Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for July 2, 2019

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted a resolution by Richard Henry Lee (father of Robert E. Lee) calling for independence from Britain. The delegations of twelve colonies voted in favor, while New York’s abstained, not knowing how their constituents would wish them to vote.

On July 2, 1826, representatives from Georgia and Alabama met to begin surveying the border between the two.

On July 2, 1861, Georgia voters approved a new state Constitution, which had been adopted by the state’s Secession Convention.

July 2, 1863 saw day 2 of the Battle of Gettysburg, with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia attacking Meade’s Army of the Potomac.

On July 2, 1898, the first pot of delicious Brunswick Stew was made in Brunswick, Georgia. I think I’ll celebrate with a bowl for lunch today.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, 1864. Major provisions included outlawing discriminatory application of voting laws, prohibiting racial discrimination in public accomodations, allowing the Attorney General to join lawsuits against states operating segregated public schools, and prohibiting discrimination by state and local governments or agencies receiving federal funds.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a witness to Johnson’s signature, standing behind the President in the Oval Office. Johnson presented King with one of the 72 pens used in signing the legislation.

Occasionally, pens from the Civil Rights Act signing come onto the collectors’ market. A collection of 50 pens used to sign legislation by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson went across the block in November 2013. This pen went unsold.

As a student of Dr. Merle Black in the political science department at Emory, we began our study of Southern politics from the premise that race relations and the legacy of racial discrimination shaped Southern politics. One book we read every year was The Longest Debate: A Legislative History of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which belongs on the bookshelf of any serious student of American politics, political history, and legislative process.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Governor Brian Kemp appointed and swore in John King as Insurance Commissioner. From the AJC:

Georgia has a state insurance commissioner again, seven weeks after the elected one, Jim Beck, was accused in a 38-count indictment of scheming to steal $2 million from his former employer, in part to fund his election campaign.

John King, the longtime Doraville police chief, was sworn in as Beck’s at-least-temporary replacement by Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday at a Statehouse ceremony.

“I will work hard, lead with integrity, and always put Georgia families and consumers ahead of politics and special interests,” King said. “I will partner with the governor to lower insurance premiums and health care costs. We will work to address car insurance premiums that have crippled Georgia families. I will lead the effort to make the department transparent, accountable and effective.”

“General King will partner with us to implement health care reforms that lower costs, reduce premiums, enhance access and put patients first,” the governor said. “He will root out corruption, tackle car insurance rates that are the highest in the country and put special interests in their place.”

King will replace Beck pending adjudication of his case. King said he will run for a full term in 2022, when Kemp will also be on the ballot seeking re-election. Kemp’s aides wanted to narrow his choice to candidates willing to be on the ticket that year.

Atlanta City Council adopted a broad prohibition on smoking and vaping in public places, according to the AJC.

Council members voted 13-2 in favor of the ordinance, which if signed by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms would prohibit smoking and vaping in bars, restaurants, places of employment, hotel and motel rooms and other enclosed public areas starting Jan. 2, 2020. The prohibition would cover cigarettes, cigars and electronic cigarettes.

Advocates said they want to reduce health risks to nonsmokers, and that smoke-free policies can reduce smoking rates and prevent young people from starting to smoke.

Smoking was already restricted by a Georgia law passed in 2005, which prohibited smoking in restaurants and bars unless people under 18 are prohibited or if smoking areas are in enclosed private rooms with independent air-flow systems, or outdoors.

The new city of Atlanta ordinance would be more restrictive by prohibiting smoking and vaping in bars and restaurants across the board and closing those loopholes — although the legislation was amended just before the final vote to allow smoking in outdoor seating and serving areas of restaurants and bars.

Former mayoral press aide Jenna Garland rejected a plea deal on charges of Open Records Act violations, according to the AJC.

Garland made her first appearance Monday in a Fulton County courtroom and declined a plea offer from state Attorney General Chris Carr’s office. Garland, who was press secretary during Reed’s second term, is accused of ordering a subordinate in the city’s watershed department in March 2017 to delay handing over public records to Channel 2 Action News that contained information damaging to Reed, his brother and other city officials.

She was charged in February with two misdemeanors.

Terms of the proposed plea were not disclosed, though jail time is unlikely. Violations of the Georgia Open Records Act are punishable by fines of up to $1,000, however Morrison said Garland could face fines of up to $2,500 because she faces more than one citation.

Carr ordered a GBI investigation of the Reed administration’s handling of open records after reporting by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 showed Garland instructed a watershed official to delay production of water bills to Channel 2.

Honey bee population losses could affect Georgia’s agriculture industry, according to the Macon Telegraph.

Honey bee colonies across the United States, including Georgia, have been in decline since the mid 2000s. However, more bee colonies died this winter than in any other year in the previous decade, according to a new study done by Bee Informed Partnership with Auburn University and University of Maryland.

