ATLANTA -- Mary Norwood leads in what has become a racially charged race to replace Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, according to a poll released Friday.

New Poll Shows Norwood Leads Race For Mayor

The poll by InsiderAdvantage showed Norwood as the favorite of 42 percent of those polled.

Lisa Borders was second at 34 percent.

Kasim Reed was third at nine percent. Jesse Spikes was fourth at two percent. Twelve percent of those polled said they were undecided.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus five percent.

State Rep. Ralph Long endorsed Norwood from the heart of his heavily black southwest Atlanta district on Thursday.

Long is the first black leader to back Norwood, the only white candidate in the Nov. 3 contest. Long condemned a memo circulated last week among black Atlantans encouraging them to rally behind Lisa Borders, who was cast as the black candidate with the best chance of beating Norwood and ending a 35-year reign of black mayors in the southern capital.

Like her opponents, Norwood has been working to quash the issue of race as a factor in the campaign, but she is not above using it. Flanked by dozens of mostly black supporters, Norwood on Thursday reiterated her commitment to representing the entire city.

"We are one Atlanta, and we are united today!" Norwood told the cheering crowd. "Every neighborhood really is important. Every citizen really is important."

Norwood has held a citywide council post for 8 years. Long said his endorsement was based on her support of a homegrown police chief and economic development -- especially in blighted areas -- as well as her accessibility and accountability, a theme echoed among her supporters during the press conference.

The event was a not-so-subtle attempt to reach out to black voters by Norwood, who lives in Atlanta's affluent Buckhead neighborhood and would be the city's first white woman to serve as mayor if elected.

The prospect has raised concern among some in the black community. Last week, an incendiary memo written by two Clark Atlanta University professors caused a firestorm and brought race to the forefront of the mayoral campaign for the first time. The message warned that black Atlantans must act quickly to thwart a Norwood victory and maintain black political control of the top job in the city.

"There is an unstated assumption that having a black mayor in Atlanta is equal to having a black social, economic and political agenda or at least someone in office who would be sensitive to that agenda if not a full promoter of that agenda," the memo read.

The memo's authors, political science professors William Boone and Keith Jennings, have since defended it as an "academic analysis," saying that their comments were taken out of context and that the memo was not intended to tell black voters whom to choose as the next mayor.

"The recent suggestion that it is somehow racist to highlight an agenda that promotes the interest of African American voters is patently false," Boone and Jennings said in a statement earlier this week. "The interests of African American voters are just as legitimate as other Atlanta voters, and the notion that we must apologize for highlighting those interests is absurd."

The memo was condemned by several of the candidates and others in the black community, including Long.

"There are no masses of black voters waiting with bated breath to hear from you who the anointed candidate will be," Long said in an e-mailed response to the Black Leadership Forum memo. "There is no Black Godfather with the power to deliver the city for any candidate. Black votes must be earned -- by innovative policy proposals, tough campaigning, and the ability to connect with the people."

Oglethorpe University professor Kendra King said race has become a peculiar issue in the campaign.

"If you spend too much time focusing on an issue such as this, it can leave the doorway open for someone in the lead to maintain that lead, so the people involved have to be careful to focus in on the real issues and needs of the city," said King, who is teaching a class this semester on Atlanta politics.

King said it is doubtful that voters will dwell on the issue as the race continues and that candidates have always tried to downplay race in the campaign -- and for good reason.

"The belief or impression is that we have gone to a place where discussions of race don't have to be the top issue," King said. "Whether that's true or not depends. Atlanta still suffers from a north/south divide, but it has a history of connecting along racial lines to make our city great."

Hasan Crockett, a political science professor at Morehouse College, said that although the candidates will continue to distance themselves from the issue, race is not likely to go away as the campaign continues.

"As part of campaigns, you divide people into groups," Crockett said. "There's no way you, as an astute campaigner, can ignore race."

Still, he said, the memo flap isn't likely to linger.

"I think it's going to run its course," Crockett said. "I don't think it can become a deciding issue in the race. I don't know how many constituents are focusing on it as they start making decisions about who they're voting on."