Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 22, 2018

On June 23, 903 AD, the Icelandic Parliament, the Althing or Althingi, was established and is the world’s oldest.

In honor of the Icelandic Parliament, here’s the greatest Icelandic band ever, the Sugarcubes, playing at Auburn in 1988.

On June 24, 1497, John Cabot first sighted North America, claiming it for the British Crown.

On June 22, 1633, Galileo Galilei recanted his published theory that stated the sun was the center of the world and the earth was not.

Georgia’s Trustees voted on June 22, 1737 to seek bids for building churches at Savannah and Frederica.

Georgia Whigs voted on June 22, 1775 to join a boycott against British goods. That same day, the Continental Congress approved the issuance of $2 million in debt-backed currency.

Off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, British Commodore Sir Peter Parker spent June 23, 1776 preparing to land the next day, charged with supporting loyalists to the British crown.

On June 24, 1795, the United States Senate voted to ratify Jay’s Treaty between the UK and United States. The terms of the treaty required an appropriation from the U.S. House of Representatives to implement it, and Congressional opponents tried to defeat the appropriation, which was approved by a 51-48 margin on April 30, 1796. Click here for more background on the treaty and controversy.

On June 23, 1819, Texas declared its independence from Spain.

The donut was invented on June 22, 1847.

On June 24, 1853, President Franklin Pierce signed the Gadsden Purchase, acquiring what it now southern Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico.

On June 23, 1862, General Robert E. Lee met with his commanders in preparation for what would be known as the Seven Days’ Battles.

General Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River toward Pennsylvania on June 24, 1863.

The Battle of Kolb’s Farm was fought near Marietta, Georgia on June 22, 1864.

On June 23, 1865, Georgia-born Cherokee Stand Watie became the last Confederate general to surrender.

The United States Department of Justice was established on June 22, 1870.

John R. Lynch was the first African-American elected Chairman of the Republican National Convention on June 24, 1884; Lynch was nominated by Theodore Roosevelt.

Woodrow Wilson married Ellen Louise Axson of Rome, Georgia in Savannah on June 24, 1885.

On June 23, 1888, Frederick Douglass became the first African-American nominated for President, receiving one vote from Kentucky at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

On June 22, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the G.I. Bill.

On June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin from all road, rail, and barge traffic.

Following World War II, Germany was divided into occupation zones. The United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and, eventually, France, were given specific zones to occupy in which they were to accept the surrender of Nazi forces and restore order. The Soviet Union occupied most of eastern Germany, while the other Allied nations occupied western Germany. The German capital of Berlin was similarly divided into four zones of occupation.

The United States response came just two days after the Soviets began their blockade. A massive airlift of supplies into West Berlin was undertaken in what was to become one of the greatest logistical efforts in history. For the Soviets, the escapade quickly became a diplomatic embarrassment. Russia looked like an international bully that was trying to starve men, women, and children into submission. And the successful American airlift merely served to accentuate the technological superiority of the United States over the Soviet Union. On May 12, 1949, the Soviets officially ended the blockade.

General Lucius D. Clay of Marietta, Georgia was military Governor of occupied Germany at that time.

On June 22, 1970, President Richard M. Nixon signed a law extending the 26th Amendment Right to Vote at age 18 to all federal, state, and local elections.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was released in West Germany on June 24, 1977. It’s astounding.

Rickey Henderson made his major league debut with the Oakland A’s on June 24, 1979, stealing his first base.

On June 24, 1982, the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution was defeated, having garnered the ratification of thirty-five states, three shy of the requisite Constitutional Majority.

Hopes for ratification before the deadline next Wednesday were dashed this week when the amendment was rejected by the Illinois House and the Florida Senate, two states in which supporters felt they had a fighting chance.

Had Illinois and Florida ratified the amendment, there was at least some chance that either Oklahoma or North Carolina would have provided the final needed vote.

Prospects were far slimmer in the other nonratifying states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia.

