On April 19, 1775, British troops entered Lexington, Massachusetts, encountering 77 armed Minute Men.
British Major John Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment’s hesitation the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, the “shot heard around the world” was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead or dying and 10 others were wounded. Only one British soldier was injured, but the American Revolution had begun.
Two hours later, another confrontation between the British and American patriots took place in Concord, Massachusetts.
On April 19, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln ordered the blockade of ports in “Rebellious States.”
Whereas an insurrection against the Government of the United States has broken out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the laws of the United States for the collection of the revenue can not be effectually executed therein conformably to that provision of the Constitution which requires duties to be uniform throughout the United States; and
….
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, with a view to the same purposes before mentioned and to the protection of the public peace and the lives and property of quiet and orderly citizens pursuing their lawful occupations until Congress shall have assembled and deliberated on the said unlawful proceedings or until the same shall have ceased, have further deemed it advisable to set on foot a blockade of the ports within the States aforesaid, in pursuance of the laws of the United States and of the law of nations in such case provided. For this purpose a competent force will be posted so as to prevent entrance and exit of vessels from the ports aforesaid.
On April 19, 1995, Governor Zell Miller signed legislation declaring the peanut the Official State Crop.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Port Wentworth may be divorcing. From the Savannah Morning News:
[G]rowing pains have divided the city council and prompted Mayor Gary Norton to call for the city to be carved into two municipalities.
The Port Wentworth council will meet to discuss the city’s future today at the Sea Island Club on St. Simons Island. The all-day retreat is hosted by the Georgia Municipal Association, an organization that specializes in providing leadership, tools and services that assist municipal governments.
The retreat agenda covers several topics, including “strategic planning for the future,” which could include Norton’s proposed split as well as another drastic measured championed by the mayor, the dissolution of the city altogether.
Years of council dysfunction prompted the mayor’s call to split the city.
According to the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA), cities have dissolved before, but it was ultimately due to those governments being an inactive municipality, not as a result of council conflicts.
Could they be any more Boomer?
United States District Court Judge Amy Totenberg is allowing a challenge to U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s candidacy, according to CNN via the Albany Herald.
The ruling means a scheduled hearing in front of a Georgia state judge will take place as planned on Friday morning. That judge will hear arguments from both sides and will ultimately decide whether the Constitution’s “disqualification clause” applies to Greene. The Civil War-era provision says officeholders who support an insurrection are prohibited from serving again.
“This case involves a whirlpool of colliding constitutional interests of public import,” District Judge Amy Totenberg of the Northern District of Georgia wrote in the ruling. “Upon a thorough analysis of each of the claims asserted in this case, the Court concludes that [Greene] has not carried her burden of persuasion with respect to this important and essential prerequisite to [Greene’s] demonstration of an entitlement to injunctive relief.”
The outcome is a major victory for the liberal activists and legal advocacy groups that initiated the anti-Greene challenge, though they are still many steps away from removing her from the GOP primary ballot. If the state judge recommends her disqualification, Greene can file appeals and the matter may not be resolved before ballots are printed for the May 25 primary election.
At the center of the challenge is a provision in the 14th Amendment that says members of Congress cannot keep their seats if they engaged in an act of insurrection or rebellion against the government.
Attorneys for Greene argued that two laws passed by Congress in the years following the Civil War created permanent amnesty from this provision. A North Carolina judge agreed with that line of thinking and threw out a similar challenge regarding U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn.
Totenberg wrote Monday that her counterpart was wrong. If Congress wanted to permanently invalidate the insurrectionist language from ever being applied or enforced again, lawmakers needed to amend the Constitution instead of passing immunity legislation, she said.
Now that she has allowed the case to proceed, an administrative law judge will move forward with a review of the challenge. The judge will eventually submit recommendations to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who will make a final ruling on Greene’s eligibility.
Governor Brian Kemp signed military-related legislation at the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, according to WTVM.
