Rivian’s plans to build a $5 billion electric vehicle factory in northeast Georgia last year became an unexpected lightning rod for some Republicans. Now the automaker is looking to juice up its relationship with Georgia politicians.
The company’s first-ever Rivian Day at the state Capitol is happening today with Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, House Speaker Jon Burns and company chief executive RJ Scaringe. The politicians will be joined by multiple Rivian trucks fresh off the assembly line.
Maintaining lawmakers’ confidence in the future of the company is essential after the EV maker posted a $6.8 billion loss for 2022 this week and has been hit by a string of production setbacks at its existing factory in Illinois.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
In December 2021, Kemp announced the automaker’s plan to great fanfare. Even his Democratic archrival Stacey Abrams applauded the move.
But the plan soon faced pushback from some residents who complained they were kept in the dark about the deal with Rivian, which plans to employ about 7,500 people on a roughly 2,000-acre site. Others have vented at the $1.5 billion package dangled to land the project.
And former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, who launched a fruitless primary challenge against Kemp, even vowed to kill the deal if he defeated Kemp — a contrast to generations of lawmakers who have practically pleaded for a new automobile factory after a string of near misses.
The showcase near the Capitol steps is just one facet of Rivian’s do-over. With its ongoing financial and legal challenges, the automaker needs more allies in Georgia.
There’s also a lunch with state legislators and Rivian executives. And there’s an event planned at the Governor’s Mansion.
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Credit: Curtis Compton/AJC
Credit: Curtis Compton/AJC
LISTEN UP: The midweek edition of the Politically Georgia podcast is now in your feeds. Hear us talk about the many unanswered questions created by the bills to create a new “City of Buckhead City.”
We also discuss Keisha Lance Bottoms’ next moves now that she’s announced her plans to leave the White House, as well as the latest from the General Assembly heading into Crossover Day on Monday.
Listen at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher.
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TROUBLE IN BUCKHEAD CITY. Gov. Brian Kemp’s office has serious questions about the constitutionality of legislation that would move a potential “City of Buckhead City” to a 2024 referendum, Kemp’s Senate floor leaders learned in a memo late Tuesday.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
In the memo, Kemp executive counsel Dave Dove outlined nearly a dozen questions about the constitutionality of the two bills that cleared a Senate panel this week, warning late Tuesday they could reshape local governments in ways that “ripple into a future of unforeseen outcomes.”
The questions could prove fatal for the separatist effort, since Kemp would have to sign any legislation that comes out of the General Assembly. Without answers to his detailed constitutional questions, lawmakers know the bill won’t pass that test.
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Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
FRANKLIN CALLS FOUL. Count former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is a hard no on the idea of splitting the city of Atlanta apart. Among Franklin’s top concerns are the rock-bottom, $100,000 prices for the city’s water and sewer systems set by the General Assembly for purchase by potential breakaway Buckhead.
In a post to Instagram with the question “REALLY?” Franklin estimated that the city’s water and sewer systems, which she worked for years to upgrade through $3 billion in bonds, are worth up to $1 trillion in total.
“Fortunately, Atlanta’s investments and ownership are protected in federal and state law, agreements, contracts, and common business practices. AND the moral arc bends toward justice. Good works are rewarded. I believe it so. The whole country is watching.”
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Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
CHICAGO WATCH. We’re still waiting for word on whether Atlanta will be chosen among three finalists to host the Democratic National Convention in 2024. The other finalist cities are Chicago and New York City.
In the meantime, Chicago held an election of its own yesterday. Incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot was defeated in her bid for reelection. She won just 17% of the vote.
Lightfoot had been a primary face for the city’s convention pitch to Democratic officials. Her loss means that a new mayor would have to focus quickly on a potential convention if the city were to win the bid.
But it’s not yet clear who the mayor will be. Like Georgia, Chicago has a runoff system if no candidate wins a majority. The top two candidates, former public school chief Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, now head into an April 4 runoff, which Politico predicts will be fraught with racial tensions and divisiveness.
