ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta’s new mayor has been sworn in.
Local news outlets report that Keisha Lance Bottoms took her oath of office during an inauguration ceremony at Morehouse College Tuesday. City council members, council President Felicia Moore and municipal court judges were also set to take office.
Bottoms defeated Mary Norwood in a Dec. 5 runoff election to succeed Kasim Reed as Atlanta’s mayor.
The bitterly contested campaign between the two city council members was marked by political grudges and allegations of corruption, and less than 20 percent of the city’s roughly 500,000 residents turned out to vote.
Bottoms is Atlanta’s sixth consecutive black mayor since Maynard Jackson was elected in 1973.
City Council members were expected to convene at 5 p.m. Tuesday for their first organizational meeting of their new session.
“Bottoms is Atlanta’s sixth consecutive black mayor since Maynard Jackson was elected in 1973.”
And?
This was a very narrow victory, with Bottoms basically eking out a victory over a right-of-center Demopublican who paradoxically had the support of progressives–who hate Bottoms with a vengeance, it would seem, on account of her insiderness with the D party ‘machine’. I’d like a TPM commenter to shed some light on this. If there’s one thing that could stop the Blue Wave, it’s the combination of the avarice and stupidity of D officialdom and the purity politics of certain self-styled idealists.
(In NY we have a possibly similar grassroots aversion to Gov. Cuomo, who is basically the embodiment of D cronyism and the corruption of Ds by hedge fund and real estate interests.)
Cuomo’s a product of the old NY Democratic machine, going back to his grandfather (an influence-wielder with alleged mafia ties). At the same time, though, that’s kind of one of the reasons he’s a lot more effective than many alternatives would be. I’d rather have someone like him up in Albany than someone more… feckless, no matter what the purity police say. Seems the voters of Atlanta feel similarly.