Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for May 22, 2015

On May 22, 1856, Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with his cane. Brooks used the cane as the result of injury sustained in a previous duel, and found Sumner at his desk in the Senate Chamber. In the course of a two-day Senate speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which would have nullified the Missouri Compromise on the expansion of slavery, Sumner had criticized three legislators, including a cousin of Rep. Brooks, Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina.

On May 22, 1819, the steamship Savannah left the port of Savannah for Liverpool, England. After 29 days, it became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. On May 22, 1944, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the voyage of the Savannah.

Yesterday, a memorial service at Robins Air Base paid tribute to service members who worked there.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Horace Hudgins announced last week that he was resigning as Mayor of Ocilla in  order to run for State House District 155, the seat vacated by former Rep. Jay Roberts.

“With the support and encouragement of family, friends and state leaders, I am confident in my decision to run for Office of State Representative.”

Hat tip to Mr. Joe Sports, who brought this candidate to my attention.

In House District 55, a residency challenge has been raised to the candidacy of Tyrone Brooks, Jr., who is seeking the seat vacated by his father who plead guilty to federal charges. From the AJC Political Insider,

The complaint notes that the younger Brooks was a registered voter outside House District 55, located in Atlanta, last November.

The special election is June 16. The final decision on the matter will be made by [Georgia Secretary of State Brian] Kemp, though a spokesman said he wasn’t sure when that would happen. Scroll through the complaint below:

Brooks, Jr. responded that he has lived in the district more than the require year.

Advance voting in State House District 55 and District 24 begins Tuesday, March 24.

In District 24, voters may cast ballots at the following times and places:
County Administration Building
110 E. Main Street; Cumming, GA 30040
Voting Hours:
Tuesday, May 26, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Wednesday, May 27 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Thursday, May 28, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Friday, May 29, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday, June 1, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday, June 2, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Wednesday, June 3, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Thursday, June 4, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Friday, June 5, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Cumming City Hall
100 Main Street; Cumming, GA 30040
Voting Hours:
Tuesday, May 26, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Wednesday, May 27 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Thursday, May 28, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Friday, May 29, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday, June 1, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday, June 2, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Wednesday, June 3, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Thursday, June 4, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Friday, June 5, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Beginning Saturday, June 6, a third Advance Voting location will be available. In addition to the Forsyth County Administration Building and Cumming City Hall, a third location at the Midway Park Community Building located at 5100 Post Road will be open for voting during Advance Voting for the June 16 Special Election.

In State House District 55, the advance voting places and time follow:

Monday through Friday, May 26 – June 12, 2015, 8:30 AM to 5 PM 

Fulton County Government Center
130 Peachtree Street SW
Atlanta, GA 30303

Monday through Friday, June 10 – June 12, 2015, 8:30 AM to 5 PM 

Buckhead Library
269 Buckhead Ave, NE
Atlanta, GA 30305

SouthWest Arts Center
915 New Hope Rd, SW
Atlanta, GA 30331

Note: *****Weekend Voting on Saturday, June 6th, at the Fulton County Government Center from 9 AM to 4 PM.

Please note there is no voting of any kind the Monday prior to any election.

The Ocilla Star ran an extended interview with former Rep. Roberts discussing the Transportation Finance Act and Roberts’s new job as GDOT transportation planner.

Q: What do you feel like your biggest accomplishments have been?

A: There is no doubt the biggest piece of legislation that I’ve ever carried was the Transportation Funding Bill. You know, I can look back and look over the years, and I served as the governor’s floor leader, I was vice chairman of our caucus, chairman of our caucus, and then became transportation chairman 6 years ago. During the time I was the governor’s floor leader and since, I’ve been involved in a lot of legislation that served to simplify the tax code in the state of Georgia. Early I had some big accomplishments, working with legislation to put a conservation and use program here in the state. And this year, not only did we do transportation, but we did fireworks. We allowed fireworks in our state of Georgia, and that was my bill as well.

