Metro Atlanta leaders urge Kemp to veto bill to make some offices nonpartisan

Local leaders across metro Atlanta on Tuesday excoriated a Republican-passed bill that would make most local races in Georgia’s most populous — and most Democratic — counties nonpartisan.

If Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signs House Bill 369 into law, voters in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties would elect most candidates for local offices without a “Democrat” or “Republican” by their names. The bill would apply to district attorneys, county commissioners and tax commissioners. It exempts sheriffs and the DeKalb County Commission.

Officials are urging Kemp to veto the measure, arguing it would create one set of rules for elections within metro Atlanta and another for the rest of the state. A group of district attorneys are already preparing a lawsuit to challenge the bill if Kemp signs it.

“We cannot keep moving the goalposts out of convenience,” DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said.

She called the bill partisan, unconstitutional and discriminatory. The four county commission chairs and five district attorneys targeted by the bill are Black.

The dramatic change could complicate local Democrats’ efforts to hold on to power in the most liberal part of the state.

Republican supporters frame the measure as a way to root out politics from local elections. But critics say if that were the bill’s aim, it would apply to all 159 counties.