Fresh Loaf

From the Lisa Borders campaign on Mayor Shirley Franklin’s announcement that she’ll vote for Kasim Reed:

“I have enjoyed working with Shirley and her administration. I have learned from both her achievements and her mistakes. I will take both of those lessons into office.”

Borders said Franklin’s low-key endorsement of Reed was not unexpected. Franklin has been working in the shadows of his campaign for a number of weeks, primarily by attacking Mary Norwood. Franklin has a history of endorsing candidates the day before an election.

Worth noting: One could argue that Franklin’s criticism of Norwood the last few weeks could have also helped Borders.

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Delivered via Sean Combs’ Puff Daddy’s P-Diddy’s Diddy’s Twitter telegraph service:

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Is an endorsement really an endorsement if you give the nod to two candidates from the same party who are running for the same seat?

From GOP gubernatorial candidates Eric Johnson and John Oxendine’s Twitter doohickeys:

Whatever, Johnson posted it first! Eat that, Ox©!

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Agree or disagree with our endorsement picks? Have a say in our endorsement live-chat with Mara, Scott and Thomas, today at 1:30 pm.

If the chat window doesn’t appear above, click Here

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Clair Muller

Pity the candidates for City Council president.

As a non-voting cat herder whose only mandated duties are running Council meetings and making committee appointments, the job of Council prez hardly seems worth the time, effort and expense it takes to win it.

Still, we have a hard-fought race between two councilmembers — one young and ambitious, the other a veteran who sees the post as way to leverage her accumulated experience.

An at-large councilman for the past eight years, Ceasar Mitchell is bursting with ideas. He wants the city to adopt zero-based budgeting. He’d like to allow private sanitation companies to compete with city trash collectors. Mitchell even suggests that pumping desalinated water in from the coast might be a way to solve the region’s water issues.

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Adam Brackman

Before qualifying ended, the race to claim Councilman Ceasar Mitchell’s at-large post looked like a clown car.

Nine political hopefuls had filed to run for the citywide seat, including perennial candidates, a former councilman and a handful of unknowns. When it came time to pay the $1,184 fee to run, however, only four men and women remained.

Thankfully, Adam Brackman was one of them.

Brackman, a 42-year-old resident of south Atlanta’s Benteen Park, has risen through the ranks of neighborhood-based politics to stand out as a fresh-faced candidate with an arsenal of ideas — and a strong dose of enthusiasm — that could greatly enhance a council where nearly half the members will win their seats without opposition.

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Aaron Watson

It’s a shame that some of the candidates for City Council’s Post 2 At-Large can’t be farmed out to other district races with less impressive rosters. As it is, we’re forced to decide between three seemingly qualified and capable guys running for the same open seat.

There’s Weslee Knapp, an engineer and real estate broker who thinks his private sector expertise could knock down walls in City Hall’s bureaucratic maze. Amir Farokhi is a 31-year-old attorney and Grant Park resident whose smart-growth vision for Atlanta doesn’t just sound exciting, but doable. And Aaron Watson, a corporate finance lawyer, boasts a long record of leadership that includes the Atlanta Public Schools board, the Atlanta Housing Authority and the Piedmont Park Conservancy.

All the contenders have big ideas and want to effect change. But only Watson has the record to back it up.

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For weeks, there have been whispers that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wouldn’t offer endorsements for the upcoming Atlanta mayoral elections. If so, the move would’ve been a startling about-face from an editorial board made famous by legendary editor Ralph McGill.

Late Friday evening, the paper sent word. In a note to readers, the board said it was done with endorsements.

We have heard from readers — and we agree — that you don’t need us to tell you how to vote. What readers tell us they need is information on who the candidates are, what they have done and what they want to do in the new job.

While this sounds very forward-thinking and probably could be spun as “bold new thinking” in NewspaperLand, we think it’s hogwash.

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State Rep. Ralph Long, D-Atlanta, this morning gave Mary Norwood his endorsement for Atlanta mayor.

Long is the first African-American elected official to endorse the white candidate, who’s considered a frontrunner alongside opponents Lisa Borders and Kasim Reed.

The state lawmaker noted Norwood’s public-safety plan, work ethic and accessibility as factors in winning his support. (Interesting: Long says he and Norwood have discussed the need for a “homegrown” police chief, as opposed to an official from an outside jurisdiction.)

Long, who earlier this year risked losing his Gold Dome committee positions when he revealed House leadership’s bizarre reasoning for not saving MARTA, represents approximately 40,000 constituents in Southwest Atlanta. When the now infamous “black agenda” memo became public, he was quick to renounce it and the organization that circulated the document.

After the jump, Long’s full endorsement.

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The qualifying period’s still weeks away, but that’s not stopping unions and organizations from endorsing candidates in the Nov. 3 city elections.

The Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council, which boasts approximately 9,000 members who live inside city limits and nearly 70,000 more in metro Atlanta, made its final endorsements last week for the Atlanta mayor and City Council races. Included in the list are incumbents Ceasar Mitchell and Ivory Young and political upstarts Amir Farokhi and Miguel Gallegos.

ANGLC President Charlie Flemming tells CL that 17 of its 42 affiliate organizations sat down with candidates to discuss privatization, cost-of-living wage increases, workforce housing, and other labor-related issues. The slate of endorsed candidates either agreed with policy stances or had reached out to labor in past policy discussions.

The union’s endorsement has been like the touch of God in the mayor’s race: for the last 20 years, its pick to run the city has gone on to win office. Flemming says its record isn’t as spot-on for council elections, but political hopefuls lucky enough to get a nod — or unlucky enough, depending on how voters’ opinions of unions — can expect a strong force working in their favor.

