Mayoral, City Council Candidates Scored Ahead Of Elections

Atlanta GA

22 September, 2021

11:17 AM

Description

ATLANTA — How do candidates for the coming City of Atlanta elections stack up? Committee for a Better Atlanta, the nonprofit coalition of business and community leaders aimed at improving the city, has an answer for voters with scores given to most of the candidates vying for seats in the Nov. 2 election. The organization, which hosted this election season's first candidate forum in June, took answers from in-person interviews and questionnaires to compile numeric scores and rankings of "Excellent," "Well-Qualified," "Average," or "Not-Qualified." The questions addressed issues considered key in the CBA's policy platform, including public safety, economic development and recovery, affordable housing, and ethics and transparency, among others. "These scores will empower Atlanta voters to make informed choices about the next leaders of (the) City of Atlanta," said 2021 CBA Co-Chair Denise Quarles, who also serves as Southeast Region Head of External Affairs at Siemens. "As business leaders, our role is not to endorse individual candidates, but rather to provide voters with a thorough evaluation of the candidate's qualifications and handle on local issues." Not all candidates participated in the interviews and questionnaires, however. Here are the results from the ones who did, listed in order of their score: MAYOR Candidate Grade Score Felicia Moore Excellent 91 Kasim Reed Excellent 91 Andre Dickens Excellent 90 Sharon Gay Well-Qualified 88 Antonio Brown Well-Qualified 84 Mark Hammad Average 74 Kenny Hill Average 72 Rebecca King Average 70 Richard Wright Not Qualified N/A Roosevelt Searles III Not Qualified N/A Kirsten Dunn Did Not Participate N/A Nolan English Did Not Participate N/A Glenn Wrightson Did Not Participate N/A Walter Reeves Did Not Participate N/A CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT Candidate Rating Score Doug Shipman Excellent 93 Natalyn Archibong Excellent 91 Courtney English Well-Qualified 88 Mike Russell Well-Qualified 81 Samuel Manuel Did Not Participate N/A CITY COUNCIL: POST 1 AT LARGE Candidate Rating Score Michael Julian Bond (I) Well-Qualified 86 Todd Gray Well-Qualified 85 Brandon Cory Goldberg Well-Qualified 81 Alfred "Shivy" Brooks Average 78 Jereme Sharp Average 71 CITY COUNCIL: POST 2 AT LARGE Candidate Rating Score Matt Westmoreland (I) Excellent 92 Sonya Russel-Ofchus Average 71 CITY COUNCIL: POST 3 AT LARGE Candidate Rating Score Jacki Labat Well-Qualified 84 Jodi Merriday Well-Qualified 84 Keisha Sean Waites Well-Qualified 80 Ralph Long III Average 75 Sherry Williams Did Not Participate N/A CITY COUNCIL: DISTRICT 1 Candidate Rating Score Nathan Clubb Excellent 90 Jason Winston Well-Qualified 89 Kelly-Jeanne Lee Well-Qualified 86 Russell Hopson Well-Qualified 84 Clarence Blalock Average 77 CITY COUNCIL: DISTRICT 2 Candidate Rating Score Amir Farokhi (I) Well-Qualified 94 CITY COUNCIL: DISTRICT 3 Candidate Rating Score Erika Estrada Well-Qualified 87 Byron Amos Well-Qualified 87 Elijah Porter Well-Qualified 83 Brandon Graham Well-Qualified 81 Keona Jones Average 77 Ken Wainright Did Not Participate N/A CITY COUNCIL: DISTRICT 4 Candidate Rating Score Jason Dozier Well-Qualified 85 Kim Scott Well-Qualified 84 Cleta Winslow (I) Well-Qualified 83 Larry Carter II Well-Qualified 80 Deborah Williams Average 75 Rogelio Arcilo Did Not Participate N/A CITY COUNCIL: DISTRICT 5 Candidate Rating Score Mandy Mahoney Excellent 91 Liliana Bakhtiari Well-Qualified 89 Samuel Bacote Well-Qualified 80 Douglas Williams Average 78 Katie Kissel Average 76 CITY COUNCIL: DISTRICT 6 Candidate Rating Score Alex Wan Excellent 91 Courtney Jenee Dedi Well-Qualified 88 Katie Voelpel Average 72 Justin Critz Average 70 CITY COUNCIL: DISTRICT 7 Candidate Rating Score Howard Shook (I) Did Not Participate N/A CITY COUNCIL: DISTRICT 8 Candidate Rating Score Mary Norwood Did Not Participate N/A CITY COUNCIL: DISTRICT 9 Candidate Rating Score Dustin Hills (I) Excellent 90 Devin Barrington-Ward Average 75 CITY COUNCIL: DISTRICT 10 Candidate Rating Score Jason Hudgins Well Qualified 84 Andrea Boone (I) Did Not Participate N/A CITY COUNCIL: DISTRICT 11 Candidate Rating Score Ron Shakir Did Not Participate N/A Marci Collier Overstreet (I) Did Not Participate N/A CITY COUNCIL: DISTRICT 12 Candidate Rating Score Joyce Sheperd (I) Well-Qualified 84 Antonio Lewis Average 74 Jenee' Shepherd Average 72 Early voting begins on Oct. 12. I = Incumbent