Norwood Hits Ground Running In Mayor's Runoff

ATLANTA - Front runner Mary Norwood hit the ground running Wednesday only hours after getting 47% of Tuesday's vote for mayor of Atlanta.

The outgoing city council member told us she already had $100,000 set aside for the December 1st runoff against second place finisher, former State Senator Kasim Reed.

As of noon Wednesday, she said she'd received pledges of another $100,000 in campaign donations.

"I have been on the phone raising money all morning," Norwood said.

She was the only one of the two candidates to accept a luncheon speaking invitation from the Atlanta Hotel Council.

Kasim Reed was a no show.

Before her speech Norwood told reporters her organization is active in 175 neighborhoods with hundreds of volunteers to help her win the next and final round.

"We have tremendous grass roots support," Norwood said, "so I believe that support is going to show up on December 1st.

Tuesday night 11 Alive News got an exclusive look inside Norwood's campaign hotel suite and talked with some of her family.

They told me they are not surprised that the high achieving woman they've always called "Mother Mary" has done so well.

"If Mary gets real clear about something, then it's very hard to stop Mary Norwood," her brother, Ware Bush, told us.

"She wants to take something that's broken and make it better," said stepdaughter Palmer Norwood.

One touchy issue came up Wednesday about the Norwood campaign's disclosure that it paid $1,500 to community activist "Able" Mable Thomas, who endorsed Norwood on October 23rd.

Norwood insists Thomas was not paid for her endorsement, but simply reimbursed for campaign expenses.

"If you look at all of our disclosures," Norwood said, "you see people that are putting up yard signs that are paid and they're paid for outreach activities. She was, too."

Norwood promised to keep her runoff campaign positive despite any negative attacks from the other side.

"What our citizens want to see and hear is what is the next mayor going to do for them," she said, "How is the next mayor going to impact their quality of life, their safety, their getting good value for their tax dollars."

Even though the mayor's race is nonpartisan, Georgia's Democratic Party has already put out flyers accusing Norwood of being a Republican.

She ran a TV ad admitting she once attended a Republican Convention, but claimed she didn't like it.

In the ad, she also said she voted for Democratic Presidential candidates Barack Obama, John Kerry, Al Gore and Bill Clinton.

So far, Democrats have not chosen to use the fact that Norwood's maiden name is Mary Bush.

In her election suite Tuesday night, her family, who're from Augusta, told me they are no relation to the Republican Bush family and added that they are also Democrats.