One of the most powerful Republicans in the Georgia state House is stepping down from his leadership post.
In a late-night email sent to his Republican colleagues, Trey Kelley said he will relinquish his role as the House Majority Whip to “dedicate more time and energy to my professional and personal life.”
The Cedartown lawmaker confirmed to the AJC that he plans to keep his seat in the state Legislature, though he will no longer play a central role in the House’s agenda.
Kelley was indicted in December by a Polk County grand jury on misdemeanor charges of reckless conduct stemming from his actions following a fatal hit-and-run in 2019.
Records show Kelley’s friend, Ralph Dover III, called him instead of calling 911 after Dover hit a bicyclist in west Georgia and left the scene of the accident.
Prosecutors say Kelly, who arrived at the scene shortly after he received the call, called the local chief of police, who also did not call 911.
Kelly told the AJC last year that he did not initially call 911 because he didn’t know exactly what happened.
“At that time, I still did not know another human being was involved,” he said in a statement. “I fully cooperated with law enforcement.”
In June his attorney argued that the indictment should be tossed.
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If you enjoy reviewing absentee ballots online as much as the next guy or gal, the AJC’s elections expert, Mark Niesse, may be your spirit animal.
Mark just loaded 148,000 Fulton County absentee ballots online for you crazy kids to pore over.
The state’s new election law requires that absentee ballot images be made available to the public, but Fulton requires a $240 filing fee to access them. Since the AJC paid its filing fee for the ballot images, now our readers, and the readers of the Jolt, don’t have to.
Mark also interviewed experts about how to review ballots so that they’re not misunderstood by the general public.
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More campaign finance reports are rolling in following this week’s filing deadline.
Among them: Sharon Gay’s campaign for mayor of Atlanta reported that she has raised $1.1 million since she got into the race 13 weeks ago.
In a statement, Gay said she’s gotten the backing of supporters, “Because so many people across our city are ready for a mayor who has the knowledge, expertise, experience and honesty to tackle the serious issues we are facing, particularly reducing crime and lawlessness across Atlanta.”
On Thursday, Kasim Reed said on Twitter that he’s raised $1 million in the three weeks he’s been campaigning.
We’ll see for ourselves exactly what’s been raised, and from whom, when the candidates’ detailed disclosures are available.
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Earlier this week, lawyers and politicos began passing around a Grand Jury decision posted online as a routine part of the Published Opinion log of the Eleventh Court of Appeals.
One case detailed only a “Grand Jury subpoena” and described the efforts of a lawyer not to testify in an investigation related to his former client. That client is “a former candidate for public office (who) is currently being investigated by a grand jury for violations of federal law.”
With few details and no names included, it was impossible to know whom the Grand Jury is investigating. But that only fueled a widespread guessing game about who the mystery candidate could be.
On Wednesday, the AJC’s City Hall team broke the news that the mystery candidate appears to be Kasim Reed, the former mayor of Atlanta who has recently launched a bid for a third term.
More:
The ruling shows prosecutors are trying to compel grand jury testimony from the attorney for a local politician's campaign who helped produce the campaign's financial disclosures. That person seems to be Jeremy Berry, who worked as Reed's campaign attorney before taking the job as Atlanta's city attorney in 2017.
The court document doesn't name Reed or Berry, but The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has matched — to the penny — one of the questionable purchases listed in the ruling to an expense on Reed's 2017 campaign finance report.
Berry’s attorney confirmed to the AJC this that Berry has, indeed, been subpoenaed by the Grand Jury, but that he has also been told that he is not the subject of the investigation.
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Eric Welsh has dropped out of the race to unseat U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath in the Sixth District House race.
Not long ago, Welsh seemed like just the sort of tough-talking outsider who could do well in a Republican primary.
The retired U.S. Army colonel and former Coca-Cola executive jumped in the race promising he would stick it to “weak-kneed politicians who would rather hug than fight.”
On Thursday, though, his campaign came to an abrupt end. He cited the success of one of his latest ventures, a consultancy he recently founded with four partners.
“While my heart may be heavy today, I know that the business my partners and I are building is the right path for me, my partners, and the countless Georgia families we will be able to help,” he said.
Republican circles were buzzing with speculation that he was “forced out” of the race by party leaders worried that a crowded primary would hurt the GOP’s chances. But we’ve seen no evidence of that.
Instead, local party leaders pointed to some on-the-ground evidence. His campaign recently stopped running digital ads, and he wasn’t aggressively making the rounds at district events for weeks.
Among the other GOP contenders are U.S. Army veteran Harold Earls and activist Suzi Voyles. Dr. Rich McCormick, the runner-up in the 2020 race for a neighboring district, could wind up trying to challenge McBath.
And several other candidates are expected to run, including former state Rep. Meagan Hanson and Jake Evans, who recently stepped down as chair of Georgia’s ethics agency while he readies a likely bid.
