Athens Forward: If It Ain't Broke, I Guess

Campaign season is upon us. GOP gubernatorial contenders are desperate to win in a crowded primary field and the rhetoric blaring from their ad campaigns is escalating rapidly. Dark money is pouring into the race at staggering levels. The influence of super PAC and dark money spending in local Athens politics is admittedly small by comparison if one focuses mainly on total dollar amounts. And while interference into local politics feels routine by now (here, here, here, here, and here, for example), it's mostly carried out by legislators 70-some miles away in the Gold Dome. Is Athens Forward (and its predecessors Athens for All and Neighbors for a Better Community) a scheme funded by the rich and powerful in Atlanta and beyond? Was it masterminded by one of the five mayoral candidates to tip the scales in their favor? Or maybe a secret third thing, perhaps?

Subscribe to Systemic Ills for our first multi-part series as we attempt to trace the dark money trail impacting our local elections since 2022.

Towards the end of 2021, as required by the Constitution, various Athens-Clarke County government offices were working on redrawing the county's commission district map. The existing map, created in 2011, was (to no one's surprise) forced on the county by the state legislature, specifically Rep. McKillip, Sen. Cowsert, and Sen. Ginn. The BOE hoped to wrest back a little local control over the issue with their new map but faced time constraints due to COVID-related delays with Census data. The first M&C vote on the county created map took place on November 16th, where it passed but not unanimously – the vote was 6-3, with Wright, Thornton and Hamby opposed. Following feedback from the state Reapportionment Office, the map was tweaked, resubmitted, and approved by that office. The M&C re-convened on December 14th to vote on the now-updated map. It passed, again, but not unanimously, again. This vote was 7-2, with Thornton abstaining and Wright and Hamby remaining opposed. The lack of unanimous consent meant Athens would lose its one-in-10-year chance to shape its district map, which would now be decided instead by the local delegation (i.e., state legislators).**

**Editor's note: Lots of commentary online to be had about this topic – appreciate it! Just to clarify: There was never any guarantee that the locally-drawn map would move forward. It's likely there's no universe in which the politicians who make up the local delegation were going to give Athens a fair map that wasn't skewed in the direction of their side (the GOP). What the non-unanimous vote did do was give them cover. Some speculate that the no votes (Wright, Hamby and Thornton) were colluding with the local delegation or were in on it somehow. They weren't negatively impacted by the map that came to be, but we can't speak to their motivations.

Less than 24 hours later, Steve Middlebrooks (CEO of Heyward Allen Toyota and founder/board chair of Athens Classic, Inc.) registered a new Domestic Nonprofit Corporation with the Secretary of State, named Athens Clean & Safe, Inc.

In a "confidential memo" written and circulated by Middlebrooks sometime in early 2022 (shout-out to the r/Athens subredditor who shared it, whoever you are), Middlebrooks describes in detail his plan to take Athens back from the Progressive forces who had taken over the city and were rapidly implementing a radical agenda from which there was no return. The timing of the memo's release is unknown to us, but it highlighted several important dates for the upcoming election as being in the future, including qualifying the week of March 7th, so it must originate sometime prior to that date*. Middlebrooks implored his fellow like-minded Athenians to open their wallets, and quickly, because the time to strike was now thanks to "new district maps for all ten county commissioners" creating the opportunity to "[elect] THREE new, common sense, centrist business people". He expressed less enthusiasm about maybe extending support to the incumbents in the other two odd-numbered districts up for re-election.

Middlebrooks' excitement was justified. Because the M&C had failed to unanimously approve the county drafted map in December 2021, the map's fate fell into the hands of Rep. Gaines, Rep. Wiedower, Sen. Cowsert and Sen. Ginn, who released their own carefully crafted version on January 6th, 2022. That map changed all ten commission districts, but three districts disproportionately so: Districts 3, 5 and 7 – three of the five odd-numbered districts up for re-election in May 2022. The new maps were drawn such that Melissa Link (District 3), Tim Denson (District 5), and Russell Edwards (District 7) no longer lived in the districts they represented, making them ineligible to run for re-election that spring. The commission district map that removed the three Progressive commissioners responsible for turning Athens, GA into Steve Middlebrooks' personal nightmare was passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Governor Kemp on February 17th, 2022.

Steve Middlebrooks' confidential memo did more than just describe the traits of his ideal candidate ("common sense, centrist") to persuade others to join his fundraising and Commission take-over scheme. His plans were more advanced than that. He was already "actively engaging candidates" and "identified several ... individuals" who were on the verge of announcing their candidacy.

At the end of qualifying week in March 2022, the commission races were set:

District 1: Patrick Davenport (incumbent); Audrey Hughes
District 3: Tiffany Taylor; Asia Thomas
District 5: Dexter Fisher; Matt Pulver; Jared Bailey
District 7: John Culpepper; Allen Jones
District 9: Ovita Thornton (incumbent)

As promised, Steve Middlebrooks and friends would put their energy and financial resources behind ensuring they got to determine the outcomes in Districts 3, 5 and 7. The Middlebrooks memo argues that leading up to the spring 2022 election, Athens politics had been controlled by "a small handful of activists and loud voices" who were responding to only a "limited segment of ... community residents and taxpayers." His imagined future was not built on the ideal that that opportunity to influence local politics should belong to a greater number of Athenians. He wanted it for himself.

*If anyone knows the date this memo was emailed out, please contact us at systemic.ills@proton.me. We would love to know.

Thank you for reading part one of this multi-part series exploring the influence of super PAC and dark money spending in local Athens politics.