Lively races abound in metro Atlanta as early voting gets underway
A 24-year-old advocate for improved public transit, housing affordability and pedestrian safety hopes to unseat a four-term incumbent to become Marietta’s first Black mayor.
In Roswell and Sandy Springs, incumbent mayors also are facing fierce challenges as early voting for municipal elections across Georgia went live earlier this week.
Cities all over the state will be electing mayors and council members, though not every local seat is on the ballot. Early voting began Tuesday and ends Oct. 31. Election Day is Nov. 4.
Roswell Mayor Kurt Wilson is running for reelection against Steve Dorvee, a former Roswell City Council member, and Mary Robichaux, a former Georgia state representative.
Other lively contests in metro Atlanta include the race for mayor of Stone Mountain, where incumbent Beverly Jones must contend with a challenger while also trying to fend off a City Council effort to oust her from office.
In South Fulton, controversial Mayor khalid “Kobi” kamau has eight opponents after generating heated criticism over his spending of taxpayer money.
Here are some races to watch in metro Atlanta:
Marietta
Sam Foster, an IT systems engineer who graduated from Kennesaw State University in 2022, is challenging Steve “Thunder” Tumlin’s bid for a fourth term as mayor.
Foster cofounded a nonprofit called A Better Cobb and has advocated before the City Council and the Cobb County Commission for issues like creating walkable neighborhoods with expanded housing options for residents.
“If you’re not able to change the minds of the people in office, you’re going to have to unseat them,” said Foster, who grew up in Rockdale County and has lived in Marietta for six years.
He said Tumlin is “very against multi-family housing, very against density,” does not care about public transit and has become “complacent.” He added it’s shocking the city has never had a Black mayor.
Tumlin, a tax attorney and Marietta native, said he’s proud to have led the city through tough economic times after he became mayor in 2010 and through the coronavirus pandemic.
Tumlin, 78, said, “I have vetoed, one or two, two or three, apartments because they were not a good fit where they were, because they were not affordable.”
He added: “We want modern growth here. We’ve already exploded since the ’70s.”
Referring to Foster’s age of 24, Tumlin said, “you need to be a steward of smaller things” before being mayor.
“I think he ought to pay his dues,” the mayor added.
Foster said Tumlin’s age “is also a question” because “if he were to finish another term, he’d be 82.”
“But age isn’t the question we really should be asking,” Foster said. “It’s about: Are you able to do the job? Are you able to have a vision that meets this moment? And I believe I do.”
College Park
The College Park mayor is not up for reelection, but two longtime councilmen, Roderick Gay and Joe Carn, each face a challenger.
Gay faced scrutiny in September after an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story reported on a lawsuit that alleges he intimidated a former code enforcement official; tried to use him to carry out the councilman’s “unlawful private agendas and vendettas”; and demanded special treatment for his friends.
Steve Alexander, Gay’s opponent in the race for the Ward 4 seat, coincidentally works as a code enforcement officer in Clayton County.
“The reason why I’m running is I want to bring and restore integrity, transparency and respect back to the city of College Park,” the 56-year-old Alexander said. “We have a lot of corruption. We have a lot of mismanagement of tax dollars.”
Opponents of a proposed battery storage facility also have blasted Gay for supporting it, though he also has said he might “reverse” his opinion of the project.
In September, College Park officials were set to consider millions of dollars in tax breaks for construction of the controversial facility before the item was abruptly pulled from the city development authority agenda without explanation.
Alexander said he opposes the project, which has stoked safety concerns among residents who live near the site.
Several attempts to interview Gay this week were unsuccessful.
Carn, 54, is a four-term councilman and former Fulton County commissioner. In his reelection bid in Ward 2, he faces LaKresha Williams, 49, who works in IT development and has lived in the city a little over two years.
She decided to run after she watched a council meeting online earlier this year and was appalled by Carn’s behavior toward Mayor Bianca Motley Broom — and because she hasn’t seen him visit her community.
“We watched Mr. Joe Carn blatantly disrespect and silence the mayor for asking questions that was related to anything financial,” she said.
Williams said she would focus on improving safety in College Park and increasing the number of police officers. She also said she would address the city’s “slumlord problem,” facilitate construction of affordable housing and offer workforce training opportunities.
Carn acknowledged meetings sometimes get “boisterous” and relations between the City Council and mayor are strained at times.
“We all agree 90% of the time,” he said, adding, “It’s that 10% that gets magnified and highlighted.”
Carn said the city has worked to hold “slumlords” accountable, address crime and attract businesses.
“I think, overall, we’ve made good progress over the past four years, and we want to keep that good progress going,” he said.
Chattahoochee Hills
Richard “Richie” Schmidt, a Chattahoochee Hills city councilman, has vowed to remain in the race for mayor despite facing scathing criticism for using threatening and violent imagery during a telephone tirade to the city manager about a city contractor.
He is running against fellow council member Camille Lowe, who said the city is at a critical point and its residents must unify to fend off the threat of sprawl, warehouses, data centers and strip malls.
Schmidt, in the recorded phone call about contractor Judy Walker, threatened to “tear her feet off.”
