Shirley has done it again!

[ironchapman]

Well, it seems the national spotlight is once again on our fair mayor! She has been selected along with the likes of Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Oprah, and Bill Gates as one our country's "best leaders". The only other mayor to make the list was Antonio Villaraigosa.

AJC Article

[Newnan_Eric]

Not that she needed any help, but nice timing. One month before election day when she's running for re-election.

Atlanta should consider itself lucky to have her compared to the previous administration.

I don't know if there are any term limits on the Atlanta Mayoral post, but I hope she stays there for a good long while. (More than likely, she'll be drafted for a Senate run or something.)

[ryanmckibben]

Atlanta does have term limits on it's Mayor. Shirley may serve one more term.

[Lady Celeste]

Yes she has done it again!

There is a 99.9999999999999% chance that she will be reelected today. Way to go Shirley. Good news for Atlanta. Not that anyone doubted she would win again.

[ironchapman]

According ot what I heard on the radio, she was reelected by a landslide. Great news to hear indeed!

[ryanmckibben]

Landslide doesn't do it justice. She won with 91% of the vote...amazing.

[teshadoh]

Also considering the number of supporters that didn't vote, but would have if she had serious competition. On any normal day there is no way Dave Walker would receive as many votes as he did.

[Andrea]

Yay, Mayor Franklin! Rock on!

Boy, there are some really close City Council races. I haven't heard the latest but the newspaper is reporting:

-- Ivory Young leading Michael Julian Bond by 24 votes (1420 to 1396) in District 3, with 20 of 21 precincts reporting.

-- Steve Brodie leading Anne Fauver by 4 votes (2832 to 2828) in District 6 with 16 of 17 precincts reporting.

Further proof that every vote counts!

[ironchapman]

Shirley has been selected as one of the world's best mayors by the City Mayors website. She is ranked ninth on the list of the world's best. The only other US mayor to make the list is San Francisco's Gavin Newsom, who was ranked fifth.

See Article (AJC)

The World Mayors list from Citymayors.com

Great job for Shirley! She has been a great mayor.

[teshadoh]

Atlanta does have term limits on it's Mayor. Shirley may serve one more term.

Digging up an old topic - I believe mayors can only serve two consecutive terms, but she may come back for a 3rd, 4th, etc. term after someone else is mayor.

[ironchapman]

Digging up an old topic - I believe mayors can only serve two consecutive terms, but she may come back for a 3rd, 4th, etc. term after someone else is mayor.

Yep, she can. Maynard did, after all. Can't run for more than two terms consecutively, though. This was passed after William Hartsfield left office after his 6th (?) term. That law will probably secure Hartsfield's place as Atlanta's longest serving (and perhaps greatest) mayor for many many years to come.

That said, Sam Massell is still the Mayor of Buckhead after all these years

[Lady Celeste]

Way to go Shirley. I saw this last night on the evening news.

I honestly feel that Ms Franklin has her sights set higher than just mayor of Atlanta. Getting bogged down in a long term mayoral stints could actually hurt her plans. Look for her going for a higher office probably after her next successful four years. If she can keep Atlanta on a positive pace, stay hard on corruption, improve infrastruture and bring residents and visitors back intown, she will definitely have a strong chance for a much higher office. If she keeps getting positive press like she is, she will be able to easily sell herself to those outside of the immediate metro area. She definitely will have the backing of some big business......even those who traditionally support the Republican candidate.

[Andrea]

I honestly feel that Ms Franklin has her sights set higher than just mayor of Atlanta. Getting bogged down in a long term mayoral stints could actually hurt her plans. Look for her going for a higher office probably after her next successful four years.

I'm a huge fan of Shirley Franklin, and hope she comes back to be Mayor of Atlanta in 2014 if she hasn't become a senator or governor or President by then.

It's interesting to note how the demographics of the city are changing. Between 2000 and 2004, the percentage of African Americans residents dropped from 61% to 54%, while whites increased from 33% to 39%. That's narrowing the black/white gap from 28 percentage points to 15 points in just 4 years.

