Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 15, 2018

The Magna Carta was sealed by King John on June 15, 1215.

The charter consisted of a preamble and 63 clauses and dealt mainly with feudal concerns that had little impact outside 13th century England. However, the document was remarkable in that it implied there were laws the king was bound to observe, thus precluding any future claim to absolutism by the English monarch. Of greatest interest to later generations was clause 39, which stated that “no free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed] or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimised…except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” This clause has been celebrated as an early guarantee of trial by jury and of habeas corpus and inspired England’s Petition of Right (1628) and the Habeas Corpus Act (1679).

On June 16, 1736, General James Oglethorpe arrived in England with Tomochichi, the Yamacraw Indian chief, Tomochichi’s wife and several other members of the tribe on a trip to meet the Georgia Trustees and King George II.

On June 15, 1740, Spanish troops attacked the English who were led by James Oglethorpe, at Fort Mose, two miles north of St. Augustine, Florida. With 68 English killed and 34 wounded, it was the heaviest losses sustained by Oglethorpe during his campaign against St. Augustine.

On June 17, 1759, Sir Francis Drake claimed California for England.

George Washington accepted the assignment of leading the Continental Army on June 15, 1775.

On June 17, 1775, British forces under General William Howe engaged American colonists at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

On June 17, some 2,200 British forces under the command of Major General William Howe (1729-1814) and Brigadier General Robert Pigot (1720-96) landed on the Charlestown Peninsula then marched to Breed’s Hill. As the British advanced in columns against the Americans, Prescott, in an effort to conserve the Americans’ limited supply of ammunition, reportedly told his men, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes!” When the Redcoats were within several dozen yards, the Americans let loose with a lethal barrage of musket fire, throwing the British into retreat.

After re-forming their lines, the British attacked again, with much the same result. Prescott’s men were now low on ammunition, though, and when the Redcoats went up the hill for a third time, they reached the redoubts and engaged the Americans in hand-to-hand combat. The outnumbered Americans were forced to retreat. However, by the end of the engagement, the Patriots’ gunfire had cut down some 1,000 enemy troops, with more than 200 killed and more than 800 wounded. More than 100 Americans perished, while more than 300 others were wounded.

A distant ancestor of mine, John Logue, fought with the Americans at Bunker Hill, though he was not yet an enlisted soldier.

Creek Indians signed the Treaty of Fort Wilkinson on June 16, 1802, ceding two parcels of land in Georgia to the United States.

The Oregon Treaty was signed on June 15, 1815 between England and the United States, establishing the border between the U.S. and Canada.

On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln addressed the Illiniois Republican Convention as a candidate for U.S. Senate and warned that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

On June 15, 1864, a funeral was held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta for Confederate General Leonidas Polk, who was killed the day before at Pine Mountain near Marietta.

President Andrew Johnson appointed John Johnson (no relation) provisional Governor of Georgia after the Civil War on June 17, 1865; John Johnson had opposed secession.

The Atlanta Constitution was first published on June 16, 1868.

France announced its intention to surrender to Germany on June 17, 1940.

Newton Leroy Gingrich was born on June 17, 1943 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Gingrich graduated from college at Emory University, where he founded the Emory College Republicans. Gingrich’s congressional papers are collected in the the Georgia’s Political Heritage Program at West Georgia College, where he taught before being elected to Congress. Also at West Georgia are the papers of former Congressmen Bob Barr, Mac Collins, and Pat Swindall, along with a near-perfect replica of Georgia Speaker Tom Murphy’s office.

Bob Dylan recorded “Like a Rolling Stone” on June 16, 1965.

The Monterey Pop Festival opened at the Monterey Fairgrounds on June 16, 1967, often considered one of the opening events of the “Summer of Love.” Among the artists playing the Festival were the Jefferson Airplane, The Who, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Macon-born Otis Redding.

Six Flags Over Georgia opened on June 16, 1967.

Five men were arrested for burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate office and apartment complex in Washington, DC on June 17, 1972.

The affair began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) connected cash found on the burglars to a slush fund used by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, the official organization of Nixon’s campaign.

In July 1973, as evidence mounted against the president’s staff, including testimony provided by former staff members in an investigation conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee, it was revealed that President Nixon had a tape-recording system in his offices and he had recorded many conversations.

After a protracted series of bitter court battles, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the president had to hand over the tapes to government investigators; he ultimately complied.

Recordings from these tapes implicated the president, revealing he had attempted to cover up the questionable goings-on that had taken place after the break-in.

Facing near-certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and equally certain conviction by the Senate, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974. His successor, Gerald Ford, then issued a pardon to him on September 8, 1974.

Atlanta Braves player Otis Nixon tied the modern record for steals in one game with six stolen bases agains the Montreal Expos on June 16, 1991.

The Bulloch County Historical Society will discuss a book about a gruesome 1904 lynching, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Dr. Charlton Mosley, author of “The Hodges Family Murders and the Lynching of Cato and Reed,” and editor Jenny Foss will discuss the historical account with Bulloch County Historical Society President Joe McGlamery and Dr. Brent Tharpe.

