Early voting in the race for Atlanta mayor, city council, and hundreds of other municipal races across Georgia begins today.
Here’s a glimpse of what to watch in the final, frenzied, three-week sprint to the finish in the race for Atlanta City Hall and other contests your Insiders are keeping an eye on:
Can anyone catch Kasim Reed and Felicia Moore?
If no candidates get a majority of the vote on Election Day, the polls and other key metrics point to a showdown between Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and City Council President Felicia Moore. The two have also sharply clashed with one another in recent debates and forums, sometimes ignoring other candidates.
But with some polls showing more than one-third of voters undecided, the other credible contenders – City Councilmembers Antonio Brown and Andre Dickens, and attorney Sharon Gay – are racing to assert themselves.
Gay has pumped more than $1.1 million of her own money into the race and has increasingly criticized Reed’s record in office while highlighting her own struggles to succeed in a male-dominated world of politics and law.
Dickens has tangled with Reed, too, over what he described as a culture of corruption in City Hall on his watch. That led to a rejoinder from the former mayor about Dickens’ personal finances, including a 2011 bankruptcy.
And Brown hopes an embrace of progressive policies and a more liberal criminal justice approach captures enough left-leaning votes to squeeze into overtime.
Moore and Reed, meanwhile, are sharpening a closing message focused on public safety and more effective city government. And Reed is owning up to his coarse reputation.
“I may not be the person you want to have a beer with,” the former mayor said in the closing moments of the WSB debate. “But I am the person who can get you home to have a beer with the person that you want to have it with.”
Tune into tonight’s Atlanta Press Club debate for the latest showdown in the race. Lower tier candidates debate at 5 p.m., while the upper tier debates at 7 p.m.
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Get ready for shenanigans. Your Insiders were inundated – not a term we use loosely – with texts and calls last night from politicians, operatives and readers about a phony flyer going around claiming that the Fulton County GOP had endorsed Felicia Moore.
“Is this real?” the typical query to us read. The answer: No.
While the Fulton Republicans did help organize a meet-and-greet with Moore last week, it does not endorse candidates and chair Trey Kelly notes that its various members are backing multiple contenders. The phony flyer featured a picture of state Sen. Burt Jones, who is also not supporting any Atlanta mayoral candidate.
Moore’s campaign, meanwhile, said it was “silly season” and said she must be considered a threat to the status quo if she’s the target of “outright lies” from a political opponent.
We’re not sure who was behind the shady texts, which quickly spread in political circles. But it’s a taste of what’s to come in the world of last-minute shenanigans and tricks aimed at swaying new voters – and keeping others home – in city politics.
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The AJC’s City Hall team breaks down more of the latest updates in the mayor’s race, including a report following first televised debate of the mayor’s race, in the latest Race for City Hall roundup.
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Other races we’re watching: Sure, the Atlanta mayor’s race will capture the lion’s share of attention. But hundreds of other important nonpartisan posts are up for grabs.
One of our Insiders spotlighted the race for Sandy Springs mayor, which pits former Georgia GOP chair Rusty Paul, a two-term incumbent, against Dontaye Carter, who is running as a progressive liberal. The outcome in a suburb that overwhelmingly rejected Donald Trump could hold clues for 2022.
We’re also closely watching the contest for Tucker mayor, where two rivals on opposite sides of the political spectrum are squaring off. Incumbent Frank Auman is the former chair of the DeKalb GOP. His challenger, Robin Biro, was a field director for President Barack Obama in 2008.
And all nine seats on the Atlanta Board of Education are up for election, with coronavirus policy and school safety front-and-center in the campaigns. It’s the last election when every board seat overseeing the Atlanta Public Schools is up for grabs at the same time, and 22 candidates have qualified.
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POSTED: Fulton County has fired two elections workers accused of shredding 300 voter registration applications, and the state is now investigating. More from the AJC’s Ben Brasch:
Elections head Richard Barron told reporters Monday that he fired two employees on Friday for allegedly shredding applications sometime within the last two weeks. Fellow employees reported the actions to their supervisor, and the two employees were fired that same day, Barron said.
… News of the firings was released by Fulton officials just minutes after Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger publicly called for the Justice Department to investigate the alleged shredding. In his announcement, Raffensperger said his agency was also looking into the allegations.
Fulton Commission Chairman Robb Pitts “immediately reported it to" Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for investigation, according to the county press release.
Brasch also noted in his article that it’s unclear if those affected were able to register to vote and that the applications do not ask for a resident’s political affiliation.
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Georgia’s U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s campaign treasurer has confirmed with the Federal Election Commission that there were no errors in her first-quarter fundraising report that listed $2.6 million in unitemized donations.
Greene’s campaign said the money came from 99,652 donors, none of whom met the $200 threshold that would require that their contributions be itemized and their names disclosed.
Speaking of Greene, the Rome Republican is hosting a town hall for District 14 constituents on Thursday night in Paulding County. Pre-registration is required, and confirmed attendees will receive the address where the event will take place.
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The U.S. House was scheduled to be in recess this week, but members have been called back to Washington for a Tuesday vote to increase the debt ceiling.
We expect it to be a one-day trip to Washington for most members, since Democrats believe they have the votes to pass a Senate-approved short-term patch to raise the debt limit and avoid a default — at least until early December. The question is how many, if any Republicans, will also support the legislation.
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U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is headed to Atlanta on Wednesday to promote President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan with local leaders.
He’ll start the day at a “Women Building Back Better” roundtable with Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and local advocates, then meet with workers in the food service, hospitality and construction industries at a separate discussion.
His third stop will bring him to the Boys and Girls Club of Atlanta, where he’ll highlight the organization’s job training and workforce activities for young people.
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Jim Beck, the former Georgia insurance commissioner who was convicted of stealing more than $2 million from his previous employer, will be in federal court this morning to learn his sentence, the AJC’s Joshua Sharpe reports.
Prosecutors are expected to ask for a 10-year sentence. His attorneys will ask for five.
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Emory University has renamed one of the oldest buildings on its Oxford College campus after a Black judge who graduated from the school and was a local legal trailblazer, the AJC’s Eric Sturgis reports.
Language Hall, built in 1874 and renovated in 2013, is now called Horace J. Johnson Jr. Hall, the first structure on Oxford's campus in Newton County named after a Black person.
Johnson, who died last year at the age of 61, was part of a small group of Black fourth graders who integrated the Newton County school system in the late 1960s. He was the first Black attorney to practice in Newton. In 2002, Johnson became the first Black Superior Court judge to serve in the Alcovy Judicial Circuit (comprised of Newton and Walton counties).
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From the personnel files: Veteran state Capitol lobbyist Kevin Curtin will join the Georgia Electric Membership Corp. next week as the senior vice president of government relations.
Curtin, a former lobbyist for AT&T, will be responsible for representing the state’s 41 electric membership cooperatives at the statehouse and beyond.
The EMC system has played a central role recently with the Public Service Commission, so Cutrain’s hire could prove strategic.
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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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