I didn’t know much about her, so I linked a wiki bio below. This is a very good sign of the much anticipated Blue Tsunami I am praying for this November, and it’s these city and state offices that can effect real change at the Federal level.
Lance Bottoms?
How’d she find me porn name?
She probably wouldn’t have won without anti-Trump fervor in this heavily Democratic city, because she squeaked out a win despite being a remarkably unqualified and scandal-tainted candidate, by painting her relatively weak independent runoff opponent as a Republican partisan.
It helped that her mentor (departing mayor Kasim Reed) ran a nasty, scorched-Earth campaign on her behalf. She may turn out to be to Reed what Dmitry Medvedev was to Putin: A figurehead.
Thanks for the background. I will have to do some research as the article mentions corruption, but provides no citations.
To be clear and fair, Bottoms hasn’t been implicated in any illegalities. But there are numerous ethical issues that are of concern:
-
She accepted a $135,000/yr double-dipping appointment, when Mayor Reed essentially forced a city-county authority to give her the ED position at the city-county stadium authority, which is simply a “slush” agency that should have been disbanded years ago (it was created to manage a stadium that hasn’t even existed for 21 years). This was in addition to her $65k council position. Had it been a purely city appointment, it wouldn’t have been legal, but because it’s technically a city-county position, she got the slushy job through a technicality. This raised obvious conflict of interest questions.
-
In the midst of a major scandal involving city contractors (particularly at airport), she accepted an inordinate amount of money from airport and other city contractors. When it was discovered that one of the officers of a company implicated in the scandal had contributed, her campaign gave the money back — but she still quietly allowed the guy to co-chair a fundraiser for her. This Intercept article is about just a piece of that: https://theintercept.com/2017/11/04/atlanta-mayor-election-keisha-lance-bottoms/
-
There’s now a State Ethics Commission investigation into questionable disclosures from her campaign. http://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt--politics/ethics-commission-investigating-bottom-campaign-lack-disclosure/BYwLrRpEIw5YKF9AQUvLaO/
-
Her personal finances appear to be a mess (e.g. was behind on her city water bills for eight years – including when the city and county were paying her $200k!). And she only released a partial view of her tax returns, which was weird. http://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/elections/ballot/bottoms-releases-partial-tax-returns-following-norwoods-challenge/85-495743045
… and so on.
Who knows? She may very well turn out to be a great mayor. Because, as a council member, she was essentially a protege of the previous mayor with few achievements that could be separated from him, it’s difficult to say what she’ll do on her own (if in fact she will be “on her own”). Most likely, she’ll continue with his generally solid policies — he’s been great on a lot of things, including environmental stuff.
But the concern is that she’s unproven in a leadership position and could turn out to be a weak vessel for Reed behind-the-scenes “third term.” Although he clearly benefited from the business cycle, Reed, her mentor, was got a lot of good things done, but 1) the city contracting scandal (which may not have played out yet) did occur under his watch, and 2) he’s been scarily autocratic over the last couple of years.
A lot of reformist progressives were disappointed that the state Democratic Party went full force in for Bottoms in the runoff (and spent a shitload of money on her behalf), because it was a nonpartisan race. It’s unclear whether that bolstering the Atlanta Establishment machine will harm or help statewide Democratic races – Reed wasn’t very supportive of the state’s Democratic ticket in 2016, and it may be that some Democratic politician figured they needed to do him a favor to get more active support in 2018.
Kind thanks for the digging, it sheds some new light. Your comments above remind me of a certain orange septuagenarian occupying the highest office in the land. 
You aren’t the first person to draw parallels tw Reed’s ego and temperament, and Trump’s. That said, he’s a much competent public servant that Small Fingered Vulgarian.