Democratic National Convention via AP
Eight months ago, Keisha Lance Bottoms looked like a rising star in the Democratic Party. She landed a spot on the virtual national-convention stage, and the Atlanta mayor even got some buzz as a potential running mate for Joe Biden. Last night, however, news leaked out that Bottoms won’t run for a second term, after having her term plagued by mishandling of a police shooting and skyrocketing crime:
In a stunning announcement Thursday night, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told supporters that she will not run for reelection this year.
Bottoms announced she will not seek a second term as Atlanta’s 60th mayor during a private call with friends, staffers and allies, according to two people who were on the call and several others who were told about it.
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ATLANTA Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Friday she has wrestled since her first year in office with whether to seek a second term, and this week she made a final decision to step aside even as she insisted she doesn’t know what she’ll do next.
“Leadership sometimes is about passing off the baton,” Bottoms told reporters at City Hall, the morning after releasing an election-year surprise public letter and video announcing that she wouldn’t run for re-election this year.
It was a stunning announcement for the 51-year-old politician who is just the second Black woman to lead Atlanta and who less than a year ago was among the women President Joe Biden considered as a possible running mate.
Keisha Lance Bottoms on not seeking reelection: It’s ‘time to pass the baton on to someone else’
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ announcement that she would not seek reelection shocked many in her home city and Democrats around the country, but she insisted at a press conference on Friday that the decision was a long time coming.
Bottoms revealed her plans late Thursday, touching off a spate of rumors over why she made the choice and what she planned to do next. But on Friday, she denied a number of them, saying that she had no plans to move out of the state and that neither she nor her husband, Derek, planned to take a job with Walgreens, as some outlets had reported.
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Source: Democratic National Convention via AP
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) announced late on Thursday that she will not run for reelection for a second term. Bottoms, an all of President Biden who has gained national attention, was previously thought to be a vice presidential contender while then-candidate Biden embarked on his search for a female running mate.
Bottoms touted the accomplishments during her term, in the face of unforeseen challenges.
“As Derek [husband] and I have given thoughtful prayer and consideration to the season now before us, it is with deep emotions that I hold my head high, and choose not to seek another term as Mayor,” Bottoms wrote. “Despite the many unforeseen challenges that our city has faced, I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished, together. As I have done each day over the many years in which I have served in public office, through the remainder of my term, I will make every decision, keeping what is best for
(AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
My colleague Shipwreckedcrew reported yesterday on the recent reinstatement of fired police officer Garrett Rolfe to the Atlanta PD.
The decision to reinstate Rolfe, who was fired in the aftermath of the officer-involved shooting death of Rayshard Brooks in a Wendy’s parking lot last June, was made by Atlanta’s Civil Service Board, which ruled that Rolfe’s employment was terminated by former Atlanta police chief Erika Shields without him being given the benefit of due process.
Rolfe had sued the city of Atlanta over the issue in August.
In the aftermath of Brooks’ shooting death, riots broke out at the Wendy’s and elsewhere. The restaurant was destroyed and rioters made its parking lot a “home base” of sorts for their occupation over the next several weeks, which led to the fatal shooting of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner, who was killed after rioters opened fire on a car that made a wrong turn near the Wendy’s parking lot in early July