“Threats to pollination services could translate to food security issues, particularly among specialty crops that rely on honey bees,” said Geoff Williams, Auburn assistant professor of entomology and apiology. “At the moment, we have not seen noticeable effects of increased colony mortality on human food production.”

Several Georgia and Middle Georgia crops including watermelon, blueberries and peaches depend on pollinators like honey bees. Those are the three crops with the highest economic values of pollination, according to research done by Keith Delaplane, the director of University of Georgia’s Honey Bee Program, and colleagues, which was published in 2015.

“The annual economic value of pollination in Georgia alone is over $360 million dollars a year. $360 million. So it’s a pretty significant contribution to our local state’s economy,” Delaplane said in an interview with The Telegraph last week.

In Middle Georgia, the economic value of pollination in Peach County alone was between $10 million and $25 million in 2009, according to Delaplane’s research, which is the latest data available. This means that if all honey bees in Georgia were to disappear, Peach County farms could suffer an economic loss of up to $25 million.

Fort Stewart is the likely home of M1A1 tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles moved to Washington for display on the Fourth of July, according to the Savannah Morning News.

[President Trump] said Monday that a display of U.S. military tanks will be part of a special event he’s headlining July 4 in Washington — and an Associated Press photographer saw at least two M1A1 Abrams tanks and four other military vehicles on a flatcar in a railyard at the southeastern edge of Washington.

The Abrams tanks weigh more than 60 tons apiece and would have been shipped, likely on railroad freight cars, from Fort Stewart, the nearest Army base that has them. The Pentagon declined to answer questions about the armored vehicles, including where they came from, and referred all questions to the White House. The White House declined to release more specific information.

“We have some incredible equipment, military equipment on display — brand new,” Trump said. “And we’re very proud of it. You know we’re making a lot of new tanks right now. We’re building a lot of new tanks in Lima, Ohio — our great tank factory that people wanted to close down until I got elected and I stopped it from being closed down, and now it’s a very productive facility.”

Trump plans to deliver a speech at the Lincoln Memorial during his “Salute to America,” which has been added to the regular schedule of Independence Day events in the nation’s capital. The annual fireworks display will go off closer to the Lincoln Memorial instead of the Washington Monument, as has been the long-standing tradition.

Georgia’s “hands-free” law has not had the intended effect, according to the Gainesville Times.

“When the law was passed last year, we were very hopeful that that was going to be the silver bullet for a lot of our traffic problems, because we attribute a lot of our crashes to distracted driving. Unfortunately, what it looks like is rather than obeying the new law or changing their behavior to comply with that, what a lot of folks have done is change their behavior to get around it,” [Gainesville Police Sgt. Justin Martin] said.

The Georgia Hands-Free Law prohibits drivers from holding a cellphone. Exceptions were made for voice-to-text capabilities, navigational applications and streaming music, but the user cannot touch the phone while driving.

From July 1, 2018 to May of this year, Georgia State Patrol has written 22,327 citations related to the hands-free law.

As of June 21, there had been 666 traffic fatalities compared to 686 at that time the year before. That’s only a 3% decrease after ramped-up media campaigns and awareness surrounding cellphone usage behind the wheel.

The first conviction under the law results in a $50 fine and a point on the driver’s license. The charge can be dropped for first-time offenders who show they have purchased hands-free technology.

Hall County Solicitor General Stephanie Woodard said a majority of first-time offenders do attempt to resolve it by proving they have installed the hands-free technology.

The Houston County Board of Education is considering keeping last year’s property tax millage rate; a rising property tax digest means it must be advertised as a tax increase, according to the Macon Telegraph.

Melissa Kendrick will serve as the new President of Economic Development for the Rome Floyd-County Development Authority, according to the Rome News Tribune.

A wildfire is burning on Cumberland Island, according to The Brunswick News.

As of 6 p.m. Sunday, the fire had burned an estimated 102 acres in the wilderness area, said Nick Roll, a park ranger. No structures are currently threatened by the blaze.

The fire, named the Whitney Fire, was first reported by an island resident on Saturday night, he said. Park Service officials responded with added personnel from Georgia Forestry Commission and Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

Roll said heavy thunderstorms dumped nearly a half inch of water Sunday afternoon, but the fire was still active on Monday. The hot, dry weather could mean the fire activity will pick up in coming days.

Roll said the last time the area burned was in 2008, when lightning sparked a wildfire. Since then, the undergrowth has grown back, leaving plenty of fuel, including palmettos, oak scrub and pond pines.

The fire will be allowed to burn in the wilderness area because fire is a part of the natural ecosystem on the island. Firefighters will be staged in suppression zones prepared to battle any blazes that threaten structures.

Former Democratic Congressional candidate (12th District) Francys Johnson was named to the Board of the Georgia State Bar, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Dougherty County Commission Chair Chris Cohilas spoke about a recent trip to Washington, according to the Albany Herald.