Phyllis Schlafly, a leader of a group called Stop-ERA, hailed the defeat of the amendment tonight, saying: ”They realized E.R.A. is dead and I think that that is an admission they have lost the battle. My feeling is that E.R.A. will take its place with the prohibition and the child labor amendments as ones which did not have enough support of the American people to be in the Constitution.”

Former Atlanta mayor Maynard H. Jackson, Jr. died on June 23, 2003.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Former Vice President Joe Biden has endorsed Democrat Stacey Abrams for Governor of Georgia, according to the Associated Press.

The former vice president hailed Abrams in a statement to The Associated Press for her “track record of building consensus across party lines” while still advancing Democratic priorities like Medicaid expansion and public education. In an interview with the AP, Abrams said Biden’s backing “continues to reflect the broad and diverse coalition that I’m attempting to build” in a GOP-dominated state.

Biden joined other potential 2020 presidential candidates including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California in backing Abrams.

She’s styled herself as an unapologetic progressive — a nod to a Georgia electorate that is becoming younger, more urban and less-white, but still includes large swaths of white voters beyond metro Atlanta who’ve abandoned Democrats in recent decades.

Biden, who prides himself on being a middle-class advocate who connects even with many Trump voters, can boost that argument, Abrams says. She adds that she has no qualms about accepting support from national Democrats with styles and policy preferences as different as Biden and Sanders, an icon of the activist left.

For Biden, the alliance puts him on record alongside one of the party’s high-profile up-and-comers who has an opportunity to make history. It also signals to any reticent Georgia Democrats that Abrams deserves full party support.

Congressman Buddy Carter (R-Pooler) wrote the FAA in support of the Camden County Spaceport, according to WABE.

The debate continues over a spaceport in the works for coastal Georgia. As of this week, all of Georgia’s Members of Congress support the project.

Rep. Buddy Carter wrote a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration this week in favor of the spaceport and the economic opportunity it could be for the coastal area. He easily got his fellow Georgia representatives to sign it as well.

“All of them are in favor of economic development,” he said. “They think this is a great project, a unique opportunity certainly and it was no problem at all getting them to sign on.”

Georgia’s U.S. Senators signed a similar letter in April.

Carter said he has heard concerns about the spaceport but thinks they have been “addressed.” He said most Camden County residents are in favor of it, “so that’s what we’re going with.”

Savannah City Council eliminated a new fire fee and raised the property tax millage rate, according to the Savannah Morning News.

City Manager Robert Hernandez still has some number crunching to do after the Savannah City Council eliminated the widely panned fire fee on Thursday at a cost of about $16 million and adopted a property tax rate increase to make up for some of the revenue loss.

The council ended up unanimously voting at the last minute to increase the tax rate by nine-tenths of a mill from 12.48 to 13.40, while also approving $5.2 million in budget options that staff had based on a full mill increase. So some expenses the council had hoped to preserve with the increase could still be cut to make up for that missing amount of about $500,000.

Mayor Eddie DeLoach joined Aldermen Bill Durrence, Brian Foster, Van Johnson and Tony Thomas in characterizing the increase as a short-term solution to a long-term funding problem that they said is partially due to the fact that about one-third of the parcels in the city pay little or no property tax. While the fire fee was not the answer, there has to be a more equitable way to fund increasing costs of programs and services, Johnson said.

Savannah police officers are receiving training on the new “cite-and-release” marijuana law, according to the Savannah Morning News.

The classes aimed to familiarize officers with the nuances of the ordinance proposed by Alderman Van Johnson in 2017.

Pot will still be illegal after July 1, but under the ordinance, first-time offenders caught for simple possession can be issued a $150 citation rather than be arrested, while any subsequent citations would be determined by the court. Twenty percent of the revenue from the fine will be designated by the city toward a drug treatment facility or program.

City council voted 8-1 to pass the ordinance back in March.

