All over the country, a rise in crime is influencing messaging behind political runs. In Atlanta, Kasim Reed, a former two-term mayor, is running again saying that he can lower the city's crime rate.

Transcript

NOEL KING, HOST:

Atlanta is experiencing a surge in crime. It is also having a mayoral election in the fall. Crime is dominating the campaign, and a former mayor has entered the race despite having lived through a corruption scandal. Here's Emma Hurt from member station WABE in Atlanta.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.

KING: On a Friday afternoon in southwest Atlanta, several hundred senior citizens are gathered in a community center. Many of them are dancing.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Wobble with it. Wobble with it. Wobble with it, Mayor.

EMMA HURT, BYLINE: They're dancing with former two-term Mayor Kasim Reed, who's crisscrossing Atlanta trying to make a political comeback.

KASIM REED: We are going to restore the city of Atlanta to the city that you built and the city that we all love. Are y'all with me?

(CHEERING)

HURT: Reed left office nearly four years ago after two terms of massive economic and population growth in Atlanta and a dropping crime rate. The city's murder total now is close to double what it was the summer before Reed left office. And his message is resonating. When the 52-year-old announced this campaign, he raised a record amount of money.

REED: It's because people remember what the city was like when I was mayor, and they have come to the conclusion that things were better when I was mayor than since I have been out of office.

HURT: Also since he's been out of office, a federal corruption investigation has tarnished Reed's reputation. Ten city officials and contractors from Reed's tenure have either been indicted or sentenced to prison for bribery and other crimes. They include his former chief financial officer, chief procurement officer and deputy chief of staff. A city audit found a, quote, "Wild West spending culture" among his top deputies, including luxury hotel stays and first-class travel. But for Margaret Wesley, an Atlanta senior at the campaign event, it doesn't matter.

MARGARET WESLEY: I don't think it's an issue because I think if it was, he would have been convicted of doing something wrong. And since he wasn't, then that's my man (laughter).

HURT: Cindy Wooten, another senior at the event, feels the same way.

CINDY WOOTEN: They didn't find nothing on him, or they wouldn't have let him run again.

HURT: What matters to her right now? The crime rate.

WOOTEN: We didn't have all that crime when he was in office. We got too much crime. We got too much people with guns.

HURT: Reed has not been charged and maintains his innocence but has apologized for not catching the corruption of his employees. However, the investigation is ongoing, and it's been tough on the city, says Councilman Andre Dickens.

ANDRE DICKENS: It has been embarrassing and exhausting.

HURT: Dickens is also running for mayor. He says it feels disrespectful to suggest bringing Reed back to City Hall.

DICKENS: We've spent a lot of time over the last four years trying to prove to citizens of Atlanta, prove to the state that we are ethical, that we do have integrity despite a cloud of corruption that was over the last administration.

HURT: But when people are scared, it affects how they vote, says Tammy Greer, a political science professor at Clark Atlanta University.

TAMMY GREER: This has been true with even the former president - I am able to overlook certain things because I feel safer economically, socially, political and physically, and hope that those shortcomings don't interfere with these policies.

HURT: And some voters, Greer says, will take that gamble. The corruption scandal has given Atlanta a black eye, says Felicia Moore. She's Atlanta City Council president and is also running for mayor. She says it's unfortunate how much attention the investigation continues to take up.

FELICIA MOORE: We have so many issues in the city, crime being the top one that we're dealing with now, like how do we deal with our affordability? How do we deal with the unsheltered population? How do we deal with our infrastructure needs?

HURT: She says the city has spent $30 million on legal bills to handle the investigation into Reed's administration and shouldn't go backwards.

For NPR News, I'm Emma Hurt in Atlanta.

(SOUNDBITE OF AXEL KUHN TRIO'S "THE 3RD OF AUGUST") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.