Late night post tonight to catch up on all of the late-night news. As of 11:30 p.m., Felicia Moore won the largest share of votes in the Atlanta mayoral race (41%). Kasim Reed and Andre Dickens are neck-and-neck at 23% each, with Dickens having a slim, slim lead over Reed. However, since Moore didn't win at least 50% of the vote (it was a crowded slate of candidates), the race is headed to a run-off election.
I voted for Moore, but I almost couldn't care who won. No candidate thrilled with a bold vision of Atlanta's future, and mud was thrown at some point onto every candidate. It looks like Moore will win the runoff, but I don't think my future or my city's future will change much if she wins or if she doesn't. I'd love to be proven wrong on that.
Also tonight, the Smyrna Braves beat the Houston Astros in Game 6 of the World Series, winning Major League Baseball's championship. I'd be excited if the Braves hadn't turned their back on Atlanta and moved out to an amusement-park themed stadium out in the lily-white suburbs. I was at the old, pre-Olympics Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium for the clinching Game 6 of the Series in 1995, but I don't feel any connection between that franchise and this year's Braves.
And then Georgia's dim-witted Governor Kemp had to make the Series political, claiming a victory would be some sort of indictment against MLB for pulling the All-Star Game out of Georgia after he passed what was at the time one of the most severe voter suppression laws in the country. And then disgraced, twice-impeached former "president" Trump attended Game 4 of the Series here in Atlanta and was photographed doing the tomahawk chop, because he can never resist an opportunity to engage in divisive racist antics.
Of course, these two stories aren’t unrelated. It was former Mayor Kasim Reed who let the Braves leave Atlanta, after pouring lavish amounts of money and taxpayer backing on the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. He got them the new Atlanta Mercedes-Benz stadium (Kanye’s former home) and when the Braves asked what he had for them, the cupboard was bare. Suburban Cobb County made the Braves an offer, and Reed didn’t lift a finger to stop them. So it’s only justice that on the day the Braves win a World Series championship, the voters tell Reed they’re not interested in his return.
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