Brandon Cory Goldberg

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Brandon Cory Goldberg

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 2, 2021

Education

Bachelor's

Cornell University, 2007

Law

Emory University, 2010

Personal

Birthplace

New Brunswick, N.J.

Religion

Jewish

Profession

Attorney

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Campaign Instagram

Brandon Cory Goldberg ran for election to the Atlanta City Council to represent At-large Post 1 in Georgia. He lost in the general election on November 2, 2021.

Goldberg completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Brandon Cory Goldberg was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He graduated from Cornell University in 2007 and received his J.D. from Emory University in 2010. Goldberg's professional experience includes working as an attorney. He has been associated with the following organizations:

• American Jewish Committee
• Member, Atlanta Executive Board
• Former Co-Chair, ACCESS (Young Professionals Division)
• Democratic Party of Georgia
• Chair, Mid-Fulton Democrats
• State Committee Member
• Delegate, 2018 Democratic Party State Convention
• Member, Young Democrats of Atlanta (YDATL)
• Red Clay Democrats

Elections

2021

See also: City elections in Atlanta, Georgia (2021)

General election

General election for Atlanta City Council At-large Post 1

Incumbent Michael Julian Bond defeated Brandon Cory Goldberg, Alfred Brooks, Todd Gray, and Jereme Sharpe in the general election for Atlanta City Council At-large Post 1 on November 2, 2021.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michael Julian Bond (Nonpartisan)	58.9	51,116
		Brandon Cory Goldberg (Nonpartisan)	15.7	13,641
		Alfred Brooks (Nonpartisan)	11.7	10,134
	Submit photo	Todd Gray (Nonpartisan)	8.0	6,931
		Jereme Sharpe (Nonpartisan)	5.1	4,438
		Other/Write-in votes	0.6	527

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 86,787
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign themes

2021

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Brandon Cory Goldberg completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Goldberg's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Brandon is a graduate of Cornell University and the Emory University School of Law. An attorney and resident of Midtown, he is extensively involved in Atlanta. From the Stonewall Bar Association to the Atlanta Black-Jewish Coalition to the Democratic Party, Brandon has immersed himself in the fabric of Atlanta - striving to help build bridges and working hard to make Atlanta a city for all its residents. He is also a member of one of Atlanta’s oldest synagogues, Ahavath Achim.

Brandon’s family has a long history of public service and community engagement. His maternal grandparents were small business owners. They were also public servants, spending parts of their careers working for the Post Office and the Social Security Administration. His paternal grandparents, both immigrants, persevered to build their American dream. His grandfather ran a poultry business that grew over time to be a thriving wholesale company. His grandmother was a stay at home mom who went on to work in her daughter’s dress shop. Brandon’s father administered a non-profit nursing home, and his mother worked with special needs students. The organizations they volunteered with are too numerous to count.

Brandon’s engagement in Atlanta is reflected in the constant meetings and events that he leads. Working with friends, community partners, and people from all walks of life, Brandon’s favorite way to spend his time is helping one of his many organizations better Atlanta.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• We need to end the division in our city.
• We need to find sustainable solutions to our problems with buy-in from people of different backgrounds and perspectives.
• My experience is in solving problems by working with people who disagree with each other. That's what Atlanta needs now.

Community Question Featured local question

How would you address crime and public safety? Do you have a different stance than current city council policy?

Atlanta should recruit police from all corners of our city. Our police should live locally to their patrols, so that there’s built in trust with their neighbors and small business owners. We need to make sure police are well trained and well compensated. That way, we will retain our officers and provide them with the education they need to do their job effectively and equitably.

Police alternatives are also critical. I fully support expanding PAD’s resources to ensure they are not only available city-wide, but that PAD actually has the ability to respond city-wide. We need to reserve our police for instances of true public safety issues. PAD and the police should coordinate to ensure all of our responses provide safety for the responders. Additionally, we should not be sending our police to respond to issues like zoning violations. The zoning authority should be handling those issues. The presence of police escalates situations; their very uniform creates heightened tension. And so, we should focus on enforcing our laws and providing a safe city for our residents while recognizing that different issues call for different responses.

A recently passed state law limits the ability of Atlanta to redirect funds from the police department to other possible responses. However, those alternatives can be operated bureaucratically from within APD. For example, we can expand the presence of social workers in the field by having those social workers operate as part of APD. While this will make expanding PAD difficult as PAD is external to APD, this new law is a hurdle rather than a wall. We should work with public and private external partners to help fund police alternatives too. This is currently done with PAD, and it should be expanded to help provide the financing necessary.

Community Question Featured local question

What do you think about the transit options currently available in Atlanta? Would you make any changes?

I commuted on MARTA for six years until the start of the pandemic. I strongly favor expanding MARTA and making it user friendly and safe for all passengers. I also favor simplifying the MARTA bus system; for those who do not currently take the bus, the system is so difficult to learn that a barrier to entry exists. As with all aspects of city government, I favor regular auditing and oversight to ensure projects are completed in a timely and proper manner. More MARTA is simply a more extensive example of such a project, requiring even more extensive oversight. Of course, the pandemic inevitably delayed aspects of the project. However, delays are a recurring problem with projects in Atlanta and with MARTA. Once revised timeframes for More MARTA are finalized, Council should receive regular update reports. If aspects of the project fall behind, officials should appear before Council to explain why there has been a delay and what is being done to get back on track.

The city’s oversight on More MARTA and MARTA generally should be directed toward ensuring excellence in leadership. Candidates for city appointment to the MARTA board should face a full confirmation process from Council. They should have their previous accomplishments reviewed and be subject to rigorous questioning from members of Council. This does not mean an adversarial process. Council should use these hearings as an opportunity to explore the competence and skillset of nominees and ensure that the confirmation process results in Council approving only the best for the job.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I have spent years serving in leadership roles across numerous organizations. These organizations are of varied types, including professional, religious, political, and other community engagements. Much of my involvement has been centered on bringing people from different backgrounds together, and serving in leadership roles throughout these organizations has given me a great deal of insight and experience into various facets of our city and the challenges we face. Indeed, it has been this extensive experience that drove my decision to assemble campaign advisory committees filled with folks who I’ve worked with through these various organizations. My committees are: Public Safety, COVID-19 Economic Recovery, Housing Equity, Transportation, and Diversity. The impressive community and business leaders serving on these committees are my greatest endorsements. They include representation from numerous backgrounds and walks of life, and their insight has been incredible as we study and craft solutions for the issues challenging Atlanta. More information can be found here:
https://www.brandoncorygoldberg.com/advisorycommittees

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

My extensive experience in community organizations spans numerous categories of groups. From political to professional to religious, much of my engagement has been in inter-ethnic and inter-religious dialogue. I have years of experience bringing people from different perspectives and backgrounds together to tackle difficult issues. It is exactly that kind of bridge building that Atlanta needs. The biggest issue facing our city is our lack of unity. It impacts our public safety problems, housing equity disparities, and transportation limitations. All someone needs to do is look at the runoff map from the 2017 mayoral race to see that Atlanta is severely divided. It is divided along racial lines, ideological lines, and in numerous other ways. My experience is in bringing people together, and only by doing that will Atlanta be able to move forward on all of the other issues challenging us.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Tell us your favorite joke.

Have you heard of the cat union?
What do they want? Change! When do they want it? Meow!

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Note: Community Questions were submitted by the public and chosen for inclusion by a volunteer advisory board. The chosen questions were modified by staff to adhere to Ballotpedia’s neutrality standards. To learn more about Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection Expansion Project, click here.

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Candidate

Atlanta City Council At-large Post 1

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