U.S. District Judge Steve Jones took nearly two years to issue his October order that struck down Georgia’s political maps. He’s working on a far tighter deadline to render his verdict on redrawn congressional and legislative maps.
Jones said during a Wednesday hearing that state officials informed him redistricting must be completed by Jan. 16 to be ready for next year’s voting. Later, state attorney Bryan Tyson said elections staffers need the maps by Jan. 29.
Either way, it’s a speedy time frame, which is why Jones seemed to narrow the scope of the arguments, asking pointed questions of the plaintiffs when they sought to assert fresh violations of the federal Voting Rights Act.
During the hourslong hearing, plaintiffs accused state Republicans of a game of whack-a-mole by redrawing districts without fundamentally changing the balance of power under the Gold Dome. State attorneys say the redrawn maps followed the judge’s ruling.
Though the legal battle over the maps could just be starting, Jones said he’ll render his decision “very quickly.”
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Ben Gray for the AJC
Ben Gray for the AJC
FAKE REPUBLICANS? After the AJC published a lengthy story about new efforts in two rural counties to control who can qualify as a Republican, far-right activist Kandiss Taylor interviewed one of the chief advocates of the power play on her social media page.
“That’s what we are trying to fight against — those people that call themselves Republican when they like big government, they’re OK with abortion and they don’t understand the need for the family unit,” said Chattooga GOP chair Jennifer Tudor. “If you say you’re a Republican, we want you to be a Republican.”
GOP leaders in Chattooga and Pickens counties recently adopted new rules to let local activists determine who is eligible to qualify as Republicans in county races, drawing criticism from some local GOP officials and prominent activists.
Tudor said the pushback has only emboldened her.
“The more that they harass me, the more they try to intimidate me, the more it makes me want to fight against them,” Tudor told Taylor.
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TNS
TNS
LISTEN UP. On lawmakers’ holiday gift want list were new security policies along the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. Senate leaders worked overtime this week to devise solutions to the immigration issue with hopes of packaging those ideas with aid funding for the wars in Ukraine and Israel.
They failed to deliver even a lump of coal, however, and on Tuesday adjourned until after the new year. On Wednesday’s “Politically Georgia” radio show, a former legislator familiar with the challenges of immigration reform, Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss, joined hosts Bill Nigut and Tia Mitchell to discuss the issue..
Listen at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. And catch “Politically Georgia” as it airs live at 10 a.m. every weekday on WABE 90.1 FM, at AJC.com and at WABE.org.
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Natrice Miller/AJC
Natrice Miller/AJC
FIRST IN CLASS. U.S. Rep. Mike Collins has officially become the first 2023 House freshman to have a bill he sponsored signed into law.
President Joe Biden signed off on the Jackson Republican’s legislation, the Testing, Rapid Analysis, and Narcotic Quality (TRANQ) Research Act, on Tuesday. The measure directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to deepen its research into synthetic opioids, particularly a type of tranquilizer that is often an additive to fentanyl.
“I am immensely proud to have the TRANQ Research Act be my first bill in Congress signed into law,” Collins said in a statement. “Our law enforcement personnel require additional resources to better combat the flood of synthetic opioids devastating American communities across the country and this bill accomplishes just that.”
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DO-NOTHING CONGRESS? House members might want to watch the “Schoolhouse Rock” episode about how a bill becomes a law during their holiday break. Legislation sponsored by Georgia U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R- Jackson, was one of only 27 bills enacted into law this year, a record low for congressional productivity.
A New York Times analysis published Wednesday documents the inefficiency of the GOP-led House, which held 724 votes in 2023. Compare that performance to 2022, when the House held 549 votes and 248 were signed into law.
The stat does deserve an asterisk. In 2022, Democrats controlled both the House and Senate and the president, Joe Biden, is also a member of the Democratic Party. The lawmaking environment was much more challenging this year, with the Republicans leading the House and Democrats holding power in the Senate and White House.
Even so, the 27 new laws is an unrivaled mark. The next least efficient year in recent history was 2013, when 72 bills were signed into law.
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John Spink/AJC
John Spink/AJC
TARGETED VOTERS. Republicans who have attempted to challenge the eligibility of voters in Georgia and five other states overwhelmingly targeted minorities and Democrats, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
Data from Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Texas and Virginia found that 76% of the defendants whose race or ethnicity could be identified were Black or Hispanic, while just 24% were white.
While tens of millions of votes were cast in these six states, the challenges only resulted in 47 convictions for wrongdoing, the Post reported. Georgia’s voter integrity unit was among three that hasn’t made a single conviction of fraud, alongside Virginia and Arkansas.
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SCOTUS WATCH. In the coming months, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to weigh in on several cases involving former President Donald Trump.
The most recent question before the court is whether states such as Colorado can ban Trump from the ballot using the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause. But special counsel Jack Smith has also asked justices to determine whether Trump is immune from being prosecuted for crimes he may have committed in office, as he has asserted.
The Supreme Court has also been asked to review whether the charge of “obstruction of an official proceeding” has been correctly applied to people accused of breaching the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Nathan Posner for the AJC
Nathan Posner for the AJC
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson is urging Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from the Trump immunity case because his wife, Ginni Thomas, was involved in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The Lithonia Democrat took the lead on a letter to Thomas also signed by seven other Democrats.
“These details about your wife’s activities raise serious questions about your ability to be or even to appear impartial in any cases before the Supreme Court involving the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection,” the letter says. “If you want to show the American people that the Supreme Court’s recent Code of Conduct is worth more than the paper it is written on, you must do the honorable thing and recuse yourself from any decisions in the case of United States v. Trump.”
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden has no public events scheduled.
- The Senate and House are on holiday break until after the new year.
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Courtesy image
Courtesy image
PERSONNEL MOVES. Georgia taxpayers have invested $276 million into expanding the Savannah Convention Center, a project championed by Gov. Brian Kemp. When the bigger building opens in 2024, the facility will have a new leader.
The Georgia World Congress Center Authority named Kelvin Moore as the riverfront venue’s next general manager earlier this week. Moore’s hiring is a coup — Savannah wooed him away from leading the country’s largest conference facility, Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center. He previously led Philadelphia’s biggest convention venue.
Moore, a Texas native, was introduced to Savannah business and government leaders on Wednesday at the convention center’s annual holiday luncheon.
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Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
DOG OF THE DAY. Even with mistletoe nowhere in sight, there are always smooches in the Webb house in Statesboro, thanks to Smooch Webb, the Australian sheepdog who calls Lynda and Charles Webb his people.
Smooch is a thespian by training, with credits such as a local production of “The Miracle Worker,” in which Smooch unwisely devoured fried chicken in an especially dramatic scene. Here, Smooch channels a lit Christmas tree. Our review: Bravo, Smooch! You’re our Dog of the Day. Mwah!
Send us your dogs of any political persuasion and location, and cats on a cat-by-cat basis, to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us at @MurphyAJC. We’ll consider them in 2024.
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HAPPY HOLIDAYS. After Friday’s newsletter, we’ll be taking off for a holiday break. On behalf of the Politically Georgia team, we wish peace and prosperity to you and yours.
We’ll return to our daily schedule on Jan. 2.
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AS ALWAYS, “Politically Georgia” readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com, and adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com.
