Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for September 20, 2024

The United States Air Force celebrated its 77th birthday on September 18, 2024

The United States Air Force celebrates its 77th birthday, Sept. 18, 2024. The military branch was established on Sept. 18, 1947, under the National Security Act of 1947. The United States Air Force is the second youngest branch of the United States Armed Forces and its mission is to fly, fight and win – airpower anytime, anywhere.

On September 21, 1780, General Benedict Arnold met with British Major John Andre and began plotting to surrender West Point to the British.

President George Washington gave his farewell address on September 19, 1796.

The period for a new election of a Citizen, to Administer the Executive government of the United States, being not far distant, and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person, who is to be cloathed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those, out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you, at the sametime, to do me the justice to be assured, that this resolution has not been taken, without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation, which binds a dutiful Citizen to his country–and that, in withdrawing the tender of service which silence in my Situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness; but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.

On September 22, 1862, Republican President Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which stated,

“. . . on the first day of January [1863] . . . all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

On September 19, 1863, the Battle of Chickamauga was joined between the federal Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans and the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg.

On September 20, 1863, the Confederate Army of the Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg repelled Union forces under General William Rosencrans at the Battle of Chickamauga. After Gettysburg, Chickamauga is generally considered the second-bloodiest battle of the Civil War, with 18,500 Confederate casualties and 16,100 Union dead.

On September 21, 1863, the federal Army of the Cumberland retreated to Chattanooga after its defeat at Chickamauga.

Thirteen marchers were shot and killed and forty more wounded in Camilla, Georgia at the Camilla Massacre on September 19, 1868 as marchers to a Republican Party rally were gunned down.

President Rutherford B. Hayes visited Atlanta on September 22, 1877.

President James Garfield died on September 19, 1881, of wounds sustained on July 2d of that year. Garfield is one of seven Presidents born in Ohio – he and William McKinley, were both killed by assassins.

Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as President of the United States on September 20, 1881.

The year 1881 began with Republican Rutherford B. Hayes in office. Hayes served out his first and only term and officially turned over the reins of government to James A. Garfield, who happened to be a close friend of his, in March 1881.

Just four months into his term, on July 2, Garfield was shot by an assassin named Charles Guiteau. Guiteau claimed to have killed Garfield because he refused to grant Guiteau a political appointment. Garfield sustained wounds to his back and abdomen and struggled to recover throughout the summer. Though it appeared he would pull through in early September, the autopsy report revealed that the internal bullet wound contributed to an aneurism that ultimately killed Garfield on September 19.

Chickamauga National Battlefield was dedicated September 19, 1895.

White vigilantes seeking to assault African-Americans after reports of four white women being assaulted led to the Atlanta Race Riots on September 22-24, 1906, which would claim the lives of at least 25 African-Americans and one white person.

The first classes at Oglethorpe University under it’s current non-denominational charter were held on September 20, 1916. Happy 101st Anniversary to the Stormy Petrels. The university was originally affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and located in Midway, Georgia. In 1870, after a period of closure during the Civil War they relocated to the Atlanta area.

On September 22, 1918, the City of Atlanta gasoline administator prohibited non-emergency Sunday driving to conserve fuel for the war effort.

On September 20, 1976, Playboy magazine released an interview with Jimmy Carter, then a candidate for President.

Bert Lance resigned as Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Jimmy Carter on September 21, 1977. After a jury acquitted him on ten federal charges in 1980, Lance served as Chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia from 1982 to 1985.

General Colin Powell was confirmed by the Senate Armed Services Committee as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 21. 1989. Powell served as National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan before being appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President George H.W. Bush; in 2000, Powell was nominated by President George W. Bush as Secretary of State, the first African-American to hold that post.

On September 21, 2011, R.E.M. announced on their website that they were quitting as a band.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

The New York Times sent an Open Records request and received many emails sent by Lt. Governor Burt Jones during the GOP infighting after the 2020 Presidential Election.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones of Georgia, one of the state’s most powerful pro-Trump politicians, privately shared cutting criticisms of fellow Republicans in the weeks after the 2020 election as he sought to help the former president overturn his loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr., according to text messages obtained by The New York Times.

The texts were originally obtained by a special prosecutor who investigated whether Mr. Jones should be charged with crimes related to election interference, and were released under a public records request after the prosecutor decided against bringing charges last week.

The surfaced text traffic could also affect Mr. Jones’s ability to build coalitions within his party if he decides to run for governor in 2026.

