The chaotic vote early Tuesday to approve the financing package for Atlanta’s public safety center was at once a triumph of Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration and a reminder that the emotional, divisive debate over the project will continue to dominate his first term.
Supporters of the complex highlighted the end result of the debate: An overwhelming 11-4 verdict in favor of funding the project, even after more than 14 hours of public comment that was almost entirely against the proposal.
The final tally was basically unchanged from projections we heard in the run-up to the vote, with first-term Councilman Jason Winston seen as the only member truly up in the air. He wound up joining the majority in support of the plan, too.
It was also roughly the same vote total from 2021, when council members voted 10-4 to give the green light for the new center after 17 hours of public comment.
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
The dynamic in City Hall effectively remained unchanged after two years of protests, national attention, backlash over rising costs, a high-profile state raid and arrest of three opponents charged with financial crimes and the death of an activist shot to death by state troopers.
After the vote, Dickens released a statement insisting that the training center will help make the police more responsive to citizen concerns, not less.
“(The vote) helps us look towards the north star of leading the country in anti-bias training, de-escalation techniques and other community-based solutions to keep our city safe and focused on our citizens,” he said. “Atlanta will be a national model for police reform with the most progressive training and curriculum in the country.”
But the opposition to the center is far from over, despite the lopsided funding vote. As our colleague Bill Torpy noted, flyers at City Hall called for a “Week of Action” later this month that will spur more protests.
Some protesters threatened to destroy the center as soon as it is completed. And opponents vowed to make the 11 council members who approved the complex pay a political price.
There’s also a potential new legal avenue to halt or delay the construction. Opponents are exploring using a recent Georgia Supreme Court ruling to force a referendum on the Council’s vote.
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Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
LISTEN UP. The AJC’s Riley Bunch and Brian Eason were at City Hall for all 14 hours of protest and comment, as well as the 5:30 a.m. council vote. And Riley stayed awake long enough yesterday to join us as a guest on the Politically Georgia podcast to tell all about it. And we look ahead to this weekend’s Georgia GOP convention.
Listen at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher.
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CHALLENGING THE CHALLENGER. Voting rights groups are calling for the Fulton County Commission to reject the nomination of mass voter challenger Jason Frazier to the county’s elections board.
The commission is scheduled to vote on Frazier’s nomination later today, the AJC’s Mark Niesse reports.
Frazier, a Republican Party nominee to the elections board, has challenged the registrations of nearly 10,000 Fulton County voters since last year, based on even minor discrepancies in people’s address information, such as a missing “northeast” in the street name.
“Fulton voters deserve to be represented by BOE members who are committed to upholding democracy and defending their access to the ballot,” said Maya Castillo of the voting rights organization Fair Fight. “Baseless challenges make it harder for voters to register to vote, cast their ballots, and have their ballots counted — while further burdening election workers and overwhelming our elections system.”
Credit: Screenshot
Credit: Screenshot
Frazier has said he’s trying to ensure voter registration lists are accurate to prevent the possibility of ineligible voters or undelivered absentee ballots.
But ACLU Executive Director Andrea Young said Frazier’s voter challenges pose “grave dangers” to democracy.
“Voters in the county deserve election administrators who will make voting more accessible, not ones who endorse and promulgate anti-democratic challenges that seek to disenfranchise large swaths of eligible voters,” Young wrote in a letter to the Fulton Commission.
The Republican Party’s second nominee is retired attorney Michael Heekin. He replaced former congressional candidate Jake Evans, who withdrew his name from consideration.
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Credit: Coffee County video
Credit: Coffee County video
COFFEE CHASER. 11Alive News’ Doug Richards reported Tuesday that investigators from the secretary of state’s office seized an election server from Treutlen County in April. That was after Treutlen County hired Misty Hampton as a contractor to run a special election there.
Hampton had been forced out as election director in Coffee County weeks earlier after revelations that she had allowed folks associated with former President Donald Trump into the county election office to scan Dominion software on January 7, 2021.
TJ Hudson, the Treutlen County manager, hired Hampton. Hudson was the cowboy hat-wearing fourth place finisher in the secretary of state GOP primary in 2022.
