Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for April 8, 2020

Hank Aaron hit home run number 715 on April 8, 1974 to become the all-time home run champion, a title he holds to this day.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig wrote about what Aaron meant to baseball and America.

As the last major league player who was a part of the Negro leagues, he was one of the game’s most prominent bridges to integration. For 23 years on the field, this humble native of Mobile, Ala., represented the game with unfailing grace, overcoming obstacles that most of us could not even imagine. In the years since then, Hank has remained one of the most distinguished and revered figures in American public life.

Aaron himself spoke to the Associated Press about the 40th anniversary of his record-breaking home run.

Aaron’s record-breaking homer will be celebrated tonight before the Atlanta Braves’ home opener against the New York Mets.

Hate mail and threats made it impossible for him to savor the chase of Ruth’s revered record, but on Monday he said he’ll enjoy the anniversary because such old friends as former teammate Dusty Baker will return for the pregame ceremony.

Aaron, 80, said he has a greater appreciation for fans who still celebrate his career.

“It does. It means an awful lot to me,” Aaron said.

“I’m not one to go around bragging about certain things. I played the game because I loved the game. … I am quite thrilled that people say that he, whatever he did, should be appreciated. That makes me feel good.”

The Braves will wear an Aaron 40th anniversary patch on their uniform sleeves this season. An outfield sign at Turner Field also will mark the anniversary.

Before hitting the homer into the Braves’ bullpen beyond the left-field wall, Aaron told [Dusty] Baker what was about to happen.

“That I can remember like it was yesterday,” Baker said. “It was a cold, cold night in April. Hank told me, ‘I’m going to get this over with now.’ He knew every pitch that was coming. He had total recall of pitch sequences. He was as smart as they came.”

Aaron confirmed Baker’s tale on Monday: “I think that was right. I think I made that remark and made it to Dusty maybe three or four times. I just felt within myself that eventually before the night was over I was going to hit a home run.”

Kurt Cobain was found dead by his own hand on April 8, 1994.

Governor Zell Miller signed legislation proclaiming Gainesville, Georgia the Poultry Capital of the World on April 8, 1995.

The Square Dance became the official state folk dance on April 8, 1996, when Gov. Zell Miller signed legislation recognizing it.

On April 8, 2005, Eric Rudolph agreed to plead guilty to the fatal 1996 bombing at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park.

The Masters Tournament was won on this date by Gene Sarazen (1935), Jack Burke, Jr. (1956), Nick Faldo (2nd win – 1990), Tiger Woods (2nd win – 2001), and former University of Georgia player Bubba Watson in 2012.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

From a Press Release:

Kemp, Duncan, Ralston Announce Plans to Extend Public Health State of Emergency

Atlanta, GA – Today Governor Brian P. Kemp, Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, and House Speaker David Ralston announced plans to extend Georgia’s public health state of emergency through May 13, 2020 to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Under state law, the Governor may renew the public health state of emergency, which was otherwise set to expire on April 13, 2020. Lt. Governor Duncan and Speaker Ralston agree it is necessary for the public health emergency to be renewed and will not be requesting a special legislative session, which was tentatively scheduled for April 15, 2020.

“To ensure the health and well-being of Georgians, I will extend the public health state of emergency through May 13, 2020. This measure will allow us to continue to deploy resources to communities in need, lend support to frontline medical providers, and keep preparing as we brace for potential patient surge in our healthcare facilities. We deeply appreciate the hard work of Georgians who are sheltering in place, using social distancing, and helping us flatten the curve. We are in this fight together,” said Governor Kemp. “I appreciate Lt. Governor Duncan and Speaker Ralston continuing to work with us to ensure resources are available to proactively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I thank them for their support of an extended emergency declaration. In these unprecedented times, we ask Georgians for their continued patience and prayers, especially for first responders, law enforcement, and the healthcare workers caring for the medically fragile. They are going above and beyond to keep us all safe, and we will never be able to repay them for their sacrifices.”

“We must continue our aggressive fight against COVID-19,” said Lt. Governor Duncan. “By extending the public health state of emergency, we can ensure Georgians have access to every available state resource during this crisis. Together, Speaker Ralston and I are working closely with Governor Kemp to do all we can to make sure we are meeting the needs of every Georgian. The General Assembly will continue to remain vigilant and available to assist our citizens in any way possible.”

“The entirety of our state government is working to protect the health and safety of our citizens, and I appreciate the work of our state personnel and first responders during this challenging time,” said Speaker David Ralston. “While we have difficult days ahead, we continue to coordinate with both local and federal partners in responding to needs as they arise. As Georgians, we will persevere and emerge stronger on the other side.”

From the Gwinnett Daily Post:

Kemp is extending the public health emergency declaration without having to call the legislature back for another special session.

