OCTOBER 28, 2009
Atlanta Polls Signal Racial Shift
Councilwoman With Big Lead Would Be First White Mayor in Over Three Decades
By COREY DADE
ATLANTA -- More than three decades after Maynard H. Jackson Jr. became the first African-American mayor of a major Southern city here, the era of uncontested black leadership in the cradle of the civil-rights movement is facing its first true test: A white city councilwoman leads the mayoral race by a wide margin just days before the Nov. 3 election. Recent polls show Mary Norwood, a fiscal conservative who lives in a heavily white, wealthy section of Atlanta, with support ranging from 39% to 46% of likely voters. That puts her potentially within striking distance of winning outright next week or heading into a runoff with one of the two most prominent African-American candidates, City Council President Lisa Borders and former state Sen. Kasim Reed, both of whom have struggled to gather support from even 25% of voters.
Most striking in Ms. Norwood's numbers is her level of support among widely fractured African-American voters. An InsiderAdvantage poll on Oct. 16 showed Ms. Norwood leading all candidates among black voters, with nearly a third of African-Americans supporting her. Ms. Norwood's position reflects demographic changes that are scrambling the established political order in parts of the South as well as moderating racial attitudes that increasingly have left African-Americans, whites and other ethnicities open to votes that defy conventional racial blocs.
Such contrarian politics have become increasingly common in the South. Earlier this month Memphis, Tenn., elected its second black mayor, A.C. Wharton, who endorses a plan to merge the city and surrounding Shelby County governments -- a move that would eliminate a black voting majority in Memphis and boost the strength of other minorities. In last year's presidential election, Barack Obama garnered enough white votes in North Carolina and Virginia to become the first Democrat to win a Southern state since 1976 other than Bill Clinton's 1992 win in his home state of Arkansas. An August poll of Alabama voters showed U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, who is African-American, leading all Democratic primary candidates for governor. If successful, he would be the state's first black governor.
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The prospect that Atlanta could become the first majority-black Southern city to shift power back to a white mayor prompted local activists to write and circulate a memo urging blacks to consolidate behind Ms. Borders to block Ms. Norwood... Ms. Norwood, 57 years old, has been aided by the lackluster campaigns of her opponents. Ms. Borders, the 53-year-old granddaughter of a revered pastor and civil-rights leader, is a long-established business executive and nonprofit board member. She entered the race with fanfare, but then dropped out unexpectedly before returning to the field again months later.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125668366633311611.html (subscription)
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A3
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