Richard B. Russell, Jr. was born in Winder, Georgia on November 2, 1897.
In 1927, at age 29, Russell was named Speaker of the House – the youngest in Georgia history. In 1930, Russell easily won election as Georgia governor on his platform of reorganizing state government for economy and efficiency. Five months shy of his 34th birthday, Russell took the oath of office from his father, Georgia chief justice Richard B. Russell Sr. He became the youngest governor in Georgia history – a record that still stands. After Georgia U.S. Senator William Harris died in 1932, Gov. Russell named an interim replacement until the next general election, in which Russell himself became a candidate. Georgia voters elected their young governor to fill Harris’ unexpired term. When he arrived in Washington in January 1933, he was the nation’s youngest senator.
Russell had a long and storied career in the United States Senate, during which he served for many years as Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, unofficial leader of the conservative Southern wing of the Democratic party and a chief architect of resistance to civil rights legislation. He also ran for President in 1952, winning the Florida primary.
Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States on November 2, 1976.
The current Georgia Constitution was ratified on November 2, 1982 by the state’s voters.
On November 2, 2010, voters elected Republican Nathan Deal as Governor, and the GOP swept all of the statewide offices on the ballot.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Friday is the last day to cast in-person early votes ahead of Tuesday’s General Election. From the Gwinnett Daily Post:
This is the final week of early voting ahead of Georgia’s general election. Voters who want to cast in-person ballots before election day arrives on Nov. 8 have until Friday to do so.
Voters will decide a U.S. Senate race, the governor’s race, several other statewide office races, congressional races, state legislative races and county commission races.Gwinnett County’s 11 early voting sites are open 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., and voters who want are casting absentee by-mail ballots can drop them off at drop boxes located inside six of the early voting sites.
As of Monday afternoon, 111,300 Gwinnett voters had cast ballots in-person during early voting, and the county had received 11,689 absentee ballots from voters. There were 22,888 absentee ballots requested by voters in Gwinnett for the general election.
The county has also received 93 military and oversees electronic delivery ballots so far.
That adds up to a total of 123,082 ballots that Gwinnett elections officials had been received as of Monday afternoon.
A voting report that the Daily Post obtained from county officials on Monday shows the county’s election department is counting 565,088 active Gwinnett voters who were registered in time to cast ballots in the general election.
That means Gwinnett County is seeing a 22% voter turnout with a few days of early voting left and just under half of the requested absentee ballots not yet returned, according to the report.
Governor Brian Kemp issued Executive Order #11.01.22.01, ordering to half-staff flags on state properties and buildings on November 5, 2022 in honor of the late Vince Dooley.
The United States Supreme Court lifted their earlier stay on a lower court order compelling United States Senator Lindsey Graham to testify in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s grand jury, according to the Associated Press via the Valdosta Daily Times.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Sen. Lindsey Graham’s testimony in a Georgia investigation of possible illegal interference in the 2020 election by then-President Donald Trump and his allies in the state.
The court lifted a temporary hold on Graham’s appearance before a special grand jury, now scheduled for Nov. 17.
But in an unsigned order, the justices noted that Graham still could raise objections to some questions.
“Today, the Supreme Court confirmed that the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause applies here. They also affirmed that Senator Graham may return to the District Court if the District Attorney tries to ask questions about his constitutionally protected activities. The Senator’s legal team intends to engage with the District Attorney s office on next steps to ensure respect for this constitutional immunity.”
The South Carolina senator, a top Trump ally, had argued that a provision of the Constitution, the speech and debate clause, shields him from being forced to testify at all.
Lower courts already have told Willis that she “may not ask about any investigatory conduct,” which is protected under the Constitution.
Former Vice President Mike Pence campaigned in Georgia yesterday with Governor Brian Kemp, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Albany Herald.
Former Vice President Mike Pence bolstered Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s case for reelection Tuesday during a Get Out the Vote Rally in downtown Cumming.
“We need Georgia to lead the way to a great American comeback by reelecting Brian Kemp,” Pence told cheering supporters as Kemp stood by his side.
Pence’s appearance with Kemp on the campaign trail Tuesday afternoon was one of two scheduled for Tuesday. The two also were due to speak in Gainesville later in the day.
