As soon as a state Senate committee approved bills Monday morning to allow Buckhead voters to de-annex and create “the City of Buckhead City,” the powerful Buckhead Coalition mobilized to reach out to senators to vote against the measures.
In a letter obtained by the AJC, Buckhead Coalition president Eric Tanenblatt told senators the Buckhead-based business group “urges you in the strongest terms to oppose SB 113 and 114.”
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
Tanenblatt is a longtime Republican donor and top aide to former Gov. Sonny Perdue who now heads global public policy for Denton’s. He warned senators that the Buckhead bills would choke off economic development for the entire city because of the “significant and practical questions for which we have no answers,” including the future of bonds, infrastructure, utilities, and political instability in the neighborhood.
“Businesses crave, no they demand, stability in and confidence in local government. In practical terms, SB 113 and 114, creating a November 2024 referendum, would sow chaos and set us down a long path of uncertainty.”
Read more here about the Buckhead Cityhood push and the questions that remain about how a succession from Atlanta could be achieved.
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
MTG ON BUCKHEAD. Another non-Buckhead voice weighing in on the matter, all the way from Washington, was Rome congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Greene urged state senators to pass the measures and said in a Twitter post: “A vote against Buckhead city is a vote FOR crime. A vote for Buckhead city is a vote FOR freedom.”
She also said the process would allow Buckhead to separate from the “dangerous Democrat controlled city of Atlanta and be its own city,” although she did not mention that Buckhead, too, recently elected an all-Democratic slate of state lawmakers.
Like Greene, the lawmakers pushing for a vote on Buckhead City are not from Atlanta either.
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TABLES TURNED. U.S Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also posted on Twitter Monday night that she was confronted in Washington while out with staff prepping for today’s Coronavirus Select Committee meeting.
“I was attacked in a restaurant tonight by an insane women (sic) and screamed at by her adult son,” she said in a Twitter post. “They had no respect for the restaurant or the staff or the other people dining or people like me who simply have different political views.”
So far, footage and more details about what happened have not yet surfaced.
Greene herself is known for being publicly combative. Earlier this month, she heckled President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address.
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SCHOOL SAFETY. With Crossover Day nearing, there was plenty of action under the Gold Dome.
Lawmakers on Monday advanced the Buckhead City push, blocked the disclosure of some public records and new election measures that have drawn scathing criticism from voting rights activists. The rest of the week will bring other consequential votes.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Flying slightly under the radar was a school safety measure backed by Gov. Brian Kemp that incorporates more anti-gang training into k-12 curriculum, mandates that schools submit safety plans to state officials and requires them to hold an intruder alert drill every year.
The measure, House Bill 147, passed overwhelmingly on Monday in the House. But some Democrats warned about misplaced priorities. Several questioned why the state was taking new steps to protect schools rather than restrict guns.
State Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, pointed to a study that found higher stress levels among students after active shooter drills.
“It is worth discussing the risk versus benefit for mandating such drills,” she said, “and ask whether gun safety laws could do more to keep our schools safer.”
State Rep. Will Wade, R-Dawsonville, the measure’s sponsor, echoed other supporters by describing the measure as an important step to ensure students are safe in classrooms.
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Credit: T.J. Kirkpatrick/The New York Times
Credit: T.J. Kirkpatrick/The New York Times
BOTTOMS NEXT MOVES. “Never say never. I said that when I left the mayor’s office. Stay tuned.”
That’s what former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told your Insiders on whether she would run for office again now that she’s left the Biden administration.
President Joe Biden announced Monday that Steven Benjamin, the former mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, will replace Bottoms as a senior adviser and Director of the Office of Public Engagement.
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Credit: David Barnes/AJC
Credit: David Barnes/AJC
GANG VIOLENCE. Attorney General Chris Carr will hold a meeting Tuesday in Athens of his Georgia Anti-Gang Network. He’ll be joined by local, state and federal law enforcement officials from 2-4 p.m.
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Credit: Casey Sykes for the AJC
Credit: Casey Sykes for the AJC
UNDER THE GOLD DOME, Legislative Day 25:
- 8 a.m.: Committee meetings begin;
- 10 a.m.: The House gavels in;
- 10 a.m.: The Senate convenes.
- On our radar: Crossover Day on Monday.
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DATELINE: PLAINS. The AJC has a team of reporters and photographers in Plains to document the town and the people where former President Jimmy Carter has resided nearly his entire life.
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Credit: David Barnes for the AJC
Credit: David Barnes for the AJC
AG CULTURE. Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper was at the New Black Wall Street Market in Stonecrest over the weekend. Harper led a discussion on policies to promote Black farm ownership, as well as building generational wealth through agriculture.
Harper is a 7th generation farmer from Ocilla.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on a case filed by six conservative states challenging President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, as well as a separate case involving borrowers who object to the debt relief proposal.
- The U.S. House has a packed committee schedule, including an Armed Services Committee hearing on aid to Ukraine.
- The Senate continues its work on confirmations.
- Biden will deliver a speech in Virginia Beach on addressing health care costs.
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Credit: Courtesy Dar'Shun Kendrick
Credit: Courtesy Dar'Shun Kendrick
DOG OF THE DAY. It’s lawmaker week at the Dog of the Day, when we’re featuring the bipartisan buddies of your local elected officials.
Meet Dezzy, the six-year-old pit bull mix rescued by, and now the constant companion of state Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick, D-Lithonia.
Kendrick reports that she found Dezzy under a car, “so mixed with what I don’t know.” Dezzy’s hobbies include sleeping in random places, playing with family members and stealing stuffed animals off of beds.
Send us your pups of any political persuasion — and cats on a cat-by-case 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.
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