ATLANTA (AP) – Atlanta mayoral candidates are talking about affordable housing, hoping to stave off a secession movement in a wealthy neighborhood and trading increasingly pointed jabs. But as in so many places across the country, the election is really about crime.
News is dominated by reports of violence, and residents poor and rich demand solutions, even as many say they want to balance policing and social justice. Candidates seeking to mollify voters are competing in a wide-open race after Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms surprised many in May by announcing she didn’t want a second term. Now, with 14 names on the Nov. 2 ballot, a runoff in the nonpartisan race seems almost certain.
Early in-person voting began this week and recent polls show many voters still undecided. Kasim Reed, Bottoms’ predecessor, is a top contender. City Council President Felicia Moore, long a Reed critic, is another leading candidate. Attorney Sharon Gay and council members Andre Dickens and Antonio Brown also have gained support.
Like cities across the country, homicides have increased in Atlanta. As of Oct. 9, murders were up 14% over the same period last year and 60% compared with 2019, Atlanta police data show. High-profile killings – a woman and her dog stabbed to death late at night in the city’s premier park, a bartender abducted and fatally shot as she returned home after a late shift – have frightened residents. Neighborhood social media sites teem with posts about crime, generating dozens of frustrated and fearful comments.
Reed, who served two four-year terms beginning in 2010, left office amid a federal investigation into corruption at City Hall. A half-dozen members of his administration have been indicted. Some pleaded guilty and others await trial.