The day after the election, Mr. Jones texted [David] Shafer, leveling criticism at Brad Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state who was overseeing the counting of the votes. “What in the hell is SOS doing????” Mr. Jones wrote.

That same day, Mr. Jones referred to the election as a “theft” and texted that he was “drafting a letter blasting our Republican leadership” for “being quiet” about it.

On Nov. 7, Mr. Jones exchanged texts with Josh McKoon, a former Republican state senator who would later go on to head the state party. Mr. McKoon shared ideas for legislation that would restrict some forms of voting, apparently in the interest of combating voter fraud.

“I like it,” Mr. Jones responded. He added a note of exasperation over Gov. Brian Kemp, who was refusing entreaties from some Republicans to call a special session of the legislature in an effort to overturn Mr. Trump’s election loss. “Kemp will not call a special session…. that guy,” Mr. Jones wrote.

Mr. Jones also lamented that Mr. Kemp and the state’s two Republican U.S. senators at the time, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, were not doing more to help Mr. Trump’s cause. “They have left Trump out to die in the field,” he wrote, adding that the three had “abandoned” Mr. Trump.

In a statement on Thursday, Mr. Jones, who served as one of 16 fake electors for Mr. Trump, called the recent criminal investigation of him a “charade” that “has been a massive waste of taxpayer dollars.”

His comments about other Republicans, he said, “were made at a heated time — we are now all back on the same page working to win this election.”

But he did not retract some of his most derogatory comments, which he had reserved for Geoff Duncan, a Republican former lieutenant governor. Just after the November 2020 election, Mr. Duncan made numerous TV appearances asserting — accurately — that there was no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud in Georgia.

Those appearances infuriated many pro-Trump Republicans, including Mr. Jones. “Unleash the POTUS on him,” Mr. Jones texted to a Trump campaign official named Billy Kirkland on Dec. 1, 2020. “His ass needs to be brought down a notch or 4 spots, he has let the LT spot go to his head.”

In his statement on Thursday, Mr. Jones said: “I stand by the comments about Geoff Duncan.” He then repeated a vulgar personal insult he had directed at Mr. Duncan in the texts, and also alluded to Mr. Duncan having endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the current presidential race. “We’re glad he’s found his home with the Democrats,” Mr. Jones said.

If you don’t have an online subscription to the Times, you can read the AJC’s rehash here.

Former Democratic State House candidate Frank Austin was indicted on federal charges alleging Covid relief fraud, according to 13WMAZ.

A Macon man and former state house candidate was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly filing for a false COVID loan application and using the funds for personal use, including purchasing a nearly $120,000 Bentley.

According to the indictment, James Frank Austin Jr.  — who ran for the Georgia State House back in 2016 — and Rosalend Way received over $2 million in Paycheck Protection Program assistance.

With the $2 million in aid, prosecutors say Austin and Way ”used the majority of these funds for personal use.”

However, according to prosecutors, the information in those applications were not true.

They say some of the forms Austin submitted to support those claims were completely fabricated, with the organization having actually never filed the documents — such as a IRS Form 941 — they used as evidence.

Prosecutors say that they used over $30,000 off PPP funds to pay off Way’s loan with “Mercedes-Benz Financial.”

They also say that Austin used the COVID-19 aid to purchase a Bentley from Foreign Cars International to the tune of $119,840.

Prosecutors accuse Austin and Way of using “false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises” to defraud the government and “enrich themselves,” the indictment claims.

Now, they are charged with bank fraud, money laundering and more.

Vice President Kamala Harris will campaign in Atlanta on Friday, according to Atlanta News First via WALB.

Vice President Kamala Harris will be back in Atlanta Friday to discuss abortion rights.

Amber Thurman’s death occurred just two weeks after Georgia’s strict abortion ban was enacted in 2022 following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn nationwide abortion rights.

Thurman sought help at the hospital for complications from taking an abortion pill two weeks after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law that mostly outlaws abortion and criminalized performing one. Even as Thurman developed sepsis, ProPublica reported, doctors at the hospital did not evacuate the remaining fetal tissue in her uterus with a procedure called a dilation and curettage, or D&C. She died on the operating table, shortly after asking her mother to take care of her 6-year-old son. ProPublica said it will release another report on an abortion-related death in the coming days.

Thurman’s death is the first publicly reported instance of a woman dying from delayed care.

Thurman’s case is under review with the state’s maternal mortality commission. The suburban Atlanta hospital that reportedly delayed her treatment has not been cited by the federal government for failing to provide stabilizing treatment to a pregnant patient anytime within the last two years, an AP review of federal documents found.

