On March 10, 1734, a group of German immigrants reached the mouth of the Savannah River, from where they would proceed on to Savannah. Today, the Georgia Salzburgers Society works to preserve the Salzburger heritage and traditions in Georgia.
On March 10, 1866, Governor Charles Jones Jenkins signed legislation allowing women to have bank accounts separate from their husbands as long as the balance was less than $2000; an earlier act set the limit at $1000.
On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first speech over his new invention, the telephone.
Thomas B. Murphy was born on March 10, 1924 in Bremen, Georgia and would first be elected to office in the 1950s, winning a seat on the Bremen Board of Education. In 1960, Murphy ran for the State House facing no opposition and was sworn in in 1961. In 1973, he became Speaker Murphy and would hold the post until Bill Heath, a Republican, beat him in the November 2002 General Election.
Murphy held the top House seat for longer than anyone in any American state legislature. He died on December 17, 2007.
https://youtu.be/JNMjiELp47E
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
File this under Unanticipated Consequences: increased use of hand sanitizer has led to an increase in calls to the Georgia Poison Control center, according to the Albany Herald.
The state saw a 60 percent increase in poisoning calls related to sanitizer last year over 2019, Gaylord Lopez, executive director of the Georgia Poison Center, said. The cases are continuing to rise so far this year, he added.
Most of the more than 1,000 calls were from parents alarmed about their young kids drinking the product.
“Children are home, and adults have more of these products at home, in their cars, and outside,’’ Lopez said.
A container of hand sanitizer is 60 percent to 95 percent alcohol, meaning it has a higher alcohol concentration than hard liquor.
But see: Barrel Strength Bourbon.
Democrat Angela Moore was elected State Representative for the 90th District in yesterday’s runoff election, according to the AJC.
Angela Moore, a public relations specialist who finished in third place in a 2010 primary for secretary of state, defeated former state Rep. Stan Watson, who also served as a DeKalb County commissioner, in Tuesday’s special election runoff.
Moore received about 59% of the nearly 3,000 votes that were cast Tuesday, according to unofficial results from the Georgia secretary of state’s website.
The special election was called after longtime state Rep. Pam Stephenson, D-Lithonia, withdrew her candidacy last year. House District 90 includes parts of DeKalb, Henry and Rockdale counties.
House Resolution 264 sets the schedule for the rest of the Session.
Wednesday, March. . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 30
Thursday, March 11. . . . . . . . .convene for legislative day 31
Monday, March 15. . . . . . . . . .convene for legislative day 32
Tuesday, March 16. . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 33
Wednesday, March 17 . . . . . . convene for legislative day 34
Thursday, March 18 . . . . . . . .convene for legislative day 35
Monday, March 22 . . . . . . . . .convene for legislative day 36
Tuesday, March 23 . . . . . . . . .convene for legislative day 37
Wednesday, March 24 . . . . . .committee work day
Thursday, March 25 . . . . . . . .convene for legislative day 38
Friday, March 26 . . . . . . . . . . committee work day
Monday, March 29 . . . . . . . . .convene for legislative day 39
Tuesday, March 30 . . . . . . . . .committee work day
Wednesday, March 31 . . . . . . convene for legislative day 40 (SINE DIE)
LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS
8:00 AM Senate Approp Public Safety Sub – 450 CAP
8:00 AM Senate Veterans, Military and Homeland Security-canceled – 450 CAP
8:00 AM Senate Appropriations- Transportation Sub – 307 CLOB
8:00 AM HOUSE INSURANCE – 606 CLOB
8:00 AM HOUSE AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS – 406 CLOB
10:00 AM Senate Floor Session – Senate Chamber
10:00 AM HOUSE FLOOR SESSION (LD30) – House Chamber
Noonish Senate Rules Upon Adjournment – 450 CAP
12:30 PM HOUSE INTRAGOVERNMENTAL COORDINATION – 406 CLOB
1:00 PM Senate Natural Resources and Environment – 307 CLOB
1:00 PM Senate Health and Human Services – 450 CAP
1:00 PM HOUSE Ways and Means Sales Tax Sub – 403 CAP
1:00 PM HOUSE HIGHER EDUCATION – 606 CLOB
1:15 PM HOUSE Ways and Means Public Finance and Policy – 403 CAP
1:30 PM HOUSE Judiciary Gunter Sub – 132 CAP
1:30 PM HOUSE CREATIVE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT – 506 CLOB
1:30 PM HOUSE Ways and Means Tax Revision Special Sub – 403 CAP
1:45 PM HOUSE Ways and Means Ad Valorem Tax Sub – 403 CAP
2:00 PM HOUSE Motor Vehicles Tag and Titles Sub – 515 CLOB
2:00 PM HOUSE Ways and Means Income Tax Sub – 403 CAP
2:00 PM HOUSE GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS – 406 CLOB
2:15 PM Senate Retirement – canceled – 450 CAP
2:15 PM Senate Education and Youth- canceled – 307 CLOB
3:00 PM HOUSE INDUSTRY AND LABOR – 506 CLOB
3:30 PM Senate Finance – 450 CAP
3:30 PM HOUSE Judiciary Scoggins Sub – 406 CLOB
3:30 PM HOUSE STATE PROPERTIES – 403 CAP
4:00 PM Senate Approp- Agriculture and Natural Resources Sub – 310 CLOB
4:00 PM Senate Approp- Community Health Sub – Mezz 1
4:45 PM Senate Judiciary – 307 CLOB
The Georgia Judicial Nominating Commission sent a short list of nominees for a seat on the Fulton County Superior Court.
