Two weeks ago, state Rep. Mesha Mainor made headlines by ditching Democrats for the GOP. Now, Democrats can claim their own success with a lesser-known flip.
Cobb Tax Commissioner Carla Jackson is abandoning the GOP to run for another term next year as a Democrat. Jackson, who was appointed to the post in 2014, was reelected as a Republican in 2016 and 2020.
She told The Marietta Daily Journal she initially declared herself a Republican because she felt comfortable with the party’s platform, though she said the GOP has moved away from her in recent years.
Jackson announced the switcheroo days after Jan Becker, a longtime staffer in the office, said she would challenge Jackson as a Democrat. Becker accused her opponent of switching for political convenience.
You can forgive Becker for thinking that way. Since 2020, most countywide offices in Cobb are now held by Democrats, and President Joe Biden carried the county by 14 points.
Former state Rep. Erick Allen, a local Democratic mover-and-shaker, said he’s been in contact with Jackson for months and welcomed her to the party. He said the local Cobb party won’t get involved in the primary.
Then he nodded to Mainor’s flip: “The Democratic addition is far better than what defected.”
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Credit: Michael Blackshire/AJC
Credit: Michael Blackshire/AJC
BELTLINE. As he highlighted a $25 million federal grant to finish a stretch of the Beltline, Sen. Jon Ossoff locked eyes with Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry and pointedly thanked the official for attending.
“This is a team effort,” the Democrat said to McMurry, who serves with Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration.
The grant was financed by the federal infrastructure law, which passed Congress in 2021 with bipartisan support — but over the objection of every Republican member of Georgia’s delegation.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC
Asked about McMurry’s participation, Ossoff focused on the bipartisan support for the federal law — and abstained from taking shots at any of the measure’s GOP opponents.
“We brought Democrats and Republicans in Congress together to pass a historic investment in America’s infrastructure,” he said. “Georgia is benefiting tremendously from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”
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Credit: Hyosub Shin / AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin / AJC
DOUBLE DOWN. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is leaning into the backlash that has made country music star Jason Aldean a villain to many on the left and a hero to culture warriors on the GOP’s conservative flank.
The Republican last week trumpeted his support for Aldean, a Jones ally whose controversial song “Try That in a Small Town” has logged millions of views and streams since CMT pulled the music video last week.
“I’m proud to be from a small town, and I’m proud of the small-town values that have shaped our nation for generations,” Jones said in a fundraising appeal.
“Jason and I share these same values — and we won’t back down in the fight to defend them against the left’s baseless attacks and relentless attempts to undermine our Georgia way of life.”
Aldean performs the song in front of a Tennessee courthouse was the site of a race riot in 1946 and the 1927 lynching of a Black teenager, and critics see the lyrics as a “dog whistle” for white supremacists.
The singer said the criticism “goes too far” and that there’s no lyric in the song that “references race or points to it.”
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
CORRECTING THE RECORD. U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk wants you to know that a Fox News report about delays in processing passports was wrong in saying members of Congress “can’t assist” frustrated constituents.
The Cassville Republican sent a news release that said the report “is not completely accurate” and that he and other members of Congress are working to help those affected by a slow turnaround in processing passports.
“In Georgia’s 11th Congressional District, our excellent constituent services team has processed over 600 passport cases since January, most of them successfully,” the news release said.
Assisting with passport issues is a behind-the-scenes task that constituent services staffers deal with on a daily basis, in addition to providing assistance navigating federal agencies like Veterans Affairs.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
‘PATRIOT’ PROTECTION. U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens, is among 20 conservative lawmakers getting backup from the Club for Growth PAC.
Politico reports that the group plans to spend $20 million on the so-called “Patriot 20″ as a warning shot in case Kevin McCarthy’s allies try to oust hard-right members who attempted to block him from becoming speaker.
The Club for Growth said it will focus most intently on defending five vulnerable freshmen in the group. Clyde, meanwhile, is in a deep-red district centered in northeast Georgia.
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Credit: Courtesy Mamie Till Mobley Family/The New York Times
Credit: Courtesy Mamie Till Mobley Family/The New York Times
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden will sign a proclamation establishing three monument sites in Illinois and Mississippi dedicated to Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Today would have been Emmett Till’s 82th birthday.
- Later, Biden will deliver remarks about expanding access to mental health care.
- The U.S. House and Senate begin a final week of votes before the scheduled August recess.
- The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law will discuss ways to regulate artificial intelligence technology.
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Credit: John Spink/AJC
Credit: John Spink/AJC
IN MEMORIAM. Tom Moreland, the longtime Georgia transportation commissioner who later founded a successful engineering firm, died Monday.
Moreland spent more than 30 years at GDOT, rising to chief engineer before serving as commissioner from 1975 to 1987, the AJC’s David Wickert writes.
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Credit: Jenni Girtman for the AJC
Credit: Jenni Girtman for the AJC
QUICK HITS.
- Gov. Brian Kemp is joining a long-running movement to nix a U.S. Supreme Court case that gave federal agencies wide latitude to interpret ambiguous provisions in the law.
- Georgia’s top transportation official will get his third $100,000 raise in recent years, boosting Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry’s annual pay to $550,000.
- Atlanta has emerged as the front-runner to be the next home of the U.S. Soccer Federation’s headquarters and training center. The sport is now headquartered in Chicago, and officials are deciding between Atlanta and Cary, North Carolina.
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DOG OF THE DAY. The Dog of the Day is taking vacation this week, but will be back on July 31.Send us your dogs of any political persuasion and cats on a cat-by-cat basis to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us on Twitter @MurphyAJC.
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AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