“No governor has done more to create jobs, cut taxes … put criminals behind bars and protect the unborn,” Pence said. “Brian Kemp is singularly one of the most successful conservative governors in the United States of America.”
“Georgia was the first state in America to open again,” Pence added. Governor Brian Kemp led the way.”
“Stacey Abrams is going to fall in line with the Biden-Harris administration that has brought inflation to a 40-year high, facilitated a wave of crime and the worst crisis on the Southern border in American history,” Pence said.
Kemp urged his supporters not to let his solid lead in the polls make them complacent with just a week left before Election Day.
“We cannot let up,” he said. “Don’t believe the polls. Don’t believe the media. We’ve got to work like we never worked before.”
From the Associated Press via AccessWDUN:
“No one in Georgia’s history has done more to create jobs, cut taxes, restore sanity to your schools, put criminals behind bars, protect the unborn and secure all the God-given liberties enshrined in the Constitution of the United States than Gov. Brian Kemp,” Pence told about 150 people in Cumming, part of a belt of Republican-dominated Atlanta exurbs key to Kemp’s reelection.
Pence’s visit, along with subsequent appearances this week by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, will spotlight Kemp’s campaign in the closing days of advance voting and ahead of what the GOP hopes is a surge of Election Day ballots.
“We’ve been doing good in this day because we have been saying no to Stacey Abrams,” Kemp said, speaking in the parking lot of a cigar bar in heavily Republican Forsyth County.
“We were listening to you, and because we’ve done that, we’ve got an incredible economy,” Kemp said. “We’ve got the most people ever working in the history of the state, the lowest unemployment rate in the history of the state.”
Pence jabbed that “Stacey Abrams may be the weakest candidate on crime in the history of Georgia,” after Abrams in a Sunday debate dismissed Kemp’s endorsement by more than 100 sheriffs. She said she was not a part of a “good ol’ boys club” and said “I don’t have 107 sheriffs who want to be able to take Black people off the street, who want to be able to go without accountability,” before backtracking and saying “I don’t believe every sheriff wants that.”
“If she found her way back in the statehouse as governor, she’ll fall right in line with the failed Biden-Harris agenda,” Pence said.
Tuesday’s show of GOP strength noticeably did not include Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who has been dogged by multiple allegations that he paid for and pressured two women to have abortions, in opposition to the anti-abortion views he’s expressed as a candidate. Kemp has for weeks sidestepped questions about Walker, saying only that he’s trying to lead “the whole ticket” to victory. Walker campaigned on his own Tuesday.
Mike Pence came through Gainesville Tuesday – one of several stops the former vice president has made in Georgia during a final push to rally Republican voters to turn out for Gov. Brian Kemp at the polls with less than a week left before Election Day.
Pence spoke at length to a raving crowd of more than 60 people in the parking lot of Carroll Daniel Construction, urging them to keep Kemp in office for another four years.
“I’m here because Brian Kemp is arguably the most successful conservative governor in the United States of America,” Pence said. “Finally, I’m here because Stacy Abrams must never be governor of the state of Georgia.”
“He stood strong for our values when he signed a Heartbeat Bill and stood for the sanctity for human life,” Pence said.
The former vice president went on to describe Kemp as “the first governor in America” to reopen the state economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which killed more than 3,900 people across Georgia.
“And (Kemp) took heat for it,” Pence said. “But I can tell you, having been shoulder-to-shoulder with him in that fight, he never took his eyes off the people of Georgia. He didn’t listen to the elites. He didn’t listen to the media. He listened to all of you.”
“I know that with four more years in the state house, Georgia is going to achieve even greater heights than ever before under Gov. Brian Kemp,” he said.
Other Republican candidates in attendance were State Sen. Butch Miller, of Gainesville, and Tyler Harper, the GOP’s candidate for state agriculture commissioner. Gainesville Mayor Sam Couvillon was also among local leaders there to show support for Kemp’s re-election.
Gov. Brian Kemp told a crowd of supporters at the Lawrenceville Lawn on Tuesday that he expects this year’s state elections will show a different story for Republicans in Atlanta’s northern suburbs than what was seen in the 2020 presidential election.
Two years ago, President Joe Biden picked up big support in the north metro suburbs, areas that had traditionally backed Republicans for decades, on his way to defeating then-President Donald Trump statewide. In Gwinnett, it was part of an ongoing trend which has seen no Republican candidate for governor or president win the county since 2014.