The Judicial Nominating Commission has submitted recommendations to fill a vacancy within the Superior Court of the Atlanta Judicial Circuit. The vacancy was created by the appointment of the Honorable Shawn LaGrua to the Georgia Supreme Court. Governor Kemp will fill the vacancy from among the list. The Governor’s Office will contact candidates to schedule interviews.
The following names were submitted to Governor Kemp:
• Chuck Eaton – Commissioner, Georgia Public Service Commission
• Elizabeth L. Fite – Co-Founder, Rogers & Fite, LLC
• Christopher E. Ward – Deputy Chief Judge, Municipal Court of Atlanta
Augusta Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Jesse Stone‘s appointment has been challenged, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
The petition was filed in Burke County Superior Court on Friday by Maureen O. Floyd, a recently retired local attorney, against Stone.
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Stone on Feb. 1 to replace Judge Michael N. Annis whose retirement became effective Feb. 1, 2020. Kemp sworn Stone into office on Feb. 22.
Kemp’s delay in appointing Annis’ replacement stirred debate almost immediately because Annis’ four-year term of office would have ended Dec. 30, before Kemp’s appointment was announced.
Floyd’s petition contends that since Annis’ term of office ended before Kemp’s appointment of Stone, Kemp did not have the constitutional or any other legal authority to appoint anyone to fill Annis’ seat.
Judges in Georgia are elected unless a vacancy occurs. When there is a vacancy, the governor has the authority to appoint someone and the appointed judge serves a shorten term before he must run in the next general election.
Floyd’s petition contends that Kemp had no authority to appoint Stone because there was no elected seat to fill.
The issue over the governor’s appointment has become controversial in the past year in two major cases decided by the Georgia Supreme Court. In a challenge to Kemp’s right to appoint a Supreme Court justice, the court ruled in Kemp’s favor. In a later case the Supreme Court ruled Kemp lacked the authority to appoint a district attorney.
Jury trials will resume as Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton lifts the restriction in his most recent emergency order governing the state court system, according to AccessWDUN.
The order is the 12th Melton has signed extending the Statewide Judicial Emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release from the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Trial courts may resume jury trials, “if that can be done safely and in accordance with a final jury trial plan developed in collaboration with the local committee of judicial system participants and incorporated into the court’s written operating guidelines for in-person proceedings,” according to the release.
While Georgia courts have remained open since the Statewide Judicial Emergency was announced in March 2020, jury trials were suspended due to the number of people required to gather at courthouses.
Aside from allowing jury trials to resume, Tuesday’s order is identical to the order Melton signed on Feb. 7. The order urges all courts to use technology to conduct remote judicial proceedings where practicable and lawful. The new order extended the Statewide Judicial Emergency until April 8, 2021.
The resumption of trials in Floyd County will begin on Monday after a year long hiatus.
In preparation, juror summons were sent and Floyd County Superior Court is preparing to pick two juries this coming Monday at the Forum River Center.
The most important factor is that everyone participating is safe, Chief Judge John “Jack” Niedrach said.
Protocols include pre-screening for health risks of all parties, temperature checks, masks, plexiglass barriers, touch-free evidence technology, constant surface cleaning and the reconfiguration of courtrooms and jury spaces to ensure social distancing.
“We have put into place the most rigorous safety protocols available,” Melton stated.
Governor Brian Kemp spoke to WSB-TV about legislation working its way through the General Asssembly.
“My position has been very clear on voting for a long time, even before the 2020 cycle: Easy to vote, hard to cheat, have secure, accessible, fair elections,” Kemp told Elliot.
The citizen’s arrest overhaul and election reform bills in both chambers have gained national attention.
The Georgia Senate voted to approve another controversial voting bill. Like the House version, the bill requires voters to have a photo ID when requesting an absentee ballot.