One of the bills creates a military retirement income tax exemption. Kemp also signed a bill requiring that expedited licenses for military spouses are issued within 90 days of applying. Another one allows veterans to use their veteran health ID card when seeking public notary services.
The governor signed one last piece of legislation that honored the late Senator Jack Hill.
That bill provides taxpayers an opportunity to donate all or a portion of their annual tax refund to scholarships for disabled veterans.
“We’re thanking them for their service. We got so many great veterans in this state. It’s incredible. They serve our country. They’ve been serving our state, and this is our way to thank you,” said Kemp.
“It’s just thanking them for their service,” Kemp told reporters at the National Infantry Museum in Columbus. “We got so many great veterans in this state. …This is our way of saying ‘Thank you.’ This is also a workforce development issue. We want to keep these retirees here when they go into their second careers.”
HB 1064, a bill that establishes a tax exemption for military retirement income in Georgia.
HB 884, a measure that grants expedited professional and other board licenses for military spouses within 90 days of application.
SB 96, legislation that allows veterans to use their Veterans Health Identification Card from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a form of ID when using a public notary.
SB 87, a bill that allows taxpayers to donate all or a portion of their annual tax refund to scholarships for disabled veterans at Georgia’s technical colleges. The bill honors former state senator Jack Hill who died in 2020.
Kemp told audience members that Georgia was the only state in the region and “one of only a few in the country” that fully taxed military retirees up to the age of 62. Kemp’s office said it’s the first such tax exemption in state history.
[State Rep. Richard] Smith first introduced military retirement tax exemption legislation in 2005, his first year as a state representative. He told the Ledger-Enquirer that Kemp was instrumental in helping get the bill passed. “Gov. Kemp said this was part of his platform, and if he had not been involved we would still be hoping for (the bill’s passage,)” Smith said.
Governor Kemp is taking action after legislators failed to uncluster the medical cannabis produciton licensing debacle, according to WTOC.
Earlier this month, Georgia lawmakers once again failed to revamp what many describe as the state’s failed medical marijuana program. In 2015, former Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed the Haleigh’s Hope Act into law, legalizing the use of cannabis oil that contains no more than 5% THC. THC is the psychoactive compound in marijuana.
Seven years later, money and lawsuits are still holding things up. The state has not been able to figure out who will produce the oil, or where people can pick it up. Meaning, the more than 22,500 people in Georgia’s Low-THC Oil Registry are still waiting for the medication they’re legally approved to receive.
Army Veteran Andrew Ramey feels Georgia politicians have let people in need of the oil down.
“It’s very infuriating, especially when my government is doing nothing to help me.”
State Representative Bill Werkheiser (R-Glennville) sponsored one of two bills this year aimed at fast-tracking Georgia’s medical marijuana program. Both bills died in the final hours of the 2022 legislative session.
“It is the epitome of big government and the political process getting in the way of doing something good,” Werkheiser said.
Pharmacist turned Georgia Congressman Buddy Carter voted against full legalization.
“I’m in favor of medical marijuana, and the use of marijuana where it can be useful in medicinal purposes. I am adamantly opposed to the recreational use of marijuana,” Carter said.
Just before this story was published, WTOC learned that Governor Kemp is appointing a new Chair to the state’s Medical Cannabis Commission. Kemp’s tapping Sid Johnson to lead the commission going forward. Johnson’s a faculty member at the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
The Governor also announced he’s directing $150,000 from the Governor’s Emergency Fund to the Medical Cannabis Commission. He says the money should be used to speed up the protest hearings by the companies that lost their bids to produce medical marijuana oil here.
From Governor Kemp’s Press Release:
Governor Brian P. Kemp today announced a new chair for the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission. Sid Johnson is now serving as chair – effective April 18, 2022
“I want to thank Dr. Christopher Edwards for his dedicated service at the helm of the commission,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “He helped institute many policies and procedures that will allow the commission to continue its critically important work, and we wish him well as he continues his distinguished medical career.”