Cohilas said an executive summary is expected from Cornerstone, which is lobbying on Dougherty County’s behalf. He said Georgia is the first state to have reached an agreement with U.S. Housing and Urban Development, which is expected to provide a boost for ongoing storm recovery.

The commission chairman said $600 million has been earmarked for the U.S. Economic Development Administration for Hurricane Michael recovery, with $200 million expected for the EDA’s regional office in Atlanta.

It is not yet clear what types of projects will be eligible for the funding. Cohilas said Dougherty officials would meet with representatives from the Atlanta office to get them engaged in the community’s needs.

Cohilas said there were some discussions with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to talk about methods for overall economic development, to which he said the techniques being used in southwest Georgia are not dissimilar to what other areas are doing.

The Floyd County Board of Education has held two of three required meetings on the adoption of a FY 2020 budget, according to the Rome News Tribune.

Floyd County Schools met twice Monday to hold public hearings for the 2019 millage rate which the board is proposing to lower by .05 mills.

Superintendent Jeff Wilson said although the decrease is small, he and the board wanted to show the tax payers of Floyd County that even though the system is tight on money they are still looking to lower taxes.

The millage rate is a combination of a proposed 9.480 mills for county government services and 18.25 mills for the school system.

The third and final hearing for the 2019 millage rate will be held at 7:30 a.m. on July 15 before the system’s monthly board meeting and caucus at 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.

Phillip Singleton announced he will run for the House District 71 seat being vacated by State Rep. David Stover, according to the Newnan Times Herald.

Stover, who was elected to the seat in a 2013 special election, announced his resignation on June 25.

Under state law, Gov. Brian Kemp will call for a special election to fill the seat. Kemp can call for the special election at any time, but the election must be held at least 60 days before the Nov. 5 general election, which means it would be held in early September, or earlier. A request for comment from the governor’s office had not been answered by Monday evening.

The seat will be filled in a special election with no party primary. All candidates, regardless of party, will run together, and if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held between the top two vote getters.

District 71 covers most of Coweta County east of Interstate 85, with the exception of the Senoia and Haralson areas. It also includes a northwestern section of the county up to Madras, and a sliver of Fayette County.

“This special election comes at a tumultuous time in Georgia politics,” Singleton said in a press release. With the 2020 presidential election right around the corner, it is vitally important for the Republican Party “to not lose an inch in the legislature.” he said. “I am committed to defending and expanding the gains we have made towards protecting unborn life, and I look forward to helping move Georgia toward constitutional carry and better care for my fellow veterans.”

Jeremy Stone announced he will run for an at-large seat on Valdosta City Council, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

Stone is looking to take the seat of Councilman Ben Norton, who has held the at-large position since 2010.

The City of Valdosta will distribute free school supplies at the Second Annual Back-to-School Community Block Party, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

Jann Joseph took office as the new President of Georgia Gwinnett College, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Joseph recently served as interim chancellor at Indiana University South Bend. Joseph is Georgia Gwinnett College’s third president since the school was founded in 2005. She takes over for the previous president Stanley C. “Stas” Preczewski, who retired in January.

“Dr. Joseph has certainly hit the ground running, which fits right in with GGC’s culture,” said Judy Awong-Taylor, professor of biology and chair of the college’s presidential search committee. “I think she will align very well with our mission and vision, and our commitment to student success.”

Dr. Anne A. Skleder took office as the first female President of Brenau College, according to the Gainesville Times.

Skleder is the tenth president of the university and joins the ranks of nine male presidents of the university, including immediate past-President Ed Schrader, Jack Burd, James Rogers, William Clark, Josiah Crudup, Thomas J. Simmons, H.J. Pearce, Sr., Azor Van Hoose, and founder Rev. W.C. Wilkes.

“I like to focus on the fact that it’s an incredible privilege to be the president of Brenau University,” she said. “Second to that, I have the opportunity to be a role model and create the visual for women to see the possibilities of leadership. Third, I have the incredible opportunity to work with both the historic women’s college at Brenau, but also the very innovative and dynamic comprehensive university,” said Skleder. She added she couldn’t be here in this role without what came before her.

Katrina Keefer takes the reins as the new CEO for Augusta University Health System, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

“Katrina comes to us with an impressive track record of effective financial leadership within a premier health system,” AU President Brooks Keel said in the release. “I am confident that her background in health system strategy and finance will ensure our financial health and sustainability, as well as improve the patient experience for everyone who enters our doors.”

Keefer will oversee AU Medical Center, the Children’s Hospital of Georgia, Roosevelt Warm Springs Rehabilitation and Specialty Hospitals, Georgia Correctional Healthcare, the Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home and more than 80 outpatient clinics and ambulatory sites, according to the release.