory for Norwood.
NORWOOD IS MAKING THE OTHER CAMPAIGNS AND CANDIDATES LOOK LIKE AMATURE.
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:16 am
i look forward to seeing some evidence of a payoff.
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:22 am
SAMiAM, thanks for showing us your APS education at work. The correct spelling is “amateur”.
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:47 am
Perhaps Mary promised Mable a new hat.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:08 am
No matter how hard the Loaf hits Norwood she is still not gonna give you advertising $$$.
You got big $$$ from Borders and Reed, but they are out of cash so the Loaf is not going to get any other paydays out of this deal.
The question is – how much did the other candidates offer the Loaf for the hit pieces and endorsement???
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:33 am
Loaf Needs,
I’ve said this before: advertisements played no role in our endorsements. They were based on candidate interviews, platform examinations and editorial staff discussions about the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses. There is a brick/Chinese wall between editorial and sales.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:38 am
Hey, JW (aka LNBW), I only wish that ad money trickled down to poor writers, but it doesn’t work that way.
BTW, this isn’t so much a hit on Norwood as it is on “Able” Mable. I agree that getting such endorsements is probably a smart play – I just wonder at what cost they’re obtained.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 am
I read the tea leaves Scott, and they’re telling me $10K. She bought out The Beautiful Restaurant for about 1/5 of that. Is it any wonder the worm won’t release her tax returns like Borders and Reed have? They’ll show her as a rich old Buckhead Betty bitty with money to burn who panders to the Queenies and Jessups south of I-20 for a plate of collard greens and hamhocks. I really hope Atlanta is not that easily (or summarily) fooled to buying her schlock.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:46 am
I’m very disappointed in the tone of many of these comments. And unfortunately Mr. Henry you have set that tone. I believe you owe Mrs. Thomas an apology.
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Having Mabel Thomas endorse Mary Norwood gives new meaning to the old saw about politics producing strange bedfellows. A few years ago a proposal was made to take Mayor Hartsfield’s name off of the airport, replacing it with Maynard Jackson’s name. In the best Atlanta fashion, the dispute was eventually settled by having both men’s names on the airport. Here’s what Mabel Thomas had to say at the time (from the July 30th, 2003 AJC):
” ‘This really shouldn’t be about what the white business establishment would allow,’ said state Rep. “Able” Mable Thomas, a former Atlanta City Council member. ‘It’s really what the strength of the African-American community will allow. What will we stand for? The real deal is, we stood too long silent. Atlanta is being gentrified every day. So while you do still have a majority, as Maynard would say, use the power you have today.’ ”
“Some of the speakers during a two-hour public hearing at Atlanta City Hall used words like diversity and inclusiveness. But many refused to sugarcoat their sentiments.”
“Overwhelmingly, they urged removing William B. Hartsfield’s name and replacing it with that of Jackson, creator of a landmark affirmative action program. Hartsfield, mayor for two decades, who championed Atlanta as an aviation center, was either forgotten or dismissed as a symbol of Atlanta’s racist past.”
This was ironic and unfair, as Hartsfield was quite progressive for his time, and had won praise from, among others, Maynard Jackson’s grandfather.
The question for today is, why would anyone WANT the endorsement of such a person? Reed or Borders certainly wouldn’t. The calculation from the Norwood campaign seems to be that they can accept Thomas’s endorsement, freighted with racist baggage as it is, because Norwood is white.
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Mary also has been palling around for years with CT Martin, the council member who affects to think even the tree protection ordinance is racist. CT apparently has a little personal machine going in his own district – based in part on on city jobs patronage.
Mary seems to feel that the white vote is hers and the easiest black votes to get her over the top are of the poorest voters, who perhaps still follow their local leaders unquestioningly.
It’s a shame, because there are good leaders, especially Felicia Moore, maybe Natalyn Archibong too, who would be allies for Better Government if Mary won and truly cared about that.
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I take this for what it is – Norwood playing old-school, hardball politics. It’s politics people, of course folks are getting paid off. Everyone does it.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:47 pm
With her endorsement of Norwood Mable Thomas has set a new record for following the camera. Maybe Norwood agreed to support Able Mable against Congressman Lewis in next year’s Congressional election? I don’t think Mable is for sale. Trade maybe. Is Bozeman next?
If this is Norwood’s standard for “change”, then I pass.
October 24th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
This just in: (Oil) Derrick Boazman will be on the Georgia Gang tomorrow AM, endorsing Mary Norwood.
His compensation, reportedly, was $200 and three extra large pizzas.
October 24th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
As a politician, you’re either part of The Machine or you’re supporting the destruction of same. That’s just common sense.
October 25th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Kasim pulls head of Lisa – Insider Advantage Sat Oct 24
http://www.gpb.org/news/2009/10/24/new-poll-out-in-atl-mayoral-race
So there’s just a chance that we’ll elect a competent mayor in a runoff.
October 25th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
In case you missed my commeent on the AJC website: “Everyone seems to be producing a poll these days, but there is only on Vote-O-Meter. It agrees with Insider Advantage in only one respect: As Election Day nears, uncertainty about whom to vote for is growing. The Vote-O-Meter forecasts that if the election were held today, the votes would be Mary Norwood 38%; Lisa Borders – 29%; Kasim Reed – 25%; Jesse Spikes – 4%, Kyle Keyser – 4%; Peter Brownlowe – 0%. Norwood’s lead continues and her strategy of laying low is working. Borders remains a strong second, with Reed needing a solid finish. Spikes and Keyser are keeping their small but committed followers, and Keyser is picking up some protest votes.”
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:30 am
it only took $1500?
i expected more…