But, Kemp is confident that, although a blue wave has flipped the balance of power in Cobb and Gwinnett counties, he can chip away at some of the Democrats’ growing influence in this year’s general election.
“I believe with the momentum that we’ve got, we’re going to do a lot better in the suburbs in the urban parts of our state than we did in 2020,” Kemp said. “That’s why we’re spending the last week of the (campaign) bus tour north of I-20.
“We have pounded south Georgia over the last two weeks. We’re going to be north of I-20 (now) hitting metro areas. We’re heading up to Gainesville and Cumming later today. We’re going to northwest Georgia later in the week.”
Tuesday saw Kemp campaigning in Gwinnett, Hall and Forsyth counties, including stops with former Vice-President Mike Pence in Cumming and Gainesville.
The governor pointed to a comment Abrams made at a Gwinnett Democrats fundraising gala in May, when she called Georgia “the worst state in the country to live” while talking about quality of life issues. Kemp’s campaign has hammered Abrams since the spring over the comment, featuring it in campaign ads and mentioning at campaign stops.
“Stacey Abrams says that we live in the worst state in the country,” Kemp said on Tuesday. “Marty and the girls (the Kemps’ daughters) and I disagree. We believe Georgia is the best state in the country to live, work and raise our families and by gosh, we’ve got to vote this election to keep it that way y’all.”
And, two local candidates for state House of Representatives seats, Rey Martinez and Soo Hong, were recently featured in commercials that are in Spanish and Korean, respectively.
“We’ve done commercials together, we’ve done targeted mail to minority voters in this state with the message that is good for all Georgians, but specifically targeted to raise awareness in their community that, ‘Hey, it’s OK to vote for a Republican because they are the ones that’s been fighting for you the last three-and-a-half or four years,’” Kemp told reporters after his campaign stop in Lawrenceville.
[Insurance Commissioner John] King echoed those sentiments, addressing the issue of minority voter outreach as he spoke in Spanish and English while talking to reporters on Tuesday.
“We have an incredibly positive message, but it’s important for our community to hear that message in Spanish that addresses the needs, as the governor said,” King said. “It’s about the economy, it’s about public safety, the things that are important to every Georgian, not just Latinos, not just Asians. It’s important to all of them.”
“And hearing that message and how welcoming they are to the Republican Party, I think, is something refreshing for our state.”
The former vice president told supporters outside a Cumming cigar bar that there’s “no better governor in America than Brian Kemp.”
“I can honestly say I was for Brian Kemp before it was cool,” he said. “I came in in that primary four years ago. I saw his quality. I sensed his commitment. I sensed his backbone. I knew he would lead Georgia to unprecedented prosperity and security.”
Even as Pence was preparing to speak, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan delivered an address to the Buckhead Club sharpening his vision of a “GOP 2.0″ without Trump at the center. Kemp, too, may have a say in the national narrative if he wins next week.
Early voters continue to show up at the polls, according to the Statesboro Herald.
After two five-day weeks and two Saturdays of in-person early voting, 8,103 Bulloch County residents, or 18% of the county’s 44,937 “active” registered voters, had voted in advance of the Nov. 8 general election, also including those who returned absentee ballots.
“It’s been fairly consistent here with the amount of people coming in,” said Bulloch County Election Supervisor Shontay Jones. “We’re seeing close to 600 probably, on average, every day.”
Statewide, early voting continued at a record pace through last week, especially in comparison to the last general election with a governor’s race on the ballot, in fall 2018, the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office reported Monday. From the first day of early voting through last weekend, 1,505,447 voters had shown up at the polls.
Dougherty County Democrats want to extend early voting hours, according to WALB.
Gregory Fullerton is a member of the Democratic Committee for Dougherty County.
“Right now, the hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. There are a lot of people who are working, who basically their job hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m.,” Fullerton said. “Or they have to drop children off at school in the morning. And it’s difficult for them to be voting early. And, of course, we don’t have the option of Saturday and Sunday voting between now and the election.”
Fullerton said these hours, and other contributing factors, are a form of voter suppression.