“I’m looking forward to the insight that Sid Johnson will bring to the commission with his valued experience as a public service faculty member at the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Administrative Services, and in his many advisory roles to the state,” said Governor Kemp. “He has a keen understanding of how local, state, and federal policies interact and impact citizens, and with his wealth of experience he will assuredly be successful in navigating the commission’s mission in the years to come.”
In addition, the Office of the Governor will be directing $150,000 from the Governor’s Emergency Fund to the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission for the purpose of expedited protest hearings at the Office of State Administrative Hearings.
Sid Johnson is a public service faculty member at the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government. Sid promotes the university’s public service mission through consulting and leadership development for the state and local government agencies.
Prior to joining the Institute of Government, Sid served a variety of leadership roles in state government, including Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Administrative Services, where he provided leadership to the state’s procurement, human resources, risk management, fleet management, and surplus property functions and served as an ex-officio member of the Employee Retirement System Board of Trustees and Executive Secretary of the State Personnel Board and Employee Benefit Council. He also served as Director of Stimulus Accountability and Director of Implementation for the Commission for a New Georgia.
In addition, to public service, Sid has worked in the investment banking division of the Trust Company Bank and was a Partner and General Manager of The Leadership Center, an executive education company in Atlanta.
Sid has an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee and a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania. Sid and his wife, Leslie, live in Forsyth County. They are members of Parkway Presbyterian Church and serve on the Young Life committee in Forsyth County. They have two adult children.
The Augusta Chronicle has an explainer on how to vote absentee after changes to state voting procedures.
May 13 is a key date. It’s the deadline for a voter to submit a request for an absentee ballot under the state’s new process. It’s also the last day county elections offices can mail out the ballots. April 24 is the first day .And all completed ballots must be received by the end of Election Day.
The stakes for that day, May 24, are huge, especially for Georgia Republicans. Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger each face GOP primary challenges, from Trump-backed David Perdue and Jody Hice. In Augusta, the nonpartisan election will chose a new mayor and fill five open commission seats, although runoffs are likely.
Unless they manually pick up the request form, voters will need access to a printer. The application requires a handwritten signature with a pen.
Voters can request an application at the Georgia Secretary of State’s My Voter Page, and many counties have the applications on their websites.
The application requires voters write their driver’s license or ID number on the application, in addition to their name, address and birth date. Key to remember for the primary is that voters must choose a Democratic, Republican or nonpartisan ballot, said Columbia County Elections Director Nancy Gay.
Once they print and sign the application, a voter can return it by hand, by mail or scan it in and submit it by email. They can also use a fax machine. Contact information for each county office is online.
Key to remember is that voters must reapply for each election unless they are 65 or older or disabled, said Travis Doss, elections director for Richmond County Board of Elections.
The Floyd County Board of Education meets today and will discuss the upcoming May 24 elections, according to the Rome News Tribune.
The meeting will begin with a caucus where the elections board members will be going over where they are with redistricting, poll worker training and recruitment as well as ballot proofing.
Ballot proofing is reviewing each different kind of ballot that people will be using during the election — the Republican primary ballot, the Democratic primary ballot, the nonpartisan ballot and the absentee ballots. This is to make sure they have all the correct information on the ballots, such as all the candidates, the correct state house and senate districts and the local education local option sales tax package.
Logic and Accuracy testing of the voting machines will begin April 25 at 9 a.m. and will continue until all the machines have been tested. The testing will take place in the server room, which has a window for people to look into to watch the testing take place.
U.S. Senate candidate and outgoing Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black spoke in Albany, according to the Albany Herald.
The U.S. Senate candidate, who is in a six-way race to face Democrat Raphael Warnock in Novemter, had three stops in Albany Monday and two scheduled for Mitchell County as he looks to gain momentum in a race that so far has been dominated by former University of Georgia football great Herschel Walker.
