BREAKING: Bottoms won't run for re-election
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms decides not to run for a second term
In a stunning political earthquake on Thursday night, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that she will not seek a second term as Mayor. According to media reports, Mayor Bottoms made the announcement on a zoom call with supporters and donors. She is expected to speak publicly on the matter at a press conference on Friday morning.
The announcement comes over a month after Bottoms raised over half a million dollars for her re-election campaign at a fundraiser with President Joe Biden. Bottoms was the first major Georgia Democrat to endorse Biden’s 2020 campaign for President.
Bottoms, who was narrowly elected Mayor in 2017, has seen her national profile rise over the last year. She was even mentioned as a contender to be Biden’s running mate. But here at home, she been getting a lot of criticism from residents in the city about the rise in violent crime. A recent analysis from the Atlanta Police Department found a 60% increase in homicides over the last year. One of those homicides claimed the life of 15-year-old Diamond Johnson at a Waffle House on Glenwood Road last weekend.
The crime increase has become such a big problem that residents of the northern Atlanta community of Buckhead have openly expressed their support for breaking away from the city of Atlanta to form their own city. Bottoms has denounced the idea, arguing that creating a new city will not make crime disappear.
The Mayor was handed another major blow this week when Garrett Rolfe, the officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks at a Wendy’s drive-thru restaurant last summer, was reinstated by the city’s Civil Service Board. The shooting led to the resignation of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields (who is now the police chief in Louisville, KY). The Wendy’s was set on fire by demonstrators.
Regarding the decision to fire Rolfe, the board said that the city did not follow proper channels when firing Rolfe, who is now facing felony murder charges in Brooks’ death. Some began raising questions about Bottoms’ intent when she fired Rolfe a few hours after the board reinstated him.
Bottoms’ decision to stand down sets off what will almost certainly be a crowded race for Mayor of Atlanta. Among the names being mentioned: former Mayor Kasim Reed, former city councilwoman and two-time mayoral candidate Mary Norwood, and 2014 gubernatorial nominee Jason Carter. City Council President Felica Moore and attorney Sharon Gay were already challenging Bottoms. Expect to a lot of candidates to jockey for the city’s top job now that it’s an open race.