After hours of behind-the-scenes negotiations during the one-day special session last month, the General Assembly passed a resolution authorizing the governor to extend the declaration unilaterally if lawmakers were unable to return to the Capitol this month because of the limit on large gatherings necessitated by the pandemic.

Kemp, Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey, state Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency Director Homer Bryson, and Georgia National Guard Adjutant General Tom Carden are scheduled to deliver an update on the state’s COVID-19 response efforts Wednesday afternoon.

Governor Kemp responded to some criticisms about his shelter-in-place orders, according to The Brunswick News.

In a Tuesday interview with The News, Kemp said that particular part of the executive order was bound to be unpopular but was grounded in data and advice from health professionals.

“You’ve got 159 counties in Georgia that are dealing with it different, so we came up with an order based on the data we were seeing and on the advice of our public health officials,” Kemp said. “In some cases, it made things more stringent, and in some cases, it may have loosened them up a little bit.

“That’s just what you do when you do a statewide order.”

The feedback on the decision has been both good and bad, he said. The mandate that public areas can only be used for exercise and the state Department of Natural Resources’ ban on coolers, chairs, umbrellas and tents on the beach have been effective, from his perspective.

He did not rule out closing parks and beaches in the future if they prove to be a hindrance to slowing the spread of COVID-19.

“We didn’t just open the beaches back up for a free-for-all, like the Friday before Georgia-Florida weekend. We opened them back up for exercise only … It’s not your normal beach activity,” Kemp said. “When you’re closing down fitness centers and other things, you limit the ability for people to get out and get some exercise.”

That, in particular, was an important subject in his consultations with Dr. Kathleen Toomey, Department of Public Health commissioner, he said. Getting out and exercising is a good way to ward against the virus and sickness in general.

“I don’t see any reason to close (the beaches) right now,” Kemp said.

He sits in on conference calls to discuss activity on the beaches and state parks every night, Kemp said, and so far has heard of no issues with people flaunting social distancing requirements.

“I’ve heard some people say some things, but from the officers we’ve had on the ground we have not seen anything in the updates,” Kemp said. “It’s very clearly light usage … Quite honestly, we had a very quiet weekend on all our coasts and beaches this weekend as well as our state parks throughout the state.”

He understands the concerns but said the situations calls for decisions that may be unpopular.

“I’ve been a local-control governor,” Kemp said. “I would tell them that a lot of their colleagues around the state were telling me that they wanted to put an order in place. When you’re making these kinds of decisions in these kinds of unprecedented times, you’re going to have some that like them and some that don’t. Again, I’m following the data and the advice from health officials.”

In Athens, National Guard members are helping distribute food, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

The Food Bank of Northeast Georgia sent volunteers home as a safety precaution during the coronavirus pandemic, and the state has sent five members of the Guard to help.

Gov. Brian Kemp last month authorized calling up as many as 2,000 National Guard to help in the state’s response to the pandemic.

Some are assisting medically, like a team sent to the south Georgia city of Albany, where medical workers have been overwhelmed by the volume of serious COVID-19 cases.

Federal loans to small business are in a bit of a cluster, according to The Brunswick News.

The Coronavirus Aid Relief & Economic Security Act isn’t off to a smooth start, but the kinks will be worked out quickly.

That was the assessment of the CARES Act by Wayne Johnson, chairman of the Golden Isles Development Authority, at Tuesday’s meeting, held via teleconference.

The federal program created to help small businesses and their employees in response to the COVID-19 outbreak didn’t exist a week ago, Johnson said. Now, millions of small businesses are submitting applications in a short time period, overwhelming those processing the requests.

“The start has been a little clunky, to say the least,” he said. “The aid is coming (but) not as fast as small businesses would like.”

The Ledger-Enquirer looks at the capacity of Georgia hospitals to address Covid patients.

Across Georgia, a 20% infection rate over a six month period would mean more than 1.54 million infected adults with 317,401 requiring hospitalization.

The state would need almost 1.4 times more hospital beds and 2.6 times more ICU beds, assuming hospitals are freeing up their available bed supply through measures such as delaying elective surgeries.

If those estimations are correct, Columbus hospitals would need to add three times their current supply of ICU beds — the highest rate in the state, behind only Savannah and southern parts of Georgia near the Florida border. Columbus would have enough hospital beds. Atlanta hospitals would need 1.7 times the number of beds and 2.8 times the number of ICU beds.

Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany’s Dougherty County has been overwhelmed. The main hospital’s three ICUs were filled to capacity. Thanks to help from the Georgia National Guard and staffing increases, five ICUs are now operational. Four of them are dedicated to COVID-19 patients, the hospital said in a news release.

Six months of medical supplies were used here in a week, and the state sent pallets of personal protective equipment to Albany, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

In Columbus, private entities are working to address the shortages. Aflac Chairman and CEO Dan Amos and his wife Kathelen donated $1 million to Piedmont Columbus Regional to help the hospital treat COVID-19 patients.

