Cascade area Businesses Donate to Mayor Reed’s 2013 Election Fund

Mayor Kasim Reed's part of town has started 2011 with some $35,000 in donations to his re-election bid, even though the vote is two years away.

Nationwide, Reed has collected $640,000 from business, individuals and organizations in the first six months of 2011, according to the latest filing to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission.

Commercial, lobby and law firms lead in donations.

Kemi Construction, Gude Management and Russell New Urban Development all build, design or manage big works like utility infrastructure, roads and large buildings, and some of their Cascade brass have made donations to Reed. Kemi's and Russell's bosses have each donated the maximum for any one giver: $2,500.

And the man who leads the city that owns the world's busiest airport is not forgotten by concessionaires. Like competitors in in other parts of town, a partner at Airport Retail Management made a donation, as did Stubblefield Ventures. 

Lobbying firm Piedmont Public Affairs has donated from its corporate office closer to town, but so has a partner in Cascade.  So has a partner with the elite Morris Manning and Martin firm. Between them, the two have sent $2,500. Their employers and colleagues have donated more, making them conspicuous among donors.

Ambassador Andrew Young endorsed Reed's campaign in 2009 and has sent $1,000 this year from his Cascade address. Atlanta City Councilwoman Cleta Winslow donated $250.

This year's donations bring Reed's campaign fund up to $3.4 million dollars.

Nearly one out of every five Reed campaign dollars this year come from people, law firms and other companies from out of state. And many of those donations are clustered around Washington, D.C.

But if Reed ever thinks of trying for a job up there, the Washington money does no immediate good.  All the donations are sent to a Reed 2013 mayoral campaign. State law bars the money from any other race that Reed may join, though the monies can be sent to the Democratic Party, or to a PAC to parcel out to other candidates.

Reed's receipts are split about 60-40 between individual people and businesses or organizations.  Though like Kemi, CEOs and the like who love the mayor can and often do donate the maximum both individually and via their company. 

Reed must file a disclosure for the second half of 2011 in early 2012.

The top Cascade Patch donors were:

• Alpha Kanu, 6041 Hillandale Drive, $2500
• E.R. Mitchell and Company, 1045 Research Center Atlanta Drive, $2500
• HT Group LLC, 862 Oak Street, $2500
• Rufus Oladapo, 2920 Campbellton Road, Kemi Construction Company, $2500
• H. Jerome Russell Jr., 210 Milano Drive, Russell New Urban Development LLC, $2500
• John D. Stephens, 5173 Pelican Drive, Stephens MDS LP, $2500
• Michael V.Thrasher, 4 Cascade Pointe Drive, Thrasher Contracting, $2500
• William K. Whitner, 1371 Audubon Court, Paul Hastings LLP, $2400
• James Mac Hunter, 4610 Orkney Lane, Morris Manning and Martin, $2000
• Atlanta Taxicab Industry Association Inc., 2192 Campbellton Road, $1000
• Larry M. Dingle, 140 Milano Drive, Wilson Brock and Irby LLC, $1000
• Karen Duckett, 685 Wilson Mill Road, Duckett Design Group, $1000
• Goodrum Enterprises Inc. , 1176 Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard, $1000
• Kemi Construction Company, 2920 Campbellton Road, $1000
• Mary N. Long Consulting LLC, 736 Peeples Street, $1000
• The Peach Group, 2135 High Point Trail, $1000
• Doug P. Selby, 4965 Guilford Forest Drive, Hunton and Williams, $1000
• Stubblefield Ventures LLC, 3695 Cascade Road, $1000
• Woodline Solutions, 3695F Cascade Road, $1000
• Andrew Young, 1088 Veltre Circle, GoodWorks International LLC, $1000
• Walter F. Young, PO Box 110280, Self-Employed, $1000
• Zaxby's, 2530 Flat Shoals Road, $1000