The political dynamics in some of Atlanta's suburbs reflect how partisan and cultural divisions have trickled down to local campaigns. Some activists and voters now view these nominally nonpartisan contests as critical fronts in shaping the nation’s identity.
Devon Dabney, a candidate for city council in Johns Creek, Ga., stands outside her home and discusses her candidacy on Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. The contest is nonpartisan and Dabney calls herself an independent, but she faces criticism from some voters in this historically Republican-leaning enclave because she says she has voted for Democrats in the past. The political dynamics in some of Atlanta’s suburbs reflect how partisan and cultural divisions have trickled down to local campaigns.
The national undercurrents do not mean that the usual list of hot topics at city halls has changed. It’s still mostly zoning and other development rules; sales tax and property millage rates; and how best to deliver services like public safety, fire protection and garbage collection. But candidates and voters talk about old, familiar debates in a different way as partisan influences rise.
The new landscape may help explain why Skinner is circumspect about Trump and how she and Dabney are carefully navigating their partisan preferences. Zoning has long been contentious in U.S. suburbs, which blossomed after World War II and through the Civil Rights Movement as places for middle-class and upper middle-class whites to establish self-contained communities set between the economic challenges of rural America and the racial and ethnic diversity of large cities, including Atlanta.
“Some of them are my very good friends,” Kramer said of Johns Creek’s many nonwhite residents. But the white Boston-area native, who moved to Georgia decades ago, argued that putting more Democrats in local office guarantees housing policy that would “change the demographics.” “I want us to be intentional ... so we give more Roswell residents the opportunity to work closer to home rather than be a bedroom community that feeds Atlanta and other suburbs,” he said. “I’m all about growing density, as long as we do it wisely.”“The other side is about bringing in new voters,” candidate Allen Sells, a self-described conservative, said at a recent event for several council hopefuls. “That’s what they’re all about.
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