The Buckhead cityhood proposal may have gotten all the publicity heading into this year’s special legislative session, but the surprise bills from GOP state Sen. Clint Dixon reconfiguring Gwinnett County government have become the local legislation nobody saw coming.
Along with taking nearly everyone on Gwinnett government by surprise, the move has several insiders wondering if it could inadvertently land the GOP in legal hot water, since the proposals could affect minority representation in the majority-minority county.
Former House minority leader Bob Trammell, who had more than $1 million of outside money flood into his race to defeat him in 2020, knows a thing or two about last-minute maneuvers. He warned on Twitter Thursday night that the bills could flag the state for more intense scrutiny of everything else happening in this month’s special redistricting session.
“I’m just a country lawyer, but this might also just be a neatly wrapped gift to the legal team looking to challenge legislative and Congressional maps drawn in the very same special session,” Trammell wrote. “Would have thought don’t do anything stupid would have been best legal advice.”
Dixon and GOP state Rep. Chuck Efstration defended their proposals to make elections to the county school board nonpartisan and expand the county commission from five seats to nine at a state Senate hearing Thursday.
But they got heated pushback from Democrats asking why they had not discussed the legislation with Gwinnett’s legislative delegation, which is majority Democratic, nor any of the members of the boards in question, which are both majority Democratic and majority Black.
“Did any of the commissioners come to you and say, ‘Look, our job is unwieldy’...did they ask for this bill?” state Sen. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, asked the two Republicans.
Efstration said the concept of expanding the commission has a long bi-partisan history, although no Democrats were asked about it in advance of introducing it this time around.
He also denied that the two bills are a response to the majority Black makeup of the two boards. In the past, Efstration has led efforts in the House to pass hate crimes legislation and overhaul Georgia’s citizens’ arrest law after the death of Ahmaud Arbery.
But state Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, wasn’t persuaded. “How is it that I’m supposed to interpret these bills any other way than that there is a racial overtone to it?” he said.
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UNDER THE GOLD DOME, Nov. 12, 2021
- 9:00 a.m.: The Senate convenes;
- 9:30 a.m.: The House gavels in;
- 12:00 p.m.: The only hearing of the day, on retirement security, begins.
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A mayoral runoff debate between Andre Dickens and Felicia Moore has been scheduled for next Tuesday, Nov. 16.
It’s the first televised debate between the two since the huge field of hopefuls was narrowed to a two-person race.
GPB’s Donna Lowry will moderate, while our own J.D. Capelouto and WSB-TV anchor Dave Huddleston will ask the questions.
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One faceoff we’ll be watching in 2022 will be the GOP lieutenant governor primary between Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller and state Sen. Burt Jones.
But instead of talking about the next election, these two are still talking about the last election, despite the multiple counts, recounts, legal challenges and audits that have upheld the 2020 results in Georgia.
“People are still upset about no action as far as getting to the bottom of the ballots, particularly in Fulton County, not having an audit, not having a clear picture of what happened last election cycle,” Jones said on the John Fredericks Show earlier this week. “While I know a lot of my colleagues would like it to go away, it’s not going away.”
But Miller isn’t one of those Republicans who wants it to go away. The Senate leader recently wrote a letter pushing for specific on a Fulton County audit, which Jones has not yet signed on to.
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President Joe Biden will sign the bipartisan infrastructure measure into law on Monday.
At least two Georgians are expected to attend: U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, the state Democratic party chair; and state Rep. Billy Mitchell, who is president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.
Also on Monday, Biden will sign U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s bill to increase funding for transit planning in both low-income & low-density areas.
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Speaking of infrastructure, Gov. Brian Kemp and the First Lady will be in Garden City Friday cutting the ribbon on the Georgia Ports Authority’s Mason Mega Rail Terminal.
According to Kemp’s office, the governor will also talk about the supply chain issues affecting shipping and shopping across the country-- and what the Georgia ports are trying to do to make it better.
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U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock honored Veterans Day by announcing he partnered with other Democrats to introduce bills that will help Black World War II veterans access G.I. Bill benefits they were denied or had a hard time accessing decades ago.
More from the Associated Press:
The new legislative effort would benefit surviving spouses and all living descendants of Black WWII veterans whose families were denied the opportunity to build wealth with housing and educational benefits through the GI Bill.
Since 1944, those benefits have been offered to millions of veterans transitioning to civilian life. But due to racism and discrimination in how they were granted through local Veterans Affairs offices, many Black WWII veterans received substantially less money toward purchasing a home or continuing their education.
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The trial of the men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery received increased attention Thursday after video circulated of a defense attorney saying he wanted “Black pastors” to be barred from sitting in court with Arbery’s loved ones.
The AJC’s Shaddi Abusaid and Bill Rankin are covering the trial in Brunswick and wrote this dispatch:
“We don't want any more Black pastors coming in here," Kevin Gough, who represents William “Roddie" Bryan, told the judge before the jury returned from their lunch break.
… Gough was referring to an appearance by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who sat in on some of Wednesday's court proceedings and held a lunchtime prayer vigil outside the courthouse. During his remarks on the courthouse steps, Sharpton criticized the racial composition of the nearly all-white jury overhearing the case, calling it “an insult to the intelligence of the American people."
Judge Timothy Walmsley said the trial is public and he wouldn't exclude anyone from observing as long as they weren't a distraction.
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Incarcerated individuals housed in rural prisons help inflate population counts for redistricting, but the same prisoners cannot vote in elections in Georgia, the AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu reports:
Despite the fact that those in prisons and detention centers across the state often aren't from where they're held, the government counts them as residents of those counties where the correctional facilities are located. That could put a thumb on the scale for those parts of Georgia when it comes to divvying the state into political districts.
It means inmates boost the population for counties that have prisons and give them the same or more political clout than some larger counties without prisons, even though the prisoners can't vote if they've been convicted of a felony. Most of the state's prison counties are in rural areas that are losing population.
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We’ve said it once, we’ll say it again: Hail to the chief. Longtime AJC Columnist and Jolt creator Jim Galloway was inducted last night into the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame.
Chief was honored along with Marshall Latimore, Billye Aaron, Rebecca Burns and Paul Hempill. AJC Editor Kevin Riley brought Chief to the stage with a dramatic reading of a Galloway yarn about 10 goats and a sheep named goat.
Spotted in the audience were other legends and characters saluting their own-- Bill Nigut, Maria Saporta, Andrew Young, Janis Ware, Donna Lowry and many more.
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Funeral details were announced Thursday for the late Sen. Max Cleland.
He’ll be buried with full military honors at the Georgia National Cemetery in Cherokee County. Cleland worked for more than 20 years to create the veterans cemetery during his time at the VA and in the Senate.
The former senator and Vietnam veteran will be laid to rest next week alongside his mother and father, a veteran from World War II.
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Since it’s Friday, we always like to send you into the weekend with our longer- form columns to spend time with and, hopefully, enjoy.
- Patricia’s column for the late U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, “To Max Cleland, with thanks;”
- Jamie Dupree’s Thursday D.C. dispatch, “Democrats go hot and cold on taxing the wealthy;” and
- Patricia’s Veterans Day column about a fallen Atlanta soldier who might have gone on to great heights in politics right here in Georgia, “Remembering Lieutenant Brown.”
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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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