With their candidates losing in metro Atlanta, Georgia GOP seeks to remove party labels
ATLANTA (AP) — With Democrats steadily decimating Republicans in the swing state of Georgia’s central Atlanta counties, Republicans have a new idea: Ensuring most local candidates run without a party label.
The Republican-dominated Georgia House on Friday gave final passage to a bill requiring nonpartisan elections in metro Atlanta’s five most populous counties. Among the officials affected will be the Fulton County District Attorney Mortal WillisRepublicans have has been targeted repeatedly Because of the investigation into Republican President Donald Trump after he tried to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s pivotal 2020 victory in Georgia.
State Sen. John Albers, a Republican from the Atlanta suburb of Roswell who introduced the bill, said he believed it was necessary to promote public safety, even though counties’ elected sheriffs would continue to be elected under party labels when the law goes into effect in 2028.
“This is a perfectly reasonable bill,” Albers said during Thursday’s Senate debate. “If you’re in politics, you’re against this. If you want to keep Georgians safe, you’re for it.”
The measure would require nonpartisan elections for district attorneys, lower-level county prosecutors called attorneys general, county commissioners, court clerks and tax commissioners.
It would apply to Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, as well as suburbs of Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties. Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties are the three most prominent Democratic jurisdictions in the state. Cobb and Gwinnett, once the suburban heartland of Georgia Republicans increasingly coming under Democratic control Since 2016.
Democrats criticized the bill for trying to rig the election so that Republicans running without a party label have a better chance of winning.
“The reason we’re putting this bill forward is because there’s a certain party that’s losing elections in these counties, and so they want to hide behind a nonpartisan badge to win them,” said State Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, a Democrat from Smyrna in Cobb County.
Carter Chapman, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, declined to say Friday whether Kemp would sign the bill.
While the bill’s primary sponsors have denied that the measure targets Willis, other Republicans have echoed that theme.
“By passing this legislation, we are giving voters the opportunity to get rid of district attorneys who are more interested in playing partisan games than prosecuting and delivering justice,” said Rep. Trey Kelley, a Republican from rural Cedartown.
Republicans have passed numerous bills in recent years specifically targeting district attorneys and Willis. The association representing district attorneys argues that the law cannot change the partisan status of district attorneys because they are state judicial branch officers, not county clerks.
The association argues that the state constitution should be amended instead. This is extremely unlikely, given that Democrats have the power to block the two-thirds vote required in the General Assembly to put such a measure before Georgia voters.
Two of the 99 Republicans voted against the bill, including Republican Jordan Ridley, whose district includes part of Cobb County.
“If this is good policy, it should be statewide,” Ridley told reporters after the vote.
