Atlanta Mayor Front-Runners Get Clear Field : For 20 years, Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young have traded off the job. Neither is running this time.

Atlanta chooses a new mayor in November and perhaps the most noteworthy thing that can be said about the winner, whoever it will be, is that it won’t be Maynard Jackson or Andrew Young.

For 20 years Jackson and Young have handed leadership of the South’s preeminent city back and forth between them as if they were taking turns with a favored dance partner.

When Jackson announced in June that he would not seek to a fourth term, the powerhouses of Atlanta’s business community turned immediately once again to Young, who stepped down in 1989, after eight years as mayor, to run for governor.

Some maintained that only a mayor with the stature of a Young or a Jackson could lead the city during the trying years leading up to the 1996 Olympics. But the 61-year-old Young demurred. The former congressman, civil rights activist and U.N. representative insisted that it was time the city’s reins passed to a new generation.

The three front-runners in a field of 12 now vying for the job are all considered competent, experienced leaders even if none of them have exhibited the charisma Atlanta has grown used to seeing in its top executive.

Also of note: At a time when African-American mayors in a number of cities have been replaced by whites or currently face strong challenges, the three top candidates here are black.

The best-known candidate is Michael L. Lomax, 45, now chairman of the Fulton County Commission. He also is the least liked, if polls are to be believed.

Lomax was widely saddled with the blame in 1991 when a state-mandated property tax reappraisal increased property values an average of 48% in the county. The tax revolt sparked a failed recall attempt. His campaign also may be hurt by his decision in 1989 to drop out of the mayor’s race almost before it began.

Many people also are put off by what some call his effete, somewhat disdainful manner. Such traits are fine for a well-known patron of the arts and a cultured former college English professor who was once considered for the presidency of Morehouse College. But voters--especially Atlanta’s large population of low-income African-Americans--may have trouble relating.

Lomax was speechless at a recent debate when a reporter asked him to respond to the public perception that he “used to be black, turned white, and now is trying to be black again.”

“I maybe can’t do the high five and all that,” Lomax finally rejoined after much embarrassed hemming and hawing, “but I try to demonstrate through the work that I do that I serve the people of my community who need me most.”

The strongest candidate so far seems to be Bill Campbell, 40, a lawyer and 12-year member of the City Council whose biggest advantage--and perhaps largest liability--is his close identification with Jackson. The current mayor, who chose not to seek reelection for personal reasons, has endorsed Campbell.

A forceful presence, Campbell presents himself as a youthful agent of change but risks coming across as the candidate of the status quo. Despite Jackson’s huge popularity, there is a portion of the electorate that feels a new mayor should be, well, new.

The third major candidate is Myrtle Davis, 62, also a 12-year City Council veteran. Atlanta has never elected a woman mayor; Davis must overcome that and a solid but uninspiring image.

Asked in debate about the perception that she lacks the strength to lead the city, Davis zeroed in on the veiled sexism of the question. “I believe there is great strength in what women bring to the table,” she said, reeling off her political experience, which includes chairing the City Council’s finance committee.

All three top candidates emphasize the need to reduce government, especially since the city population has been shrinking while the suburbs expand. Lomax calls for the consolidation of city and county governments.

Lomax and Campbell say crime is a top priority. Campbell says he would combat it through decentralization of the police force and a return to foot patrols. Lomax promises to hire 400 additional officers.

Almost lost in the polite--some would say boring--jousting of the campaign thus far is its symbolic significance.

If only Martin Luther King III had entered the race, the symbolism perhaps would be obvious. King, a Fulton County commissioner, is the son of the slain civil rights leader who grew up here and made Atlanta his base of operations during the turbulent years of struggle in the 1960s.

For 20 years the city has been run by two men who are products of that era, for eight of those years by one of King’s top lieutenants, Andrew Young. Now, for the first time, it possibly will be led by someone whose world view has been shaped not by the struggle to win civil rights for African-Americans but by the educational and social benefits of that struggle.

Of the three top candidates, only Davis is old enough to have adult memories of a world before the civil rights gains of the 1960s. And because she is a woman, her election would be regarded as a milestone of a different sort.