The money will be used to renovate an unused floor of a hospital building and to create a unit of 29 beds and seven ICU beds for isolated patient care. Hospital officials said they hope to open the new floor in about a week.

Augusta hospitals are preparing for larger numbers of Covid patients, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

University Hospital Summerville, the former St. Joseph Hospital, is also opening a 28-bed unit negative pressure unit for those COVID-19 patients who don’t need a critical care or intermediate bed and a 28-bed convalescent unit next week for nursing home patients that need a negative COVID-19 test before they are allowed back into the facility, University spokeswoman Rebecca Sylvester said. University is also looking to take one pod of rooms in its Emergency Department and create a negative pressure unit to handle any surge of patients there, she said.

AU Medical Center has created a 28-bed intermediate unit and devoted one of its 24-bed Intensive Care Units to COVID-19 as more patients and sicker patients began to fill the hospital, said AU Health System CEO Katrina Keefer. Of the 19 patients in AUMC on Tuesday, only four were on the intermediate unit and the rest are in the ICU, she said. The hospital had been keeping more patients there who were suspected COVID-19 but awaiting testing but as AU has ramped up its testing that backlog has disappeared, Keefer said.

“Because of our testing capacity, we can just isolate the COVID-positive patients there, which has been a great help,” she said. “We are also starting to test patients that need to be admitted so we admit them directly (to the COVID-19 units). Our testing capability we believe has really been able to help us better accommodate patients and put them in the right unit the first time.”

The Savannah Morning News looks at local reactions to the death of Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Jack Hill (R-Reidsville).

Now U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue and Hill were office suitemates when they were both in the Georgia Senate. Hitchens said when Perdue switched parties from Democrat to Republican and ran for governor, he convinced Hill to switch parties, too.

Perdue called Hill “a true statesman.” “There is not a closer friend or finer public servant than Jack Hill,” Perdue said. “He was a man of utmost integrity; he lived honestly and compassionately. He will be greatly missed.”

[State Rep. Bill] Hitchens said Hill held enormous sway in the Senate. “When Jack was willing to put his name on things, they’d go along with everything he did. They just trusted him.”

Hitchens said Hill didn’t get involved in the political fighting. “That’s what endeared him to so many,” Hitchens said. “He was so laidback and easy going. Always serious minded and a humble man.”

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter said Hill was someone to be emulated. “So often you hear people speak well about people after they’ve passed but Jack Hill was the real deal. … He knew that budget like the back of his hand.”

Ann Purcell was elected to the state House the same year Hill was first elected to the state Senate. She also grew up with Hill in Tattnall County. “Jack was a little bit older than I am,” she said. “He used to say we were the same age and I’d say, ‘I beg your pardon!’”

[State House Majority Leader Jon] Burns said, “Jack Hill was a man endowed by God with an unwavering love and sense of devotion to his fellow man. …Jack was the definition of a servant leader – a man who rose to the challenge placed before him every year of crafting a budget that demonstrated Georgia was a state that valued the life of every man, woman and child who called it home.

“For me, Jack was more than a colleague or a public servant. He was my friend, my mentor, and one of my biggest champions in life. I cannot adequately describe the respect and admiration I had for Jack. He was a man I could turn to for a smile, a laugh, or a hand up when I was down. He was like a brother to me, and I will miss him every day. We are all better – and this state is better – for having known Jack Hill.”

From the Statesboro Herald:

Adam Kennedy, director of the Claxton-Evans Economic Development Authority, grew up knowing Hill, who succeeded Sen. Joe Kennedy. In a heartfelt Facebook post, he said: “Where do I start with my tribute to Jack Hill? As most of you know he followed my daddy representing the 4th Senatorial District. My dad was so happy that Jack was elected and always said the district was in great hands. Jack always loved to tell me stories about the advice daddy gave him at the Capitol when he went into office.”

“Jack was a statesman (who) always cared about the district. More than that, Jack was a personal friend of the Kennedy’s and that’s why this makes his loss so hard right now,” he said.

Georgia (acting?) Insurance Commissioner John King has been deployed outside Georgia to help respond to Covid, according to the AJC.

Insurance Commissioner John King, a major general in the Georgia National Guard, was deployed to New Jersey to help set up a makeshift medical facility. He earlier spent more than a week in New Orleans helping to turn a downtown convention center into a 2,000-bed hospital.

When Gov. Brian Kemp tapped him for the job last year, making him the first Hispanic constitutional officer in state history, King was in Texas leading a hurricane preparedness training and operations mission.

While King is deployed, his deputies are in close contact, said Martin Sullivan, the commissioner’s top aide.

“We talk to him five or six times a day,” he said. “We’re in just as much contact with him now as if he were in the office.”