Baseball’s biggest names will square off tonight in Los Angeles for the annual All-Star game. For some Georgia Republicans, it’s also a reminder of what could have been.
The league yanked the showcase game from Truist Park last year in protest of Georgia’s new election law, triggering criticism that has hardly dissipated from Gov. Brian Kemp and other supporters of the legislation.
On Monday, U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Barry Loudermilk sent a letter to baseball commissioner Rob Manfred asking how the league will “redress the harm” caused to metro Atlanta with the decision. Carter called it “liberal hypocrisy,” while Loudermilk demanded an apology.
They’re both following the lead of House Speaker David Ralston, who penned a letter last week that lamented how Manfred “unjustly deprived” Georgia of a premier event and demanded that the “mistake be corrected.”
“As such, I call on you to award a future MLB All-Star Game to be played at Truist Park in the coming years,” Ralston wrote. “The sooner this announcement is made, the quicker we can all put this unfortunate incident behind us.”
We’re guessing Manfred is in no rush to change course – but the baseball world needs no reminders that the Atlanta Braves got the last laugh by winning the World Series.
Meanwhile, count the Georgia NAACP among the groups not eager for the All-Star game to make a return trip to metro Atlanta.
***
HICE SUBPOENAED. The AJC’s Tamar Hallerman reported Monday that U.S. Rep. Jody Hice was subpoenaed by the Fulton County grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 general election.
Hice became the second member of Congress to challenge a subpoena from the panel, but he took a different approach than South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.
A lawyer for Hice filed a motion in Fulton County Superior Court on Monday seeking to move the matter to federal court, a request that was granted.
Hice supported former President Donald Trump’s “stop the steal” efforts and spread conspiracy theories and misinformation about the election. The Greensboro Republican was later endorsed by Trump to challenge Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, only to get trounced in the May primary.
Credit: undefined
Credit: undefined
He was also among several members of Congress who attended a December 2020 meeting at the White House to discuss election strategies, including the fake electors scheme. Then Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene was also there that day.
Her office did not respond to our inquiries about whether she had been contacted by the special grand jury.
A spokesperson for Hice said, “At this time, Mr. Hice is eager to return to Washington, D.C. to fulfill his duties as a member of Congress as the House of Representatives is in session this week.”
***
SHE SAID IT. Some of U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s sharpest ads aim to make Republican rival Herschel Walker’s words come back to haunt him. Gov. Brian Kemp is employing the same strategy against Stacey Abrams.
He’s peppered the airwaves with clips of her 2020 interview with CNN suggesting she supported the “defund the police” movement. (She said she doesn’t endorse the idea and is pushing for raises for certain law enforcement officers.)
In an interview with Xtra 106.3, Kemp elaborated on his campaign’s approach: “I’m using her own words against her.”
***
ABRAMS IN ALBANY. Stacey Abrams had a few words of her own for the governor during a conversation with The Albany Herald, when she compared Kemp to a used car salesman and said he’s lied about her record.
“He’ll show you a nice, shiny vehicle with a polished grill and new tires,” Abrams said. “But he’s just hoping no one will look under the hood. See, it’s the engine that matters most. And Brian Kemp’s not telling the people of Georgia the whole story. He’s not talking about the engine.”
Abrams also called for Medicaid expansion, saying COVID has exacerbated the state’s healthcare disparities, and pushed back directly against Kemp’s “Defund the Police” ad.
“What Brian Kemp’s campaign does is they take snippets of what’s said and edit them to appear that something was said that fits their narrative,” she said, bristling at the mention of the ad. “I won’t do that kind of thing. Yeah, I’ll fight you. But I’m not going to lie about your position to try and confuse voters. I’ve been told all my life that a lie of omission will send you to hell just as quickly as a lie of commission. And that’s what this is.”
***
PEN PROBE. A U.S. Senate subcommittee is launching an investigation of the troubled Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, and it has subpoenaed the head of the federal Bureau of Prisons as its first witness.
Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said the Justice Department rejected his request to allow outgoing Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal to voluntarily appear before the committee. The subpoena would compel Carvajal’s testimony during a planned July 26 hearing, Tia Mitchell reports.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
The Justice Department released a statement expressing disappointment in the committee’s decision to subpoena Carvajal, who announced in January that he would step down after months of scandal that include high rates of coronavirus infections among inmates and allegations of corruption and abuses at facilities across the nation.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has spent years documenting controversies at the medium-security Atlanta penitentiary, a detention center for pre-trial defendants and a minimum-security prison camp contained at the same complex.
Problems cited include security gaps and inadequate or incompetent staffing that provided openings for contraband and raucous behavior among inmates.
***
ABORTION INCREASES. Even as the state awaits a ruling on its new restrictive anti-abortion law, the number of procedures performed in Georgia last year increased.
Our colleague Maya T. Prabhu reports that 34,988 abortions were performed in 2021, about 4,000 more than the year prior, or a 12% increase. It was the fourth consecutive year in Georgia that the number of procedures rose in Georgia after 20 years of decreases.
***
ASH AGAIN. The Georgia Supreme Court has declined to hear a case from the Sierra Club against Georgia Power and its coal ash storage ponds, the AJC’s Drew Kann reports.
More:
The environmental organization had asked the state's highest court to review an appeals court ruling affirming the Public Service Commission's (PSC) approval of a 2019 plan that allowed Georgia Power to bake costs associated with closing its coal ash ponds into the rates customers pay.
But after a Fulton County Superior Court judge and the Georgia Court of Appeals had previously rejected the Sierra Club's legal challenge, the state Supreme Court said it would not hear the case. The decision means rates approved by the Public Service Commission will remain in place.
***
CRUZ MOVES. If you’re looking for more proof that Georgia is a key battleground state, mark your calendar for August 27th, when the super PAC supporting U.S. Ted Cruz will host what it bills as a “summit” at the Westin Buckhead.
Cruz is a known White House aspirant, so hosting an event well outside of his home state of Texas is worth watching. TACPAC hosted a similar event in the toss-up state of Wisconsin earlier this summer.
Joining Cruz for the Truth and Courage PAC event in Atlanta will be Dr. Rich McCormick, the GOP nominee in the 6th Congressional District and the senator’s dad, Raphael Cruz.
***
PENCE PICKS. Speaking of White House aspirants, former Vice President Mike Pence has endorsed Republican Karrin Taylor Robson in the Arizona governor’s race against Trump-endorsed Kari Lake.
Why are we telling you this? Because the last time Pence endorsed a candidate against a Trump recruit was right here in Georgia, when the former veep backed Gov. Brian Kemp over former Sen. David Perdue and held a huge election-eve rally to mark the occasion.
We’ll see if Georgia was the leader of a trend when Robson faces Lake in the August 2 primary.
***
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- The House has scheduled a vote on a bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and create federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriage. The proposal was fast-tracked after Justice Clarence Thomas indicated he wanted the court to review it’s ruling on gay marriage in light of its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will testify at a House Transportation Committee hearing on the implementation of the bipartisan infrastructure law.
- U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock will deliver a floor speech encouraging his colleagues to support a scaled down version of the China competition bill that will include $52 billion to boost computer chip production in the U.S.
***
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.
Sign Up to receive the Morning Jolt & AJC Politics newsletters in your inbox.
About the Authors