Walker, 69, compiles a city-funded newsletter. Schmidt told City Manager Robbie Rokovitz he was upset that Walker had told him she “would hate to” publish that Schmidt refused to answer a candidate questionnaire.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has said it is reviewing the matter.
Schmidt publicly apologized for a second time at this month’s council meeting.
But he said he’s frustrated with a city restriction that prevents more than one house on 20 acres or less in areas zoned as “rural district.” This precludes people who own less than 20 acres from subdividing their property into lots for residential development.
“I’m not dropping out of this race,” he said at the council meeting. “This is my last opportunity to get my rights back.”
Lowe, 54, who has served for the past five years on City Council and as mayor pro tem for the past three years, said she wants to protect the city’s commitment to preserving 70% of its green space.
“Preserving the Chatt Hills we all cherish requires elected leaders with vision, integrity, and the courage to stand firm against pressures that would pull us apart,” Lowe said in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“With the Mayor retiring, the opportunity has opened for me to step forward and continue the fight for the Chatt Hills we love — protecting our land, strengthening our community, and keeping our values at the heart of every decision.”
Mayor Tom Reed spends parts of the year in Vermont, where he and his wife own a farm. After the couple sold their home in Chattahoochee Hills more quickly than expected, Reed said he and his wife decided to rent a small apartment in Lowe’s home in the Serenbe community.
“There’s nothing unusual about our current arrangement,” Reed said in an email. “It’s a straightforward residential lease, and it fully complies with all city and state residency requirements.”
Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain Mayor Beverly Jones is suing City Council members to stop their effort to force her from office for assuming sole control of city bank accounts.
Her attorney has said she did so inadvertently, and she faces no accusation of misappropriating city funds. The City Council voted in August to initiate removal proceedings. A public hearing of a panel created to hear the case is scheduled for Oct. 29.
Jones argues in the suit that she was acting in good faith by signing documents prepared by the bank, and that her removal of other city officials from the accounts was unintentional.
Jones, who did not respond to requests for an interview this week, is running against Jelani Linder, a 42-year-old commercial real estate agent.
Linder has never run for elected government office, but served on the Stone Mountain Downtown Development Authority and the city’s planning commission.
He and his wife founded Village Forward Inc., a nonprofit focused on economic development and community building.
Linder said he would implement some of the ideas included in a downtown master plan created several years ago that has been “just kind of sitting on the shelf.”
Linder, who earned a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Georgia, said he would implement traffic-calming measures, add a “gateway” to the city and make sure signs point tourists from Stone Mountain Park to the city’s downtown.
He also would push to revitalize the downtown and “create an economy that does not solely rely on residential property taxes.”
“I think Stone Mountain has been plagued by negative perception, and it’s time for us to kind of move past that negative perception … rebranding ourselves to where we are a diverse, inclusive sense of place.”
Sandy Springs
Sandy Springs council members Andy Bauman and Jody Reichel, along with communications strategist Dontaye Carter, are running for mayor against incumbent Rusty Paul.
Bauman, a 61-year-old attorney in his third term on council, cited among his priorities addressing crime and traffic congestion, increasing transparency and accountability and providing “housing options for every generation.”
He criticized Paul as a “City Hall mayor” who doesn’t engage often enough with residents in public forums. “We need somebody who’s a city mayor, out and about,” Bauman said.
Paul fired back: “I’m not sure exactly what he means by a ‘City Hall mayor,’ but part of my work does occur at City Hall. But I’m also equally out as much into the community, giving legislative speeches and meeting with people.”
Carter, 39, said the city needs more affordable housing options and he would create a housing advisory council.
“I’m just concerned about the state of our community,” said Carter, who ran unsuccessfully against Paul in 2021. “Young families are not moving into the area. They can’t afford to move into the area.”
Reichel, 62, a real estate investor and two-term council member, said a big part of her focus would be on developing the city center, which she said hasn’t happened despite Paul’s promises to do so.
She said she also is committed to redevelopment in the city’s North End and is exploring the possibility of the city having its own school system.
Reichel also said the city needs to limit its mayors to two terms, noting that Paul has served three, four-year terms and is 73 years old.
“There should always be new leadership coming on, new vision, fresh ideas,” she said. “After two terms, you get sort of old and stale and stuck in your ways.”
In response to Reichel’s comments about the city center, Paul said: “Well we brought 18 different plans to City Council and couldn’t get consensus, and she was one of those who was sitting in the room looking at all the plans that were brought.”
“She was involved in every discussion about what we were doing over there, and if she’s complaining about it not getting done, she needs to look in the mirror,” Paul said.
Paul said high interest rates have been a hurdle in moving forward, and he envisions restaurants, shops and homes eventually for the city center.
Paul said he’s proud of his record and touted the city’s safety, high-performing police and fire services and efforts to mitigate traffic congestion and improve infrastructure.
As for Reichel’s call for a term-limited mayor, Paul does not like the idea.
“The voters can term limit any office anytime they want to,” Paul said. “Term limits artificially cut, cap the choices that voters have.”
About the Author
Reed Williams is an enterprise reporter on the Local team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
