Reed jumps into mayoral race as candidate field grows

By Collin Kelley

Former Mayor Kasim Reed used his 52nd birthday party last month to officially announce he wants his old job back. Reed had been loudly hinting that he would jump into the mayoral race since Keisha Lance Bottoms announced in May that she would not seek re-election. Invitations to Reed’s June 10th party requested a $1,000 donation from attendees and just a few days before his birthday, the former mayor filed paperwork with the city to begin accepting campaign donations.

The candidate held an official campaign kick off on June 30 asking for donations from $25 to $4,300.

Reed has been an outspoken critic of Bottoms’ handling of the crime wave that has engulfed the city over the past year, including the highest rate of homicides in decades and ongoing spate of gun violence.

Reed, who served two terms as mayor starting in 2010, enters the race as federal officials continue an investigation into corruption on his watch that Bottoms said “sucked the oxygen out of City Hall.”

Federal investigators have indicted six members of Reed’s staff on bribery charges, including his former chief financial officer, a deputy chief, and chief procurement officer. Reed said he had been cleared in the investigation but regretted not knowing about the corruption sooner.

“Anything on my watch, I take responsibility for,” Reed said in a recent interview with WSB. “I’m sorry I didn’t see it faster, and certainly after what I’ve been through personally, but more importantly what our city was taken through, I would do everything in my power to make sure it didn’t happen again.”

There might be another wrinkle in Reed’s bid. At press time, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Reed was apparently under a new federal investigation for allegedly using campaign funds to make personal purchases of travel, jewelry, and furniture.

Reed joins a growing field of candidates for mayor, including City Council President Felicia Moore, Councilman Andre Dickens, attorney Sharon Gay, Councilman Antonio Brown and political newcomer Walter Reeves. Reed missed the first candidate forum, which was held in early June and sponsored by the Committee for a Better Atlanta. As expected, the ongoing crime wave dominated the forum.

Candidates must qualify during the week of Aug. 17 to be on the Nov. 2 ballot, so there’s likely to be one or two more candidates joining the field. There’s been speculation that Mary Norwood, who lost to Bottoms in a runoff, might jump from the council seat she’s seeking into the mayoral fray, while supporters of former Council President Cathy Woolard have encouraged her to enter the race.