Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025
Good morning! In the news today: voter turnout worries, a $2 billion bump in the state budget, and Georgia’s on the president’s mind. Finally, we note some things for your radar. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com.
NEWS: POLITICS
Light early vote brings angst
With good reason, Georgia Republicans are worried about low voter turnout for elections in two weeks when, for the first time in six years, Coastal Georgians will have a say in who sits on the powerful Georgia Public Service Commission, as The Current’s Mary Landers explains.
As of Saturday, less than 1% — 0.98% — of the 434,212 registered voters in the Coastal Georgia counties of Bryan, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn and Liberty have cast early, in-person ballots, according to a tally compiled from the websites of those counties’ election boards. Except for Chatham and Liberty, all are GOP strongholds, The Current’s Craig Nelson reports.
While sounding the alarm about low, statewide Republican turnout for the Nov. 4 election, GOP political operative Brian Robinson notes the party would still hold a majority on the PSC should Republican incumbents Tim Echols or Fitz Johnson — or both — lose their races to Democratic challengers, Peter Hubbard and Savannah’s Alicia Johnson.
Still, there would be a “blood-in-the-water” effect ahead of next year’s mid-term elections, Robinson warns: “Filled with hope, national Democrats would pour hundreds of millions into Georgia next year.”
NEWS: GOVERNING
The numbers are in
In the latest budget year, Georgia spent nearly $2 billion less than it collected in taxes and user fees, according to state accountants, giving the state’s Republican governor and GOP-led legislature additional funds to spend or save in what’s expected to be an intense election year, The Current’s Maggie Lee reports.
Early indications indicate that Gov. Brian Kemp wants little or no new spending by the state, despite the more than $14 billion in the state’s coffers reported by the Georgia State Accounting office. That’s even though many lawmakers and citizens are worried about filling funding gaps in social safety net and other services caused by the Trump administration’s federal spending cuts.
Ahead of its January legislative session, leaders of the Republican-led Georgia General Assembly have expressed no urgency in appropriating more funds to counteract federal cutbacks in healthcare, the environment or infrastructure like broadband Internet expansion. Citing the $2 billion, some Republicans are more likely in an election year to propose a tax cut.
NEWS: POLITICS
Georgia on his mind
U.S. Reps. Earl “Buddy” Carter of St. Simons and Mike Collins of Jackson, along with Derek Dooley, are keen to get President Donald Trump’s endorsement for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate race against Jon Ossoff next year. They’re going to have to wait.
In response to a question at an Oval Office news conference last week, Trump said he was following the race “very carefully” but had not yet decided who to endorse. The president, though, was more forthcoming about Ossoff.
The Democratic incumbent, he said, is “horrible” and “a weak, ineffective person” with a philosophy that’s a “disaster” and “not representative of the people of Georgia.”
For the president, no mention of Georgia seems complete without reference to how he was cheated out of an election victory in the state in 2020. “Criminals” denied him victory, he said on this occasion. “I hope they are going into the votes that are being stored in Fulton County and take a real look at those votes” because I won that election.
Trump also ribbed former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who attended the news conference alongside his wife, Callista Gingrich, the newly appointed ambassador to Switzerland. Gingrich had not unequivocally ranked Trump above George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as the greatest president in U.S. history, the president said. “I’m not happy about that,” he teased.
NEWS: UPDATES
7 things for your radar
- Billy Wooten is stepping down as Chatham County elections supervisor. In a county news release, Board of Elections Chairman Tom Mahoney described Wooten as “a faithful and reliable public servant in a time of transition and turbulence.” He will continue working in a part-time capacity starting in January. A job description for his replacement has been posted.
- The ripple effects of the federal raid on the Hyundai electric vehicle complex in Ellabell have spread to at least a half dozen small businesses in the counties surrounding the complex, The Current’s Jasmine Wright reports.
- The Trump administration canceled 94 million pounds of food aid for food banks across the county. ProPublica recounts what never arrived because of the cuts.
- State Rep. Rick Townsend (R-Brunswick) and other Republican lawmakers are to visit the White House at its invitation today, The Brunswick News reports. He said he hoped to talk with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about kratom regulation.
- Brunswick Judicial Circuit Judge Robert “Bert” Guy resigns following a driving under the influence arrest outside of a Jacksonville strip club.
- 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.
- Georgia Young Republicans condemn “in the strongest possible terms” the leaked private messages of a Telegram chat, in which young GOP leaders in joke about gas chambers, slavery and rape. Among the posted reactions to the statement: “Cowards, this is why the gop will lose. You are scared to do what it takes to wins”; “Youre gay”; and “I see the Republicans are glad to join forces with the woke left to thought police and wave their virtue signals. Grow a pair.”
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GOP alarmed by low early turnout in coastal Georgia ahead of elections
Georgia Republicans are worried about low voter turnout for the upcoming election, as less than 1% of registered voters in Coastal Georgia counties have cast early ballots, with the potential for a “blood-in-the-water” effect ahead of next year’s mid-term elections if Republican incumbents lose their races.
Georgia reports more than $14.6 billion in the bank
Georgia’s Republican governor and GOP-led legislature have an additional $2 billion in funds to spend or save in the upcoming election year, despite federal spending cuts and concerns over funding gaps in social safety net and other services.
FAQ: Georgia Public Service Commission election
The Georgia Public Service Commission, which regulates investor-owned utilities and affects nearly every Georgian, is up for election in November, with two Republican incumbents running against two Democrats.
Thousands turn out in Savannah for ‘No Kings’ protest march
Thousands of protesters gathered in Savannah to demonstrate against the Trump administration, waving American flags and rejecting the GOP’s attempts to demonize them as anti-American.
New Glynn County website redesign creates problems for searching records
Glynn County launched a website redesign on Aug. 20 with the intention of making information easier for residents to access. As a result, website visitors can no longer easily access information about flooding, road design, police equipment procurement, contracts, or other decisions that took place from 2019 through the end of 2022. Links to documents discussed at nearly 200 meetings are broken, according to an analysis […]
Walthourville considers outsourcing Public Works Department
Hayes asked Boston whether an RFP would be cost-effective, “because my thing is this: We’re jumping into quite a bit right now. We know financially where we stand. Would it be better to look at this now, or wait until after we get our millage rate set and things in place so we could look at what’s going to benefit the city?”
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