Fresh Loaf

What's got her so excited?

Speaking only for myself, the events of the past two weeks — at least those relating to the mayoral runoff — have certainly confounded expectations.

In the fortnight leading up to the Nov. 3 general election, Kasim Reed’s campaign pulled something of a rope-a-dope, implying that his opponents weren’t true Democrats. Both Mary Norwood and Lisa Borders took the bait, spending time and energy trying to establish their own Democratic credentials — an effort that likely lost them both some votes.

It was a masterfully divisive maneuver on Reed’s part, but I’ve talked to some voters who were disgusted by it for that very reason, folks who didn’t like seeing a wedge driven between political parties in a non-partisan race.

I assumed the runoff campaigning would get dirtier still. How could it not, given that Norwood seemed to have a lock on white Northside votes? It appeared the only way Reed could hope to win was by undermining Norwood’s curious popularity among black voters — and the only way to do that was to make race an issue in the race.

But I was mistaken. That’s not what has happened — at least, not yet. In fact, it’s been quite the reverse.

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As expected, the two challengers who took on U.S. Rep. John Lewis in yesterday’s Democratic primary were battling for second place. With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Lewis commanded a solid 69.1 percent of the vote.

Unexpectedly, though, political newbie the Rev. Markel Hutchins appears to have edged out longtime state Rep. “Able” Mable Thomas, with 15.9 percent of the vote to her 15 percent.

In a CL cover story published three weeks ago, we foresaw a different outcome:

Compared to Hutchins, Thomas is the stronger candidate. She’s an experienced campaigner who’s won eight races – and was thrashed by Lewis when she challenged him back in 1992. She has a firm base of support in Vine City and on the Westside. And simply by virtue of her gender, she’s likely to win support from some women voters.

It would be a shock if Hutchins even managed to beat Thomas for second place – much less if he came in first.

Call us shocked. We stand corrected.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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