More than 60% of voters living in Buckhead do not want the north Atlanta community to secede from the city, according to a poll commissioned by a group opposed to cityhood efforts.
The Committee for a United Atlanta announced June 9 that 61% of likely Buckhead voters said they want to remain in the city of Atlanta, according to a poll it commissioned. The poll showed 30% of voters would vote in favor of Buckhead becoming its own city, according to the group.
The survey of 380 likely Buckhead voters was conducted by 20/20 Insight from May 21-25.
“Further, almost every demographic group would stay in Atlanta, which includes 56% of white voters and 86% of Black voters. Every age group opposes cityhood, as well as men and women,” said a written statement from Edward Lindsey and Linda Klein, co-chairs of the Committee for a United Atlanta. Lindsey is an attorney with Dentons and a former state representative; Klein is senior managing shareholder at Baker Donelson and past president of the American Bar Association.
The poll also shows that 55% of Buckhead voters rated Mayor Andre Dickens as “excellent” or “good” with 26% rating him negatively, according to the group.
“We are working closely with Mayor Dickens, the City Council and business and civic leaders so that we can collectively address the serious issues that we face, such as violent crime, in our community and the city at large,” said the statement from Lindsey and Klein.
“We will also continue to push back against untruthful, self-destructive, and divisive efforts by those who want to break-up Atlanta,” they said.
A January poll commissioned by the Committee for a United Atlanta showed 51% opposed Buckhead becoming its own city.
Bill White, the controversial CEO of the Buckhead City Committee, dismissed the Committee for a United Atlanta’s poll as “divisive” and “untruthful.” He said in an email that his group’s polling shows 72% of Buckhead voters support a referendum on cityhood.
White also pointed to the May 24 primary when roughly 860,000 voters across the state who pulled a Republican ballot said they supported Buckhead residents having a a chance to vote on cityhood.
The question was added to the Republican ballot after efforts to get a Buckhead cityhood referendum on the November 2022 ballot was blocked by Republican leaders at this year’s legislative session.
White also said a survey of 380 people for the Committee for a United Atlanta poll was insignificant, adding that he and his husband had 700 people at their wedding.
“Despite the loser Lt. Gov. [Geoff] Duncan blocking our right to vote in 2022, our 3,500 yard signs remain up all over because people are never giving up till we do vote,” White said.