Morning, y’all! I am one of the unfortunates who suffer from “skeeter syndrome,” which is an allergy to mosquito bites. Thank heaven for those repellent-infused bands you put around your wrists and ankles. It’s far too lovely a time of year to be indoors hiding from annoying little bugs.
Let’s get to it.
CAN KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS AVOID A COSTLY RUNOFF?
We’ve talked a lot about this year’s Georgia gubernatorial race, but most of the attention has been on the heated jockeying between top Republican contenders and their nine-figure campaign war chests.
Meanwhile, former Atlanta mayor and Democratic front-runner Keisha Lance Bottoms is facing a different kind of challenge: Should she spend big for a first-round primary win, or be more fastidious and possibly face a costly runoff?
- Bottoms is one of four main Democratic hopefuls. The others are former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, ex-state Sen. Jason Esteves and former DeKalb County Chief Executive Michael Thurmond.
- In the polls, Bottoms holds roughly between 30% and 40% of her party’s voters. That’s enough to put her in front, but she’ll need at least 50% of the vote on Election Day to avoid a runoff. That will cost even more money and could lose her the nomination.
Don’t underestimate the power of the runoff
Think it’s not a big deal? Two spooky stories candidates for public office tell around the campfire:
- The Sad Case of Casey Cagle: Then-Lt. Gov. Cagle led the GOP field throughout the 2018 primary for governor. When the election went to a runoff, Brian Kemp emerged to put him away.
- The Doom of David Shafer: That same year, Shafer came within a whisker of winning the GOP nod for lieutenant governor that same year before falling to the aforementioned Geoff Duncan, now one of Bottoms’ fiercest rivals.
🔎 READ MORE: Why the spending question is more complicated than it seems
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GEORGIA’S U.S. SENATE RACE HEATS UP
New campaign ads signal an escalation in Georgia’s three-way Republican race to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
- U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter debuted a new TV ad Monday that embraces President Donald Trump while taking aim at rival U.S. Rep. Mike Collins over a congressional ethics probe into allegations of misused taxpayer funds.
- “While Trump and Buddy Carter were protecting our wallets, Mike Collins was abusing them,” the ad’s narrator says. “Collins is under federal investigation for misusing taxpayer funds to benefit himself and his cronies. We just can’t trust or afford Mike Collins.”
- Collins has said he will cooperate with the inquiry and expects to be cleared.
Meanwhile, former football coach Derek Dooley’s taking a different tack.
- His first TV ad eschews the ad hominem arguments in favor of calling out “Me First” “D.C. politicians.”
- “As a football coach for 30 years, I can spot these ‘me first’ guys a mile away. And we gotta get rid of them,” Dooley says in the spot.
- Remember, Dooley has the backing of Gov. Brian Kemp, who thinks only a newcomer without political baggage can take on Ossoff.
🔎 READ MORE: Collins has led public polling, though about a third of likely GOP voters remain undecided
At a weekend rally in Augusta, Ossoff stayed focused on an anticorruption message that helped fuel his 2021 runoff win, accusing Trump and his allies of enriching themselves at the public’s expense. “He and his family rake in billions from foreign princes, while he plunders our health care to cut taxes for the rich,” Ossoff said.
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🏬 New Black Wall Street, an indoor market for Black-owned businesses, is closing after five years. Business owners say they’re remaining optimistic and have seen benefits from the project even though patronage slowed over the years.
🚤 Blue Ops Inc., which manufactures sea drones for defense and national security agencies, is planning a new factory in Valdosta. The project increases Georgia’s already strong presence in the growing defense industry.
50 YEARS OF THE ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL
Q: What’s been around longer than the Sundance Film Festival and South by Southwest?
A: The Atlanta Film Festival, which celebrates 50 years this spring.
- The ATLFF is one of the largest and longest-running film festivals in the country. Like anything that lasts and actually has meaning, it was created by people who genuinely loved something. (In this case, film. Obviously.)
- This year’s ATLFF begins Thursday, April 23 and runs 11 straight days until May 3.
- It will feature more than two dozen films, shorts, episodes of television and even music videos will screen at the Plaza Theatre and Tara Theatre.
🎞️ TODAY’S MUST READ: A fascinating history of the ATLFF
NEWS BITES
Hot air balloon with 13 aboard makes emergency landing in California backyard
Imagine if this happened before the advent of readily available cameras. No one would believe you.
What to know about psychedelic retreats, a booming business with few safety guardrails
Trip on potentially dangerous psychedelic drugs? Not a great idea. Doing it in a remote location with a bunch of strangers? Nightmare!
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson returns to Atlanta for the fantasy film “Lizard Music”
I’ll be damned, it really is about lizards who play music.
Women take the lead in whiskey as more female drinkers and distillers change the industry
Now that’s shattering the ... cask ceiling.
ON THIS DATE
April 21, 1983
Decals to certify ‘Vidalia Sweets’ as the real onion. In the latest battle of the Vidalia onion wars, a commercial distributor has decided to arm itself with a $100,000 labeling machine that will leave no further doubt about the authenticity of its products. … it will mean protection for growers of the premium-priced Vidalias against alleged pirates who are believed to have trucked in out-of-state onions and sold them under false pretenses. The Georgia General Assembly tried to face the issue this year but backed away at the last minute from a bill that almost passed. The proposed bill would have set an exclusive geographic area where the real Vidalia onions could be grown. But legislators could not agree on what that area should be.
“The Vidalia Onion Wars” has quite a ring to it — as does “onion pirate.”
A few years after this, Georgia passed the Vidalia Onion Act of 1986, which trademarked the term and helped soothe the onion identity crisis. The Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture was also authorized to declare where, exactly, “real” Vidalia onions could be grown.
ONE MORE THING
I met Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson once, a million years ago when I was a TV floor director. He was very nice and had a rare big-man skill of making people feel comfortable even though he is, I cannot stress this enough, a very big man.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.
About the Author
AJ Willingham is an National Emmy, NABJ and Webby award-winning journalist who loves talking culture, religion, sports, social justice, infrastructure and the arts. She lives in beautiful Smyrna-Mableton and went to Syracuse University.