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Steve Brodie, one of six contenders in the crowded race for the Atlanta City Council District 6 open seat, has received the endorsement of the city’s 1,100-member police union.

In a statement (PDF) released yesterday by Brodie’s campaign, Sgt. Scott Kreher, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 623, said the wooer of water ballerinas is unique because  he’s  “providing specific ideas for improving public safety in Atlanta and the action steps needed to fund improvements….The other District 6 Candidates are working to develop slogans and [Brodie is] seriously proposing plans.”

”I am honored and proud to be endorsed by the police,” Brodie said. “The Police Union’s endorsement
of my candidacy illustrates their confidence in me as a City Council member and their belief that I will
initiate real changes to make Atlanta safer.”

Here’s the public-safety plan to which Kreher referred. (Ben at Terminal Station has a good anecdotal post on why candidates should be giddy when they get such nods of support.)

Brodie’s opponents in the race to represent the district that includes the Midtown, Candler Park, Virginia-Highland neighborhoods are Bahareh Azizi, Tad Christian, Liz Coyle, Miguel Gallegos (who recently earned the Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council’s endorsement) and Alex Wan.

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City Hall insiders were whispering on Thursday that Atlanta mayoral candidate Mary Norwood would receive the valuable endorsement from the city’s firefighters. The rumor surprised some, considering the city councilwoman’s vote in June against the three-mill property tax that has helped end police and firefighter furloughs.

But win the endorsement she did, the AJC’s Eric Stirgus reports. Jim Daws, head of the local chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters and a lieutenant with the city’s Department of Fire Rescue, told Stirgus that the union weighed Norwood’s overall support of the department in making its decision. The official announcement by the union, which boasts roughly 450 members, will be made today.

(UPDATE): Kasim Reed’s campaign chimes in about Norwood’s endorsement:

“Throughout my career in public service and over the course of this campaign, I have made Public Safety my number one priority. While I am respectful of the decision to endorse another candidate, I am unwavering in my support for our city’s firefighters. The men and women of the Atlanta fire department—who place their lives on the line to protect our families—deserve to have a mayor who will fight for them, day in and day out. If elected mayor, I would be honored to serve them.”

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Grayson Daughters spoke with Atlanta Police Union President Scott Kreher at the most recent Atlantans Together Against Crime rally in Midtown. Topics included how the organization will endorse a candidate in the Atlanta mayor’s race, what role the community plays in fighting crime, and what’s needed to end police furloughs. 

In March, the Atlanta City Council unanimously passed a resolution urging Mayor Shirley Franklin to introduce a budget that ended police and firefighter furloughs. Last week, the mayor granted its request. Council is expected to vote on the budget in June.

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It continues.

Yes, and that “Lauren W. McDonald III?” He’s the son of Bubba McDonald, the former state lawmaker who’s running as a Republican for the Public Service Commission.

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Angela Speir, the Public Service Commissioner who’s stepping down after her current term ends and is widely considered an advocate for everyday Georgians, is endorsing Democratic candidate Jim Powell for her soon-to-be-open seat.

“In this time of skyrocketing energy costs and with the elimination of the Consumers Utility Counsel, it’s more important than ever to elect a good person to the Public Service Commission,” Speir said. “Jim Powell has my vote,  endorsement, and prayers for his success.”

Powell, a former official with the U.S. Dept. of Energy, has been fighting a back-and-forth residency battle with Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel. Even after being booted from the ballot just days before the primary, he was granted a stay by a Fulton County Superior Court Judge and went on to garner 85 percent of the vote. The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case but has not yet set a date.

Speir, a Republican, urged voters to look past ideology and partisan affiliation  and vote for Powell in what many believe is going to be a top-down ballot. “Doing the right thing transcends political parties,” she said.

Speir also stressed a need for voters to be aware of the differences between Powell and his opponent in the race, Lauren “Bubba” McDonald. Speir unseated McDonald on the commission in 2002.

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The Macon Telegraph’s Travis Fain, blogging at Lucid Idiocy and following up on what was first reported here at Georgia Premium, follows up and says that U.S. Senate candidate Jim Martin’s campaign may have pulled the trigger a little too soon on another endorsement. First there was the Josh Lanier gaffe, now it involves state Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin. Fain reports the Martin campaign is declining comment until it speaks with Irvin.

Fain raises two good points:

But, 1.) How do you run a race against Vernon Jones and end up looking shady?

And, 2.) Is this all a case of people truly remaining neutral, or of people just technically remaining neutral because Jones might win?

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Candidates in last night’s primary who were endorsed by Georgia Conservation Voters won big last night. Here’s a win/loss rundown of the group:

List of 2008 Primary Endorsements:

Public Service Commission
District 4: Pam Davidson (R) – LOSS
District 4: Jim Powell (D) – WIN

Senate
District 2: Lester Jackson (D) – WIN
District 3: Jeff Chapman (R) – WIN
District 12: Freddie Powell Sims (D) – WIN
District 36: Nan Orrock (D) – WIN
District 46: Bill Cowsert (R) – WIN, will face challenger in November

House
District 10: Rick Austin (R) – WIN
District 44: Sheila Jones (D) – WIN, will face challenger in November
District 59: Margaret Kaiser (D) – WIN
District 66: Virgil Fludd (D) – WIN
District 98: Bobby Reese (R) – WIN
District 177: Mark Hatfield (R) – WIN, will face challenger in November

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