Just over an hour ago, a press release hit my inbox containing some information about one of Atlanta’s candidates for Mayor.
The news? State Senator Kasim Reed (D – Atlanta) has brought media consulting firm AKPD Message & Media and pollster Cornell Belcher onto his campaign team.
AKPD Message & Media is best known for being the media consultant during Barack Obama’s successful run for president in 2008. Prominent partners in the firm include White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod and Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. Reed’s pollster, Cornell Belcher, is being described as the lead pollster for the Democratic National Committee [that] helped to lay the foundation for the current Democratic political realignment and the stunning victory of the Obama presidential campaign.
“In my own active support of President Obama’s campaign, I had the opportunity to become knowledgeable about the extraordinary skills and superb judgment of AKPD Media and Cornell Belcher,” Reed said. “These firms made history in 2008 in helping to elect President Obama and they both have a proven track record in mayor’s races around the country.”
“I am proud that they have joined our team and will help us lay the foundation for victory in this election, which will help our city get more police officers, firefighters and better transportation. I look forward to an energetic campaign and a vigorous discussion of these issues so that voters are confident about where Atlanta is headed in the coming years.”
With this announcement, State Sen. Kasim Reed has painted a big, billboard-sized, viewable from space bulls-eye on his back as every other candidate for Mayor of Atlanta will now be attempting to knock him off his perch as the presumed front-runner.
By the way, if Atlanta voters are looking for “change” in November, Kasim Reed probably doesn’t fit the bill. As Shirley Franklin’s protege and the manager of her 2005 re-election campaign, Reed could easily be painted by opponents as a de facto third term for Franklin.
{ 17 comments }
Bull’s eye or not, Kasim is the next mayor of Atlanta.
Just a guess but I take it Reed didnt hire Andre
Well Shazam!
It’s deja vu…Andre who took many a potshot at Kasim Reed on GA Politics Unfiltered including challenging Reed’s residency and posting a map of Reed’s parent’s house on GPU, as alleged evidence Reed did not meet residency requirements to be Mayor of Atlanta, does it again.
It was undoubtedly because Reed did not sell out for Andre’s lust for a City of South Fulton, because Reed only ensured South Fulton got the same right to vote as unincorporated North Fulton did and Reed did not take sides either way.
Then after the election Andre filed an unsuccessful ethics complaint about Fulton Commissioner Bill Edwards for opposing the incorporation of the City of South Fulton in 2007 after losing at the polls.
Now it is clear Andre IS STILL a sore loser, and post is just more of the same vendetta against opponents who eliminated the chance of Andre becoming a City Councilman of the municipalization resoundingly defeated 85% to 15%.
By the way did I miss the explanation of Andre’s BLOG being taken down? As a front page poster on Peach Pundit, he clearly has the audience as he panders to Miltonites.
South Fulton Guy,
There you go making up things as you go along.
First, there is no record of me challenging the residency of Kasim Reed; not with the Secretary of State’s office; not with the Fulton County Dept. of Registrations and Elections.
In fact, I challenge you to file an open records request to find this so-called residency challenge of mine. Shoot, I’ll even give you the form letter I use when I submit my open records requests.
Secondly, if you want evidence of someone continuing to harp on the past, South Fulton Guy, I’d suggest that you’re more guilty of that than I am as you constantly seem to follow me from blog to blog with your repetitive claims that I’m a “sore loser.”
Finally, any person who follows politics would tell you that Kasim Reed is the front-runner for Mayor of Atlanta and that he hopes to steamroll his way to an electoral victory. The only way for the Mary Norwoods, Jesse Spikes, or the Ceasar Mitchells to have a chance against Reed –who is amassing what I consider to be an all-star campaign team– is to label him as a continuation of Shirley Franklin’s tenure as mayor and not the change Atlanta needs.
It would be so easy to check South Fulton Guy’s claim if we had a record, like say a blog, of someone’s past utterances.
So who are you working for this time, Andre?
Andre, Andre
1) As I said you challenged it on your BLOG and posted a map – no where did I say you officially challenged his residency with any agency. Its another absurd misdirection, because he had not filed to run for mayor, so how could someone challenge something that was not filed.
2) Since you took your BLOG down I was unable to demonstrate my point about your MapQuest Map of his parents house in Loch Loman.
3) I challenge you to pull it out of the archives and reread it yourself, if you are unwilling to re-post it here.
4) If you don’t want your obvious opposition to Kasim Reed questioned, tell us who you do support for Atlanta Mayor, and come clean disclose any financial benefit you have from defeating Reed in the Atlanta Mayoral race.
It’s far from perfect but archive.org often has a cache of blogs and other websites that have gone offline.
SouthFultonGuy,
I’m not supporting or opposing any candidate in the Atlanta mayoral contest.
I don’t live in the City of Atlanta, and if you want a complete disclosure, state Sen. Reed approached me at a Jim Martin campaign rally about advertising on my site before I shut it down.
The only municipal races that concern me are the city council races in Fairburn and Sandy Springs; Fairburn, because my 9th grade political science teacher is up for re-election this year and Sandy Springs because my mother owns a condo in that area.
So you keep hurling those wild accusations out there and I’ll keep refuting them.
Why did you take down your thriving BLOG?
People keep asking me why I shut down my site.
My mother owns and manages more than a dozen houses in the metro Atlanta area; from Marietta to Peachtree City to Stone Mountain to Jonesboro. She also has muscular dystrophy which gets progressively worse as she gets older and makes it more difficult for her to get around and be an effective manager.
She needs my help; and quite frankly, I don’t have the time to both blog and manage real estate, so I decided to shut my blog down.
