The Georgia Legislature has had its hands full with cityhood proposals for the last few years. Four new cities were proposed for Cobb County in 2022, with only Mableton winning approval from Cobb voters. In Atlanta, the controversial “City of Buckhead City” failed to make it out of the state Senate in 2023 after Gov. Brian Kemp raised a half dozen legal questions about it.
The cityhood question will be back in front of lawmakers in 2024 when House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration, a Dacula Republican, is expected to sponsor legislation to create the City of Mill Creek in unincorporated Gwinnett County.
Efstration and state Sen. Clint Dixon, a Republican from Buford, will announce the details of their plan at a news conference in Dacula later this morning. Both represent the area that includes the possible city.
Ahead of the event, Efstration compared his proposal for Mill Creek to the City of Peachtree Corners, which was approved by Gwinnett voters in 2011. Peachtree Corners includes zoning and trash collection among its limited duties, but does not collect property taxes. He and Dixon will also present a map of a possible City of Mill Creek at the event, which could change based on resident feedback.
Like Cobb County, Gwinnett has quickly flipped to mostly Democratic control after decades of Republican rule as the fast-growing area has become one of the most diverse in the state.
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
LISTEN UP. On Thursday’s episode of the AJC’s “Politically Georgia” show on WABE, we spoke with state Rep. Saira Draper about the upcoming special session for redistricting, which is scheduled to begin at the end of the month.
The Atlanta Democrat, who once headed up voter protection for the Democratic Party of Georgia, described the potential chaos of filing deadlines, residency requirements, and legal challenges as the maps are reconfigured and possibly challenged again.
“We have a very good idea of what we would like to see.” she said of state House Democrats. “But this shouldn’t be a deal that’s come to behind closed doors.”
Listen and subscribe to our podcast for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
PASS THE HAT. Dozens of Republicans gathered Thursday at a “Fulton Defense Fund” barbecue in Banks County to help pay the legal bills of three of the GOP electors charged in the sweeping Fulton County election interference case.
Former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, one of the trio, thanked the activists for “raising funds for those wrongly accused in Fulton County.”
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones initially planned to attend, but he wound up in Iowa stumping for former President Donald Trump. Jones dropped by Trump’s Iowa headquarters and led a caucus training, although Georgia does not use the caucus system for elections.
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Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC
SWIFTIES REVOLT. Another possible item on the 2024 legislative calendar is a proposal from state Rep. Scott Hilton to prevent limits on secondary ticket sales in the state.
But the Gwinnett Republican could run into problems if his neighbor, Gwinnett Democratic state Rep. Ruwa Romman, has anything to say about it. The known Taylor Swift devotee posted her protest to the idea on social media after tickets to Swift’s concerts quickly became exorbitant earlier this year.
Romman suggested the language in the Hilton bill could exacerbate the problem. “It makes it easier for scalpers and would cause prices to go up. Don’t make the swifties mad. There’s so many of us 🙂”
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AID FOR ISRAEL. The U.S. House on Thursday signed off on a bill providing $14.3 billion in emergency aid to Israel by cutting the IRS budget by an equal amount.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene joined Georgia’s five Democrats to oppose the measure, which passed the House 226-196.
“You see, the reason why I voted ‘no’ today, and not that I’ll always be a no for Israel’s defense, is because I’m unapologetically America first,” the Rome Republican said in a video posted on her social media. “And today in America, we have an open-border-driven national security crisis.”
Democrats criticized Republicans for taking the unusual step of coupling emergency funding with a spending cut of an equal amount and for refusing to include money for Ukraine. They also noted that the cut to the IRS budget would increase the deficit by $12.5 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, because it would reduce tax collections.
Senate Leader Chuck Schumer has said the bill is a non-starter in that chamber, and President Joe Biden has promised to veto it if it lands on his desk.
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SAVE UP. A survey of Georgia voters released Friday by AARP showed most would support legislation to make it easier for workers to save money if they don’t have employer-sponsored retirement savings plans.