“I believe you will learn a great deal of additional Bulloch County history by attending this year’s annual meeting,” McGlamery said in a recent letter to group members. Non-members are invited and encouraged to attend as well.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

The Albany Herald looks at how Democrat Stacey Abrams is campaigning while her GOP rivals fight it out in a runoff election.

“I think the Republicans are trying to win a primary runoff and I am trying to focus on leading Georgia,” she said Thursday. “I have my own vision about what we need to be doing and I can’t pay attention to that. When the Republicans sort out amongst themselves who they want to put into this race, I will look forward to dealing with my opponent, hoping he can have a fair hearing, and I can still win.”

The former House Minority Leader said she understands she must do well in the southern part of the state. The Second Congressional District, which runs from south Columbus to the Florida line, is solidly blue. The I-75 corridor is a bit more iffy.

“Winning in Georgia means talking to every single community no matter where they are,” Abrams said. “But it’s also about increasing the number of people who turn out and vote across the state of Georgia. What we demonstrated on May 22 is that we have very strong rapport across the state and I am going to spend my time during the general campaign doing what I did in the primaries.”

“We’ll talk about bringing jobs to Georgia and how we’ll do it, increase access to opportunities, particularly along that I-75 corridor. We’ll talk about expanding Medicaid so folks have access to health care.”

The New York Times reports that Lt. Governor Casey Cagle bought an Atlanta condo from a lobbyist in 2008.

Real estate records show that Mr. Cagle, who faces a runoff for the Republican nomination on July 24, purchased the one-bedroom apartment at 24 percent less than its appraised value — below comparable sales prices — and sold it last year at a 29 percent profit. He was preparing for his first run for governor when, without an agent, he negotiated the deal with Terry E. Hobbs, a longtime lobbyist who represents the natural gas marketer Scana.

In a telephone interview on Tuesday night, Mr. Cagle said that the deal did not show bad judgment, and that Mr. Hobbs had not lobbied him on any issue near the time of the sale.

“Let me just be very clear,” he said. “This was a legitimate transaction, a purchase of real estate that was a willing buyer and a willing seller that had nothing to do with anything other than a willing buyer and a willing seller.”

Mr. Cagle noted that the sale took place in an era of high volatility for real estate valuations, and disputed that his purchase price was out of line. He also argued that if it posed an ethical problem to enter a business transaction with a lobbyist, the same “ridiculous” logic could extend to consuming products sold by industries with state interests. “So I can no longer purchase a car from someone who has representation at the gold dome, right?” he asked, referring to Georgia’s gilded Capitol.

[Cagle] bought Mr. Hobbs’s condominium, on the 12th floor of a 55-year-old high-rise called the Landmark, for $97,000 in 2008. But in both his 2009 and 2013 disclosures he valued it at $175,000, well above its county appraisal. By 2011, with Atlanta’s real estate market in a deep slump, Fulton County assessors had dropped their appraisal as low as $44,900 before it started to rebound. Mr. Cagle sold the unit last year for $125,000.

Nita Cagle spoke to the Gwinnett Daily Post about her husband’s campaign for Governor.

“Honestly, I think he’s the only one that can beat her,” Nita Cagle said. “That’s just my gut feeling. Now there’s not a bit of objectivity in me about that, you know, because I’m completely partial, but I really feel like the record and the demographics of our state are positive in that direction. He’s probably the only one who can beat her.”

Cagle visited the Daily Post on Thursday to talk about her husband’s campaign and the message she is trying to convey to voters about the man she married 32 years ago and with whom she raised three sons. Casey Cagle’s campaign released an ad at the end of May featuring his wife in which she talked about his fatherhood skills and faith in God.

“That’s the perspective I know of him, is our family life and our faith and watching him walk out our family and watching him lead our family in that part of our lives,” she said. “That is the foundation that you do everything else off of and during the boys’ years in high school, they got sick of their dad walking through the house saying ‘Guys it’s not about yourself, it’s about service to other people.’”

“I don’t even really feel like we’ve even skimmed the surface of allowing the public to see the positive effects the decisions he’s made and the causes he’s pushed through or encouraged have made on Georgia,” Cagle said. “I think a lot of time we get stuck on all of this stuff when you’re in a campaign season and the actual stuff that affects people’s everyday lives doesn’t get talked about.”

But if she becomes Georgia’s next first lady, Nita Cagle has her own issues that she would like to address. She wants to continue work the first lady Sandra Deal has done to promote early childhood literacy, although she said there’s “no way anybody could ever even touch the effort she’s made in that area.”

Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler says that state employment has hit an all-time high, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

The number of employed Georgians hit 4.92 million in May, which is up 13,552 people from April. In all, the number of employed Georgians is up more than 123,000 people from a year ago, with an average growth rate of 10,250 people per month.

Georgia’s unemployment rate for May was 4.2 percent, which is it’s lowest level since August 2001, according to the Department of Labor. There were

“The fact that we are seeing these records month after month shows the continuing strength of Georgia’s economy,” Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said. “In fact, Georgia was recently ranked as the ninth top-performing economy in the nation.”