Yeah, I pop up every now and then to post things, but by and large, my blogging days are over.
Thanks to AubieTurtle here’s the beef; ’nuff said about a longstanding vendetta?
http://web.archive.org/web/20070526194810/http://georgiaunfiltered.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-can-kasim-reed-run-for-atlanta.html
Monday, May 14, 2007
How can Kasim Reed run for Atlanta Mayor?
We all know that the worst kept secret in Atlanta politics is that Kasim Reed wants to be Mayor of Atlanta. Creative Loafing has talked about it. The National Journal’s Hotline On Call has talked about it. I’ve talked about it, and many other people have held private conversations about it. The problem is that according to the Secretary of State’s office, Mohammed Kasim Reed (that’s his full name by the way) is registered to vote at 1755 Loch Lomond Trail, Atlanta, GA 30331. That’s also the address listed on Sen. Reed’s Georgia state Senate webpage.
Below is a map of Loch Lomond Trail & vicinity from the Fulton County Government’s GIS page:
According to this map, Sen. Reed lives just outside of the Atlanta City Limits (and within the boundaries of the proposed City of South Fulton).
Section 3-102 of the Atlanta City Charter says that “to qualify for election as Mayor, a person: [...] Must be a resident of the city for at least one year immediately preceding the date of his or her filing of notice of candidacy to seek office.”
So, that leads me to draw one big conclusion…
…If Sen. Reed is indeed considering a run for Mayor of Atlanta in 2009, then he’s going to have to vacate his state Senate seat in order to establish residency in the City of Atlanta for one year so that he can run in 2009. I say that because after reviewing the map of the 35th district, there is no part of that district that is actually within the corporate limits of Atlanta.
Keep your eye on qualifying next year. If Sen. Reed doesn’t qualify for State Senator from the 35th district, then we know that’s he’s probably going to run for Mayor of Atlanta. If he does qualify, then he can’t run for Atlanta Mayor because he wouldn’t satisfy the residency requirements.
Posted by Andre at 11:26 AM
Labels: Atlanta Mayoral Contest, Election 2009
Dictionary.com provides us with four definitions of the word “vendetta:
1. A private feud in which the members of the family of a murdered person seek to avenge the murder by killing the slayer or one of the slayer’s relatives, esp. such vengeance as once practiced in Corsica and parts of Italy.
2. Any prolonged and bitter feud, rivalry, contention, or the like: a political vendetta.
3. A feud between two families or clans that arises out of a slaying and is perpetuated by retaliatory acts of revenge; a blood feud.
4. A bitter, destructive feud.
None of these definitions fit the tone, tenor or intent of the May 10, 2007 blog post you’ve cited above SouthFultonGuy.
Obviously, your interpretations of my writings are laced with hyperbole.
Two years ago, I wondered aloud how state Sen. Reed could run for Mayor of Atlanta when at the time, the official Georgia State Senate website listed his address as 1755 Loch Lomond Trail, Atlanta, GA 30331 which is not in the City of Atlanta. Since then, Reed has moved to a new address; 105 Olde Overlook Court, Atlanta, GA 30331 which apparently is both in the 35th state Senate district as well as within the corporate limits of the City of Atlanta.
Honestly, I like state Sen. Kasim Reed. I believe he’s been nothing but a good representative for south Fulton.
Just last year, state Sen. Reed carried legislation to get unincorporated south Fulton its sales tax dollars (House Bill 1015). In 2005, Reed was vociferous in his opposition to both voter ID bills –House Bill 244 and Senate Bill 84– something that I opposed as well (FYI, March 11, 2005, as the Democratic state Senators are walking out of the Senate chamber in protest to the passage of the voter ID bill, you’ll hear someone yell, “This is wrong!” That was me.)
So your continued assertion that I have a “longstanding vendetta” against my state Senator is false.
There is no feud.
There is no vendetta.
Not. Even. Close.
Wow! Being a Georgia State Senator must sure pay the big bucks if you can hire those kinda media consulting firms… ones with absolutely NO track record in Atlanta, but what they hay! They can hack-out a super-nice press release. (Sorta like the entire career projectory of a “Communications Director” for any GA state org, but I diverge.)
Any monkey and a DV cam strategy is surely next. And SM is gonna launch BIG in the ATL too. Take the whole damn thing over! (That’s also known as the Julia Wallace Strategy (JWS). I’ve trademarked JWS, btw. Whereby you declare yourself Queen of the Internets while not really getting your white gloves all mucky up in there.
I already got the media consulting co. Now I gotta get me one of those State Senator gigs. Andre will run the whole freakin’ show. For free!
“Any monkey and a DV cam strategy…”
I take it you are trying to get hired too Spacey
Rome, I’m booked out through ‘11 right now. But here’s the place for “Jobs” at AKPD Message & Media if you think they’d be interested in hiring losers-who-comment-anonymously-on-Peach-Pundit as part of their Reed in ‘10 social media strategy. Have at it!
jobs@akpdmedia.com
Well, Andre is definitely working up to real media status. He’s even starting the “obviously this is great news for McCain” silliness that got mocked roundly as certain outlets tried to paint everything in the best light.
Yes, when you are standing behind a belt-fed machine gun on a tripod, you are announcing yourself as a target. But, you are still on the friendly side of a belt-fed machine gun on a tripod.
This is just slightly off-topic, I know I know, but when we’re led by those who fail to see the cliffs ahead, this is what happens:
http://cfapp2.rockymountainnews.com/photos/index.cfm?xml=/photos/slideshows/022609rmn/022609rmn.xml
At least Kasim knows where to go looking for advice and guidance that isn’t careening full speed off the mountain.
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