Statesboro is accepting proposals for a mass transit feasibility study, according to the Statesboro Herald.

With a motion and 3-0 vote Tuesday, City Council authorized City Manager Randy Wetmore and staff to issue a request for proposals from consultants who would do the study. This is the first formal step toward the use of $450,000 earmarked for public transportation in Statesboro from the new countywide T-SPLOST.

“This study would be a comprehensive study,” Wetmore said. “We’re asking to have focus groups for public input, to look at costs, to look at alternative ways that we could provide the services.”

The study is a way to examine the possibilities before Statesboro begins receiving T-SPLOST funds, which probably won’t be until December, or possibly the first quarter of 2019, Wetmore said. The city can pay for the study now and then reimburse itself when the sales tax money arrives, he said.

The Coweta County Board of Education has been named an Exemplary School Board by the Georgia School Boards Association, according to the Newnan Times-Herald.

Third Congressional District locals are protesting the Trump Administration’s immigration policy, according to the Newnan Times-Herald.

“We’ve come out here in support of real policy change,” said Sasha Kay, secretary for Indivisible GA-3rd. “There is no law that mandates separation of children. This is the Republicans policy. They have come up with this. They’re trying not to take blame for this. But the truth is this is what they’ve always wanted.”

Members from Indivisible GA-3rd, Coweta County Democrats, Refusefascism.org and others stood outside congressman Drew Ferguson’s office with their signs wanting their questions answered and concerns heard.

“I’ve been very disturbed about what’s happening in our country,” said Janice Meadows, zero tolerance protestor. “We want to know what Ferguson’s position is on this and what he’s going to do. Or if he’s going to do anything. Is he going to stand up to Trump?”

Senoia is revising its alcohol ordinance, according to the Newnan Times-Herald.

The council gave final approval to two ordinances regulating alcohol sales in restaurants, and voted to approve the first reading of an ordinance that would allow open containers of alcohol in a designated area.

The ordinance allowing restaurants to sell packaged alcohol to go is now in effect. Any business in Senoia that has a license to serve beer and wine for consumption on site can now sell package beer and wine to go, with few restrictions. Package liquor cannot be sold.

An ordinance that moves up the time that alcohol can be sold on Sundays will have to be approved by voters in November before it can take effect. Under current law, alcohol cannot be sold until 12:30 p.m. on Sundays. If approved by voters in November, that time will be changed to 11 a.m.

Election Systems and Software (ES&S) hosted an advisory board meeting in Las Vegas, according to the Macon Telegraph.

Kathy Rogers, ES&S’ senior vice president for governmental affairs, said in a phone interview that the panels have been “immensely valuable in providing customer feedback. One of our key results is customer satisfaction, and this is how we achieve that.”

Rogers, a former Georgia elections administrator, said she acts as the “facilitator” at the meetings. The advisory panel usually comprises about 15 election officials and meets twice a year, once at the company’s Omaha headquarters, she said. Venues for past conferences have included San Diego, Jacksonville, New York, Tucson and “somewhere in Texas, maybe Dallas,” Rogers said.

[David] Dove, a former interim elections director in Georgia, who since has gone into private practice, said his supervisor approved his involvement on the advisory board, and the state paid for his trip to Las Vegas.

The Georgia secretary of state’s office said it paid $908 for his trip. A spokeswoman for that office, Candice Broce, said “it was necessary and prudent to send a representative with sufficient subject-matter expertise in elections” to the meeting with the state’s prime contractor to discuss election security, including the federal government’s January 2017 designation of election systems as “critical infrastructure.”

The Floyd County Board of Education adopted a $116.2 million dollar budgt for FY 2019, according to the Rome News-Tribune.

The Hall County Commission held a session to hear about the proposed $266 million dollar FY 2019 budget, according to AccessWDUN.

