Threats from Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger did not deter the Fulton County Commission from moving forward with its choice for chair of the Board of Elections.
We told you yesterday that Raffensperger didn’t want Atlanta City Council president Cathy Woolard to be appointed as chair of the embattled board. He said if it happened he would try to remove the entire county’s election board under the new elections law that narrowly passed the Legislature.
On Wednesday, Woolard was indeed selected for the job, our colleagues Ben Brasch and Mark Niesse write. Raff’s objections made little difference. Woolard will take over the job just in time for Atlanta’s mayoral election in November.
Raffensperger argued that Wollard’s previous service as a lobbyist for Fair Fight, Stacey Abram’s voting rights group, made her too partisan to fairly oversee elections.
The county commission voted 4-2 in favor of Woolard, but no vote came from Democrat Khadijah Abdur-Rahman. She warned that the state’s effort to take over the election board, which is already in motion, will accelerate with a member who has already attracted Raff’s ire.
“She could walk on water and cure cancer and give sight back to the blind, but if we don’t take our time with this and do it right, we’re going to be in the news again and (risk) a state takeover,” Abdur-Rahman said.
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Along with the massive backlog of felony cases that Fani Willis and her staff are wading through, the Fulton County District Attorney is continuing her investigation into former president Donald Trump about whether he tried to interfere with the 2020 election.
We asked Willis this week what more she could share about the status of the investigation, which is active and ongoing. Here is what she said:
“People will have to be patient. I want to make sure that we do things correctly. I really do believe Lady Justice is blind. It should not matter how affluent you are or how impoverished you are, you deserve the same quality of work, both if you’re the person being looked at and investigated, or if you’re the citizens who, possibly, someone attempted to deprive your right to vote. So, we’re going to take our time on that investigation just like we take our time on others.”
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Another important development at the Fulton County Commission, which our colleague Ben Brash covered: District Attorney Fani Willis made one final plea to the commission for more staff and office space while warning that dozens of accused killers could be out of jail because her overwhelmed staff doesn’t have the resources to indict them.
Willis told commissioners, “It’s just math. I need help. I’m here begging you for help. Dangerous people are going to get out. I don’t know how to make it more clear.”
The commission voted to give Willis the full amount of the funding she requested. Two members, Democrats Khadijah Abdur-Rahman and Marvin Arrington, Jr., apologized to the DA for the effort it took just to get on the agenda to make the ask in the first place.
“We’ve got a culture that wants you to jump through hoops for money and help. Yes, I said it,” Abdur-Rahman said, adding. “I am so sorry that you have to go through this, but you have my full support.”
Here's how that shook out: Fulton commissioners appropriate $5M to process murder suspects https://t.co/LYMTnGIMbx
— Ben Brasch (@ben_brasch) September 15, 2021
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In the city of Atlanta, our colleague Wilborn Nobles continues to comb through results of the latest AJC poll that serves as a preview of the mayoral contest but also a temperature check of city residents.
The poll found that current Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has high approval ratings, but residents also believe the city is headed in the wrong direction on several tracks.
A poll commissioned by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found 57% of Atlanta voters either strongly or somewhat approve of the job Bottoms has done as the city’s 60th mayor. But a clear majority also think the city is headed in the wrong direction on some of the biggest issues facing the city: crime (70% off track); traffic congestion (60%); and affordable housing (56%).
Overall, 53% of people in the poll said the city is on the wrong track regardless of issue — including about 48% each of Black voters and Democrats, and a whopping 84% of Republicans.
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The third meeting of a state House committee tasked with addressing crime in Atlanta took a slightly chaotic turn on Wednesday.
That happened about two hours in when Atlanta District 3 City Council candidate Ken Wainwright stepped to the podium, the AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu tells us. He said he would only talk “for a second” and then launched into essentially a 10-minute stump speech addressing the need for additional police officers in southwest Atlanta, pushback to the recent approval of a new city police and fire training facility and the time he got “a lot of money” from a “racist” company he sued.
He then said he wanted to get a message to Gov. Brian Kemp.
“When it comes down to our community, the same ones that have to implement change – there were things that were done from the top down,” Wainwright said, then referenced Kemp’s legal challenge last year of Atlanta’s mask mandate. “You can’t say that you want to help our community, come to our block and then sue the city of Atlanta.”
Wainwright went on to invite Kemp and other legislators to come back and meet him in “bad areas” of the city.
“Or just don’t come back at all if you don’t really want to do anything,” he said, prompting State Rep. Mesha Mainor, a Democrat who was hosting the meeting, to take the microphone back.
Wainwright continued to speak without the mic for another minute before eventually stepping away from the podium.
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The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into claims of violence and poor conditions inside Georgia prisons, the AJC’s Joshua Sharpe reports.
The investigation comes on the heels of pleas from elected officials, activists and loved ones of people in Georgia lockups that the federal government intervene.
“The Justice Department is committed to seeking to address the devastating effects of prison staff shortages, inadequate policies and training, and the lack of accountability,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ’s civil rights division said earlier this week.
She added that the agency hasn’t made any final decisions about Georgia prisons yet. The Georgia Department of Corrections has not publicly responded to news of the investigation.
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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has another 2022 opponent for her 9th Congressional District seat.
Republican Jennifer Strahan describes herself as “small business owner, a Christian, a wife, a mother to a rambunctious little boy and two dogs and a tortoise.”
In her intro video, Strahan never mentions MTG, but she does say she’s not a celebrity and doesn’t want to be, which sounds a lot like a reference to MTG to us.
“Out of control inflation, a crisis at the border, and 13 flag-draped caskets are a harsh reminder that this is not the time for unserious politicians who just want to hear themselves talk,” she said.
But on policy, the two women may not disagree on much. Strahan said she wants to defend the policies of former President Donald Trump and protect gun rights and religious freedoms.
A third Republican, Mark Clay, is already in the race. And there are also four Democrats who are running as longshots because the seat is expected to remain a conservative stronghold even after redistricting.
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The campaign arm for the Republican Party targeting candidates for the U.S. House is out with new digital ads attacking Georgia’s Carolyn Bourdeaux and other moderates for supporting a $3.5 trillion social services and climate change package despite some initial hesitation.
“These Democrats promised to stand up to Nancy Pelosi’s reckless tax and spending spree then let Pelosi walk all over them,” the National Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Tom Emmer said in a statement.
Watch the Bourdeaux ad here.
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She’s not running for Governor again yet, but Georgia’s Stacey Abrams has been named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Her blurb was written by acclaimed entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte, and Abrams is under the “leaders” category with 24 others.
.@staceyabrams named to @TIME's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.https://t.co/btuJVuk9Kz
— Patricia Murphy (@politicalinsidr) September 15, 2021
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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.