Shawana Moore says after more than a decade in women’s healthcare, the state’s six-week abortion ban with few exceptions goes against everything she learned in medical school.

The family of Candi Miller, the other woman cited in the article, said doctors told her another pregnancy could kill her. She ordered abortion pills online, but there were complications. She needed a procedure to clear tissue from her uterus and stave off sepsis. She was bed ridden and in extreme pain before she died. Family told the coroner she was afraid to visit a doctor because of Georgia anti abortion laws.

Georgia’s LIFE Act is one of the most restrictive laws in the nation. Doctors could face felony charges and a decade in prison if they perform a procedure after a heartbeat is detected.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp defended the act, saying it “not only expanded support for expectant mothers but also established clear exceptions, including providing necessary care in the event of a medical emergency.”

“This young mother should be alive, raising her son, and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school,” Vice President Harris said in a statement. “Women are bleeding out in parking lots, turned away from emergency rooms, losing their ability to ever have children again. Survivors of rape and incest are being told they cannot make decisions about what happens next to their bodies. And now women are dying. These are the consequences of Donald Trump’s actions.”

“President Trump has always supported exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, which Georgia’s law provides,” Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “With those exceptions in place, it’s unclear why doctors did not swiftly act to protect Amber Thurman’s life.”

Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz spoke about abortion in Macon, according to the Macon Telegraph.

Walz, who is the governor of Minnesota and Kamala Harris’ running mate, emphasized abortion as a major issue during a visit to the Macon-Bibb County Democrats’ headquarters.

“It’s going to be neighbor to neighbor, doorknock to doorknock,” Walz said. “Do you like the (policy) where women die because they can’t get health care that they should be able to get if they need reproductive care?”

His remarks follow Kamala Harris releasing a statement Tuesday morning discussing a report by ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative outlet, that made waves in the abortion debate across the nation. The report details the story of a woman who died in Georgia after not being able to receive an abortion.

Harris has placed abortion rights at the center of her campaign, especially in Georgia. Earlier this month, the Harris campaign held an event focused on abortion with politicians, activists and personalities stumping for her on the issue.

Georgia has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the nation, with 33.9 deaths per 100,000 live births between 2018 and 2021, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national average between those years was 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Callahan said Georgia’s abortion ban makes it harder for women, particularly women of color, to access lifesaving care, and may risk exacerbating Georgia’s maternal mortality crisis.

“We’re one of the worst in the nation when it comes to our mothers surviving childbirth and pregnancy,” Callahan said. “With Georgia being such an epicenter of women experiencing the effects of the six week abortion ban, it’s important we discuss it here.”

Researchers at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine found in 2021 that states with more abortion restrictions had higher rates of maternal mortality.

During his visit, Walz said Georgia also carries an immense amount of electoral power.

“It’s going to be a close race, likely down to a few states,” Walz said. “Georgia’s probably the center of that.”

The Georgia State Election Board will consider changes to voting rules Friday, according to the AJC.

The Georgia Election Board will decide on sweeping rule changes Friday — less than a month before early voting begins — including proposals to hand-count ballots and require absentee ballot tracking that could cost $4 per voter.

All 11 proposals come from right-wing activists, voters or local election board members, and they’re up for approval by a State Election Board, whose three-member Republican majority was singled out for praise by former President Donald Trump at an Atlanta rally last month.

Election directors across Georgia oppose most of the ideas, saying they’re poorly thought-out, expensive and disruptive as they prepare for a presidential election expected to draw 5 million voters. They’re calling for a pause on alterations to established procedures, especially after many poll workers have already been trained.

One of the most contentious rule proposals would require poll workers to hand count the number of ballots to ensure totals match the number of ballots recorded by voting machines.

Travis Doss, president of the state’s association of election officials, said the hand-counting rule would slow down reporting of results after the General Assembly passed laws requiring a quick count.

“If poll workers are having to stay at the polling place to hand-count ballots, the results are not going to be fast. They’re going to be delayed, and it’s going to be very late in getting the results,” said Doss, who is also the elections director in Augusta-Richmond County.

Supporters of the rule change say it’s needed to ensure no ballots are overlooked and all ballots are counted accurately. They say it wouldn’t take long for three poll workers in each precinct to sort ballots into piles of 50 and make sure the count is right.

