WATCH: SaportaReport hosts runoff race’s first mayoral candidate forum

‘It will be wonderful to have a woman back in office’


Now that Atlanta’s mayoral runoff race is underway, journalists are eager to snag some face time with the two remaining candidates, Councilwomen Keisha Lance Bottoms and Mary Norwood. Mere hours after the election results went online SaportaReport snagged the first sit-down with the pair, and the publication posted footage of the interviews on its Facebook page. The video might have been filmed with a flip phone, but the audio was solid, so we were able to identify a few key takeaways from the discussion.

A few things we noticed:

>> Norwood shouted out Beltline inventor Ryan Gravel in the first 30 seconds of her comment, likely an attempt to woo ever-important Cathy Woolard voters her way. (03:05)

>> Norwood says “public safety is number 1” when talking about her priorities as mayor (4:31)

>> Norwood says she did not say southwest Atlanta was in decline but that “their is no development of any significance there” (6:05)

>> Maria Saporta asks why Norwood hosted her victory party in Buckhead, instead of a central Atlanta venue like she did in 2009. (11:45)

>> Bottoms says you cant talk about education without talking about crime rates “when people don’t have options sometimes they commit crimes” (19:25)

>> Bottoms makes the point of how important it is to work with regional partners by saying that some voters don’t know Atlanta borders (21:55)

>> Bottoms responds to the awkward, yet important question: Can she assure Atlantans she won’t be the sequel to Kasim Reed, and will he play an official roll in her administration? (23:35).












 






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