Today’s newsletter highlights:
- Beltline CEO pushes back on gentrification fears.
- Wyche Fowler gives his take on the Trump administration.
- Roger Bruce explains why he’s running for office again.
Closed for business
Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The federal government shut down at 12:01 a.m. after rival Senate votes to break the gridlock failed. Now both sides are preparing for an extended confrontation and a standoff that won’t soon end.
Democrats and Republicans have moved further to their ideological flanks with less appetite for consensus. The red-state seats held by Democrats in 2018 during the last shutdown are now largely held by Republicans. The more liberal incumbents who remain feel there’s little incentive to bend.
Republicans, meanwhile, have shifted further to the right during President Donald Trump’s rise to power. They, too, have little willingness to cut a deal under a president who views compromise as a weakness.
The fight is already reverberating in Georgia’s 2026 midterms. U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff voted against the GOP plan short-term stopgap spending plan. He instead backed a Democratic alternative that aimed to extend health insurance subsidies that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. Both plans failed.
“More than 20 million Americans will see their health insurance premiums double next year if we do not act,” Ossoff said, urging Republicans to “prevent these huge increases in health care costs for Georgia families.”
Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Other Democrats are seizing on the moment. Former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, now running for governor as a Democrat, rolled out a three-stop tour starting today in Savannah to highlight the health care cuts.
Republicans are pointing the finger back. They accuse Senate Democrats of holding the government hostage, dubbing the funding freeze as the “Schumer shutdown” after the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
“Shutting down the government does nothing but cause pain and chaos, which is exactly what the Democrat party wants to inflict on hardworking Americans just to prove that they’re ‘standing up’ to Trump,” said U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter of St. Simons Island, who is among the Republicans challenging Ossoff.
Things to know
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer/AJC
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer/AJC
Good morning! The “Politically Georgia” podcast is a finalist in two categories of the Signal Awards — local news and history. You can support us by voting here for local news and here for history.
Here are three other things to know for today:
- The Georgia Supreme Court has sided with Gullah Geechee residents on Sapelo Island, ruling Tuesday a citizens’ referendum aimed at restricting development can move forward, the AJC’s Adam Van Brimmer reports.
- Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens wants to extend the life of the city’s tax allocation districts. The plan would dedicate almost a fifth of the city’s tax digest to what are essentially restricted funds separate from its general revenue, the AJC’s Riley Bunch and Sara Gregory report.
- Georgia will receive more than $531 million in federal funding to help producers rebound from Hurricane Helene. But a government shutdown could slow the money’s arrival, the AJC’s Drew Kann reports.
G-word
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Clyde Higgs, president and CEO of the development authority building the Atlanta Beltline, wasn’t crazy about a recent New York Times headline highlighting fears of gentrification along the ambitious 22-mile urban trail surrounding the city.
“It Was Supposed to Connect Segregated Neighborhoods. Did It Gentrify Them Instead?” the Times asked in a story published last month.
“Pretty harsh,” Higgs told the Atlanta Rotary Club earlier this week. “That feels like one of the most disrespectful words you can say to a community.”
The story quoted some residents afraid that the popular Beltline could price them out of their historically Black neighborhoods — a fear backed by countless examples of other development projects throughout the country.
Higgs said that it’s not gentrification for communities to “want a nice park” or “a functioning sidewalk,” he said.
“Let’s reimagine and perhaps put that word to the side,” he said. “It feels disingenuous when someone from New York comes and does an article on Beltline and uses the g-word.”
A better word, he said, is “displacement.”
“You can take action against displacement. That’s a policy conversation,” he said. “Gentrification is an amorphous blob of a word.”
A 2017 AJC investigation found that the Beltline had fallen short of its affordable housing goals and was contributing to rising housing costs that threatened to drive away middle class residents. Higgs said the authority is on track to build more than 7,000 affordable housing units by 2030.
Carter tributes
Credit: Courtesy of USPS
Credit: Courtesy of USPS
Multiple tributes are scheduled today to honor the late President Jimmy Carter on what would have been his 101st birthday.
A new documentary, “The President and the Dragon,” chronicles Carter’s decades-long fight to eradicate the Guinea-worm disease, an infection caused by a parasite found in contaminated water. The film, released today, is available on Amazon, Hoopla and Verizon Fios.
