Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025
Good morning! In the news today: mayoral candidates face off in Brunswick, missing ballots in Chatham County, and the political future of the Brunswick area’s district attorney appears imperiled. Finally, we note nine things for your radar. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com.
NEWS: POLITICS
Marquee municipal race
Economic development, transportation, homelessness, food deserts, environment, and youth crime.
These are the issues that dominate the concerns of voters of Brunswick, Coastal Georgia’s second-largest city, as they go to the polls for the Nov. 4 elections in the region’s marquee municipal race.
They will decide whether incumbent Cosby Johnson or challenger Vincent Williams should be the city’s next mayor. In two separate, wide-ranging interviews, Johnson and Williams discuss those issues and their visions for the city with The Current’s Jabari Gibbs.
NEWS: VOTING
Missing ballots
Chatham County’s voter registration office says that some absentee ballots issued for next month’s elections were lost in the mail, adding that it was “actively working” to remedy what the office’s supervisor termed a “technical error.”
The public acknowledgement comes 12 days before elections that are expected, due to low voter turnout, to be decided by razor-thin margins. It is also likely to fuel pressure, beginning with President Donald Trump and including Georgia’s State Election Board, to scrap most — if not all — forms of mail-in voting in the state and nationwide.
What happened to the missing ballots still isn’t known, The Current’s Craig Nelson reports.
NEWS: COURTS
Political peril
In November 2020, Keith Higgins was seen by voters in Glynn and its neighboring Coastal Georgia counties as a welcome relief.
Higgins’ opponent in that year’s elections for district attorney in the Brunswick judicial circuit was Republican incumbent Jackie Johnson, who was mired in controversy over her actions following the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Satilla Shores earlier that year. Running as an independent, Higgins defeated Johnson by a little more than 5% of the vote in a historic turnout. He won reelection four years later.
That record of electoral success now appears imperiled, and Higgins’ prospects for winning reelection in 2028, should he decide to run, now grow dimmer by the day, The Current’s Jabari Gibbs and Craig Nelson report.
That follows details of a recently completed forensic audit, first reported last week by The Current GA, that show that Higgins busted his office’s budget, running up a nearly $1 million shortfall. His staff members rang up dozens of questionable expenses, according to auditing firm Baker Tilly, as he sought to boost his office’s conviction rate and solidify his tough-on-crime credentials.
NEWS: UPDATES
9 things for your radar
- As of Saturday, some 3.4% — or 14,787 —of the 434,151 registered voters in the Coastal Georgia counties of Bryan, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn and Liberty have cast early, in-person ballots, for the Nov. 4 elections, according to a tally compiled from the websites of those counties’ election boards.
- For more information on the elections, click here for a primer by The Current’s Mary Landers on the Public Service Commission election, and click here for “frequently asked questions” by The Current’s Robin Kemp about Liberty County’s FLOST and TSPLOST votes. Both the GOP and the Democratic National Committee are taking the PSC election seriously.
- Environmental groups toting 24,000 petition signatures urge Gov. Brian Kemp to permanently protect the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
- Savannah officials to exempt to exempt Forsyth Park office buildings from Historic Preservation Commission Design review, Savannah Agenda reports.
- Georgia Republican Party chairman Josh McKoon eulogizes Frank Garner, saying the Liberty County Republican Committee chairman “didn’t just talk about service. He lived it.”
- Savannah Mayor Van Johnson delivers his “state of the city” address on Wednesday, Nov. 5, starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Otis Johnson Cultural Center, 201 Montgomery Street.
- The City of Savannah to host its first public feedback session on the civic center redevelopment plan on Oct.28 from 5 p.m.-7:30 p.m. at the civic center’s ballroom, 301 W. Oglethorpe Ave.
- The City of Savannah is hosting an open house to gather public input on the 37th Street corridor traffic safety project. The open house will be from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.Monday, Nov. 3, at the Bull Street Library.
- The Poynter Institute’s Politifact fact checks allegations that the government of Ontario misappropriated Ronald Reagan’s 1987 comments on tariffs.
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Johnson, Williams address key issues in Brunswick mayoral race
Cosby Johnson and Vincent Williams are the two candidates running for Brunswick’s mayoral seat, with Johnson touting his experience and Williams advocating for fiscal conservatism and more public input in city meetings.
With scathing audit report, political woes mount for Brunswick DA
Keith Higgins, the Republican incumbent District Attorney of Brunswick, is facing calls for resignation and potential disciplinary action after a forensic audit revealed his office had a nearly $1 million budget shortfall and numerous questionable expenses.
Chatham County absentee ballots go missing in mail
Chatham County’s voter registration office is working to remedy a ‘technical error’ that caused some absentee ballots to go missing in the mail, adding to the pressure to restrict mail-in voting.
DNC Vice Chair Jane Kleeb campaigns in Georgia’s Public Service race
Jane Kleeb, DNC vice-chair, is visiting Georgia to campaign for Democratic candidates in the upcoming Public Service Commission election, as both parties increase their efforts in the typically low-profile race.
FAQ: Liberty County TSPLOST, FLOST tax votes
Both FLOST and TSPLOST are “special purpose” taxes. That means Georgia law mandates those dollars can only be spent on specific projects presented before the election.
Top Senate Republicans committed to cutting, even eliminating, state income tax
Top Senate Republicans in Georgia are committed to cutting, and potentially eliminating, the state income tax, with the only question being how much of a cut to make.
State election panel recommends ending no-excuse absentee voting in Georgia
The Georgia State Election Board voted 3-2 to recommend that the state Legislature end no-excuse absentee voting, which was adopted in 2005, and limit the amount of time overseas and military voters have to return absentee ballots.
Georgia SNAP seeks at least $60 million after federal budget cuts
Numbers are arriving that indicate Georgia’s GOP-led state government must soon decide whether to spend an additional $60 million a year administrating SNAP or do something that shrinks the program that more than one in 10 Georgians use to buy groceries.
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