The Jolt: Eric Greitens’ Missouri Senate scandal reaches into two Georgia races

The fallout of the allegations against Eric Greitens, a Missouri Republican running for U.S. Senate, is complicating a pair of statewide GOP campaigns in Georgia.

The ex-wife of Greitens, the state’s disgraced former governor, filed court documents this week accusing him of physically abusing her and one of their sons. Several top GOP officials have already called on him to quit the race.

Greitens has deep ties to Georgia GOP operatives who helped his successful 2016 bid for governor – which ended two years later in his abrupt resignation amid a string of scandals and separate abuse allegations.

Among Greitens’ former aides are Austin Chambers, who managed the former governor’s 2016 campaign and now is a top political consultant for former U.S. Sen. David Perdue’s primary challenge against Gov. Brian Kemp.

Chambers said he cut ties with Greitens around March 2018. In May of that year, Greitens said he would step down as he faced impeachment hearings related to allegations he misused his charity’s donor list for political purposes.

After the affidavit from Sheena Greitens surfaced, Chambers sought to distance himself further from his old boss. In the court filing, Sheena Greitens accused her ex-husband of physical abuse and “unstable and coercive behavior.”

“Disgusting, but not surprising unfortunately,” Chambers wrote on Twitter. @SheenaGreitens is one of the strongest, smartest, and best people I know. Proud to call her a friend, hate that her and her family suffered through this awful abuse and continue to suffer through the publicity of it today.”

The accusations against Greitens could also focus more attention on Herschel Walker, the Senate GOP frontrunner who has been accused of assaulting his ex-wife Cindy Grossman in 2005 and threatening at least two other women in 2002 and again in 2012.

Missouri U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, long a Greitens rival, only underscored the GOP dilemma with Walker when he called on Greitens to quit the race. “If you hit a woman or a child, you belong in handcuffs, not the United States Senate.”

Just a few weeks earlier, Hawley endorsed Walker despite the allegations, praising his “faith, his optimism and his passion” for Georgia.

Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, Walker’s best-known Republican rival, highlighted the disconnect. He called the former football star the “Eric Greitens of Georgia (but far worse).”

“If we support candidates like Greitens and Walker, what kind of people are we?”

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UNDER THE GOLD DOME: Tuesday, March 22:

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This might be a first in Georgia. The Rabun County GOP passed a no-confidence resolution this month that criticizes Republican Senate Candidate Herschel Walker for refusing to debate his primary opponents and engage with questions from the media and voters.

“No coach would send an untested football player into the state championship who refused to practice, has no record of performance in debates,” read the resolution, which didn’t call out Walker by name.

It goes on to condemn anyone who would “disrespect the Republican primary process by refusing to debate” and encourages the GOP to prepare a “battle-tested candidate, fully vetted and ready to reclaim” the seat in November.

Walker, of course, has indicated he won’t participate in any debate until the general election matchup against U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock in November.

With sky-high name recognition, loads of campaign cash and Donald Trump’s blessing, Walker may try to continue to ignore his rivals. But they won’t make it easy on him.

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Speaking of debates, Gov. Brian Kemp’s campaign pressed David Perdue again to say whether he’ll participate in debates ahead of their May 24 primary.

Kemp committed to four statewide debates four weeks ago, but Perdue hasn’t outlined which ones he’ll join beyond saying he’ll “absolutely” participate.

“Perdue has known the dates for a month now,” said Kemp spokesman Cody Hall. “His campaign should answer a simple question: will he participate in all four primary debates?”

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The sputtering Buckhead City movement hasn’t had much luck making its case with this version of the Georgia General Assembly. So leaders are hoping to install new members to get a better result.

The group released a list of endorsed 2022 candidates Monday afternoon, including GOP state Senate District 6 candidate Angelic Moore, only to quickly send out a “corrected” version of its press release to say they are not endorsing Moore after all.

Instead, the committee said candidate Fred Glass “best reflects our Buckhead City movement” and would be best to get a bill passed later.

We spoke with Moore, who has been a constant presence at Buckhead City events to see what happened. She said she supports a vote for Buckhead City and pointed us to her recent endorsements from pro-Buckhead City state Sens. Brandon Beach and Jeff Mullis, as well as state Sen. John Albers.

One man making the case against Buckhead City just about every day is Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.

Dickens was back at the Capitol Monday for a press conference on his public safety agenda, including staffing an Atlanta police precinct, now under construction in Buckhead, with at least 12 officers by this summer.

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Georgia’s U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff used his opening remarks during the first day of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination hearings Monday to talk about how she could help the justice system operate more equitably.

Ossoff, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, talked of how “local authorities buried the case and looked the other way” after Ahmaud Arbery’s murder in coastal Georgia.

That is, he added, until a “massive civil rights mobilization” became involved.

“For any colleagues who doubt that those promises remain unfulfilled to too many, I remind them that in my state you can predict how long someone must wait to vote by where they live and the color of their skin,” he said.

Georgia’s U.S. Reps. Hank Johnson and Nikema Williams attended the hearing in person. Since there is not currently a Black woman in the U.S. Senate, Williams said she wanted to be in the room to watch the hearings herself.

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State Sen. Burt Jones, who is running for lieutenant governor, agreed to a consent decree with the state ethics commission to settle a complaint that he began spending money to campaign for LG before he filed paperwork to declare his candidacy.

The commission on Monday approved the agreement and assessed Jones with a $1,000 fine. It also ordered that $8,000 be paid back to his state Senate account by his lieutenant governor’s account, the AJC’s James Salzer tells us.

The complaint originated with Dalton attorney Daniel Laird, III, who pointed to a July 8 tweet from Jones, which thanked volunteers and included photos of a video shoot.

The scenes from the photos are the same as a video that Jones posted when he launched his campaign for lieutenant governor on Aug. 10. He declared himself a candidate for the job on Aug. 6.

Laird cited a state advisory opinion that says a candidate for a public office cannot solicit or accept in-kind contributions, nor make campaign expenditures, prior to declaring for that office.

A spokesman for Jones’ campaign told the AJC at the time that as of the July 7th video shoot, Jones knew he would be running for something in 2022 but did not know which office he’d be running for.

A spokesman for Jones’ opponent in the LG race, Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller, called Jones an “American oligarch.”

“He uses his public position to benefit himself, hides sources of his millions of dollars, and doesn’t think he has to play by the rules.”

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Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr received thousands of dollars in donations from a trade organization that lobbies on behalf of pharmaceutical companies at the same time he was negotiating the details of a settlement with the industry, the AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu reports.

Georgia stands to receive $636 million as part of a $26 billion settlement agreement between local governments and companies, including Johnson & Johnson, over their role in the opioid addiction and overdose crisis.

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Atlanta-based state Rep. Bee Nguyen is a nominee for the Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award from EMILY’s List. The Democratic pro-choice advocacy group endorsed the Democrat in her House races and is backing her bid for secretary of state.

Stacey Abrams was the first recipient of the Giffords award in 2017.

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We’re wishing our fellow Jolter, Greg Bluestein, the best of luck today on the official launch of his new book, Flipped: How Georgia Turned Purple and Broke the Monopoly on Republican Power.

Flipped is reviewed in the New York Times today and Greg will pop up on your TV, in bookstores, and on tomorrow’s Politically Georgia podcast, talking all about it.

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As always, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.

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