Also today, the U.S. Postal Service will host a dedication ceremony unveiling a new Forever stamp design honoring the 39th president, who died in December.
And the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where Carter taught Sunday School for decades, will host a concert in his honor tonight starting at 6:30.
About that book
Credit: Patricia Murphy/AJC
Credit: Patricia Murphy/AJC
Former Georgia Democratic U.S. Sen. Wyche Fowler took the stage at the Atlanta History Center last night for an event highlighting a new book about his time in public office, including his 16 years in Congress.
In “Wyche Fowler, a Political Life in Georgia, Congress, and Abroad,” author R. William Johnstone detailed Fowler’s 1992 loss to Republican Paul Coverdell. Fowler finished with 49 percent of the vote on election night and earned about 100,000 more votes than President Bill Clinton, who carried Georgia that year. But Coverdell defeated Fowler in a low-turnout runoff three weeks later by about 16,000 votes.
Fowler, now 85, kept the audience laughing with stories like getting a call from a reporter about five years ago saying he had been assigned to write Fowler’s obituary.
“Well, I didn’t need coffee to wake up that morning,” Fowler said.
Long out of politics, he still has a strong reaction to the Washington of today and the Trump administration.
“What is being attempted by this administration to silence the critics is unconstitutional, but it also just cannot be tolerated,” he said.
Quoting former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, he added, “You’ve got to have people, members and elected officials at any level, stand up on principle at times like this.”
Listen up
Credit: AJC file photos
Credit: AJC file photos
Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast we break down a new poll showing Keisha Lance Bottoms with an early lead in the Democratic primary for governor. We also analyze a state Senate race that underscores Republican strength in the exurbs.
You can listen and subscribe to Politically Georgia for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.
Today in Washington
- President Donald Trump will sign executive orders.
- The House is out for the week. Democrats have events scheduled to highlight the effects of the shutdown.
- The Senate will vote to advance more Trump nominees.
Endorsement news
Former Gov. Roy Barnes endorsed former state Rep. Roger Bruce in the Georgia Senate race to replace Jason Esteves, who stepped down last month to focus on his campaign for governor. All three are Democrats.
Bruce, who did not seek reelection last year after 22 years in the House, is one of three people who have filed paperwork as of Tuesday for the Senate District 35 special election set for Nov. 18.
Independent Corenza Morris and Republican Josh Tolbert are also vying for the seat that represents parts of Cobb and Fulton counties. The deadline to file for the seat is 1 p.m. today.
Barnes said he’s known Bruce for years, walking subdivisions and knocking on doors in Bruce’s early days in office.
“I can tell you, he was always concerned not about himself, but about folks he could help,” Barnes said to a room of elected officials and supporters in his Marietta law office. “I can’t think of a better person to serve.”
Bruce said watching President Donald Trump implement policies he disagrees with, such as limiting access to the public school free lunch program, pushed him back into the political world after less than a year.
“I kept saying to myself, ‘What kind of future am I going to be leaving for my children, my grandchildren?” Bruce said. “What kind of future would I be leaving if I don’t step up. If you don’t step up, you’re part of the problem.”
Campaign watch
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
Republican state Sen. Brian Strickland’s campaign for attorney general got a boost today as 22 of the state’s 27 Republican district attorneys endorsed him.
Strickland, who’s from McDonough and chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, is vying with state Sen. Bill Cowsert of Athens for the Republican nomination. Both are aiming to replace Attorney General Chris Carr, who is not running for reelection as he runs for governor.
“Brian’s proven to us that he’s the chief law enforcement officer that we need next,” Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney Randy McGinley said.
Shoutouts
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Today’s birthdays:
- State Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming.
- State Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville.
Want a birthday shoutout in the Politically Georgia newsletter? There’s a form for that. Click here to submit the shoutouts. It’s not just birthdays. We’re also interested in new jobs, engagements, birth announcements, etc.
Before you go
Credit: Justin Taylor/The Current GA/Cat
Credit: Justin Taylor/The Current GA/Cat
State officials have asked Glynn County to turn off floodlights along a highway near a Buc-ee’s during sea turtle nesting season because the lights disorient the hatchlings. The Glynn County Commission hasn’t taken action yet.
That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.
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