This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and WABE, Atlanta’s NPR station.
During his own victory speech on Election Day this week, Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens took a moment to celebrate some other candidates who’d also just won their races. “For those of you who don’t know why everybody’s excited right now, the new Public Service Commission, PSC races were the first domino to fall for the Republicans,” Dickens said.
Georgia voters handed Democrats a resounding victory this week, replacing two Republican incumbents on the Public Service Commission — the body that has final say over how Georgia Power, the state’s largest utility company, makes electricity and how much it charges. In Atlanta, and elsewhere throughout the state, voters — many of whom are upset over rising utility bills — paid attention to the races that are traditionally misunderstood and ignored.
In the end, Democrats Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard unseated Republican incumbents Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson by wide margins, both tak... Read more
