‘Crossover’ voters called key to Kasim Reed’s apparent win in Atlanta mayoral race

Reporting from Atlanta — 

If mayoral candidate Kasim Reed survives a possible recount and squeaks into office in this majority-black city -- thus extending a 35-year tradition of African American leadership -- it will be in part because of white voters like Jim Lewis.

Lewis, an attorney, voted for Reed on Tuesday in part out of a concern that the white candidate, Mary Norwood, would be too indebted to a conservative white element he suspected was supporting her just because of her skin color.

“I think Kasim can come in there and not really be beholden to those kinds of groups,” he said.

Lewis, 42, is what Reed pollster Cornell Belcher would call a “crossover” voter, and he believes it was these Atlantans who emerged as the key swing votes in a race that Reed appears to have won -- although the outcome remained unresolved Wednesday.

Norwood, a white city councilwoman, is 758 votes behind Reed, according to a preliminary tally released late Tuesday. However, about 600 provisional ballots are scheduled to be counted today by Fulton County election officials.

Norwood, who has not conceded, said she would probably call for a recount, which she is allowed to do by state law if her opponent wins by 1% of the vote or less.

For much of the tight runoff contest, race was a closely watched factor. To many blacks, Atlanta -- which in 1973 became the first major Southern city to elect a black mayor -- is a potent symbol of African American success and the triumph of the civil rights movement. It is nonetheless a city that has grown whiter and more gentrified in recent years.

To some extent, the vote Tuesday appeared to split along racial lines: A map compiled by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed Norwood winning three of Atlanta’s four majority-white council districts on the north side of town, while Reed, a former Georgia state senator, won all of the majority-black districts in the central, west and south. But the crossover voters were out there, and the candidates pursued them with gusto.

“As diverse as Atlanta is right now, you’re not going to win in one community or the other,” said Belcher, a Washington, D.C.-based consultant who has worked for the Democratic National Committee. “It very much has to be that Obama-esque new politics here.”

Blacks make up about 57% of Atlanta’s population. Norwood hoped that her message of financial reform would resonate with anyone fed up with the status quo, but she made a particularly strong play for black voters: In one ad, she was portrayed driving around town in her modest Buick sedan, visiting with and hugging exclusively African Americans.

Reed, meanwhile, tried to paint Norwood as a Republican -- likely a message to black voters, who tend to vote Democratic. But Belcher said it was also meant to raise doubts about Norwood among white liberals. (Norwood said she was indeed a Democrat.)

The tactic may have worked: Belcher said his last pre-runoff poll showed that Reed had twice as much white support as Norwood had black support.

Cobbling a coalition of blacks and liberal whites is nothing new for black candidates in American big-city politics. University of South Carolina political scientist Todd Shaw notes that the strategy was a necessity for a number of 20th century black mayors -- Tom Bradley in Los Angeles, David N. Dinkins in New York -- in cities with black minorities.

Somewhat more unusual is the Norwood model, which starts with a base of white support and seeks to add blacks -- particularly, Shaw said, “the African American working-class voter who is a bit disgusted with the black political elite.”

Shaw said the Norwood campaign could be a harbinger in other large cities that are becoming whiter. Census figures show that the white share of the overall population has grown in recent years in cities like San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; and Atlanta.

On Wednesday, Reed’s camp said it was operating on the assumption that he was the mayor-elect and would begin preparing for his Jan. 4 swearing in.

“I’m not sure what the outcome of this election says about race,” Reed spokesman Reese McCranie said. “But I do know Atlanta residents have a strong history of coming together after tough elections have been waged. Kasim will be looking to build a broad coalition of folks from all over the city.”

richard.fausset@latimes.com