James March-April 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 7
We’re barely past the 2024 elections but already a pair of
Georgia political heavyweights are gearing up for a potential 2026 GOP gubernatorial primary showdown. (Gov.
Brian Kemp is term limited.) Attorney General Chris
Carr was the first to throw his hat into the ring and has
raised nearly $2.2 million since doing so. Meanwhile Lt.
Gov. Burt Jones, who is planning to join the GOP primary race later, has raised more than $3 million in recent
months. The race hasn’t even officially begun but the
early maneuvering has fundraising totals RISING . . .
President Donald Trump signed into law the Laken Riley Act requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain illegal immigrants who are arrested
or who have been convicted of burglary, theft, larceny
or shoplifting. That greatly helps his alien deportation
effort. Laken Riley was an Augusta University nursing
student murdered by an illegal alien in Athens, and the
president acknowledged Georgia’s leadership in ending
the Biden administration’s open borders policy. U.S. Rep.
Mike Collins, R-Ga., sponsored the Act, resulting in his
political stature RISING . . . The main “no” vote in Congress was U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Ga.— also the
state Democratic Party chair. She’s Sinking . . .
Atlanta’s Bobby Jones Golf Course has been named the
2025 Jemsek National Course of the Year at the National
Golf Course Owners Association’s Golf Business Conference in Orlando. The unique nine-hole municipal course
underwent a major $33 million redevelopment a decade
ago and emerged as a fixture in a local golf community
that has no shortage of fine courses. Its clubhouse, the
Murray Golf House, hosts the Georgia State Golf Association and the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame. The well-deserved honor has Bobby Jones RISING . . .
The New Georgia Project, an activist group founded by
failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, was slapped
with a $300,000 fine for illegally supporting her 2018
campaign— the largest penalty ever given for violating
state campaign finance laws. The State Ethics Commission found that the group— led at the time by now-U.S.
Sen. Raphael Warnock— poured millions of dollars into
Abrams’ unsuccessful governor’s race (and those of other
Democrats) but never registered as an independent political committee or disclosed its activities. Sinking . . .
Have you ever heard the word “semiquincentennial?”
Probably not but expect to hear it leading up to 2026,
when the U.S. celebrates its 250th anniversary, “The
United States Semiquincentennial.” To prepare for the full
calendar of events Gov. Brian Kemp is forming the Georgia US250 Commission, which will work with state and
local leaders to develop a program to celebrate the nation’s
history. Included in it are Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson and Georgia Historical
Society President Todd Groce, among others. Expect their
work to promote the celebration to have 2026 RISING . . .
A pair of Georgia judges resigned amid ethics investigations from the Judicial Qualifications Commission.
Haralson County’s Jason Blackmon and Heard County’s Brenda Jennings won new four-year terms in
November, but now both are stepping down and pledging
not to seek any judicial position going forward. A JQC report shows Jennings was routinely late for work, engaged
in prohibited communications about cases and more.
Both resigned before formal charges could be brought up
by the JQC, so their judgeship careers Sank . . .
Downtown Atlanta is slated to receive more than $8.4
billion of investment in new development. The small
neighborhood has struggled in years past, but major projects are changing that trajectory. Ten blocks of historic
buildings purchased by David Cummings and Atlanta
Ventures are being rapidly redeveloped in South Downtown; Centennial Yards is lining up tenants for its 10-acre
revitalization project in the shadow of Mercedes-Benz
Stadium; and Georgia State University has launched a
$107 million campus transformation downtown. These
efforts and more have the neighborhood RISING . . .
A Cobb County legal battle resulted in County Commissioner Jerica Richardson getting ousted. It began over
whether the state legislature or county officials are the
ones who get to draw commission districts. The courts
sided with the legislature, whose map drew Richardson
out of her seat. After a lengthy process the Georgia Court
of Appeals ruled that Richardson’s seat be left vacant
until a special election could fill that seat and another vacant position on the commission. The result left
Democrat Richardson and the rest of the Cobb Board of
Commissioners Drifting . . .
M A RC H //A PRIL 2025
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