Welcome to your last morning Jolt of 2021, one of the wildest years in Georgia politics we’ve ever covered.
Compared to this time last year, Atlanta now has a new incoming mayor, Georgia has two new senators, and America has a new president.
We’ve Jolted a regular legislative session and the redistricting special session; multiple challenges to election results; the state’s ongoing COVID response; trillions of dollars in new federal spending; a secession movement to split Atlanta; and the baby steps of a scorching GOP primary for governor and another U.S. Senate contest for all the marbles, including a UGA football legend’s new run in politics.
Thanks to our Jolt community for reading, tweeting, responding, and occasionally editing this daily collaboration of political goodness.
We’ll see you in 2022….
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Speaking of 2022, Atlanta Mayor-elect Andre Dickens announced details Thursday for his Jan. 3 swearing in.
Events include a day of service and citizens’ block party on Jan. 1, interfaith services on Jan. 2, and a 1:00 public swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 3 at Dickens’ alma mater, Georgia Tech, inside Bobby Dodd stadium.
The honorary hosts of the weekend are an interesting read-- U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, Harold Melton, the former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, Georgia Tech President Angel Cabrera, and TechBridge CEO Nicole Armstrong.
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Ahead of the 2022 race for U.S. Senate, details are rolling in from candidates’ year-end campaign filings and disclosures.
- Tia Mitchell writes that the reports show Herschel Walker is the wealthiest candidate in the race, with a net worth between $25 million and $50 million;
- Ag Commissioner Gary Black has a net worth of up to $5 million, with a farm and mutual funds making up the bulk of it; Latham Saddler made more than $500,000 in salary at his last job for Synovus; while Kelvin King made upwards of $700,000 through his company, which is worth between $1 million and $5 million.
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The Savannah Morning News has the fundraising details for the 1st Congressional District race between U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter and Wade Herring, a local attorney.
The News reports that Herring is not matching Carter’s $1.7 million war chest, but the Democrat has already raised more than any of Carter’s previous challengers, with nearly a year left in the race.
Herring has caught our attention with his campaign based primarily against Carter’s Jan. 6th vote to object to Georgia’s electoral college votes for now-President Joe Biden.
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President Joe Biden has appointed Nancy Gbana Abudu, to fill an empty seat in the federal appellate court in Atlanta.
If the Senate confirms her, Abudu will be the first Black person to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in a Georgia-based seat.
Abudu currently works in the Decatur offices of the Southern Poverty Law Center as the organization’s deputy legal director.
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Congress adjourned for the holiday recess without a final agreement on the Build Back Better social spending and climate change bill.
That means that the recent monthly checks that most parents in Georgia have been receiving since July may have ended permanently.
The payments were expanded child tax credits, approved to run through the end of 2021 by President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
Senators say they will try to resume negotiations next month when they return from break, but it will take a major breakthrough to continue the pandemic aid for parents without interruption.
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POSTED: Federal health officials said Thursday that the state cannot impose work requirements on Georgians receiving Medicaid benefits because the coronavirus pandemic will “significantly compromise” the program’s effectiveness.
That mostly guts the plan from Gov. Brian Kemp, which would have made Medicaid available to about 10% of uninsured Georgians.
In response, Republicans like House Speaker David Ralston blamed the Biden administration for keeping health care coverage from low-income Georgians. But Democrats insisted many more could be covered if Kemp would agree to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act instead.
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Alvin Richardson, a self-identified Republican from Morgan County, is urging his neighbors to “Stop the Steal,” but not in the way you might think.
Writing in Milledgeville’s Union Recorder newspaper, Richardson warns, “I want to make you aware that a bunch of rich folks in Atlanta want to steal the name of Morgan County’s own Buckhead and use it for their own purposes.”
Richardson sends this message to anyone thinking of a name for a new city around here:
“They can lay off our Buckhead and get their own name. Stop the Steal.”
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Details have been announced for a memorial service for the late U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson.
The memorial will take place at 2 p.m. on Jan. 6, at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church.
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If you’ve had a chance to be in the Capitol this holiday season, you have no doubt seen the massive Christmas tree standing beneath the Capitol dome.
We’ve got an inside look at how Scott Griffin, Chief of Forest Management, Enoch Hardeman, the groundskeeper supervisor at the Capitol, and a team of giant elves got the red cedar pine from the side of a road in Palmetto to downtown Atlanta for all in the Capitol to enjoy.
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Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy New Year from your Jolters. The newsletter will be on hiatus next week, returning Jan. 3. See you in 2022!
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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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