The 2023 Mableton mayoral election took place on March 21, 2023 in the Atlanta suburb of Mableton, Georgia, with a runoff held on April 18, 2023 as no candidate got 50% of the vote in the general election. Aaron Carman gained the most votes in the first round but lost the runoff to former Cobb County Democratic Committee chair Michael Owens who became the first mayor of Mableton, Georgia in over 100 years.[1] Despite the runoff election being described as historic, only 6,113 votes were cast and voter turnout remained low at 12.9% of 47,200 registered voters.[2][3]
2023 Mableton mayoral election
March 21, 2023 (first round) April 18, 2023 (runoff)
Mableton had previously been incorporated as a city on August 19, 1912 but was disincorporated four years later when a flood overwhelmed its sewer system.[4][5] The nonprofit organization South Cobb Alliance started the campaign for Mableton to be incorporated.[5] Mableton was the last of four proposed new cities in Metro Atlanta to be approved; the other three, East Cobb, Lost Mountain and Vinings, all failed to be incorporated as municipalities in referendums.[6] In May 2022, Brentin Mock of Bloomberg News described the city movement in Metro Atlanta as being "defeated".[6] Though Mock reported that Mableton was different as it was the only one out of the four to have a majority non-white population and is assembling around "principles of diversity, affordability and inclusive voting rights".[5] Politically, Mableton is in Cobb County whose board of commissioners was majority white and Republican for most of its history, until 2020 when it became majority black and Democrat.[5] According to a preliminary analysis from Cobb County, the incorporation of Mableton would result in a net annual loss of $8 million from the city's budget after accounting for the services that the county would no longer provide for it.[5]
In November 2022, the city was reincorporated in an election with 53% of the vote and a margin of just over 1,700 votes.[7] The majority of no votes were concentrated in the north of Mableton, where household income is higher.[8] Human resources director Mark Sette said it was a "power grab" to annex unincorporated areas of north Mableton to "pay for all of the projects that they want down there [in south Mableton]".[8] Thousands of people signed a petition to de-annex areas that voted no from the city.[9] Mableton was different in that the supporters of de-annexation were multi-racial and multi-generational while organizers of similar secession movements tended to be mainly older white residents.[8]
Michael Owens stated that he was not against de-annexation but that his focus was on the majority of Mableton residents who wish to be in the city.[10] LaTonia Long and Michael Murphy both opposed de-annexation.[10] Mayoral candidate Aaron Carman said that he supported the people involved in the de-annexation effort but stated that if the de-annexation efforts do not pass, Mableton needed someone that could "bring the city together".[10] State representative David Wilkerson submitted two de-annexation bills that would have allowed some areas to de-annex from Mableton but both failed in the Georgia General Assembly.[11] A compromise bill in response to the bills submitted by Wilkerson was drafted by state representatives Terry Cummings and Michael Smith but this also failed as it was not published in time.[12][11]
LaTonia Long, public policy manager and former chief of staff to state senator Gloria Butler[14](eliminated in the first round, endorsed Owens in runoff)[15]
Michael Murphy, business owner, chair of the Georgia Black Republican Council and former aide to Cobb County Chairman Mike Boyce[16][17](eliminated in the first round, endorsed Owens in runoff)[15]
