A.M. ATL: Name your second

Rabbit rabbit, and morning, y’all! It’s a new month, and “rabbit rabbit” is a little folk superstition to start it on a lucky foot. But you need to say it before anything else that day. Let’s make it a great September.

Let’s get to it.

LIEUTENANT GOVERNORS IN GEORGIA ARE BUILT DIFFERENT

Georgia lieutenant governor candidates Josh McLaurin (left) and Greg Dolezal. (Photo Illustration: Jessi Esparza/AJC; Source: Arvin Temkar/AJC, Getty Images)

Georgia’s lieutenant governors wield more power than most, but a lot of that power comes from state Senate rules that could be changed with the cast of a vote.

That’s a lot to think about barely two months away from a consequential midterm election in which voters will choose a new second-in-command.

The difference:

• Many lieutenant governors across the country have largely ceremonial duties, as their only job is to take over if the governor can’t complete the term.
• In Georgia, the lieutenant governor wields immense power in the state Senate by presiding over floor debates and making committee assignments that give them control over what bills reach the floor for a vote.

How things could change

• If the lieutenant governor and the state’s majority caucus are at odds (i.e., belong to different parties), one can hinder the work of the other.
• Two times in recent memory, a Republican majority has changed Senate rules to weaken the position’s powers.

Who’s up for the job

Democrat: Josh McLaurin is a rising star of his party and looking to become the first Democrat to hold the powerful seat since 2007. Fellow Dems see the race as a golden chance to make inroads in a GOP-heavy legislature.

Republican: Greg Dolezal has cast himself as a hard-line Republican with unwavering loyalty to President Donald Trump.

🔎 READ MORE: The race is just one of many ways the GA Legislature will change in Nov., and experts can’t predict the outcome

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CUMBERLAND ADAPTS TO GROWING CROWDS

Revising the Visitor Use Management Plan at Cumberland Island has been a drawn-out and controversial process. (Stephen B. Morton for the AJC 2022)

For many nature lovers, Cumberland Island is a dream destination. Soon, would-be visitors will have more flexibility in planning trips to the remote Georgia barrier island.

The National Park Service on Friday adopted a new visitation policy for the island, which the federal agency manages as a national seashore. Known as the Visitor Use Management Plan, it aims to “reduce the barriers to visiting” by offering more ferry seats (no bridge connects Cumberland to the mainland), more campsites and more concessions on the primitive paradise.

• The increased access could more than double the island’s daily visitor capacity. A plan adopted in 1984 capped ferry passengers at 300 per day. The update raises that limit to 700, including 100 tied to a potential new ferry dock.
• Cumberland currently receives about 60,000 visitors annually, or roughly 165 a day.
• Cumberland Island is Georgia’s largest and southernmost barrier island. Once a retreat for Gilded Age tycoons, including the Carnegie family, it became a national seashore in 1972 after a commercial development proposal from resort developer Charles Fraser.
• The federal government now owns more than 90% of Cumberland’s 36,000 acres.

🔎 READ MORE: What critics say about the new visitation plan

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

🗳️ A recent “Men for Keisha” virtual rally turned out a who’s who of prominent Black male Democrats in support of gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms. In attendance: U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, singer and actor Tyrese and former U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young.

❓ Where do Keisha Lance Bottoms and her Republican rival Rick Jackson stand on immigration issues? The AJC politics team went straight to the source.

⚖️ The Gwinnett County DA filed a lawsuit contesting the controversial new Georgia law that makes certain races nonpartisan in some of Georgia’s most liberal counties. She’s the second official to take legal action over the law, which affects only Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb and Clayton counties.

⛪ Eagles Nest Church is preparing to unveil a $28 million redevelopment of a former Kohl’s location in Roswell. It’s one of several large churches in the Atlanta area that have converted former warehouses and office floors into worship areas.

LOVE AT DRAGON CON

Tyra and Shane Burton met at Dragon Con at the Hyatt Regency in 2009. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

My first Dragon Con was love at first sight. “These are my people,” I thought. Well, for the most part. Some DCon attendees are very creepy and weird (in a bad way), and those are not my people.

For others, Dragon Con was love at first sight in a different way.

Rodney Ho talked to several couples who found lasting romance at the best con in the country. It’s a sweet read for anyone counting down the days to this weekend. (Or anyone who likes Dragon Con in theory but can’t abide the masked, sweaty throngs in person.)

“We consider Thursday of Dragon Con as our wedding anniversary”

Ken and Niki met in a gaggle of “Firefly” fans. They even got married in the Marriott Marquis (one of the Dragon Con host hotels). Everyone was in costume, of course.

The Pee-wee getup works every time

When Jason first saw Remy, she was dressed as Pee-wee Herman and in the company of Billy the Puppet from “Saw.” They’re both seasoned cosplayers, and love to show out together each year.

🐉 READ MORE: A DCon wedding proposal and more

NEWS BITES

Thieves steal $70,000 in Pabst beer from warehouse

It worked out to about 34,000 cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and non-alcoholic Old Milwaukee beer. Ehhhh. Not sure it was worth the risk.