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
UNDER THE GOLD DOME, Legislative Day 26:
- 7:30 a.m.: Committee meetings begin;
- 10 a.m.: The House gavels in;
- 1 p.m.: The Senate convenes.
- On our radar: Crossover Day, which happens Monday
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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: It’s moving season at the state Capitol, as lawmakers rush to pass their bills through at least one chamber ahead of Monday’s Crossover Day deadline.
Among the bills we’re watching are:
- Senate Bill 221, a bill to expand the ability of Georgia residents to challenge the eligibility of other voters, which passed committee Monday, Mark Niesse reports.
- Four separate sports betting bills, which our colleague Maya T. Prabhu is tracking;
- The leaf blower bill, which was back bright and early this session;
- More election restrictions, this time to restrict outside groups from helping to fund county election operations, even indirectly.
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Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
STERLING COMPANY. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was taken by surprise Tuesday when she showed up to a meeting of the House’s new Election Integrity Caucus and saw that Gabriel Sterling, the chief operations officer in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office, was an invited guest of the panel.
Taking the last available seat in the room, she ended up next to the man in charge of overseeing Georgia’s voting operations and someone she wrongly alleged helped steal the 2020 election from then-President Donald Trump.
“There was blatant outright fraud in the 2020 election,” Greene, R-Rome, told Sterling in a video of the meeting she later uploaded to Twitter. “Complete and total fraud and you know it. And I’m going to follow up with one thing: Trump won Georgia.”
Three recounts, more than a dozen failed lawsuits and every one of the former president’s own Department of Justice staff, inside and outside of Georgia, have told Trump that he lost the state.
Sterling later posted his own response, saying that he welcomed the opportunity to discuss the 2020 election with the panel.
“A big part of that is talking truthfully about the challenges in elections and identifying REAL issues,” he wrote. “Some still deal in disproven conspiracies.”
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HOUSE WINNER. A vacant northeast Georgia House seat will be filled by Holt Persinger, a landscape architect who defeated a far-right candidate backed by the Georgia Republican Assembly in the special election runoff.
Persinger, who is a Republican, captured about 60% of the vote to defeat Charlie Chase to represent House District 119, which spans parts of Barrow and Jackson counties. He’ll succeed Danny Rampey, who resigned before taking office after being arrested on drug and theft charges.
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CAMILLA MARKER. The Camilla Massacre of 1868 was one of the most violent — and most forgotten — incidents in Reconstruction Georgia. Now a group of officials in the south Georgia city are taking steps to remember the tragedy.
A new marker from the Georgia Historical Society in Camilla commemorates the killings of at least a dozen Black people who gathered there to attend a Republican rally, WALB reports. They were supporters of Philip Joiner, one of the 28 state legislators expelled from the General Assembly because they were Black.
When they arrived for the rally, historians say, the local sheriff and other white residents opened fire. After the killings, many Black voters didn’t cast ballots in the 1868 election fearing more violence. In some places, white Democrats moved or changed Black ballots.
“Republican members of Congress were appalled at the violence and fraud and required Georgia to once more undergo military rule and Radical Reconstruction,” reads an entry on the event from the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden will deliver remarks on his nomination of Julie Su for Secretary of Labor. Later, he will attend the Department of Homeland Security’s 20th Anniversary Ceremony.
- The U.S. Senate continues work on confirmations.
- The House will vote to require that presidents publish the financial impact of any future executive orders.
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Credit: Courtesy U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath
Credit: Courtesy U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath
DOG OF THE DAY. It’s lawmaker week at the Dog of the Day, when we’re featuring the bipartisan buddies of your local elected officials.
Today’s top dog is Harley McBath, the eight-year-old pointer and Dalmatian mix that Georgia’s U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath praised as her best friend on National Dog Day.
The Democratic congresswoman scooped Harley up through a homeless pet program run by her veterinarian when he was a wee “palmation.” From McBath’s photo, it appears Harley’s hobbies include trying to ride in the front seat, a favorite pastime of many power pooches.
Send us your pups of any political persuasion — and cats on a cat-by-case basis — to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us on Twitter @MurphyAJC.
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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.