“A policy that says the number of ballots in hand at the end of Election Day has to match the number of people who walk in that precinct, you have to be kidding me if you think there’s something nefarious about that,” Janelle King, a Republican appointee to the State Election Board, said last month. “I don’t want to hurt anybody. We’re not trying to make it difficult.”

King suggested amending the rule to allow the hand count to take place the day after the election, but Doss said that idea is still unworkable.

Several county election boards and Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have warned the State Election Board against passing more new rules. They asked for a 90-day “quiet period” leading up to the election.

In addition, both Democrats and Republicans have filed lawsuits challenging the rules.

For example, one measure would require absentee and emergency ballots, which are currently identical, to be visually different from each other. But ballots have already been printed, and absentee ballots will begin to be mailed Oct. 7.

The absentee ballot tracking initiative would also be difficult to achieve without government funding or a clear plan, they said.

Salleigh Grubbs, chairwoman of the Cobb County Republican Party, said the State Election Board needs to act to keep elections secure, even if it comes with a taxpayer expense.

“How much is your vote worth? I think it’s definitely worth it,” Grubbs said. “When it comes to the actual ballot that people cast, if it can ensure delivery and accountability that people actually receive their ballots and that the ballots don’t fall into the wrong hands, then I think it’s absolutely worth it.”

The State Election Board Chairman, John Fervier, said the board should slow down.

“The board is moving fast and furious with these rules instead of taking a more deliberative approach,” said Fervier, an appointee of Gov. Brian Kemp who is often outvoted by the board’s other three Republicans. “We should try and perfect these rules before they come before the board for a vote.”

A new poll shows former President Donald Trump leading acting Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia, according to WSAV.

The most recent Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey in Georgia finds 49.8% of residents plan to vote for former president Donald Trump and 47.2% would vote for former president Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. 1.6% of voters remain undecided, while 1.5% say they would vote for someone else.

It’s a change from polling numbers in August showing 48% of respondents planned to vote for Trump and 48.9% planned to vote for Harris.

However, when voters were asked who they expect to become president, 51% said Harris and 48.1% said Trump. 0.9% said someone else.

The poll also asked whether Georgia voters approve of the job Governor Brian Kemp is doing — 50.4% said yes, 30.9% disapproved and 18.7% remained neutral.

United States Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Atlanta) introduced legislation that will require Senate confirmation and term limits for the Postmaster General, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via The Brunswick News.

The U.S. postmaster general would be subject to term limits and Senate confirmation under legislation introduced Wednesday by Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia.

Ossoff has been highly critical of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy since reports surfaced earlier this year of months-long delays in delivering mail processed at a new regional distribution center in Fulton County.

The senator said during a committee hearing in April that only 36% of inbound mail processed at the center was being delivered on time, holding up prescriptions, delaying rent and mortgage payments, and preventing businesses from being able to ship products or receive supplies in a timely manner.

“What we have seen in the state of Georgia in the last year has been abysmal performance,” Ossoff said Wednesday. “We must hold the postmaster general accountable.”

The Postmaster General Reform Act would limit those who serve in that office to two consecutive five-year terms. The Senate would hold confirmation hearings on the president’s nominee for postmaster general both before his or her first term and between their first and second terms.

Statesboro will have to redo required hearings before passing a property tax millage rate increase due to lacking a quorum, according to the Statesboro Herald.

After extended debate and with a tiebreaker vote, Statesboro City Council and Mayor Jonathan McCollar arrived at a compromise on their property tax millage rate hike Tuesday evening. But city officials revealed Wednesday morning that they will redo the entire process, with three new tax increase hearings.

After all of the things council members and the mayor said Tuesday in their tax rate discussion, the pivotal statements turned out to be some of the earlier comments from citizens during what was slated as the final tax hearing, embedded within the 5:30 p.m. regular council meeting.

The second citizen to speak, Ed Neubert, said he had not known about the previous two hearings until he saw a report of one on TV news, and found it “kind of embarrassing because it was a public meeting about such an important subject, and none of our council members were here.”

Then Tuesday’s third speaker, Bulloch Action Coalition co-founder Cassandra Mikell, said she was informing the mayor and council that they were “not in compliance with the protocols of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights” because a quorum should have been present for those first two hearings.

Under the Georgia law known as the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, local  governing boards such as city councils, county commissions and school boards must roll back their millage rates to compensate fully for inflation in assessed real estate values or declare a tax increase and hold three hearings. To avoid the hearings, the city would have had to roll back its rate from this year’s 8.125 mills to 7.326 mills, the “rollback rate” determined by the Bulloch County Board of Tax Assessors staff as sufficient to offset inflation in the city’s tax digest. But City Manager Charles Penny had recommended increasing the rate to 9.125 mills, and the 12.3% rate increase plus nearly equal inflation amounted to the advertised 24.56% increase.

