To read all of JAMES Magazine Online’s daily news, SUBSCRIBE HERE. *Subscription includes a complimentary subscription to JAMES Magazine.  

Early voting opened yesterday for the November 4th slate of elections, including two Public Service Commission races and an array of city-level contests.  To see your sample ballot and find information on when and where you can vote early, click HERE.

Some of the highlights:

Republican Public Service Commissioners Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson are running for re-election in a pair of statewide contests.  The PSC is a five-member regulatory commission that oversees the state’s utilities, most prominently Georgia Power.  Its unique election system, wherein commissioners must live in their district but votes are held statewide, has drawn controversy and even lawsuits, leading to elections being delayed for over a year.  But now they’re back on, and Democrat challengers Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard are looking to score a pair of upsets that would rev up their party’s base ahead of 2026.  Both sides are trying to rev up their bases as voter turnout will be the key to victory.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens didn’t draw serious competition in his bid for a second term, although he does have three challengers: Helmut Love Domagalski, a corporate consultant; Kalema Jackson, a former Atlanta police officer; and Eddie Andrew Meredith, a community advocate.

The real race to watch at Atlanta City Hall is for City Council president, where Council member Marci Collier Overstreet, a Dickens ally, is facing off with ultra-progressive nonprofit leader Rohit Malhotra, a champion of the “defund the police” movement.  Should Malhotra win, could it mark a serious leftward tilt within Atlanta city limits akin to the surge of popularity Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani is seeing in the New York mayoral race?  Something to keep an eye on, for sure.

The race for Sandy Springs mayor, where Mayor Rusty Paul is seeking his fourth term, got nasty recently at a candidate forum when one of his challengers, City Councilman Andy Bauman, dredged up an email from 2021 where Paul complained about being tired and said that he didn’t “have gas left in the tank to do a full campaign and do the job this community deserves.”  Paul was rightly offended, pointing out that the email came right on the heels of his mother’s death, and even Dontaye Carter, another challenger, came to Paul’s defense.

A pair of controversial Metro Atlanta area races – one in the City of South Fulton, where eight candidates are challenging Mayor khalid kamau, (that’s not a typo, he does not capitalize his name).  During his first term kamau has been temporarily banned from city property, had his finances audited, been stripped of access to the mayoral budget and had purchases physically removed from his office, including a pool table.

Meanwhile over in Stone Mountain Mayor Beverly Jones is in hot water for removing everyone but herself from having access to the city’s bank account.  The city council voted to remove her from office for the offense, a ruling currently held up in court following a lawsuit from Jones, and now she’s actually running for re-election against challenger Jelani Linder.