The people who distributed antisemitic flyers to dozens of metro Atlanta homes over the weekend may have inadvertently helped advocates push a long-sought legal protection for Jewish people.
The flyers were thrown into yards in several neighborhoods with significant Jewish populations, including that of state Rep. Esther Panitch, D-Sandy Springs, the only Jewish member of the Georgia General Assembly.
“Welcome to being a Jew in Georgia,” Panitch tweeted on Sunday, along with a picture of the flyers plopped on her Sandy Springs front lawn. “I’m coming for you with the weight of the state behind me,” she added.
Panitch and John Carson, R-Marietta, recently introduced House Bill 30, a measure that would provide an official state definition of antisemitism. Its passage could trigger enhanced penalties under the state’s new hate crimes law. The bill also has the support of House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration, the Dacula lawmaker who authored the original hate crimes law.
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
We heard from a spree of lawmakers on Sunday who anticipate that Panitch’s bill will now get a hard look. State Rep. Shea Roberts, D-Sandy Springs, said she’s “up for whatever we need to do at the Capitol or elsewhere.”
The Georgia House featured a bipartisan condemnation of the hate mailers.
“Saturday night over the cover of darkness, communities in North Fulton were visited by an old enemy: hatred,” said House Speaker Burns, a Republican from Newington. “I know all of you join with me in taking such incidents seriously.”
And Panitch was surrounded by state legislators on the chamber’s floor as she called for them to take action against anti-semitic bigotry.
“Unfortunately, it’s not the first time to be afraid as a Jew in the United States,” said Panitch. “Their stated goal is to destroy us, to kill Jews, to wipe us off the face of the Earth. We can do something, especially here, and we must.”
She added: “We need your help. We’ve had enough. We all know it might be the Jews today, but the same people will come after you tomorrow.”
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State Rep. Esther Panitch wasn’t the only one on the receiving end of the fliers over the weekend, which were linked to the Goyim Defense League and White Lives Matter. They are two organizations defined by the Anti-Defamation League as racist networks targeting the Jewish community.
Neighborhoods in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs were also peppered with the leaflets overnight Saturday, including several within walking distance of the Marcus Jewish Community Center in Dunwoody. One of your insiders was also a target.
The reaction by state and local leaders was swift. Law enforcement officials in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs immediately launched investigations, and Gov. Brian Kemp offered state resources to help. An avalanche of civic, political and religious leaders condemned the hate, too.
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VP VISIT. Vice President Kamala Harris’ first trip following Tuesday night’s State of the Union address will be to Atlanta to reinforce President Joe Biden’s economic message.
The White House has not yet provided details about where Harris will be nor whether the Wednesday event will be open to the public.
During Tuesday night’s address, Biden is expected to highlight better-than-expected economic news, including increased wages, slowing inflation, and the lowest unemployment rate in 53 years. The president will also discuss ways the bipartisan infrastructure law will improve roads and bridges, boost domestic manufacturing and create green energy programs.
Harris will be making her first trip to the region since January 2022, when she and Biden delivered speeches on voting rights from the Atlanta University Center. Biden was in Atlanta last month to visit Ebenezer Baptist Church and deliver the Sunday message on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
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ON THEIR MINDS. Democratic activists from across the nation gathered in Philadelphia over the weekend to vote on a revamped presidential primary calendar.
The good news for Georgia Democrats — national leaders gave the green light to move Georgia’s presidential primary way up in the 2024 presidential nominating order to become the fourth state to cast its ballots. Georgia’s proposed primary would happen Feb. 13, following new first-in-the-nation state South Carolina on Feb. 3, and New Hampshire and Nevada on Feb. 6.
The bad news for Georgia Democrats is that they need help from Georgia Republicans to make the move happen, help that doesn’t seem to be on the way.
GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has said he won’t move the Democratic primary without moving the GOP primary, too. But national Republicans have promised to penalize any state that gets out of the current GOP nominating order, including Georgia.
The result seems to be an impasse for now, although national Democrats have extended the deadline for states to make necessary changes, even if there’s little path for those changes to happen.