Q: With this transportation bill, did that play any part to this? On one hand, it’s almost like you’re going out on a high. But on another hand, there’s been a lot of pushback from the more conservative parts of the state about the bill. Did it play any part in your decision?

A: I mean, contrary to a lot of the reports, you know, this is not a quid pro quo. I didn’t talk to the governor. I had not had a conversation with the governor or his staff about this position until about a week after session when he called me and asked me to come meet with him. You know, I realized there was going to be some pushback from this, but it was the right thing to do. I didn’t let it worry me as to what the political ramifications might be. I knew that something had to be done, and we’re elected to go up there and do what’s right, do what’s best for the people of the state. The biggest problem with the transportation bill is people still aren’t educated and don’t understand it. You know, they just really don’t understand the bill. And you know, I’ll say this, you know the funny thing about even Facebook or whatever:?Social media is great, but social media is also not good. It’s great now ‘cause more people are informed, they know what’s going on and they’re paying closer attention, and that’s great. But, on the other hand, there’s people that get on social media and they claim to be experts but they really don’t know what they’re talking about, yet everybody believes it, you know, because it’s on the internet, so it must be true. I talk about when I first went to Atlanta, I had a pager, and now I have an iPhone which everything’s right there in the palm of your hands, and that’s good. I?mean it really is, that people are more informed and really know what’s going on, and I think that is a good thing. But like I say, on the flip side of that you have people that claim to be experts, and I’ve read about all about stuff, “Well, this was a trade-off,” you know, “He agreed to do this in order to get this,” and that’s absolutely 100 percent false and not true. And if they go back and look at it, we started this process last summer going around the state of Georgia.

Q: The transportation bill

A: Yeah, and at the time, the governor was running for re-election. And then we didn’t know if he was going to be re-elected or not be re-elected. So this was something that was started way back then. But, well, I’ll just let people draw the conclusions that they want to draw. That’s left to them.

Q: You considered not even running this time?

A: Yeah, I had. I considered not running last time and I considered not running this next time, you know. I’m one of these who believes there’s a point in time in your career when you need to sometimes step aside and allow somebody else to come in. I’ve watched people stay in Atlanta, in the House and all, too long. It’s down to where they probably should retire and run on home, and my children have long been now graduated from high school. Sarah and I are empty nesters. We’re getting to the point where we kind of wanted to enjoy things a little more. We wanted to be able to go out and do without the issues of being in the legislature, as far as all the meetings I had to attend and those kind of things. Where we were having to set our schedule around the legislature, now, you know, we can set our schedules around ourselves.

State Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) is looking into how reports of campus rapes are investigated.

State Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) is the chairman of the subcommittee that oversees appropriations for public universities. Ehrhart said he read a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that described a “secret process for judging sexual misconduct allegations,” which troubled him because it outlined what he considers a violation of the right to due process as its laid out by the Fifth Amendment.

“If somebody commits a crime, that’s the purview of trained professional jurists, district attorneys (and) law enforcement. The universities absolutely don’t need to be in that business, so I want to make sure that they’re not,” Ehrhart said. “They don’t need a secondary system of justice on university campuses. That’s the issue.”

“It might be convenient to lock up everybody accused of murder really quickly without any due process, but can you imagine the screams and cries if we did?” Ehrhart said. “We have a system of juris prudence in this country for a reason, and universities don’t need to be involved in star chamber proceedings without due process on a criminal offense.”

Ehrhart said he wants to go to universities across the state — such as Kennesaw State University or the University of Georgia — and find out how those cases are handled.“What they need to be doing is supporting the individual students, not determining criminal guilt or innocence,” he said. “I want to find out if they are.”

Hillary Clinton will be in Atlanta May 28, according to the AJC Political Insider.

Two Democratic insiders say hosts are being lined up for the May 28 visit, which is likely to be a breakfast event. A Clinton aide later confirmed the report.

