In quiet times of reflection, Marvin Arrington sometimes wonders, “what if?”
What if the legendary Atlanta City Councilman, who was born and raised in the city and who climbed the political ladder to become city council president, had waited to run for mayor when the seat opened instead of challenging popular incumbent Bill Campbell in 1997.
“No question,” Arrington said recently. “If I had run in 2001, I would have been mayor.”
Credit: 1997 file photo
Credit: 1997 file photo
Arrington’s loss set a strange precedent within city politics. Never in the history of Atlanta has the person who occupied the seat of council president ever ascended to the mayor’s office.
And on Tuesday night, Felicia Moore became the latest council president to fall short of winning the city’s top office. After getting 41% of the vote in the general election, Moore went into the run-off as the frontrunner only to be overwhelmed by councilman Andre Dickens, who nearly doubled her vote total.
“I don’t think the position is a roadblock,” said Moore, after conceding Tuesday night. “I don’t think there’s a curse on the council presidency. It’s just that this day, the votes were not in the favor of the Moore team. That’s it.”
Besides Moore and Arrington, three other council presidents have tried and failed to become mayor.
In 2001, the year Arrington points to, new council president Robb Pitts ran and lost decisively to Shirley Franklin in the general election.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
In 2009, council president Lisa Borders ran but finished a distant third to Kasim Reed and Mary Norwood. Reed would go on to defeat Norwood by less than 1,000 votes in a runoff.
And in 2017, Ceasar C. Mitchell failed to qualify for a run off in a crowded field of candidates.
“When you look at the tale of the tape, the reasons for the lack of successes for council president varies in each scenario,” Mitchell said. “So, I would hate to say that there is some deep common thread.”
On its face, the role of Atlanta’s council president has always been somewhat hard to pin down.
The council president presides over all council meetings but votes only to break a tie.
In one of the most powerful roles, the council president appoints chairs and members of various council committees. In the rare case that the mayor vacates the position, the council president steps in to run the city.
“It is a very significant and meaningful job that requires the ability to see things. If you miss the forest from the trees, then council president is not a job for you,” Mitchell said. “It requires leadership, the ability to be circumspect and you always have to be ready. You are a heartbeat away from being mayor at any time.”
But Bob Holmes, a retired political scientist and former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, said the position has never gotten its full credit “because the mayor does everything.”
“The way that the city is set up, the mayor takes all of the credit for everything,” Holmes said. “The mayor runs things, and the council president has to rely on the mayor’s good wishes to accomplish anything. So right or wrong, people almost feel that the second-highest person in the city would have accomplished more while in office.”
It is also hard to build an audience, or as Mitchell said, to establish a base.
The council president doesn’t represent a specific district. Instead, the president has to navigate and balance polarizing issues that impact the entire city.
“A base is typically formed and created from having represented a district,” said Mitchell, who as a councilman was an at-large member who ran citywide. “It has an impact on your ability to make the runoff. That is a challenge for the city council president. That base is not there.”
Holmes, who worked with Maynard Jackson and later wrote a biography about him, added that the mayor and council president are often pitted against each other as a result of the city’s strong-mayor system.
Arrington is the only modern-day former council president to run against a sitting mayor. Each of the other council presidents ran for open seats, but faced challengers backed by the current or former mayors.
In this year’s race, Moore launched her candidacy before Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced her decision to not seek a second term. Bottoms then endorsed Dickens in the runoff. Former mayor Shirley Franklin also supported Dickens. Andrew Young came aboard after initially backing Kasim Reed.
“Over the years, that created a headwind for the council president, because they are not able to garner the support of the outgoing mayor,” Mitchell said. “It is not new or uncommon. But I think that has an impact. Marvin was very close to winning the ‘97 race until a former mayor decided to weigh in.”
Arrington was a City Hall lifer, as evident by the city naming the Atlanta City Council chambers after him in 2019. He was first elected to the Atlanta Board of Aldermen in 1969 (a precursor to the present-day City Council), before serving as council president for a record 17 years, until he ran for mayor in 1997.
“I am a native Atlantan,” Arrington said. “I went to grade school, high school and college here. I had an outstanding athletic career. I thought it was fairly easy for me to get elected.”
Had he waited until 2001, Arrington would have likely faced Franklin. Instead, Franklin, who worked in the Jackson and Young administrations and had their support, faced another city council veteran and council president, Robb Pitts.
Frankin became the city’s first female mayor, winning a five-person race without a run-off. Pitts, who declined to comment for this story, finished a distant second.
In 2009, again with an open seat available, council president Lisa Borders ran for mayor in a wide field, but failed to make the runoff.
Credit: BOB ANDRES / BANDRES@AJC.COM
Credit: BOB ANDRES / BANDRES@AJC.COM
In 2017, it was Mitchell’s turn. He was first elected to the council in 2001 and council president in 2009.
Mitchell entered the race as a favorite, against a host of former and current city council members, including dark horse Keisha Lance Bottoms, who had joined the council in 2009.
“I didn’t see the city council presidency as necessarily a natural steppingstone to become mayor,” Mitchell said. “But I knew that there was leadership that I could bring, that could be effective for the city and effective for citizens.”
Mitchell often clashed with Mayor Reed during his tenure as council president. Reed then backed Bottoms in the 2017 election, serving as her attack dog.
Mitchell finished sixth in the general election, and Bottoms defeated councilwoman Norwood in the runoff.
“It may be the electorate’s fascination with shiny new objects,” Mitchell said. “I had been on the council for a while. So was Arrington and Pitts. Familiarity breeds contempt.”
On Tuesday, Moore’s 23-year career on the city council ended as Atlanta voters again picked that shiny new object — Dickens — to be the city’s 61st mayor.
Wilborn P. Nobles III contributed to this report.
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