Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks for herself after Tuesday’s debate

Today’s newsletter highlights

• David Beasley travels to Atlanta this week.
• Shawn Still explains the smirk in his Fulton County booking photo.
• Raphael Warnock stumps for Democrats in other states.

Spin zone

Georgia’s top candidates usually leave the spin room sales pitch to their surrogates.

And for a while after the Atlanta News First debate on Tuesday night, that’s exactly what happened: The best advocates for Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson cycled through a scrum of reporters to explain why their candidate had won.

Then Bottoms walked in.

You can read the AJC team’s recap, Greg Bluestein’s analysis and Patricia Murphy’s column to get caught up on what happened during the showdown.

But the Democrat’s surprise decision to personally work the post-debate scene showed how determined she was to squeeze everything she could from what seems sure to be the sole debate involving the two rivals.

And she used the moment to hammer Jackson over one of the night’s biggest themes: his effort to embrace Gov. Brian Kemp’s mold while distancing himself from President Donald Trump.

“Rick Jackson is a chameleon,” Bottoms said. “There’s a reason I’ve been calling him Slick Rick this entire campaign cycle. He’s almost like the Wiz. He changes colors by the day.”

She pointed to Jackson’s recent decision to minimize Trump’s name on his campaign website after pledging to be the president’s “favorite governor” during a Cobb County rally together during the primary.

“You all have it on tape. You saw it just like I did. He said he wants to be his favorite governor. He wants to be him with a southern tone,” said Bottoms. “And now he wants voters to believe that he’s changed his mind.”

Things to know

Good morning! The midterms are in 28 days. Early voting starts Tuesday. Here are three things to know for today:

• MARTA officials are implementing monthly reviews to keep better tabs on spending after they said last fiscal year’s expenses went over budget by nearly 17%, Sara Gregory reports.
• It sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, but one Atlanta City Council member is taking steps to prevent the city’s potential use of automated killing machines, Shaddi Abusaid reports
• Israelis gathered today to commemorate the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that killed 1,200 people, saw 251 taken hostage and sparked a devastating war in Gaza that has left much of the territory in ruins and its 2 million people living in dire conditions.

Breaking bread

Former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley is in Atlanta this week for his “Breaking Bread Together” tour, an attempt to unite people ahead of the divisive midterm elections.

Beasley, a Republican, is traveling the country having meals with people of all backgrounds in the hopes of convincing them “we’ve got more in common than not.” He’ll be on stage with former United Nations Ambassador Michele Taylor at Georgia Tech on Thursday for an event focused on food insecurity

It’s an issue he knows well as the former executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, which won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2020.

When Beasley was governor, he famously called for the state to remove the Confederate flag from atop the South Carolina Capitol. A few years later, Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, made a similar stand to remove the Confederate emblem from Georgia’s state flag.

Both would lose their reelection bids.

“What was interesting about Barnes, he saw what happened to me, and yet he still tried to do it,” Beasley said. “We need leaders that are willing to lose.”

Beasley said both major political parties “are in a mess right now.”

“I think the average American is wanting both parties to come back to the middle,” he said.

Mug shot backstory

Republican state Sen. Shawn Still opened up about his experience being swept into the prosecution of President Donald Trump and his allies on “The Ben Burnett Show” on Xtra 106.3.

Still wasn’t yet a state senator when he was tapped to join the slate of pro-Trump electors in 2020. He was the Georgia GOP’s finance chair and said attorneys told the electors they needed to cast ballots for Trump to preserve his legal challenges.

Three years later, Still was one of three Georgia electors indicted alongside Trump in Fulton County. The case was dismissed last year after a state prosecutor who took over the case concluded the electors lacked criminal intent and relied on legal advice.

Still told Burnett the ordeal cost him “hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars” in legal bills and forced him to sell real estate to pay for the expenses.

He also said then-special prosecutor Nathan Wade offered him seven potential plea deals, including an initial offer to drop the charges if Still resigned from the state Senate. Still said he rejected them all and called the prosecution a “political hit job.”

And he explained one of the more curious details from the case: the slight smirk in his Fulton County mug shot.

Still said he was advised to turn himself in around midnight, after most of the media had cleared out. As he waited for his photo near a holding area, he said women being held nearby began catcalling and whistling at him.

“My mug shot has, if anyone who knows me, there’s a little bit of a smirk there,” Still said. “I’m trying to hold back the laughter.”

Warnock on the road

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock campaigned in New Hampshire alongside Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Chris Pappas on Tuesday. C-SPAN cameras were filming as Warnock rallied campaign volunteers in a state he said carried a “fierce, independent spirit.”

“Thank you for your willingness to show up,” he said. “But we got to do this every single day. We got 28 more days. I don’t know about you, but I can do anything for 28 days. Leave it all on the field.”

Warnock is making good on his promise to travel the nation stumping with Democrats on the ballot in November. And it doesn’t hurt that these stops could also help him build his national profile as he contemplates whether he will run reelection or for president in 2028.

The Georgia Democrat is in Nevada today and is scheduled to travel to South Carolina, Mississippi, North Carolina and then back to South Carolina next week.

The travel is a balancing act, as some commenters on social media have questioned whether Warnock is neglecting his home state and candidates on the ballot here, including fellow Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.

Warnock has attended events, held meetings with and offered support to Georgia Democrats campaigning for office, including raising money on their behalf. He plans to spend the home stretch of the campaign season in state.

Listen up

Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast Eric Tanenblatt, who was chief of staff to former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, joins the show to discuss the powers of the governor, the state of this year’s governor’s race, and what happens if the election flips the party in power.

This episode is a part of our “Georgia’s Choice” election series to help voters understand the issues and people on the 2026 ballot.

You can listen and subscribe to “Politically Georgia” for free on Apple Podcasts, YouTube 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.

Pushback

Four Georgia Democrats sent a letter Tuesday to State Election Board Executive Director James Mills, firing back at his appeal to the Trump administration to intervene in elections.

The letter cast Mills’ Sept. 30 appeal and the sweeping changes requested in it for the state’s voting system as an attempt to sow doubt about the security of elections.

“Public confidence in elections depends in substantial part upon public officials communicating accurately, responsibly, and within the scope of their statutory authority — and without incompetently, or intentionally, mischaracterizing the law,” read the letter signed by U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany; Everton Blair, D-Lilburn; Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia; and Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta. U.S. Rep. Joseph Morelle, a Democrat from New York, also signed the letter.

The dispute traces back to a Sept. 28 resolution passed by the board’s right-wing majority that empowered the executive director to seek aid “from any quarter,” including the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to advance the resolution’s aims over concerns about Georgia’s statewide voting system.

Days later, Mills sent requests to officials in the DOJ and DHS seeking major changes to the system. Among them was setting a six-month deadline to stop using QR codes to tally votes, arguing that it is inconsistent with voter verification requirements in the Help America Vote Act.

The Democrats say his appeal mischaracterizes the federal voting law. They note that Georgia’s system has been certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and in use for years. The letter demanded the board say the system is “legal, secure, and safe.”