Jackson Has Big Lead in Atlanta Comeback Bid : Opponent, Also Black, Said to Use Racism in Mayoral Election Ads

ATLANTA — Willie Holiday, a 73-year-old house painter, stood in front of Paschal’s restaurant, a local hangout for political aficionados, waving a fan that read: “I’m a Maynard Fan.”

In explaining his choice of Maynard Jackson over rival Michael Lomax in the Oct. 3 mayor’s race, Holiday ticked off Jackson’s accomplishments during his previous tenure as mayor from 1974 to 1982: guiding construction of the city’s gargantuan airport, stamping out police brutality, pressuring businesses to accept affirmative action programs.

“I’ve always known him,” he said.

Black Voting Majority

Like the current mayor, Andrew Young, Jackson was prevented by state law from seeking a third term. Now, he is trying to make a comeback on the memory of his first stint in office, and, in this city, where black people like Holiday constitute a huge voting majority, it is a potent strategy.

Jackson, a portly 51-year-old lawyer with an easy smile, has built a huge lead in public opinion polls over Lomax, the thin, bearded 41-year-old Fulton County Commission chairman. The latest poll by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution puts Jackson’s lead at 34 percentage points.

“Maynard was the first black mayor” of Atlanta, said William Boone, a political science professor at Clark Atlanta University. “He could do no wrong.”

Lomax’s efforts to persuade voters otherwise threaten to backfire on him. He has begun a television ad campaign that lambastes Jackson’s record on crime fighting, using two white people expressing fears of rape and murder. The ads have put Lomax, a black, in the uncomfortable position of being accused of using a racist appeal.

Willie Horton Recalled

The ads recall last year’s campaign on behalf of presidential candidate George Bush that used pictures of black convict Willie Horton and reminded voters that he had committed more crimes after being furloughed under Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.

One of the Lomax ads features former Gov. Carl Sanders talking about the “nightmare” of crime, citing the murder of one of his secretaries. The other ad uses a local white businesswoman, who says: “When Maynard was mayor, I read about rape and murder almost every day.”

The ads have gotten attention for Lomax, but they have also drawn harsh criticism.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a Jackson supporter, called the ads “poor judgment. I don’t know if they help him in the white community, but they definitely hurt him in the black community.”

Rival’s Tactics Assailed

With the local media’s help, Jackson has been able to deflect attention away from his record and onto Lomax’s tactics. In an editorial, the Journal-Constitution described the ads as “blatant racial electioneering.”

Lomax, who teaches literature at Spelman College and served under Jackson as Atlanta’s arts czar, first jumped on Jackson for living in the high-priced, predominantly white Buckhead area of town, then turned loose the attack ads.

Lomax defended the ads in an interview, saying that they are “a necessary first effort in what is a total game plan. We’re setting the agenda for the issues of crime and public safety.”

Jackson told a group of supporters last week: “I’m going to stay on the high road, folks.” He added, however: “I’m not going to make the mistake that Dukakis made,” a reference to Dukakis’ failure to respond quickly to Bush’s repeated attacks.

“We’re fighting complacency to make sure it doesn’t become a problem,” he said.

Jackson’s appearances on the hustings reflect his position in the opinion polls; he acts fat and happy, while his opponent seems lean and hungry.

Saturday, Lomax, trying hard to dispel the notion that he has little support among the 50,000 residents of public housing and among black voters, who are 61% of the electorate, held a rally at a housing development near City Hall to collect endorsements from several leaders of tenant groups.

His message centered on his promise to focus on “the other Atlanta,” beset by crime and poverty, wallowing in the shadows of newly built office towers and skyscraper hotels. He vowed to campaign in these areas, “taking a message of hope and renewal.”

Two days earlier, in the Matador Room of Paschal’s motel, Jackson strode through a crowd of supporters eating a breakfast of grits, fried fish and sausage, offering himself as symbol of both renewal and hope, shaking hands vigorously just before collecting the endorsement of a powerful group of ministers who will preach their support and back it up with fund-raisers.

‘I Love This City’

Jackson noted that he is a “PK, preacher’s kid,” asserted that he is running “because I love this city, and I love what we can be”; and he declared, to the delight of the crowd, that “Action Jackson is going to take care of business.”

Although Lomax supporters concede Jackson’s charisma, they profess faith in their man’s competence. “The gift of gab is fine,” said Gwen McDonald, Lomax’s spokeswoman, “but (Jackson) wouldn’t win the contest on administration.”

Angelo Fuster, Jackson’s spokesman, turns aside such arguments, declaring that Jackson will ride to victory on Atlanta’s “collective recall of his two terms as mayor.”

Whoever wins, the next mayor will face monumental problems, including a large homeless population, a poverty rate second only to that of Newark, N. J., and a crime rate that, for the second year running, is the highest in the nation, according to FBI statistics released Sunday.

“The bloom’s off the rose,” said Michael Giles, an Emory University political science professor. If Jackson wins, the new set of problems will make it “more difficult for him to be successful” than it was first time around, he said.

It is this point that Lomax supporters are trying to hammer home with voters. John Ash, wearing a Lomax T-shirt and waving a blue placard during a Lomax rally last week, said his candidate is “the man for the future.”