Cathy Woolard, Margaret Kaiser kick off 2017 mayoral race

There’s more than two and a half years before Atlanta residents will decide who will replace Mayor Kasim Reed. He’s scheduled to move on from City Hall in January 2018 due to term limits. America will have elected a new president before it even pulls the lever to decide its new mayor. Nevertheless, two current City Hall outsiders have officially launched the 2017 Atlanta mayoral race.

Former Atlanta City Councilwoman Cathy Woolard on March 12 became the first person to officially throw her hat into the 2017 mayoral race. Woolard, who was first elected to District 6’s council seat in 1997 and became council president four years later, plans on formally announcing her campaign sometime in the next few months. If she’s elected, Georgia’s first-ever openly gay elected official would become Atlanta’s first openly gay mayor.

“I love Atlanta,” Woolard says. “I was fortunate to serve citywide on Atlanta City Council, start, and finish some projects I was passionate about. The next four-to-eight years will be an opportunity to shape the city in a significant way.”

Since losing a congressional bid in 2004, Woolard has remained active in politics in various capacities. She’s served on the Beltline’s board, worked as AID Atlanta’s interim executive director, and lobbied for Georgia Equality and Planned Parenthood at the Capitol. She hasn’t served at City Hall for more than a decade, which she doesn’t see that as a problem in voters’ minds. Woolard, citing former Mayor Shirley Franklin’s temporary departure from City Hall during the ’90s before running for mayor, says her time away from 55 Trinity Ave. has offered her a fresh perspective.

Citing her past grassroots campaigns efforts — and the fact that a lot can change in two and a half years — Woolard says she wants to have an “extended conversation with residents to hear what’s on their mind” before fully unveiling a campaign platform. But two major issues will play a major role in her campaign: continuing the Beltline’s construction and expanding transit options in the city.

Wollard says she would also want to find ways to create more affordable housing units around the smart-growth project — and be more aggressive in shaping private-sector development around the Beltline, <a href=“ http://atlanta.curbed.com/archives/2015/02/17/is-chickfila-drivethru-bound-for-fuquas-grant-park-project.php”>wagging her finger at a recent Chick-Fil-A proposal off Bill Kennedy Way.

Regarding transit, Woolard would like to see the Atlanta Streetcar be connected to the Beltline, something Mayor Kasim Reed has already started working on, and work on bringing transit to the 22-mile loop of parks, trails, and transit. In doing so, she says the city could reduce congestion by getting more cars off the roads.

A few hours after Woolard announced, state Rep. Margaret Kaiser, D-Atlanta, who serves residents living the southeast swath of Fulton County from East Point to Poncey-Highland, confirmed that she would also run for office. Kasier says she’s been considering a run since 2014.

Kaiser, who owns several southeast Atlanta restaurants with her husband, has served at the Gold Dome since 2007. In the most recent legislative session, the five-term state rep has focused on medical marijuana, education, and solar energy measures. In late January, she urged Reed in a series of tweets to resolve the Atlanta Beltline-Atlanta Public Schools funding dispute.

The daughter of Athens Mayor Nancy Denson, she’s planning to make the future of the Turner Field and the surrounding neighborhoods’ development a key part of her platform. If she becomes the city’s next mayor, Kaiser says she’ll focus on alternate forms of transportation and making Downtown a more vibrant community.

“I think Atlanta’s got an interesting situation in its grasp right now,” Kaiser recently told CL. “...But Charlotte’s surpassing Atlanta in Downtown growth. They’re investing in Downtown infrastructure, which includes transit, and city of Atlanta is not.”

Woolard and Kaiser, of course, won’t be the only candidates attempting to become Atlanta’s next mayor. Council President Ceasar Mitchell, Councilmembers Kwanza Hall and Mary Norwood, and former Reed Chief Operating Officer Peter Aman are all considering mayoral bids, according to sources.

Many political observers are watching to see if Georgia will become a majority-minority state in the coming years. Likewise, Atlanta’s African-American population, which has declined in percentage, from 67 percent in 1990 to 54 percent in 2010, could play a factor in the upcoming citywide election.

Harvey Newman, an emeritus professor at Georgia State University, says the city’s shifting demographics, including the diaspora of the city’s public housing residents and an influx of millennials moving into the city, could influence the 2017 results. But don’t count out the city’s longstanding political machine yet, he says.

“A couple years from now, who’s to say what Atlanta’s population change will be,” Newman says. “Having more than one really strong African-American candidate, if Ceasar Mitchell or Kwanza Hall get into the race, could divide the vote. It’s hard to say. ... That large voting bloc can influence the outcome of an election if galvanized around a single candidate.”

Note: This story has been updated to correct an error. Woolard wants increased transit to get cars, not pedestrians, off the road.