Borders Launches Attacks on Norwood ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - The tenor of Atlanta's mayoral race today took a major turn.

BORDERS: I just took the gloves off.

Candidate Lisa Borders blasted front-runner Mary Norwood this morning in what was supposed to be a routine endorsement announcement.

WABE's Odette Yousef has the story.

Standing with a crowd of supporters on City Hall steps, Borders accepted the police union's endorsement, then moved to her target:

BORDERS: The question has come up in the city, what will you do when people don't do their jobs? And my response has been, I will fire them. I don't have that ability with Ms. Norwood, but I offer that opportunity to the citizens of Atlanta to fire her - not promote her - but to fire her.

The president of Atlanta's City Council, claimed that Norwood hasn't been able to explain the city's financial mess to Atlantans because she's abandoned her duties.

BORDERS: We had a CFO who was willing to go line-by-line and explain where all the money was. I called that meeting, I ran that meeting, and the councilmember who was in this race for mayor, she did not attend that meeting. So maybe that's why she doesn't understand where the money is.

Norwood responded to the attacks with a written statement. She wrote that if Borders, quote, "thinks that the Administration has been giving out good, accurate, and up-to-date financial information during the time she has been President of Council, she hasn't been paying attention and needs to read the paper more."

Norwood goes on to say, "We demonstrably didn't know how much money the City really has and how much money the City really owes before the CFO's presentation, just like we don't know now." She characterized Borders's offensive as "silly political attacks" and "politics as usual."

Polls show Borders in second place after Norwood, though the margin has varied from as few as 2 points to as many as 14.

Just last week, the leading candidates all disavowed a memo that suggested that black voters unite behind Borders, who is black, against Norwood, who is white.

Odette Yousef, WABE News.
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