Bill Campbell, who had been heavily favored to win Tuesday's mayoral runoff, has entered the final days of the campaign fending off allegations he took bribes in a scandal at the airport.
Campbell, a 40-year-old lawyer and city councilman, faces former Fulton County Commission chairman Michael Lomax, 46, in the nonpartisan race.The bribery allegation prompted Campbell to fly to Dallas this week for a lie-detector test. He released results that he said showed he was telling the truth when he said he never accepted a bribe.
"I thought it important to demonstrate to the people of Atlanta that I wanted to go to extraordinary means to assure them that I've not abused the public trust," he said.
Campbell has vehemently denied any role in the scandal that has led to the indictment of a city councilman and the city's former aviation commissioner.
Lomax and Campbell were the top two vote-getters in a 12-way race Nov. 2 in which no one got the majority needed to win the job outright. Campbell got 49 percent, Lomax 23 percent.
The new mayor will oversee the city's preparations for the 1996 Olympic Games and will face the challenge of reducing crime, repairing streets, bridges and sewers and stemming the loss of population.
Until the past few weeks, the campaign had been dominated by the issue of crime.
But the tone changed as Lomax accused Campbell of hiding his ties to city-owned Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport.
Then last week, a federal judge postponed the trial of the former aviation commissioner, citing defense arguments that a trial now might "prejudice innocent candidates" in the runoff. The judge did not name names.
This week, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the government's chief witness in the investigation of the airport scandal said he paid Campbell to secure lucrative contracts. The Lomax campaign seized the allegation.
"Councilman Campbell has clearly been brought into the scandal at Hartsfield Atlanta Airport," Lomax said. "I think this raises doubts about Bill Campbell."
Councilman Buddy Fowlkes and former Aviation Commissioner Ira Jackson are charged with participating in a scheme in which vendors at the airport gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to public officials in return for contracts.
Campbell called the bribery accusation by former airport concessionaire Harold Echols "an outrageous lie." Echols, who pleaded guilty in April to providing kickbacks, is cooperating with prosecutors.
"I have promoted strong ethics legislation in the City Council, and I initiated the investigation that led to the indictment and conviction of Harold Echols," Campbell said.