Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for August 1, 2024

Georgia delegates Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton signed the Declaration of Independence on August 2, 1776.

August 1 was a big day for Benjamin Mays – he was born on August 1, 1895 and became President of Morehouse College on August 1, 1936.

PT-109, commanded by LTJG John F. Kennedy was sunk on August 1, 1943.

On August 1, 1982, Hank Aaron was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

On August 2, 1983, the United States House of Representatives voted to observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a federal holiday on the third monday in January.

On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait.

President Barack Obama visited Georgia on August 2, 2010 – his first trip to Atlanta and second to Georgia after his election in November 2008. The occasion of his 2010 trip, like his trip to Atlanta yesterday, was to deliver a speech to the Disabled American Veterans Conference at the Hyatt Regency. From his 2010 speech:

As a candidate for President, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end.  Shortly after taking office, I announced our new strategy for Iraq and for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility. And I made it clear that by August 31st, 2010, America’s combat mission in Iraq would end. And that is exactly what we are doing — as promised and on schedule….

As agreed to with the Iraqi government, we will maintain a transitional force until we remove all our troops from Iraq by the end of next year.

At the same time, every American who has ever worn the uniform must also know this: Your country is going to take care of you when you come home. Our nation’s commitment to our veterans, to you and your families, is a sacred trust. And to me and my administration, upholding that trust is a moral obligation. It’s not just politics.

That’s why I’ve charged Secretary Shinseki with building a 21st century VA.  And that includes one of the largest percentage increases to the VA budget in the past 30 years. We are going to cut this deficit that we’ve got, and I’ve proposed a freeze on discretionary domestic spending. But what I have not frozen is the spending we need to keep our military strong, our country safe and our veterans secure. So we’re going to keep on making historic commitments to our veterans.

On Wednesday, July 31, 2024, the United States Postal Service released a new stamp honoring Hank Aaron, according to the AJC.

At an emotional First Day of Issue Dedication Ceremony at the home plate of Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves, the United States Postal Service honored Aaron with a commemorative Forever stamp.

Aaron’s widow, Billye Aaron, said she was “overwhelmed” by the honor.

“At this moment in time, I can only say how very, very proud I am and how very, very proud my husband would be,” Billye Aaron said, after receiving a portrait of the stamp from Thomas J. Marshall, the U.S. Postal Service’s general counsel and executive vice president.

On April 8, 1974, in Atlanta, Hank Aaron smashed his 715th home run, breaking Ruth’s 39-year-old record. Today, 48 years after he retired, Aaron is still the Major League leader in career runs batted in with a count of 2,297.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Governor Brian Kemp issued Executive Order #08.01.24.02, suspending Newton County Commission Chair Marcello Banes from office and appointing a three-member commission to recommend whether he should be removed from office after being indicted on federal charges.

Newton County Commission Chair Marcello Banes and District 3 Commissioner-Elect Stephanie Lindsey were both indicted, according to the Covington News.

NEWTON COUNTY – Current Newton County chairman Marcello Banes and longtime business partner and District 3 commissioner-elect Stephanie Lindsey have been indicted by a federal grand jury on money laundering and wire fraud charges, United States Department of Justice officials announced today.

“By allegedly laundering proceeds obtained from a fraud conspiracy, these defendants violated the trust placed in them by their client, their constituents, and their fellow commissioners,” U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a press release to The Covington News. “Public officials who undermine the public’s faith in our institutions by abusing their power for personal gain must be held accountable.”

According to the release, Banes and Lindsey are specifically charged with conspiring to launder money obtained from wire fraud and honest services wire fraud. The alleged money laundering took place within the confines of the Joint Development Authority (JDA) which comprises of represenatives of Jasper, Morgan, Walton and Newton counties, the release said.

Banes – who sits on the JDA board – responded to a request from a company in 2018 who hoped to purchase 40 acres of land for commercial development in the Stanton Springs area. The company, described as “Company A” in the indictment, entered into a brokerage agreement with Lindsey, in which the company would pay Lindsey’s CSL Realty Group $150,000 when the purchase of the parcel was complete.

A resolution was passed at the Jan. 22, 2019 JDA meeting to transfer the parcel to the company, with the purchase being finalized on March 1 of that year.

However, according to the indictment, Banes and Lindsey allegedly misled the company into thinking the $150,000 commission was only for Lindsey.

The following day, Lindsey contacted the company to collect the $150,000 payment. Once the payment was submitted, Lindsey allegedly sent $100,000 of it directly to Banes via a mutual business entity.

The JDA issued a statement condemning the “unethical behavior” alleged in the indictment and distanced itself from the transaction at the heart of the allegations.

“The Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton, and Walton Counties (JDA) condemns any unethical behavior alleged by the indictment and believes that those in public service should hold themselves to the highest standards,” the JDA statement said. “This JDA has at all times acted in accordance with the laws and disavows itself from any implications otherwise as a result of this indictment.”

In addition to the prior charges, Lindsey is also charged with two federal tax violations for federal income tax returns that were filed in 2019. In those returns, Lindsey allegedly claimed false business deductions to reduce her tax liability for the $150,000 payment.

Banes is also charged with lying to FBI agents in a 2023 interview, in which he told investigators that he was “unaware” that Lindsey was involved in the transaction.

From the Rockdale Newton Citizen:

The governor appointed a three-member committee July 25 to review whether the indictment adversely affects Banes’ ability to perform his duties as chairman and to make a recommendation to Kemp within 14 days.

The members of the committee are Attorney General Christopher Carr, Jasper County Board of Commissioners Chairman Bruce Henry and Dougherty County Board of Commissioners member Clinton Johnson.