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Republicans are pushing excerpts of a video posted to YouTube of Georgia’s U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath participating in a virtual Juneteenth discussion with a Philadelphia-based law firm.
McBath represents a swing Metro Atlanta district that could become more difficult for her to win in 2022, depending on how the new boundaries are drawn.
The entire video is of a nearly 90-minute event, in which McBath discussed the shooting death of her son, Jordan, the progress that Black Americans have made, and systemic racism in America.
“What we’ve seen since 2016 has been an awakening for America, and people who thought well, you know, racism doesn’t really exist —the country was founded on racism, racism is in every fiber of our country,” McBath said at one point while making a larger point about race relations and what she described as a backlash to President Barack Obama.
At one point she said she has forgiven her son’s killer because he was not raised with the same values she instilled in her son.
Reports in conservative outlets like the New York Post and Fox News have blasted out a portion of McBath’s larger comments, saying she was “caught on video” saying “America was founded on racism.”
The Congressional Leadership Fund, a political committee affiliated with House Republican leaders, circulated these articles to a wider audience.
McBath’s campaign declined to comment on the attacks.
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday upholding provisions of Arizona’s election law could make it harder for opponents of Georgia’s new election law to prevail in court in the future.
The Arizona case, Brnovich v. the Democratic National Committee, was considered a crucial test of the reach of the 1965 federal Voting Rights Act, specifically whether it can be used to invalidate state laws that have a disproportionate impact on minority voters.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, released a statement applauding the court’s decision Thursday and urging the U.S. Justice Department to drop its lawsuit filed a week ago and challenging the Georgia new voting law.
But the Justice Department said it stands by its legal strategy and will not change course.
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Speaking of the DOJ lawsuit, a federal court heard arguments Thursday in a separate case against Georgia’s new election law from the Coalition for Good Governance, one of eight suits that have been filed to block portions of Senate Bill 202.
There is no word on when U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee will make a decision in that case.
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We told you in Thursday’s Jolt that we would be paying attention to how Georgia Reps. Barry Loudermilk and Buddy Carter voted on an infrastructure package that includes earmarks they have requested for their districts.
We can now report that both lawmakers voted “no” on the final bill, as did the vast majority of GOP members. We asked Carter and Loudermilk, who were the only Georgia Republicans to request earmarks, to explain the thinking behind voting against the bill that also contained their funding requests.
They both sent statements that blamed Democrats for creating a final package they couldn’t stand behind.
“Speaker Pelosi has simply refused to engage in any bipartisan negotiations and acts as if she is solely running the country,” Loudermilk said in a statement.
Carter’s statement begins this way: “Once again, Washington Democrats loaded down what could have been a good, bipartisan bill with a wish list of their socialist agenda.”
The infrastructure package passed the House 221-201, with just two Republican votes. Neither of those was from Georgia.
Although Loudermilk and Carter voted against the bill, their projects — three roads in Loudermilk’s exurban Atlanta district and a roadway in Savannah for Carter — were still included in the measure. The bill has an uncertain future in the Senate, however.
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Nearly 40 U.S. House Democrats have written a letter to Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy calling for “immediate action” to rein in the behavior of Georgia’s U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The group chose to take this step after Greene spoke as a warmup act for former President Donald Trump at his rally in Ohio last weekend, an aide familiar with the letter's origins told CNN. Greene, without evidence, repeatedly claimed Trump won the 2020 election and viciously attacked Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Greene described Ocasio-Cortez as the “little communist from New York City," and nodded in agreement with the crowd when they started shouting “lock her up."
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Another update from Thursday’s Jolt, when we broke the news about Manswell Peterson’s unusual quarterly fundraising report in his run for Georgia Secretary of State.
On Thursday afternoon, the state Ethics commission announced it is opening an investigation. More:
David Emadi, the executive director of the agency, formally known as the Georgia Government Transparency & Campaign Finance Commission, said Thursday that it would investigate the “unusual amounts of small-dollar donations" reported by Manswell Peterson, a military veteran and author who is running for the statewide office.
Peterson, a long-shot candidate for the job, reported raising nearly $319,000 for his 2022 bid. His report included only two itemized contributions, consisting of $850 in total. The other $318,000 listed on his form is credited to small-dollar donors who gave $100 or less and aren't required by state law to be itemized.
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Regulars at the General Assembly are mourning the passing of former state Senate leader and lobbyist Pete Robinson, as well as aging activist Pat King. Both passed away after recent health challenges.
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With a three-day weekend ahead, we’ll send you into Friday with some light reading:
- Jamie Dupree’s Thursday column from Washington, Sooner or later, the Confederate Statues will go;
- Our Political Insider Wednesday column, Can yesterday’s GOP help Chris Carr win in 2022?
- And July 4th’s Political Insider column today, “A centuries long fight for that more perfect union.”
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July 5th is a holiday for America and a holiday for Jolt readers. We’ll see you back here on July 6th.
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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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