Augusta University and Augusta Technical College hosted a tour of the new Hull McKnight Georgia Cyber Center for Innovation and Training, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Augusta Tech president Terry Elam said during a tour of the building Thursday that he expects to have 45 different classes taught there, starting in January. He said those classes are going to be full of students in their second year of the school’s cyber program, which Elam is expecting to grow to over 600 students annually from about 425 right now.

“As someone who grew up in this community, this is a dream that a little boy had that the focus would be on us, that we’d have a community that people were trying to get into, not leave,” Elam said of the cyber center. “People will actually know who we are and want to live here because of the quality of life that will come with the activities of cyber.”

The grand opening of the Hull McKnight building is July 10. The second building is expected to be completed by Dec. 18.

Shelia Poole of the AJC writes about President Trump’s support among evangelicals.

Although several prominent conservative and evangelical leaders criticized the policy that broke apart families, they are sticking with their man. Surveys showed white evangelicals, in particular, voted overwhelmingly for Trump.

At its annual meeting in Dallas last week, the historically conservative Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution that, while calling for immigration reform, also pushed for “maintaining the priority of family unity.”

And in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, evangelist Franklin Graham, who leads an international relief nonprofit, Samaritan’s Purse, and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, called the policy “disgraceful.”

Franklin quickly praised Trump for “stepping up to do the right thing for these children” after Trump signed an executive order ending the policy that separated children from their mothers and fathers. “My prayer is that Congress will now step up and do the right thing — Republicans and Democrats working together to come up with a bipartisan solution to the problems we face at our nation’s borders.”

Pastor James Merritt of Cross Pointe Church, which has campuses in Duluth and Braselton, didn’t vote for Trump, although he supports some of his moves such as the appointment of Gorsuch and tax cuts.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a crack” in the wall around evangelical support of Trump, “particularly in light of the actions he’s taken,” said Merritt. “If this (child separations) had gone on, there may have been some cracks in support because it was such an egregious policy as an injustice to followers of Christ. It was just a very wrong-headed policy. My prayer would be that the Republicans and Democrats put their partisan differences aside and try to get his issue resolved and stop punting the ball down the field.”

Ralph Reed of the Faith & Freedom Coalition also tackles the issue of evangelical support for Trump in the New York Times.

WEISS: Ralph, it seems to me that the only topic anyone wants to talk about right now is the White House’s family separation policy, which is currently being enforced on our southern border. (By the time we finish this conversation, the president may sign an executive order ending that policy, though the details are still unclear. I’m refreshing our home page as we speak.)

On Tuesday, your organization, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, made headlines for a letter you put out about that policy. You wrote: “The separation of families illegally crossing the border is heartbreaking and tragic, part of the larger tragedy of a broken immigration system that does not reflect our values or our faith.” What do you think ought to happen at the border? If you were talking to Mr. Trump — which you do — how would you advise him?

REED: My advice to President Trump and Congress is identical to what’s in that letter we sent to Capitol Hill: Act now to fix a broken immigration system that does not reflect our values as a nation or our conscience as people of faith. We want the separation of families to end. We also agree with President Trump that doing so requires congressional action.

WEISS: When we spoke last month at the Times Center, you mentioned several White House policies that were cheered by the evangelical community: the Embassy move to Jerusalem; the scuttling of the Iran deal; the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. I can’t think of a major Trump policy that has gotten even close to this much pushback from evangelical leaders as his border policy has in the past few days. When Franklin Graham is criticizing a Republican president, something unusual is happening, is it not? What do you think it is about this policy specifically that is causing that?

REED: For the vast majority of evangelicals, the pushback is not against President Trump, but against the larger tragedy of a broken and immoral immigration system. This is a system he did not create but has inherited. For those who have been paying attention, evangelicals have been working to reform immigration for years based on the principles of their faith, which call on us to show compassion and care for the alien and foreigner. But we also believe in the rule of law and securing the border. Some on the left love our compassion for immigrants but are not as keen on our desire to secure the border and enforce the law. We believe you have to do both.