He told Richards this week: “At that particular time, we did not have a clue what had been going on over there (in Coffee County). … Absolutely it would have mattered (if he’d known.)”
Olivia Coley-Pearson, a city commissioner in the Coffee County city of Douglas, called hiring Hampton “a disservice to the residents of Treutlen County. I’m appalled.”
No charges have been filed following the Coffee County breach, but the GBI says it is still investigating.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
CLYDE’S REVENGE. Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde said his bill to prohibit the federal government from regulating the use of pistol braces is on hold no more.
In fact, his legislation could reach a floor vote as soon as next week, Clyde announced on Twitter Tuesday.
Just last week, Clyde accused Republican House leaders of threatening to tank his pistol brace bill unless he supported a procedural measure on the debt ceiling compromise between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden. House leaders denied Clyde’s assertion. The Georgia Republican voted against both the resolution and final passage for the debt limit bill.
The threat from GOP leaders angered Clyde and other hard-liners, and was at the center of a mini-revolt against McCarthy on Tuesday on what should have been a routine procedural measure on a gas-stove bill.
The vote failed when nearly a dozen Freedom Caucus members took a walk on the bill. Clyde later huddled with Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who said the Clyde bill had not originally had the votes to pass.
The fact that Clyde has now been told that his bill will come up for a vote is seen as both a win for the far right over House leaders and an indication that McCarthy is trying to play nice with the hard-liners.
But it may have paid off for McCarthy by ensuring Clyde did not join other conservatives in that show of force on Tuesday, although the 11 remaining dissenters still managed to embarrass him.
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EARLY BIRDS. Former President Donald Trump’s supporters are already beginning to arrive in Columbus for this weekend’s Georgia GOP convention.
Trump isn’t set to speak until Saturday, but our pal Chuck Williams from WRBL-TV spotted a “Trucking the Truth” bus with the former president’s face on it already parked downtown.
And John Fredericks, the usually Virginia-based conservative talk radio host, said he’ll be broadcasting from the city on the Chattahoochee River through the weekend.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- The U.S. House will reconsider the failed motion to begin debate on legislation prohibiting the regulation of gas stoves.
- The Senate has more confirmation votes lined up.
- President Joe Biden has a low-key day scheduled, including a lunch with Vice President Kamala Harris.
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ON THE TRAIL:
- Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to launch his presidential campaign in Iowa.
- North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is expected to announce his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination with an event in Fargo.
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Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
11 AND COUNTING: For those keeping track at home, the Pence and Burgum announcements today will bring the GOP presidential primary field to 11, by our count.
They follow former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential campaign kickoff Tuesday, when Christie hammered his enemy-turned-friend-turned-enemy Donald Trump. In a speech in Manchester, New Hampshire, he called Trump “a lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog.”
Here is our tally of the fast growing 2024 field for Republicans so far:
IN: Former Vice President Mike Pence, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, businessmen Vivek Ramaswamy, Larry Elder and Perry Johnson, and of course, former President Donald Trump.
OUT: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu told CNN’s Dana Bash Monday he won’t run for president, believing a huge field against Trump will guarantee another Trump win in the GOP primary, and a Joe Biden win in November.
ALSO: Dr. Cornell West, the famous progressive professor, announced Monday he’s running for president on the People’s Party ticket. That’s a third party founded by a former staffer to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
For the Democrats, President Joe Biden’s only announced challengers so far are activists Robert Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson.
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Credit: Courtesy Emily Y
Credit: Courtesy Emily Y
DOG OF THE DAY. Beachcombers find all kinds of treasures on East Beach at St. Simons Island, but few are as priceless as little Millie Yona, the once-stray pup who now calls Emily Yona her person.
Although they’re both from the coast, Emily and Millie live together in Atlanta now, where Emily is policy director for Impact Public Affairs.
A reliable source reports Millie is a mix of “love and no-idea-what-that-breed is.” When she’s not hiking and cheering on the Dawgs, she’s traveling back to the coast where it all began.
Send us your dogs of any political persuasion and cats on a cat-by-cat 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.
