The Georgia legislative session kicks off today with a revamped front-end schedule to accommodate tonight’s College Football Playoff championship game in Los Angeles. We’ll all be watching the Bulldogs. Here is just some of what we’ll be watching at the Capitol during the 40-day term in Atlanta.
New leaders: Many of the tried-and-tested veteran lawmakers that helped guide the Legislature over the last decade are gone, making way for a new class of leaders. We’ll be watching to see how new House Speaker Jon Burns, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and a core of other new legislative leaders find their footing.
Power Center. Gov. Brian Kemp enters the session as the state’s most formidable politician after defeating both former U.S. Sen. David Perdue and Democratic standout Stacey Abrams to win his second term. Expect Kemp to seek to broaden his influence in Georgia and beyond in a second term.
Law and order. Republicans intent on focusing on crime could continue to veer from former Gov. Nathan Deal’s criminal justice overhaul with stringent new penalties for violent crime. Look for a focus on anti-gang measures, while Kemp could also push to sanction prosecutors who aren’t seen as sufficiently “tough on crime.” Democrats, on the other hand, will push for a focus on guns.
Runoff review: The long lines and constant spotlight on Georgia’s runoff system, the only one of its kind, has led Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to call for an end to general election runoffs. Whether lawmakers will follow suit, and what they’d replace them with, remains to be seen.
Wild cards: While we expect proposals on legalized gambling, abortion, education, and other perennial issues, with 180 members in the House and 56 in the Senate, leaders tell us even they know to expect a few wild cards that nobody sees coming.
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Credit: Casey Sykes for the AJC
Credit: Casey Sykes for the AJC
UNDER THE GOLD DOME, Legislative Day 1:
- 9:30 a.m.: The House gavels in to swear-in members and complete housekeeping items before a swift recess.
- 10:00 am: The Senate gavels in for a similar session.
- Coming up: The Georgia Chamber’s annual Eggs & Issues breakfast opens at 7:30 am Wednesday. On Thursday, Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia’s other statewide constitutional officers are inaugurated.
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GOLD DOME WATCH. Our AJC colleagues Mark Niesse and Maya T. Prabhu will be leading coverage of the House and Senate for the 2023-2024 legislative session.
Want to know how to follow the proceedings and contact your lawmakers? Check out our AJC guide to the new Georgia General Assembly.
Prabhu also has more details on the issues we’ll be watching over the next few months.
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Credit: screen shot
Credit: screen shot
FRONT PAGE NEWS: Lawmakers will wake up today to a rare front-page editorial from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution calling for them to address the squalid and unsafe conditions at some Georgia apartment complexes.
“Want to solve the crime problem?” the editorial says. “Start with its breeding grounds.”
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BIDEN TO EBENEZER. President Joe Biden will deliver remarks during Sunday’s service at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church to celebrate the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
It will be Biden’s first trip to Georgia since January 2022 and an opportunity for him to appear alongside U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, who was recently sworn in for his first full six-year term and is also head pastor at the historic church where King once served.
Unlike other senators in battleground states, the president never campaigned with Warnock for his reelection, in part because the Warnock campaign was built around his ability to work across the aisle — and push back on the Biden administration when necessary.
Biden’s speech Sunday will take the place of Warnock’s usual sermon during the 11 a.m. service. On Monday, Bryan Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, will deliver the keynote speech for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Beloved Community Service will be held at Ebenezer.
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D.C. DRAMA: Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., became speaker of the U.S. House in the wee hours of Saturday morning. But as you’re well aware by now, that victory only came after some high-drama.
Georgia’s Andrew Clyde was among a group of 14 previously anti-McCarthy Republicans who flipped in his favor once the House reconvened Friday afternoon. Clyde said his change of heart came after negotiations with McCarthy, who agreed to cap federal spending, give members 72 hours to review bills before a final vote, place Freedom Caucus members on key committees, and update House rules to allow a single member to call for a vote to have the speaker removed.
That still left six holdouts and some bad blood when McCarthy fell one vote short of victory after Round 14 of voting. One House Republican was physically restrained from going after Florida’s U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who took the lead for the opposition.
Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene flexed her relationship with former President Donald Trump. At one point, she called Trump from the House floor and tried to pass her phone to one of the holdouts as votes were underway. That lawmaker, Montana’s Matt Rosendale, waved her off.
Live before the C-SPAN cameras, House Republicans appeared to be in chaos. But just as quickly, it turned around.
Gaetz and the remaining five McCarthy opponents agreed to vote “present.” The rest of the Republicans voted in favor, giving him the majority he needed to become speaker.
But that’s just the beginning. McCarthy now needs to find a way to govern his unruly Republican conference.
His first test will be tonight, when the House votes on the rules package to govern how the chamber will operate for the next two years.
The GOP majority is so thin he can only afford to lose four votes if Democrats stay unified in opposing the measure. And we know of at least one Georgia Republican who, prior to the speaker vote drama, had already made arrangements to cheer on the Bulldogs in person at tonight’s college football championship.
Which brings us to another key change under this new Republican-led House: The end of proxy voting. Stay tuned.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- The U.S. House returns this evening for a vote on the rules package and another measure to repeal funding to hire 87,000 IRS agents.
- President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden have arrived in Mexico City, Mexico, for the North American Leaders’ Summit.
- The Senate is out until Jan. 23.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
WAKE-UP CALL. Members of the Democratic Party of Georgia gathered over the weekend to elect party leaders.
While there were plenty of smiles around, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff also delivered a keynote address that called the November results, when all statewide Democrats except U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock lost by wide margins, “a cautionary tale.”
“I’m always going to shoot straight with you, so let me say this: The outcome in November, a month before we reelected Sen. Warnock (in a runoff), should be a reality check,” he told the crowd. “We’ve achieved so much together (and) we have so much work yet to do. And I know, because we’ve done it, that we will prevail.”
The AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu reported that U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams was overwhelmingly reelected president of DPG, while the biggest contest was for the party’s first vice chair. Outgoing state Rep. Matthew Wilson came out on top after defeating former Georgia NAACP President James Woodall in a runoff.
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Credit: Casey Sykes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Casey Sykes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ANOTHER WILD HOG. The annual Wild Hog Supper kicked off the 2023-2024 legislative session last night, with barbecue, sweet tea, and plenty of old and new lawmakers on hand.
We spotted incoming House Speaker Jon Burns, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Agriculture Commissioner-elect Tyler Harper, and plenty of incoming freshmen not 100% sure what to expect for their first days.
On Friday, legislators had a far different experience, or at least a far different menu. The first-ever Georgia Legislators Shabbat drew dozens of elected officials from both parties to Congregation B’nai Torah for an uplifting service.
You can call it the Wild Brisket Supper.
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LISTEN UP: We had a special edition of the Politically Georgia podcast over the weekend, featuring a conversation with Andrew Morse, the new president and publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Credit: J. Scott Trubey/AJC
Credit: J. Scott Trubey/AJC
We discussed his previous roles at CNN, ABC News and Bloomberg, as well as his vision for both the AJC and digital media in the future.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher.
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GAMEDAY PREDICTIONS. Several members of Georgia’s congressional delegation were among the local celebrities making predictions on the outcome of tonight’s college football championship.
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
While there are plenty of great guesses, our favorite may be from Carol Tomé, CEO of UPS, who called the game for Georgia. “Because GA always moves the ball forward, just like UPS … delivering what matters. I think it’s safe to say GO DAWGS!”
The Bulldogs are the heavy favorite, naturally. But we will be checking to see who came closest to predicting the actual final score.
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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.