“Valdosta, Lowndes County have expanded their hours to 7 a.m.-7 p.m. And they’re now, they’re a county around our size. And they’ve already had about a 17% voter turnout so far. Whereas in Dougherty County, we’ve had 11%,” he said.
The Dougherty County Board of Elections will hold a meeting on Wednesday at the Government Center to make a decision on this issue.
The Floyd County Board of Elections will meet at 7 AM on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 and recess immediately but remain available to handle any voting issues that arise, according to the Rome News Tribune.
From the Secretary of State’s Absentee Voting Database:
Total ballots cast: 1,955,922
Total mail ballots cast: 189,347
Total in-person ballots cast: 1,764,089
In-person October 17, 2022: 134,807
In-person October 18, 2022: 135,223
In-person October 19, 2022: 127,864
In-person October 20, 2022: 123,020
In-person October 21, 2022: 141,715
In-person October 22, 2022: 80,320
In-person October 23, 2022: 18,132
In-person October 24, 2022: 133,423
In-person October 25, 2022: 125,728
In-person October 26, 2022: 119,602
In-person October 27, 2022: 112,081
In-person October 28, 2022: 139,471
In-person October 29, 2022: 93,691
In-person October 30, 2022: 24,140
In-person October 31, 2022: 130,928
In-person November 1, 2022: 123,836
In-person undated: 106
Total Electronic ballots cast (overseas and military voters): 2,486
Outstanding Electronic ballots (issued, not cast): 4,359
Outstanding Mailed ballots (issued, not cast): 91,035
Note: In Person numbers do not add up as one voter in Glynn County is recorded as having voted in person on 10/13/2022, when early voting was not open, and one voter in Pickens County is recorded as having voter in person on November 25, 2022.
The Georgia Department of Community Affairs stopped accepting new applications for its rental assistance program, according to the AJC.
The Department posted word on its website late last week that the pandemic-triggered efforts to help prevent disruption and homelessness were no longer accepting applications, but did not elaborate. The website said the department would keep processing those already filed.
The federal program, initiated in late 2020 when millions of people were still out of work due to pandemic-triggered shutdowns, was intended to prevent disruption, financial distress and homelessness.
In Georgia, a number of other agencies and municipalities have also been running rental assistance programs with the federal money. If they have not spent all the money they were given, the program can continue through next year.
In a call to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution late Tuesday, Christopher Nunn, the department’s commissioner, said that concern about having enough money was indeed the reason to suspend applications.
Nunn said emphatically that the program has not ended.
“That is confusing and inaccurate,” he said. “In no way shape or form has this program been cancelled. It is irresponsible to publish an article that says that it has been cancelled.”
State Rep. Bill Hitchens (R-Rincon) is running in House District 161 against Democratic challenger Margo Barbee, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Hitchens has held the post since 2012 and ran unopposed in 2020. This time, he has a Democratic challenger in Port Wentworth resident Margo Barbee, whose campaign call is that “District 161 needs leaders who are in favor of inclusiveness when making decisions for citizens and their communities,” according to her website.
Barbee declined further comment about her bid, citing a distrust of the media.
“I am pretty well known in the district now having been in the position for 10 years,” said Hitchens. “I was the commander of the State Patrol Office on Dean Forest Road for 13 years and was Georgia’s first homeland security director. Now, everyone knows me. But [campaigning] kind of ruins your summer. You have to work from March until November and go around and politic and spend a lot of money. But everyone has a right to run. It is not a negative thing.”
In an area that represents small chunks of Pooler, Port Wentworth and Effingham County, traffic safety is of key importance for Hitchens.
Public safety is his passion and there were several failed bills that Hitchens wants to see passed, including one that would require anyone charged with a DUI to have ignition interlocks in their car after their first offense.
“There are 37 states that have already implemented the law and have seen a 20% to 40% reduction in DUIs,” said Hitchens.
Hitchens said he would like to see changes regarding law enforcement training, saying stringent state trooper requirements have limited the number of applicants.
“I am going to do whatever I can ensure to it is a good vocation,” said Hitchens. “The last trooper school we had when I was commissioner, we had 1,200 people pass the test. And after we got their background investigation, psychological evaluation, lie detector test and everything that they go through, we had 93 left. School is seven months and typically, we lose half of them.”
