Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for April 12, 2023

On April 11, 1768, Benjamin Franklin was named Georgia’s agent “to represent, solicit, and transact the affairs of this province in Great Britain.” Arguably, this makes Benjamin Franklin the first American lobbyist. This is what his lobbyist badge looked like:

Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, was exiled to Elba Island in the Mediterranean, on April 11, 1814

On April 11, 1853, John Archibald Campbell was appointed Justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Franklin Pierce. After graduating from the University of Georgia at 14, he attended West Point, where his fellow cadets included Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. After the beginning of the Civil War, Campbell resigned from the Court and was appointed Assistant Secretary of War for the Confederacy by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

On April 12, 1861, Confederates in Charleston, SC opened fire on Federal-held Fort Sumter opening the Civil War.

During the next 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4,000 rounds at the poorly supplied fort. On April 13, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort. Two days later, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to quell the Southern “insurrection.”

Confederate troops surrendered Fort Pulaski, on Cockspur Island off Savannah, on April 11, 1862. Part of the construction of Fort Pulaski was overseen by a young Second Lieutenant in the United States Army named Robert E. Lee.

“The General” Locomotive was hijacked at Big Shanty (now Kennesaw), Georgia on April 12, 1862, leading to “The Great Locomotive Chase.” The locomotive is now housed in the Southern Museum in Kennesaw.

The American Third Army liberated Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany on April 11, 1945. Among the survivors of Buchenwald was Elie Wiesel; in 1986, Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945 in Warm Springs, Georgia.

On April 12, 1961, Russian Commienaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to go to outer space and the first to orbit earth.

The triumph of the Soviet space program in putting the first man into space was a great blow to the United States, which had scheduled its first space flight for May 1961. Moreover, Gagarin had orbited Earth, a feat that eluded the U.S. space program until February 1962, when astronaut John Glenn made three orbits in Friendship 7.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama on April 12, 1963; while there he would write his famed, “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

The Braves played their first home game in Atlanta on April 12, 1966.

Apollo 13 was launched on April 11, 1970.

The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the Service Module (SM) upon which the Command Module (CM) depended. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and the critical need tojury-rig the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to Earth on April 17.

On April 11, 1977, President Jimmy Carter hosted the Easter Egg Roll on the lawn of the White House. In the finest tradition of Georgia Democrats, Carter added a circus to the event.

The Space Shuttle Columbia became the first reusable orbital vehicle when it launched on April 12, 1981.

Congratulations to the following winners of the Masters Tournament who donned the green jacket on April 11: Seve Ballesteros (2d – 1983), Jack Nicklaus (2d in 1965; 3d in 1966), Ray Floyd (1976), Nick Faldo (1996), Jose Maria Olazabal (2d – 1999), Phil Mickelson (1st -2004; 3d – 2010), and Claude Harmon (1948), the first Georgian to win the Masters.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Some Georgia Democrats held a press conference to support two Tennessee state representatives who were expelled from the State House, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, both Democrat Black men, participated in a gun control demonstration with thousands of constituents on the House floor days prior with Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white woman and Democrat, the Tennessean reports.

The Republican-dominated legislature, made up of 73 Republicans and 26 Democrats, voted April 6 to expel Jones and Pearson, but Johnson survived a vote to keep her seat.

“The very notion of expelling duly elected representatives for bringing the demands of their constituents to the floor is disenfranchising the voters who elected them,” said Grayson Sen. Nikki Merritt of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus during an April 7 press conference. “Two Black members were singled out, and allowing the one white member to remain is the continued suppression of Black voices when it comes to critical issues.”

Michelle Au, a Johns Creek Democrat, said the maneuver by the Tennessee legislature was part of efforts of Republicans nationwide to address gun violence and reform.

“What problem have you solved? Whose interests are you serving? Is anyone safer by what you’ve done,” she said.

Freshman Democrat Omari Crawford, a Decatur representative, opined that while punishment is rarely fair or equitable when it comes to minorities, the actions by the Tennessee legislature were unconstitutional.

He referenced a 1966 Supreme Court decision involving former Georgia representative Julian Bond, who actively spoke out against the Vietnam War and criticized the federal government.

“What the Supreme Court held is that a function of the First Amendment and a representative government requires that legislators be given the widest latitude to express their views on issues of policy, and debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide open,” Crawford, an assistant county attorney for DeKalb County, said. “As legislators, we have an obligation to take positions on controversial political questions so that our constituents can be fully informed by everything that’s happening in our House.”

UPDATE: Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones was reappointed back into his seat late in the afternoon April 10 by the Nashville Metropolitan Council in his district, as permitted by the state’s Constitution.

Savannah and Chatham County are discussing whether to put a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for Transportation (T-SPLOST) on the November ballot, according to the Savannah Morning News.

In the 2022 midterm elections, Chatham County voters opted against a 1% Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST). The margin was narrow – 1,385 votes – and the referendum was held amidst a squabble over another penny sales tax, the Local Option Sales Tax, a dispute that frustrated many voters.

With LOST now settled and lower-turnout municipal elections ahead this year, there are rumblings of another TSPLOST try led by Chatham Chairman Chester Ellis.

With the population boom and expanded infrastructure needs expected to accompany the Hyundai plant, Ellis says he intends to put TSPLOST back in front of voters this fall. The tax’s approval is something he says is imperative for West Chatham residents, whether they live in Pooler, Bloomingdale, Port Wentworth or Savannah Highlands.

But Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, who was a vocal proponent of TSPLOST in 2022, says this time around he’s “reading the room.” He says he won’t support a second take on TSPLOST, which aligns with the views of his opponent in this year’s mayoral race, Kesha Gibson-Carter, who last year spearheaded an anti-TSPLOST campaign.

“I just think that November, for us, is just too soon,” Johnson said. “And the city has elections going on at that time. We have other priorities at that time, and so I’m not inclined to support it.”