However unlike the House, the Senate version includes a measure that would eliminate no-excuse absentee, something the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker have not supported.
“We’re definitely going to be weighing in and working with both sides to make sure we get a final version that, you know, has broad support and really does what we need to do to get and have secure elections in Georgia.”
Kemp does support the photo ID requirement for absentee voting. He said it is needed for election integrity and voter confidence in the system.
Former President Jimmy Carter is saddened and angered by voting measures being considered by the legislature, according to the Albany Herald.
Former President Jimmy Carter on Tuesday denounced recent Republican-led efforts to restrict voter access in his home state of Georgia, saying he is “disheartened, saddened, and angry.”
“American democracy means every eligible person has the right to vote in an election that is fair, open, and secure. It should be flexible enough to meet the electorate’s changing needs. As Georgians, we must protect these values,” the former Democratic President wrote in a statement. “We must not lose the progress we have made. We must not promote confidence among one segment of the electorate by restricting the participation of others. Our goal always should be to increase, not decrease, voter participation.”
“Many of the proposed changes are reactions to allegations of fraud for which no evidence was produced—allegations that were, in fact, refuted through various audits, recounts, and other measures,” Carter said.
Carter’s statement was issued by the Carter Center, an organization founded by the former President and former first lady Rosalynn Carter. The organization has helped support democratic elections in countries during fragile and volatile times for more than three decades, observing more than 100 elections in 39 countries.
From the Associated Press via the Athens Banner Herald:
Carter, a Democrat, said in a long statement that the Republican-backed proposals, which would end no-excuse absentee voting, “appear to be rooted in partisan interests, not the interests of all Georgia voters.”
“As our state legislators seek to turn back the clock through legislation that will restrict access to voting for many Georgians, I am disheartened, saddened, and angry,” Carter wrote.
Carter focused his criticisms mostly squarely on the proposal to roll back absentee voting. He pushed back at some advocates of the legislation who have cited an elections security report he co-authored in 2005 with former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican.
“While our report noted a few good and bad examples of vote-by-mail practices, its main recommendation was that further study of voting by mail was needed,” Carter wrote. But “in the 16 years since the report’s release,” he continued, “vote-by-mail practices have progressed significantly as new technologies have been developed. In light of these advances, I believe that voting by mail can be conducted in a manner that ensures election integrity.”
Democrat Stacey Abrams is pushing Atlanta’s largest companies to oppose changes in state voting laws, according to the AJC.
Stacey Abrams said there should be a “hue and cry” from business leaders in opposition to far-reaching proposed voting restrictions in Georgia and other states instead of the more guarded response from corporate titans in the weeks since the measures were first introduced.
“There were businesses that were silent in the election for whatever reason. But there should be no silence from the business community when anyone in power is trying to strip away the right to vote from the people,” she said on a call Tuesday organized by Fair Fight Action and More Than A Vote, two prominent voting rights organizations. “There should be a hue and cry.”
She’s one of a growing number of influential voices who say powerful corporations that waded into other contentious political fights, such as the 2016 battle over “religious liberty” legislation, should aggressively oppose restrictive measures in Georgia and other states.
Frustrated activists want more strident action. The Georgia chapter of the NAACP demanded that the state’s biggest brands stand against “a second coming of Jim Crow.” And a coalition of groups recently ran full-page ads in newspapers around the state urging “Corporate Georgia” to take a stand.
“We won’t patronize these companies and corporations who don’t show up for us,” said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, which has helped organize the pressure campaign. “When are the businesses going to have enough courage to say we’re not going down this road anymore?”
Abrams, who is expected to mount a rematch against Gov. Brian Kemp next year, described the Jan. 6 insurrection as an attempt by nationalists and white supremacists to overthrow an election in which “the wrong people got to vote.” The spirit of that attack on democracy, she said, is fueling the voter restriction measures now pending in 43 states across the nation.
“These are all bills about that same lie and that same belief system that drove them to the Capitol – that the wrong people are voting and that the only way to get our way is to shut them down and to shut them up,” she said.
“There should be not a single business owner in America who is allowed to be silent about the theft of the right to vote from any American, because that means you are standing with an ethos that was a near coup attempt in the United States. I know that sounds a bit overblown, but I can’t see it any other way.”
Seven lawyers left the Office of the Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney after Deborah Gonzalez was elected, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
In all, seven lawyers left the office that prosecutes criminal cases in Clarke and Oconee counties. The office has slots for 12 assistant prosecutors.
“It’s absolutely expected,” Gonzalez said Monday about the resignations. “This is what happens, especially after 20 years (under the former DA). This is a significant transition. We are not the only ones. We are one of 14 DA offices around Georgia that have changed leadership.”
She is now in the process of hiring for those job openings.
