Political Rewind: It's been a challenging year for many of Georgia's mayors. So what's next?

The panel:

Mayor Deana Holiday Ingraham — Mayor of East Point

Mayor Kelly Girtz — Mayor of Athens

Mayor Rusty Paul — Mayor of Sandy Springs

Tamar Hallerman — Senior reporter, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The breakdown:

1. COVID numbers, once spiked by the omicron variant, are receding. What comes next?

• The number of new daily reported cases in Georgia have declined since a peak in early January.
  • Between Jan. 4 and 11, Georgia saw a daily average of almost 21,000 confirmed positive cases, according to Department of Public Health data.
  • That's compared to under 7,000 confirmed positive cases between yesterday and Jan. 31, according to state data.
• In New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Chris Murphy announced a relaxing of COVID protocols in schools.

2. Court battles surrounding partisan redistricting headline recent news in Georgia and North Carolina.

• On Friday, the North Carolina Supreme Court made a consequential decision to strike down new state districting maps for congressional and state legislative seats.
  • By a 4-3 decision, justices directed the GOP-controlled legislature to redraw plans by Feb. 18 and show their work for calculating the fairness of the new districts.
• Meanwhile, Georgia's congressional maps were in federal court yesterday. 
  • Opponents to the Republican-drawn districts say the new political boundaries illegally weaken Black voter power and do not fairly represent minority voters in Georgia.

3. Kerfuffle over masks used against gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

• Over the weekend, Stacey Abrams' campaign released a picture of the candidate sitting unmasked in a room of masked school children. 
  • Republican gubernatorial candidates Brian Kemp and David Perdue quickly jumped on the photo, saying it was an example of liberal hypocrisy concerning masks.

Tomorrow on Political Rewind:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Greg Bluestein.