The latest version of the national Democratic Party platform opposes “partisan power grabs” of public infrastructure projects, language intended to make it more difficult for supporters of a long-standing Republican effort to assert more control over Atlanta’s busy airport.
The provision, tucked into the 80-page party platform, said that Democrats will ensure that “local jurisdictions are adequately protected” from partisan efforts to strip them of transportation assets. It adds that Democrats will “ensure robust federal oversight of any proposed transfers” of those projects.
The language showcases Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ influence in national politics. Bottoms, a potential vice presidential nominee, was tapped by Democratic officials to lead the drafting committee, which includes more than a dozen high-profile members.
Bottoms has come under sharp criticism from some Atlantans who say her rising national profile has distracted her from pressing local issues, but officials say the platform’s draft reflects how her clout could aid the city’s top priorities.
“Atlanta should be grateful — and I’m grateful — that Vice President Joe Biden chose Mayor Bottoms to help write our party’s platform,” said City Councilman Matt Westmoreland, who isn’t considered a staunch ally of the mayor.
Another city councilman, J.P. Matzigkeit, also backed Bottoms.
“It’s not like we are Cuba or Venezuela,” Matzigkeit said. “Is the state going to start taking over any city operation that they want to?”
The mayor, who didn’t immediately comment Tuesday, has warned that giving the state control of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is tantamount to declaring war on the city, and she’s made opposing the takeover effort her administration’s top priority in the Georgia Capitol since she took office in 2018.
She and other city officials say the airport has become the world’s busiest, and one of the most efficient, under Atlanta’s watch. They say any takeover would bring financial instability to the city — and a wave of costly litigation seeking to block it.
Though efforts to give the state more control over the airport have surfaced over the years, they were quickly quashed by then-Gov. Nathan Deal and others.
But an ongoing federal corruption probe into City Hall has fueled a new push from Republicans to cast a takeover as necessary to protect the state’s economic engine. They also found a more receptive audience in recently elected Republican leaders, including Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan.
With no staunch opposition from the top levels of state government, the takeover legislation remained in play all the way into the final day of last year’s session of the General Assembly before failing to gain passage.
Kemp was pointedly silent about the legislation, though he later said he was thankful that “nothing actually happened.” A 2019 memo obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution went a step further, asserting that Kemp outright opposed the measure and was confident in Bottoms’ leadership.
Since then, however, the relationship between the two politicians has frayed over matters of public safety and public health. Kemp sued Bottoms and the Atlanta City Council last month over her mask mandate and other coronavirus restrictions, and settlement talks have yet to yield an agreement.
Kemp’s office declined to comment, though his supporters note that he could be more likely to back a takeover after his fallout with Bottoms. Still, state Sen. Burt Jones, the measure’s chief sponsor, said he’s uncertain whether he’d introduce it again next year.
“I don’t know if I’ll push it,” he said. “It’s a heavy lift, and unless you get signoff from the powers that be, you wonder if it’s worth fighting an uphill battle.”
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