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Ali Pardo responded to news of the Clinton visit by attacking her for hobnobbing with donors instead of commoners:

“Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been full of hypocrisy, flip-flops, and scandals, so it’s no surprise she would prefer to avoid interacting with real voters. The truth is that Clinton is more comfortable schmoozing with millionaire donors than pretending to relate to average Americans.”

Hillary Clinton is likely to be flying commercial into Hartsfield-Jackson, but it won’t be like you and I fly commercial, according to NBC News,

Hillary Clinton has traded private jets for seats on commercial airlines as she embarks on her second, humbler presidential run.

Clinton does not fly the commercial the way you fly commercial. Thanks to strict security concerns, Clinton is insulated from the public from the moment she arrives at one airport to the time she leaves the second one. And even when trapped in a metal tube in the sky with fellow passengers, there are few opportunities for public interaction.

On Tuesday afternoon in Dubuque, Iowa, a few dozen passengers waited for their routine American Airlines flight to Chicago, one of only three flights scheduled from the tiny airport that day. Suddenly, a small motorcade pulled up, just outside the floor-to-ceiling windows that separate the airport’s only gate from the tarmac.

Secret Service agents piled out, followed by aides. And then Hillary Clinton emerged from a red minivan. On the tarmac, she shook hands and chatted with a woman in a red jacket and her campaign’s state director.

[S]he was lead onboard and took a window seat in the first row. The small commuter plane had only one class.

She did not pass through TSA screening, though some of her campaign aides did.

The seats around were filled by Secret Service agents, and then campaign staff further back. No one approached her during the short flight.

Upon arrival, Clinton and her entourage were quickly whisked off the plane.

Clinton had only to travel about 50 feet across the terminal and into a secure area, where she disappeared from view before the other passengers on her flight had even collected their gate-checked luggage.

There were no opportunities for a reporter who happened to be on her flight to speak with her. Earlier in the day, she had taken questions from the press for the first time in 28 days.

Bizarrely, Atlanta’s Waka Flocka Flame, who endorsed Republican David Perdue for Senate last year, has endorsed Hillary Clinton for President.

On Tuesday, Doug Sorrells took office as a member of the Cumming City Council, the first new member in 20 years, according to the Forsyth News.

Doug Sorrells became the first new member on the Cumming City Council in more than 20 years when he was sworn in Tuesday night.

It was the first of what likely will be just two meetings for Sorrells, who is serving as an interim appointee until the June 16 election to fill the remaining 18 months on the Post 1 term of longtime Councilman Rupert Sexton.

Sexton stepped down last month to enjoy retirement after 44 years in office. Four candidates are vying for the post, but they do not include Sorrells.

Education

The Georgia State Board of Education will revise the Georgia Performance Standards for Math and Science, according to the Gainesville Times.

Earlier this year, the board revised English language arts and mathematics standards. Now, it is updating standards for science and social studies.

The state board is asking for teacher input into the new revisions, and a survey was posted April 16 asking for teacher evaluations. It closes June 15, at which point input will be considered and the revision process will begin.

“The survey data will be analyzed and hopefully, by early 2016, we will be able to ask the board to post revised standards for 60 days of public comment,” said Matt Cardoza, director of communications for the Georgia Department of Education. “ … Teacher training and resource development will be provided prior to implementation.”

The revisions will be determined by a working committee representing Georgia public school teachers, post-secondary staff, parents and instructional leaders.

Diane Acker, biology, environmental science and forensic science teacher at North Hall High School, said she does not think the current standards are adequate.

“They do not address all of the content that needs to be taught to provide an adequate coverage of the subject, especially in biology,” Acker said. “They do not allow for the way an intentional teacher teaches her class. I find myself struggling to provide content in a way that addresses the standards so that my students will do well on standardized tests and providing rich, meaningful lessons that capture my students’ imaginations.”

Dr. Jeremy Peacock, who heads the Georgia Science Teachers Association and was Georgia High School Science Teacher of the Year for 2010-11 penned an editorial in the AJC on the new standards.

