Buddy Carter Gets A Push

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Good morning! In the news today: Coastal Georgia Congressman Buddy Carter’s political future gets a jolt; the state legislature faces an imminent deadline; a state lawmaker from Savannah faces ethics allegations; and some notable stories you may have missed. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com

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ANALYSIS: POLITICS

A changed landscape

Coastal Georgia’s congressman, Buddy Carter, has made no secret of his ambition to run next year for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Jon Ossoff.

And until last week, Carter, the five-term congressman from St. Simons, had the luxury of waiting for political dominoes to start falling before deciding whether to run — the main domino being whether the state’s top Republican, the term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp, is going to seek Ossoff’s seat himself.

But faster than you can say, “Jesus, guns and babies,” Carter’s political calculations were upended last week, The Current’s Craig Nelson writes.

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NEWS: LEGISLATURE

Crossover Day looms

The current session of the Georgia General Assembly reaches a critical deadline on Thursday, so-called Crossover Day. Proposed bills must be passed by either the Senate or the House of Representatives or wait until next year for consideration — unless, of course, a lawmaker later slips it into another bill that has passed.

Among the measures whose fate is uncertain are:

SB 123: Changes rules on K-12 school attendance so that students cannot be expelled solely for absenteeism.

SB 34: Requires Georgia Power to force data centers that use huge amounts of electricity to cover their own expenses rather than pass costs to regular customers.

HB 113: Forbids state government agencies from purchasing goods from “foreign adversaries” such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.

HB 467: Grants private groups the right to request possession of a Confederate statue removed by a city or county government from its grounds rather than having that monument go into storage.

HB 171: Outlines punishments for people who create, possess or distribute child pornography made using artificial intelligence.

SB 37: Sets rules for how state government workers can use artificial intelligence.

HB 319: Allows the governor to fire any state or local employee prosecuted for harboring an “illegal alien” or impeding deportation proceedings.

HB 79: Would give tax credits to people who buy gun safes, participate in weapons training courses or purchase other gun safety mechanisms.

HB 268: Would instruct schools to create a plan identifying physical safety threats. It would also develop a database with information about students who have made credible threats, which has brought concerns about both data privacy and profiling of certain students. 

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NEWS: POLITICS

‘Transparency, accountability, public trust’

Derek Mallow and two other Georgia Democrats, along with Republican Colton Moore, are among four state senators under investigation by the State Ethics Commission for allegedly failing to file required campaign reports, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Mallow, a Savannah Democrat, failed to file six campaign contribution reports in 2024 and early 2025. He also failed to file a personal financial disclosure report for 2022, the story said.

The three Democratic senators issued a joint statement saying they are “fully committed to adhering to campaign finance laws and maintaining the highest ethical standards while in elected office.” And said they “recognize the vital importance of transparency, accountability and public trust in the political process.” They neither confirmed nor denied the alleged reporting failures or explained them.

Last year, the commission fined Rep. Carl Gilliard, a Savannah Democrat, $17,000 for what it called “egregious” violations of the state’s campaign finance and disclosure laws, The Current reported. It also reported the campaign finances breaches of his Republican opponent in last November’s elections, Keith Padgett.

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INVESTIGATIVE: GOVERNING

ICYMI

• The Current’s Jake Shore reports on how the state’s child welfare agency failed to adequately investigate a contractor’s questionable drug tests of parents in custody cases.
• The Current’s Jabari Gibbs reports on how the family of Ahmaud Arbery and the city of Brunswick are seeking to keep the memory of the murdered 25 year old alive.
• Jeanne Seaver, founder and president of Moms Against Gambling, tells WTOC why legalizing sports betting in Georgia would hurt the state’s youth.
• The state Senate’s Special Committee on Investigations, set up to probe Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ prosecution of Donald Trump, turns its attention to Stacey Abrams and the New Georgia Project, though the group agreed last month to pay a $300,000 fine as part of a state ethics commission settlement agreement for committing 16 campaign finance violations.
• Marty Daniel, founder and chairman of Daniel Defense in Bryan County, tells a state Senate committee how the constitutional rights of he and his company were breached after one of its riefles was used in a 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
• A white Camden County sheriff’s deputy won’t face criminal charges for fatally a shooting a Black man during a 2023 traffic stop near the Georgia-Florida border.

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