Gonzalez, elected to her first term last year, announced Jan. 1 when she took office she was making numerous changes in the way cases will be handled based on “significant reforms” and policy changes that were part of her platform as a candidate.
The Floyd County Board of Elections will hire Dominion Voting Systems to provide technical support during November elections, according to the Rome News Tribune.
The Floyd County Board of Elections decided to hire Dominion Voting Systems for technical support during the Nov. 2 city elections.
It would only be for a few days, to assist with any issues concerning the voting equipment, board members said at their Tuesday meeting.
During the public comment period, one person contended that Dominion has sent less qualified technicians in the past. However, Elections Board Chair Melanie Conrad said they believe that won’t be an issue with just Rome’s election and that Dominion might’ve been “spread too thin” during the 2020 general election.
The Glynn County Board of Elections heard an update on state voting measures, according to The Brunswick News.
During a Tuesday meeting of the Glynn County Board of Elections, Elections and Registration Supervisor Chris Channell explained some of his reservations about multiple state House and Senate Bills dealing with election law.
One Georgia House bill proposing changes to voting law would outlaw the use of drop boxes as they were used in the 2020 election cycle, he said. Among them is a limit on the use of absentee ballot drop boxes.
Bills proposed in both the state House and Senate would add the requirement that voters include their driver’s license or state ID number or some other accepted identification, but removed a signature matching stipulation in current law.
“I have a bad problem with that,” Channell said. “I don’t mind them including the driver’s license. I don’t mind them including the social security number, but signature verification has to be a part of it.”
There are many situations where family members or friends might have access to a voter’s social security and driver’s license number, Redden added.
“Think about how it can spin out from there if you don’t have their signature,” Redden said.
The Hall County Elections Board praised Elections Director Lori Wurtz amid a struggle over hiring authority, according to the Gainesville Times.
Board members took turns verbally praising Wurtz’s work during the challenging 2020 election process, and then reinforced their words by unanimously passing a resolution to seek from the Hall County Commission a doubling of her staff for the next fiscal year, and to acquire additional space for her team to safely and securely store the ever-increasing volume of voting machinery they are required to maintain.
It was recently revealed that Wurtz was working under a 90-day performance improvement plan after receiving a poor job-performance evaluation from her supervisor, Assistant County Manager Zach Propes.
While the Hall County Board of Elections and Registrations oversees all aspects of the elections process it does not have supervisory control of the elections director – that responsibility belongs to the Hall County Administrator’s Office. Election Board members hinted several weeks ago that the possibility of legal action to gain that control was under consideration.
Bulloch County public schools will offer a drive-through vaccination clinic for teachers and others, according to the Statesboro Herald.
The Bulloch County Schools system will offer drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination clinics on Friday and March 19 that will be open to all employees of the school system, including substitute teachers and temporary workers.
“While there is no requirement for school district employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, it is one more important way that we can help keep them safe, mitigate the spread of COVID-19, and help prevent possible quarantines if they are directly exposed to someone with the virus,” said Charles Wilson, superintendent of schools.
All participants will be given the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Greene said. Last week, Gov. Brian Kemp announced that Georgia’s first shipments of the new Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine would be prioritized for educators.
Greene said the initial supply of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines arrived Friday at the Bulloch County Health Department. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 28 to prevent COVID-19 for individuals 18 years and older.
Chatham County will also administer the J&J vaccine to educators, according to the Savannah Morning News.
About 3,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine arrived at the Chatham County Health Department Monday.
Packed 10 vials to a box with five doses per vial, the new vaccine is a welcome addition to the health department’s anti-COVID arsenal. As of Monday, 97,534 COVID vaccines had been distributed in Chatham, which was among the first to start vaccinating healthcare workers with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in December.
Gov. Brian Kemp asked that health departments and other providers prioritize the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for K-12 educators. In Chatham, the one-dose vaccine will be administered in mass clinics around the county this weekend to get school staffers vaccinated quickly. They’ll use the Johnson & Johnson vaccine until it runs out and then, if needed, supplement with other vaccines.
“We will have enough vaccine to cover the clinics this weekend, it’s just whether or not it will all be Johnson & Johnson or whether or not it will be a mix kind of depends on the supplies as they come in this week,” said Coastal Health District Spokeswoman Ginger Heidel. “So with the communication that went out to the teachers, it says Johnson & Johnson, depending on availability, because that’s our plan.”
Muscogee County announced teacher vaccination details, according to WTVM.
Superintendent Dr. David Lewis says mass vaccinations for teachers who wish to get the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine will be March 11 and March 19.
Statesboro City Council, Mayor and some staff will attend a retreat on Jekyll Island this weekend, according to the Statesboro Herald.
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