About 2 million Georgians work for an employer that doesn’t offer either a traditional pension or a retirement savings plan, the group said.
It backs a state-facilitated “work and save” retirement plan that automatically deducts money from paychecks. Read the survey results here.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden will visit Lewiston, Maine, to meet with survivors of the recent mass shooting or families of those who were killed. He will also meet with leaders of nations in the Western hemisphere at the White House during the inaugural Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity Leaders’ Summit.
- The House is expected to vote on more appropriations legislation.
- The Senate is done for the week.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
VAN LIFE. Savannah Mayor Van Johnson is up for reelection next week, but recent campaign visits by Georgia Democratic powerbrokers Stacey Abrams, Rep. Nikema Williams and Keisha Lance Bottoms has the city buzzing about Johnson’s post-mayoral plans.
He would be term-limited for the mayor’s post if he wins on Nov. 7 and says he won’t seek another city government office, such as alderman, in 2027. That’s amplified speculation that he is eyeing state or federal office.
With Democrats already holding Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats and Coastal Georgia’s U.S. House district drawn to favor Republican candidates — such as current officeholder Rep. Buddy Carter of Pooler — Savannah political prognosticators envision Johnson running for a statewide constitutional office.
Yet it’s important to remember the lack of success by Savannahians in statewide elections in recent decades. Among the high-profile bidders are former Georgia Senate president pro tem Eric Johnson, who ran for governor in 2010; former Congressman Jack Kingston, who challenged for U.S. Senate in 2014; and former Georgia Sen. Lester Jackson, who made a bid for Labor commissioner last year.
Not only did all three of those candidates lose, all three lost in primaries.
One Savannahian has found success: U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. But while he was born and raised in Savannah, he has spent his adult life — and built his political bonafides — in Atlanta.
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ATTACKING THE NEW SPEAKER. The Republican Accountability Project, an anti-Trump Republican group, is running ads in Georgia about newly installed House Speaker Mike Johnson.
The ads focus on Johnson’s efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s election victories in 2020 in swing states, including Georgia.
The spot goes on to describe Johnson as an acolyte of the former president and describes today’s Republican party as a “danger to our democracy.”
The ads are running during primetime hours on Fox News in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Detroit and Phoenix through Tuesday. The group said it spent six figures on airing the spots.
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KEEP UP. Lawyers for Jenna Ellis, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, gave an exclusive interview this week to the AJC’s Bill Rankin and Tamar Hallerman regarding their client’s recent guilty plea in the Fulton County election interference case against former President Donald Trump and 18 others.
Other developments reported this week by AJC journalists include:
You can stay on top of the case via the “Trump Georgia Indictment” section on AJC.com and by signing up for the “The Trump 19” weekly newsletter.
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Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
OSSOFF IN YOUR ’HOOD. U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff has added November dates to his statewide constituent services campaign that kicked off last month. The Democrat’s staff members will be available to help residents obtain services like Medicaid or Social Security or connect with federal agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs.
His staffers will be in Carrollton on Tuesday and Brunswick on Thursday. Other dates this month include Perry on Nov. 14, Conyers on Nov. 16, Woodstock on Nov. 28 and Moultrie on Nov. 30.
Ossoff’s website lists the full schedule, including the location and times for each date.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
DOG OF THE DAY. Our post-Halloween cleanse continues with curiously healthy snacker, Shelby McCay.
Shelby is the granddog of AJC super fan April McCay. Along with eating snacks like carrots, cucumber and watermelon, Shelby also enjoys a healthy diet of dramatic readings from the Jolt and episodes of Politically Georgia.
Shelby, for your devotion to both high-fiber eating and high-quality local journalism, you’re our Dog of the Day!
Send us your dogs of any political persuasion and location, and cats on a cat-by-cat basis, to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us at @MurphyAJC.
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AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