Georgia is sitting on a gold mine of opportunity for its young people but if we are asleep at the switch, that opportunity will be better realized elsewhere.  You have heard the term before… STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.  It’s not a new concept but today its potential is greater than ever.

Just a few years ago, Georgia’s students could do OK with just a high school education.  Not so now.  Times have changed and so has our economy, which relies more heavily on careers in science and technical fields. Yet, our schools are not preparing enough graduates to pursue STEM college and career opportunities.  The result is that Georgia’s STEM companies must hire many of their workers from out of state.  We must take action now to stop that.

The Georgia Science Teachers Association believes the time has come for our science teachers, business leaders, and community members to revisit our science standards in a process designed to move toward a vision for science education that best serves our students and our state.  Under the current Georgia Performance Standards – adopted between 2004 – 2006 – teachers still struggle to engage students in doing and thinking about science while they focus on learning about science.

The state Department of Education has begun a process to review and revise the science standards. Superintendent Richard Woods has a solid plan in place.  The survey, open now to science teachers, will lead into a revision process that will include classroom teachers, higher education faculty, business partners, and community members.  GSTA strongly supports these efforts and the objective to ensure Georgians have a voice.

DeKalb Ethics

The DeKalb County Ethics Board voted to move forward with a case against County Commissioner Stan Watson that also implicates Vaughn Irons, who is running for Commission District 5.

The DeKalb County Board of Ethics moved forward Thursday with a case accusing DeKalb Commissioner Stan Watson of acting unethically when he voted to award a $1.5 million contract to a company he was working for.

The board voted 3-1 to advance the complaint to a full hearing to determine whether Watson broke the county’s code of ethics. The board has the power to reprimand, suspend or remove public officials.

Board of Ethics Chairman John Ernst said Watson’s alleged breach was clear to him.

“He was paid as an APD Solutions employee, and he voted to approve money to APD Solutions,” Ernst said. “He has admitted that it was a direct conflict of interest, and that he’s sorry that he did it.”

Watson didn’t disclose his relationship with APD Solutions before the county commission voted 7-0 on April 10, 2012, to give the company a $1 million contract to buy, rehab and sell homes in a neighborhood hit hard by the economic recession. He also voted nine months later to award the company an additional $500,000 to rehab homes in a different neighborhood.

“He did not stand up and say, ‘I have to step back.’ He went ahead and voted,” Browning told the board. “He said that he missed it … he dismissed it that it was APD Solutions being considered.”

APD Solutions is run by Vaughn Irons, the company’s CEO and founder who is running in a special election next month to represent the southeastern part of the county on the DeKalb Commission.

Irons faces an ethics complaint of his own alleging that he had a conflict of interest when he accepted county business while also serving as a board member for the DeKalb Development Authority. The Board of Ethics voted 4-0 Thursday to decide that it had jurisdiction in that case, which will now be investigated further. Irons has said he didn’t do anything wrong.

The board dismissed two other allegations against Watson.

The DeKalb County Commission is considering replacing all members of the economic development board, including the chairman, Vaughn Irons, according to the AJC.

Interim CEO Lee May announced he would nominate new board members of the DeKalb Development Authority in March, days after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News reported on a suspicious document that allowed Irons’ company, APD Solutions, to bid on a housing rehab contract.

The six nominees are:

• Don Bolia, a member of the Brookhaven Zoning Board of Appeals and a partner with a lobbying firm
• Kevin Gooch, an attorney who handles loan documentation
• Miranda McKenzie, an executive with Atlanta Technical College who previously worked as a director for community affairs for Anheuser-Busch Inc.
• Tyrone Rachal, the president of a finance firm who serves as a board member for several civic associations
• Keisha Taylor, senior director of entertainment marketing for Turner Broadcasting
• Baoky Vu, an investment strategy executive who serves on the board for the Technical College System of Georgia

No one has been nominated yet for the seventh seat on the board.