“It’s five weeks tomorrow,” Black, who has served as the state’s agriculture commissioner since 2011, told an audience of about 60 at Blackbeard’s restaurant. “We’ve done a lot of good work. It’s coming down to people who are saying ‘Who can do this job from Day 1?’ I can do this.
On inflation, Black said he would push for cuts to federal spending and for energy independence for the nation to minimize the impact on gas prices.
During his remarks to the audience, Black took a few shots at front-runner Walker, referring to his long-time absence from the state for which he is seeking a Senate seat and his lack of involvement in politics.
“The obvious 260-pound bulldog, so to speak, is in this race, too,” Black said. “He’s going to vote for himself in the first Republican primary he’s voted in in 60 years.
Republican Rich McCormick leads the field in writing checks to his own campaign fundraising for the Sixth Congressional District, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Gwinnett Daily Post.
Emergency room physician Dr. Rich McCormick has raised far more money than any other candidate in a crowded Republican primary field in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.
But Jake Evans, former chairman of the Georgia Government Transparency & Campaign Finance Commission, has a little more cash on hand than McCormick for the final weeks heading into the May 24 GOP primary.
McCormick raised $605,054 during the first quarter of this year, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission. But he had already raised a lot more earlier in the 2022 election cycle, which brought his total campaign fundraising to nearly $5.3 million through the end of last month.
Evans raised $411,163 during January, February and March, bringing his total to more than $1.5 million. But since Evans has held onto most of his money to be spent in the campaign’s final stages, he still had $1.24 million cash on hand as of March 31, compared to $1.16 million for McCormick.
Both men have relied on loans to help bolster their bottom lines. Evans has loaned his campaign $900,000, while McCormick has put up $680,200 of his money in the form of a loan.
Two Democratic incumbent members of Congress running against each other in the Seventh District posted fundraising totals, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Gwinnett Daily Post.
U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath raised $790,640 during the first quarter of this year, bringing her total for the campaign to more than $3.9 million, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Her opponent in the May 24 Democratic primary in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, Carolyn Bourdeaux, raised $591,541 in January, February, and March, giving her a total for the campaign of just more than $3 million.
McBath still had more than $2.85 million remaining in her campaign war chest at the end of last month, compared to about $2.1 million for Bourdeaux.
The 7th Congressional District includes most of Gwinnett County and the Johns Creek area of Fulton County.
If I were running one of the Democratic campaigns, I’d be studying the 2002 elections, in which then-Congressman Bob Barr challenged fellow incumbent John Linder, and then-Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney lost to a first-time candidate.
Three candidates for State House District 179 spoke to local voters, according to The Brunswick News.
At the Brunswick Kiwanis Club’s Monday luncheon, candidates Rick Townsend, John Killgallon and Bob Duncan responded to questions from Kiwanis members regarding their stances on issues relevant to the Coastal Georgia district, which covers much of southern Glynn County, including St. Simons Island’s south end and the part of the north end.
All three live on St. Simons Island.
One member of the club asked them about marijuana legalization. All three opposed legalization as a recreational drug but supported its use as a medicine, which is legal in Georgia. Townsend, however, noted the state does need to work out issues that prevent farmers from growing enough in-state to meet the demands of ailing Georgia residents.
Glynn County’s electorate will get a chance to select which of the three they want to represent them in the state House during the upcoming primary election. Early voting starts on May 2 and Election Day is May 24.
The deadline to register is April 25.
From another article in The Brunswick News:
Early voting for the May 24 general primary starts May 2 and ends May 20. Hours on weekdays are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Early voting is held at the board of elections office, 1815 Gloucester St. in Brunswick; the Ballard Community Building, 30 Nimitz Drive in Brunswick; and Fire Station No. 2, 1929 Demere Road, St. Simons Island.
Redden said absentee ballots will be mailed next week to those who have requested them. The deadline to request an absentee ballot for the primary election is May 13.
Columbus Mayoral candidate John Anker held a rally, according to WTVM.