“City Manager Charles Penny made statements that run contrary to Georgia law and the policies of the Georgia Department of Revenue when he stated that mayor and council are not required to be here and that the actual public hearing would be held ‘next Tuesday’ (now last Tuesday, Sept. 17) before the mayor and City Council at 5:30,” Mikell said.

“Mr. Penny’s presentation for the proposed increase is necessary, but so is the presence of a quorum of the actual levying authority, the mayor and City Council at all meetings, the ones who actually vote on the millage rate,” she said. “Also important, like you did today, is calling the meeting and the hearing to order.”

“The Department of Revenue has stated that there is requirement of a quorum of the levying authority present at all TABOR hearings,” Mikell said.

She then asserted that the city’s only option to get its tax rate set by a supposed Oct. 1 deadline was to adopt the full rollback rate of 7.326 mills.  Otherwise, Mikell said, she would file for a Superior Court injunction.

“It’s our understanding, based on the Board of Education’s recent experience, that the Department of Revenue will not certify the digest unless a quorum is present at all three tax hearings,” Smith wrote. “Accordingly we will have the hearings with quorum on the dates indicated in the referenced advertisement. There should be no issues with the tax bills being sent by the end of the third week of October as is customary.”

In August 2023, Mikell and Lawton Sack, now known as the Bulloch Action Coalition co-founders, filed a complaint in Superior Court seeking an injunction blocking the county Board of Education from adopting a millage increase after only staff members attended the board’s first hearings. A judge dismissed the request for being improperly filed, but board members postponed their decision and held a second round of hearings.

In a later email Tuesday, Harden stated that the rate adopted by the council Sept. 17 “will be reconsidered for formal adoption” during the Oct. 3 meeting. But the official ads are again for the increase to 9.125 mills.

The Hall County Tax Commissioner’s Office mailed nearly 1600 incorrect property tax assessment notices, according to AccessWDUN.

“It’s my understanding that they had either a software glitch coupled with a human glitch,” [Hall County Tax Commissioner Darla] Eden said. “I’m not sure they’re not being real forthcoming with me on what happened with that.”

Eden said her office has seen an increase in call volume with concerned taxpayers regarding their tax bills.

Eden also explained how the rebilling process works.

“We’ll get a file of the 1,600 bills under appeal and we will do correction orders and then we’ll do rebillings,” Eden said.

She added about 800 have already been resolved.

“We’re working diligently with the taxpayers to get the corrected amount,” Eden said.  “We’ll be working on them tomorrow and all of next week, we’ll dedicate all of our energy to getting those corrected bills out.”

An adult was charged with school threats in Sumter County, according to WALB.

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, the sheriff’s office says Marquis Jamil McCoy, 34, made threats against local schools, officers and other individuals.

He was later arrested and charged with terroristic threats, probation violation and failure to appear.

A local chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and Concerned Clergy are hosting a voter registration event in Valdosta, according to WALB.

Dr. Samuel Clemons Sr., Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, said the event is a nonpartisan event that will focus on the importance of voting.

Clemons said members will check the voting status and correct precincts for attendees, giving out sample ballots.

The event will be held on Saturday, Sept. 28 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at Big Nick’s in Valdosta.

Brunswick is developing a microtransit system, according to The Brunswick News.

“Basically it’s similar to Uber in that we’ll have smaller vehicles, vans or buses — it hasn’t been determined, it will be up to the provider, Planning, Development and Codes Director John Hunter said. “… You may have to walk to the end of your block to get picked up, but then it will take you to points throughout the community.”

Rather than operating the system itself, Hunter said the proposal is for City Hall to hire a contractor, such as one that serves the city of Valdosta, to bring a “turnkey” operation to the city. Hunter said most such contractors operate by scheduling rides on smartphone apps or by phone call, and are paid via the usual methods of electronic transfer.

As currently planned, residents will be able to purchase “ride cards” with cash at City Hall.

Some startup funding is included in City Hall’s budget for this fiscal year, but officials say it will be largely funded by federal grants in the first year.

Lack of transportation is not just an issue for city residents, Mayor Cosby Johnson said. Many county residents do not own vehicles. College students, as well as tourists and travelers arriving at the Brunswick-Golden Isles Airport, also would benefit.