I certainly don't suggest that people vote strictly along racial lines because they obviously don't. Nonetheless, it doesn't seem impossible that the racial balance in the city's population might continue to narrow, or even that whites become the majority in the relatively near future. If that happens, would it have any bearing on mayoral or council politics?

(Already thinking I've got that math wrong )

[Lady Celeste]

You know Andrea, I feel that the intown Atlanta market and the Atlanta voting block as a whole is becoming more saavy and voting along color lines or political parties is slowly blurring. In the longrun, people are probably more concerned with their pocketbooks...ie., taxes and property values and quality of life issues...ie., parks and recreation, schools and public services. Shirley has done well....if not better....in the Buckhead districts and the Little Five Points/VA Highlands/Edgewood areas. I think candidates now are going to have to appeal to peoples real concerns and not just pander to racial or sexual orientation issues.

[Andrea]

I think so, too, Celeste -- at least I certainly hope so!

My guess is that the demographic shift may actually open up city politics a bit. I am not a politician and could well be wrong about this, but I have had the sense that in some districts it has been taken as a given that a candidate of a certain race would win. I can't recall a serious white candidate for mayor in several decades, for instance, although there are obviously talented people out there who could bring something to the table.

One of the coolest things about cities, in my opinion, is that they are diverse. They bring all sorts of people together, and at their best they maintain a constant conversation about how to accomodate everyone's interests. Perhaps the most important thing Shirley Franklin has done is to depolarize emotions in the community and get people refocused on getting things done.

[Lady Celeste]

Andrea, I feel that the old southern guard of politics in Atlanta is dying out. There will always be those who like to fan up reminders of yesteryear on both sides but Atlanta, as you have said, is becoming more diverse. Andrea, you like me, can remember when you were either black or white in Atlanta. Now there are many more other groups of people that is making the Atlanta fabric so unique.

Slowly but surely the days when one voted solely based on race or political party is are being numbered. People are becoming less hung up on if someone is white, black, asian, hispanic or other....straight, gay, bisexual......it's about how am I benefited from you being in office. We have a long way to go but clearly Shirely has been able to cross color and party affiliations. There is an openly gay councilperson and in Riverdale there is a transgendered council person. There was a time that in Atlanta politics, a black republican wouldn't have had a chance in some zones of Atlanta.....now even that is changing.

[Andrea]

Oh, yeah, I think the "Old South" dominance of Atlanta politics was pretty much gone by the end of Maynard Jackson's first term. Indeed, some would argue that the last 30 years have given us a new Old Guard, and that Mayor Franklin is herself one of its best and brightest products. She started out working for Mayor Jackson in the 1970's, and later served as City Manager under Andrew Young in the 1980's.

Clearly people do vote across racial lines in very significant numbers, even though in Atlanta that has basically been a given for white voters if they wanted to vote in mayoral elections at all during the last 30 years or so. That was a shift from the first 100 years of city history, where black voters basically had to choose among white candidates if they wanted to vote for somebody with a realistic chance of winning. (The fact that whites became minority voters by the early 1970's doesn't bother me at all, and it would have been fine with me if there'd been an actual rule giving people of color the right to run city government for several generations).

I'm just speculating that it may be interesting as the city matures and moves closer to voting parity. Put this in the context of the new city of Sandy Springs, and the equally dramatic changes in DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton and Gwinnett Counties, and we should have quite a fun time politically. Wouldn't it be cool if people throughout the metro area, of all ethnicities, finally decided that they we're all in this mess together, and that together is the also the only way we'll get out?

[Hotlanta]

Shirley will be on C-Span tonight at 8:00 PM doing a Q & A for a whole show! Too bad the Super Bowl will be on!

[Andrea]

Shirley will be on C-Span tonight at 8:00 PM doing a Q & A for a whole show! Too bad the Super Bowl will be on!

You can read the transcript or watch the show online here.