He is looking to unseat incumbent Mayor Skip Henderson.
Anker said he is running for mayor because he believes the city must give public safety the financial resources and leadership focus to succeed.
He added his number one priority as mayor is safe streets.
“I’m really proud just to see people from all walks of live. People from Cusseta Road to Northside. Different ethnicities. and it’s just really fun, and we’re all just meeting our neighbors,” expressed Anker.
The wife of Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis is publicly accusing him of screwing the taxpayers adultery with a government contractor, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
She made the claim last week in a response to the mayor’s filing for divorce in early April. The pair have been married for 27 years.
The marriage is “irretrievably broken, with adultery committed by the plaintiff with Carla C. Smith that is still an ongoing affair,” Evett Davis said in Richmond County Superior Court filings. She demands the family home and alimony and subpoenaed Verizon for her husband’s phone records dating to Jan. 1, 2019.
Davis denied his wife’s allegation in an email. Smith “provided support services on behalf of the office of the mayor during the pandemic for which her company received payment,” he said.
Specifically, the mayor’s office account paid the firm a combined $14,735 in seven payments, the records state. All but one of the payments is tagged “economic development – public relations.” The other is marked as being for advertising.
In addition, the mayor’s account for My Brother’s Keeper paid Smith $1,990 in November 2020. That was the program created by President Obama for which Davis drew criticism in 2017 after using funds to pay political consultant Ryan Mahoney.
All Augusta Circuit judges have recused themselves from the divorce case to avoid the perception of a conflict. The case is now assigned Swainsboro Senior Judge Kathy S. Palmer.
Bulloch County public schools is budgeting for a 10% increase in FY 2023, according to the Statesboro Herald.
Top administrators are proposing a fiscal 2023 Bulloch County Schools general fund budget with more than $10 million in increased spending, or 10.4% more than the current year’s projected total spending of almost $97.3 million.
The budget that Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Troy Brown presented Thursday evening to the Board of Education calls for roughly $107.4 million in expenditures for the new fiscal year, which will begin July 1.
“When we look at inflation – the prices at the pump, the prices at the grocery store – that’s what we’re suggesting to you,” Brown told the board.
“That really helps those lower scales also, since … we’ve got some that are down at $10.50 (an hour), which is our (bus) monitors, we’ve got our school nutrition, which is in the mid-to-high $10 range,” Brown said. “Our parapros, they start out in the $11 range, base salary. Years of experience then gives them additional pay on top of that.”
But help-wanted signs at businesses around Statesboro, some offering “$14, $15 or $16 an hour” suggest that the school system’s salaries “are just not keeping up,” he said.
Rome and Floyd County school systems agreed to place an ELOST (Local Option Sales Tax for Education) on the May 24 ballot, according to the Rome News Tribune.
Voters in the May 24 election will decide on a new education local option sales tax package for the Rome City and Floyd County school systems.
The ELOST package will be up for a vote countywide — on Democratic, Republican and nonpartisan ballots.
If passed, the package would allow Rome City Schools to build a new middle school, while Floyd County Schools would focus on multiple infrastructure projects.
Floyd County Board of Education members discussed science curricula, according to the Rome News Tribune.
After board member Chip Hood inquired about how evolution is taught, Parker said they present it as a theory with scientific facts backing it up. Hood also asked about how they teach about sex and gender. Parker explained they teach about X chromosomes and Y chromosomes and how they play a part in determining DNA.
These new curriculums, along with all of the other curriculums’ standards and subject materials, will be featured on a page on the Floyd County Schools website called Parent Resource Hub.
“I think it’s wonderful that our parents are wanting to be involved and we want to be as transparent with them as possible,” Chair Melinda Strickland said.
The school board also approved a new sex education curriculum provided by the state.
Hall County Senior Assistant Public Defender Andy Maddox takes the bench May 2d as a new part-time Hall County Magistrate Court judge, according to the Gainesville Times.
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