Valdosta City Council approved a $97.3 million dollar FY 2019 budget, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

New police officers and pay increases for city employees are included in the spending package that calls no increase in city taxes.

City residents will, however, see an increase in their water and sewer bills.

City Manager Mark Barber said he is proud of this year’s budget and that the increase represents a combination of different things.

“We look at total uses from one year to another, and there’s about a $114,000 increase in total uses,” Barber said. “A lot of that has to do with capital (project funds). We’re still finishing up on some of our larger utility projects that were costly.”

The Dalton Board of Education approved an agreement with the police department to place School Resource Officers in schools, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen.

The additional SROs are part of a broad school safety plan the board is putting in place following Dalton High School being placed on lockdown on Feb. 28 when police say teacher Randall Davidson fired a bullet from a revolver through a classroom window while in the classroom alone. No one was injured. The board’s plan also calls for intruder locks at Dalton High, Dalton Middle School and Morris Innovative High School; upgrading the public address system at Dalton High; and adding card reader access to all exterior doors at the high school.

The agreement calls for the school system to increase the number of SROs immediately from three to seven. The school system will pay 75 percent of the salary and benefits of the SROs, but the officers are still considered employees of the police department.

Savannah City Manager Rob Hernandez has applied for a job in Brownsville, Texas, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Chatham County Probate Court Judge Tom Bordeaux says the court’s budget is insufficient for their responsibilities, according to the Savannah Morning News.

That, in turn, would leave county taxpayers to pay lawyers for lawsuits like the one he already faces over a state weapons carry license flap.

“This court has been starved off over the years, but this is a new day,” he told commissioners during a workshop ahead of the county’s new budget year.

Flowery Branch City Council member Fred Richards has died, according to the Gainesville Times.

The city released a statement announcing Richards’ June 14 death. His obituary said that Richards “passed away suddenly.”

Richards was first elected to the council in April 2012 in a special election. He was re-elected to his first full term in November 2013 and was re-elected in 2017.

“He was someone I could always trust to give me an honest assessment of what I was asking about, not just what you want to hear,” said Flowery Branch Mayor Mike Miller. “I joked with his wife into this morning when I visited with her that he was stubborn, but he was stubborn in a good way.

The Annual Elder Rights Conference discussed human trafficking as a threat to Georgia’s seniors, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Vernon Keenan, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told the group when he learned the GBI was going to be tasked with investigating crimes against the elderly in March 2012, he thought an unlicensed personal care home was just a friend or relative taking care of an elderly person. He soon learned crimes against vulnerable adults is an iceberg, with most of the crimes hidden out of sight.

For too long crimes against the elderly weren’t even listed in the criminal code, Keenan said. It was instead buried in the public health code. Neglect, abuse and exploitation of vulnerable adults are crimes that law enforcement thinks need a team approach, a partnership between public safety and the social and regulatory services, he said.

Georgia is getting there, Keenan said. In 2013, 408 people in Georgia were prosecuted for abusing and neglecting vulnerable adults. In 2017, the number jumped to 877.

In August, a new law will assist in the fight against abuse, neglect and exploitation of the elderly in Georgia — trafficking at risk adults for their benefits will be a crime punishable by one to 20 years.

Georgia Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Mark Williams said that outdoor sports contribute more than $3.6 billion to Georgia’s economy annually, according to the Rome News-Tribune.

Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Williams, during a presentation to the Rome Rotary Club Thursday, said Georgia has more than 630,000 licensed hunters and 1.2 million anglers. The state parks division of the DNR attracts more than 10 million visitors annually, which produces another billion dollars in economic impact.

The DNR budget now exceeds $280 million, which includes a significant amount of flow-through money from the federal government. His agency oversees activity on over a million acres of public land.

The Statesboro Herald asked District 5 City Council candidates about decriminalizing marijuana possession.

The discussion, opened by District 2 Councilman Sam Lee Jones at the June 5 council session, quickly turned to the option of making misdemeanor possession a still criminal but “cite-and-release” offense when handled by Statesboro police and the Municipal Court. Both District 5 candidates attended the June 5 meeting. They are in a runoff that will conclude Tuesday for the seat vacated in March by former Councilman Travis Chance.

“Locally, I guess at this point I’m favoring the cite-and-release to see how it goes,” [Don] Armel said. “Marijuana, with the fact that it’s still a controlled substance, has been used as a way to ruin too many people’s lives. We are filling up jails for the industrial incarceration system. We just don’t need to be doing that, and that incarceration system is costing us as taxpayers money that, again, can be used in other areas.”

[Derek] Duke expressed appreciation for Jones’ broaching the subject.

“I felt like it took a great deal of bravery for the councilman to offer that out because it’s a very controversial issue,” Duke said. “No one wants to encourage drug use; absolutely no one wants to go there.

“But it is what  it is, and giving our officers a little more distinct judgment call to do what the councilman recommended, a fine rather that perhaps set in motion a lifelong label as a criminal element, if you will, I welcome that discussion,” he continued. “It’s a complex issue with a lot of important facets.”