the social/political dynamics at play.

seems like mostly black democrats aligned behind bottoms?
and independent/conservative norwood had an unconventional coalition of republicans, white 'progressives', and some black democratic politicians like the current city council prez and the former mayor shirley franklin...despite the fact audio recordings were released of norwood using racially coded language and saying she runs as indy because she wouldnt be elected as a republican?

and why was turnout so low given everything going on in the country?

A couple of things--

Turnout is usually low in municipal races, so this was no different. It's made even worse in runoffs, and made even worse in this runoff, considering that Norwood and Bottoms were at the bottom of the list for many voters. An election featuring Woolard, Mitchell, Fort, or even Aman would have galvanized a lot of voters and made the runoff vote less of a Sophie's choice for a lot people.

With that being said, I think the Mitchell / Franklin / Borders / Woolard, and even Fort(ish), support of Norwood was less a validation of her views and agenda and more of a repudiation of Kasim Reed's style of governance. Kasim spent much of the campaign season trolling his political enemies, so I couldn't imagine a situation where folks like Mitchell end up aligning with Bottoms. The devil you know, versus the devil you don't, as it were.

As for Bottoms' support, it was more than just black Democrats that supported her. The entire Democratic machine got behind her. Jason Carter and Stacey Evans were out there on the same platform as T.I. and Killer Mike. Personally, I thought the Trump comparisons were overboard (considering Norwood was someone who publicly stated she voted Democrat in the last 3 presidentials and her voter profile has her labeled as "leans Democrat"), but she didn't do herself any favors by surrounding herself with GOP operatives. And I think that did her in for some political watchers--it was less about the candidate herself and more about her circles. The devil you know, versus the devil you don't, in reverse I suppose.

I don't think the racial dog whistle stuff was as impactful as may have seemed on social media. It got very little coverage outside of the left wing blogosphere.

Overall, I think Keisha did a much better job of turning out the black vote than Mary did with making inroads into the black community. One needed better surrogates, while the other had many of them due to DPG's support.

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"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have." - TR

thought it was weird to see prominent democrats buck the party nominee.

makes sense if you have a democratic incumbent who isolated people in the party who he should have treated as allies.

how much has bottoms aligned with reed on policy/direction? do you think her running close to him still gained her more support than she lost from voters? like what was the upside of not trying to distance herself from him?

She was polling at 8% back in March, so I think his support helped considerably.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.beta.wsbtv.com%2Fdocument_dev%2F2017%2F03%2F10%2FAtl%2520Poll%2520March%25208th%2520_7504877_ver1.0.pdf

I should clarify that municipal races (mayor, city council, school board) across George are non-partisan, so the party allegiance stuff isn't cut and dry. In fact, the Atlanta mayoral race is the only local race I've ever seen the Democratic Party of Georgia ever get involved in.

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"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have." - TR

This right here


>Kasim spent much of the campaign season trolling his political enemies


It's like he took Ceasar Mitchell's girl in high school and won't let him forget about it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnoCSHsJB50

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We rationalize dumb shit

http://www.myajc.com/news/local/torpy-large-the-crazy-foam-board-caper-only-atl-city-hall/9ZjYV9u0ZXZQawYbk7lCeI/

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"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have." - TR