Unions, Democrats helped Reed pull off daring strategy

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/unions-democrats-helped-reed-266205.html

By Steve Visser

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Kasim Reed will become Atlanta's 59th mayor Monday because his campaign accomplished what normally would have been mission impossible: getting more supporters to vote in a runoff than in the general election.

Reed's deputy campaign manager, Rashad Taylor, who headed the get-out-the-vote drive, said the campaign gambled early on that it could accomplish a historic anomaly of turning out more voters on Dec. 1 than on Nov. 3. In the end, nearly 11,000 more people cast ballots -- with the vote increasing the most in Reed-favored precincts. Reed defeated Mary Norwood by 714 votes.

"It was the best decision we made, but it was risky because it was so unconventional," Taylor said. "There were some people who were skeptical ... but by the runoff, I think the race had become more highly contested. It became more of a nationalized race, and I think people got more engaged."

Reed got a lot of help to overcome Norwood's grass-roots campaign. He won the backing of three major constituencies: the Atlanta business community, labor unions and, eventually, the Democratic Party -- the latter two setting up "independent" operations to put Reed in office.

"It was us against the world," said Roman Levit, Norwood's campaign manager. "Everybody who had a political stake in the status quo -- the Democratic Party, the downtown business guys, the developers -- lined up on one side.

FULL story at link.