Hitchens, now 75, said working in the Legislature has allowed him to be a voice for the people, but there will not be any hard feelings if he is not reelected.
“If they vote me out, I will be retired,” said Hitchens.
State Rep. Gerald Greene (R-Cuthbert) continues campaigning for reelection, according to the Albany Herald.
State Rep. Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert, praised the Dougherty County School System for its historic graduation rates and leading southwest Georgia in public education.
“As a former public school educator, I know first-hand the challenges students, teachers and school administrators may face in the classroom,” Greene said in a news release. “These graduation rates are particularly remarkable given the unprecedented lockdowns and virtual learning over the last few years. It’s certainly not been easy, but these graduation rates demonstrate it’s been worth it. I wholeheartedly believe in the transformative power of education and will continue investing in and fighting for our students and strong public schools.”
Greene was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1982 and is currently serving his 36th year as representative of House District 151, which includes all or portions of Calhoun, Clay, Early, Quitman, Randolph, Stewart, Terrell, Webster and Dougherty counties. He taught in the Randolph-Clay School System for 32 years and was named STAR Teacher of Randolph-Clay System in 1977 and 1993 and Teacher of the Year for the school system in 1991.
Following the 2021 special session on redistricting, Greene is running in the newly drawn House District 154, comprising all or parts of Calhoun, Clay Baker, Early, Miller, Quitman, Randolph, Seminole and parts of Dougherty counties.
Assuming he is reelected, Rep. Green will be the “Dean of the State House,” or its longest-serving member.
Port Wentworth City Council is considering redistricting maps for their seats, according to WTOC.
The first workshop was Tuesday night for council members to discuss the new drafts with a virtual presence from the state’s reapportionment office.
Port Wentworth has home rule meaning changing the maps falls in their hands as long as they don’t change the number of districts or representatives on council.
“We’ve doubled in population since the last census. There’s a large disparity between districts by population with a deviation of about 89% which is clearly more than 10% suggested trigger for redistricting,” said City Manager Steve Davis.
Bulloch County Commissioners voted to adopt a new benefits plan for county employees, according to the Statesboro Herald.
County leaders say they have to find the happy medium of an attractive benefits plan for employees and one that’s affordable for taxpayers.
A quick vote gives more than 600 county employees access to a retirement plan through the Association of County Commissions of Georgia. It’s the plan recommended by an employee committee after more than a year of study.
“Hopefully, if we can offer better benefits than other counties, then we can retain the employees we do have,” said County Commission Chair Roy Thompson.
Despite the months of research, Thompson says his biggest worry is implementing a plan that taxpayers must eventually subsidize to get employees what they were promised.
Chatham County and its municipalities continue negotiating sales tax proceeds, according to WSAV.
The city and Chatham County have until the end of the year to negotiate how to split the money raised from the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST).
It’s a 1% penny tax paid on goods and services throughout the county. The agreement about how to divide the revenue between the county and its eight municipalities has to be renewed every 10 years.
Mayor Van Johnson said without money from LOST, the city is at risk of losing more than $55 million in funding and it would take more than 8 mils of property tax to make up for that. That translates to an additional $8 for every $1,000 of the property’s value.
“We will get this done because we must get this done,” Johnson said. “It makes no sense to me to celebrate Savannah’s lowest property tax in 35 years just to raise property taxes a couple months later to what will be unaffordable rates.”
The county and cities began the negotiation process over the summer, but have yet to find common ground.
Jones County is making emergency repairs to their courthouse, according to 13WMAZ.
According to Jones County Commission minutes the renovations are an emergency situation.
Also in the minutes, Superior Court Clerk Pam Dixon says the water puddles had been falling from the ceiling, and the issue was only getting worse.
Living in for 69 years, Cecil Ethridge has collected all the Jones County trivia knowledge — facts like how the first county courthouse was in Clinton, just outside what is now Gray’s downtown.
“The citizens there didn’t let the railroad come through and the railroad came through Gray, so Gray moved to be close to the railroad, and in doing so, our county seat was moved and established here in 1905,” he says.
He says part of Clinton even made its way over.
“The retaining wall that’s around our courthouse now used to be the original jail in Clinton,” he adds.
“History helps us to build and to move forward, so thank goodness we do have some markers around telling us about the history and who was involved in making all these things happen,” he says.
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