The Buckhead Coalition is hosting the first forum for candidates who are running for Atlanta Mayor in 2017.

The Atlanta mayoral elections will be held on Nov. 7 and numerous candidates have already declared their intent to succeed Mayor Kasim Reed, who is term limited.

Buckhead Coalition is holding its annual meeting on Jan. 25 at the Buckhead Ballroom. Eight candidates are expected to attend, and the forum will be moderated by WABE’s Denis O’Hayer. The invitation-only event begins at noon.  The candidates attending the event are:

– Peter Aman, Atlanta’s former chief operating officer 

– Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta City Council member

– Vincent Fort, state senator 

– Kwanza Hall, Atlanta City Council member 

– Ceasar Mitchell, Atlanta City Council president 

– Mary Norwood, Atlanta City Council member

– Michael Sterling, former Executive Director of the Atlanta Workforce Agency 

– Cathy Woolard, former Atlanta City Council member and president 

To read Atlanta Loop’s recent profile of the candidates, click here. The Buckhead Coalition also issued some “Rules of Engagement” to the candidates.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

The Better Community Political Action Committee (BC PAC) is operated under the auspices of the Buckhead Coalition. Its purpose is to aid in getting the best possible people elected to Atlanta offices of Mayor, City Council and Board of Education.  It is for this reason we have arranged for you to participate in a program at our Annual Luncheon Meeting on Jan. 25(for which a copy of the formal invitation has been mailed to you).

As you realize from our “Introduction” page previously e-mailed to you we are making an extraordinary effort for this to be one of the most influential audiences before which you will be introduced. For this reason and due to the fact we will have very limited time for each of the candidates, and considering the press coverage expected, it is extremely important that you give your very best presentation. Thus, please help us help you by complying with these procedures.

As our room occupancy is limited and consists of invited guests only, candidate staff will not be permitted in the building.  Such aids are invited to be outside of the building before, during, and after the program.  As campaign literature inside the building can distract from the program, we ask that such not be distributed in or out of the building property prior to the end of the program. In order not to irritate our guests, campaign literature must not be put in or on guest automobiles in the parking   lot.

We invite each of you to provide us with 165 copies of one campaign brochure which will be given our guests in the gift tote bags, as they leave when the program ends. If this item is more than one page, such must be bound as one item for our approval. We must have this delivered to our office in Tower Place no later than 5 PM on Friday, Jan. 20.

We encourage you to attend our reception preceding the luncheon meeting for the entire twenty-five minutes (from noon to 12:25) as a time to meet and mingle with our members, media and other Atlanta leaders. Like all of our invited guests, your luncheon table location will be assigned where you will have exclusive opportunity for further politicking.

When our program begins and you are called to the stage, please move promptly to be seated in your identified seat (placed in alphabetical order).  Each candidate will be asked the same two questions with   only one minute provided for response to each question.  Please DON’T give us an array of platitudes. Tell us succinct facts that will help us decide who we should support.  Promptly relinquish the microphone   when time is called.

The first question is:  “What will you do better for Atlanta than your opponents?”

The second question is: “What makes it more likely that you will be the one elected?”

If you have any questions, please address them to the Buckhead Coalition, attention Sam Massell, President