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WATCHING THE POTS. Speaking of the Democratic National Committee, we’re expecting news any day about the party’s choice of city for the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
Atlanta is on the short list for potential hosts, along with Chicago.
Separately, we’re also watching for news out of the Fulton County District Attorney’s office following the special grand jury investigation into possible 2020 election interference.
At a hearing more than a week ago, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said a decision about whether to seek indictments in the case was “imminent.”
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
TERAN AUTOPSY. The controversy over Atlanta’s planned law enforcement training center seems far from over, with the parents of Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran planning at 10 a.m. news conference this morning calling for more information about how their son was killed.
Teran, an activist protesting the training center, was shot dead last month by Georgia state troopers conducting a “sweep” of the land where the training center is planned. Troopers said Teran shot at them without warning, but Teran’s parents describe him as a “pacifist.”
A recently released autopsy showed Teran was shot 13 times, our colleague Tyler Estep reports. The incident is under state investigation.
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Credit: AJC file photo
Credit: AJC file photo
CASE DISMISSED. A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by a failed Georgia congressional candidate against his primary opponent and Fox News.
Wayne Johnson, who finished third in the Republican primary in Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District, sued the conservative news channel and Jeremy Hunt, the candidate who finished first last year. Johnson alleged that Fox conspired to get Hunt elected by repeatedly having him on as a guest even after he declared candidacy, which Johnson said amounted to unlawfully promoting Hunt’s campaign.
U.S. District Judge Clay Land dismissed the suit on Friday, as first reported by Columbus’ WRBL News 3. Land wrote that the actions outlined in Johnson’s suit fell far short of justifying claims of racketeering and fraud.
The judge also noted that Johnson’s case was an unfortunate sign of the times.
“In today's “stop the steal" era, where litigious losing politicians seem to have as many lawyers on the campaign team as they do media consultants, one perhaps should not be surprised by the present lawsuit.
“Notwithstanding the general emergence of political campaign grievance litigation, Plaintiffs' specific complaint here is not plausible."
Chris West ultimately won the GOP runoff, but lost to Democratic incumbent Sanford Bishop in the general election.
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Credit: AJC file photo
Credit: AJC file photo
UNDER THE GOLD DOME:
- 8 a.m.: Committee hearings begin;
- 10 a.m.: The House gavels in;
- 10 a.m.: The Senate convenes.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- The U.S. House and Senate are back in action.
- President Joe Biden is returning to the White House from Camp David.
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Credit: Vino Wong/AJC
Credit: Vino Wong/AJC
COMMITTEE UPDATES.
- Just in time for the Farm Bill reauthorization, U.S. Rep. Austin Scott has been named vice chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Scott, a Tifton Republican, will also chair the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit.
- U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk will serve as vice chairman of the House Administration Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight. This is the Cassville Republicans’ second vice chairmanship. We reported last month that he will also serve as vice chairman of one of the Financial Services Committee’s subcommittees.
- U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, has learned that she will serve on the Financial Services Committee’s subcommittees on Housing and Insurance and on Oversight and Investigation.
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Credit: Bob Andres/AJC
Credit: Bob Andres/AJC
WATCHDOG. Former U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland has been reappointed to the Office of Congressional Ethics by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Westmoreland has been serving on the House’s independent ethics panel since 2019. A Republican, he represented Georgia in Congress from 2005 to 2016.
Last month, McCarthy also imposed several changes to the OCE as a part of the House rules package, which Democrats warned would gut the office’s effectiveness.
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Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
ROCKY THOUGHT. Two Tennessee Republicans have introduced a measure to rename a portion of John Lewis Way in downtown Nashville to Donald Trump Boulevard, the Tennessean reports.
Before Lewis lived in Atlanta, he attended Fisk University in Nashville. He also organized lunch counter sit-ins there, which led to the city’s move to desegregate public spaces.
The piece of road up for renaming also happens to house the Tennessee legislative office building, which means lawmakers would go to work on Trump every day.
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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.
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