Henry, a Republican, was first elected to a partial term on the Jasper BOC in 2012 and was elected to four-year terms in 2014, 2018 and 2022. He served on the Shady Dale City Council for six years before he and his family moved outside the city limits.

Johnson, a Democrat, was appointed by Kemp to serve on the State Board of Directors for the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. He has been elected to two consecutive terms on the Dougherty County Board of Commissioners.

If the commission recommends suspension, Kemp will review the findings and recommendations and may suspend Banes immediately pending the final disposition of the case — or until his term expires — whichever occurs first.

The governor also has the authority to appoint a temporary replacement for a suspended public official.
Georgia law provides that a public official who is suspended is entitled to receive compensation from his or her office during the suspension period.

Banes, who won the Democrat primary in May and has no opposition in November, and newly-elected District 3 commissioner Stephanie Lindsey were indicted by a federal grand jury in June on charges of conspiring to launder money and commit fraud.

Cordele City Commissioner Royce Reeves Sr. was arrested and charged , according to 13WMAZ.

Cordele City Commissioner Royce Reeves Sr. was arrested Wednesday following a nearly year-long investigation by the GBI and other law enforcement into criminal gang and drug activity. Reeves serves as Commission Vice Chairman representing Ward 2.

“I didn’t know we had gangs in Cordele,” [Cordele resident Debbie] Young said. “Apparently, there’s been an ongoing investigation on him, I didn’t know anything about that.”

That investigation is known as “Operation Shyne Down.” During this operation, 120 arrest warrants on 24 suspects were made targeting the criminal street gang G-Shyne Bloods and their involvement in criminal gang activities in Crisp County.
Crisp County Sheriff Billy Hancock released a statement after the arrests.

“This agency pledged to work together to address the alarming rise in gang-related criminal activities and youth violence,” he wrote. “Operation Shyne Down is a testament to the promise made.”

Reeves faces charges of marijuana distribution, gang activities and RICO violations.

Two years ago, Governor Kemp also suspended him after he was charged with obstructing a police officer and criminal trespass.

Former Cairo Fire Chief William Thomas Schafer pled guilty to charges of misusing agency funds, according to WALB.

He turned himself in to authorities in May of 2023, as the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was looking into personal and non-fire-related purchases.

Schafer resigned from the department a day before he turned himself in.

He faces 10 years on probation and could be ordered to pay nearly $4,000 back to Cairo.

Governor Brian Kemp will not attend Saturday’s Trump-Vance rally, according to the AJC.

Just as notable will be those who aren’t expected to attend: a trio of Republican incumbents Trump tried to oust two years ago after blaming Gov. Brian Kemp and his allies for his election defeat.

Attorney General Chris Carr and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sent word through aides they won’t be attending; Carr cited a family obligation. Likewise, a Kemp aide also said the governor isn’t likely to join the rally at Georgia State University’s Convocation Center.

Insurance Commissioner John King — the fourth member of the GOP quartet who thwarted Trump-backed challengers in the 2022 primary — said through a spokesman that he does plan to appear at the event.

The Federal Election Commission fined the Georgia Republican Party $14,500 after finding the state party coordinated with a third-party in the 2020 elections, according to the AJC.

In December 2020, the nonprofit group True the Vote announced a “partnership” to assist the Georgia GOP in the runoff election that saw Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win seats in the U.S. Senate. The announcement included a statement from then-GOP Chairman David Shafer thanking True the Vote for its help “in the fight for election integrity.”

A few days later, True the Vote challenged the eligibility of hundreds of thousands of registered Georgia voters. The challenges were carried out with the assistance of dozens of Republicans across the state. Local election officials rejected almost all of those challenges because True the Vote presented insufficient documentation to justify revoking the voters’ registrations.

The group Common Cause Georgia filed a complaint, saying the GOP had coordinated its spending with True the Vote and failed to report what amounted to a contribution in violation of federal election laws.

The FEC initially dismissed the complaint, but a federal judge later reinstated it. On Monday the FEC reached an agreement with the Georgia Republican Party to resolve the issue.

Under the agreement, the party will pay a $14,500 fine. The agreement states that the nonprofit’s actions “accrued to the benefit of GA GOP” and amounted to an “in-kind” — or noncash — contribution. Though the party says True the Vote has not provided information on the cost of its work in Georgia, the GOP plans to report it as a $500,000 in-kind contribution.

Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones (R-Butts County) announced the formation of the Georgia Senate Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.

“We will not stand idly by while radical politicians, athletic associations, schools, and higher education institutions push policies threatening this right,” Jones said. “I created this committee to investigate policies athletic associations, schools, colleges, and universities have implemented regarding the protection of women’s sports.”

State policy makers already have been active on the issue. The Georgia High School Athletic Association’s executive committee voted two years ago to ban transgender athletes from participating on school sports teams that align with their gender identity rather than their birth gender.

The committee acted after the General Assembly’s Republican majorities passed election-year legislation authorizing the association to impose the transgender athletes ban.

The new committee will include seven Republicans and two Democrats. The panel will have until Dec. 15 to issue findings and recommendations.

More on the Senate Study Committee on the Preservation of Georgia’s Farmlands, from the Savannah Morning News.

Georgia State Senator Billy Hickman (R-Dist. 4) grows pecan trees in Candler County. He farms part time, and although he enjoys tending his crops, he cannot help but think about the Georgia farmland that no longer exists.

Over the last 50 years, Georgia’s demand for industrial and residential development has gobbled up approximately 2.6 million acres of the state’s row crops, hay fields and pastures, according to Katherine Moore, Georgia Conservancy, Inc.

“Once you put a development on it, it’s almost impossible to take the development off of it,” Moore said Tuesday, July 30, during the first meeting of the Senate Study Committee on the Preservation of Georgia’s Farmlands held on the Georgia Southern University campus in Statesboro.

The committee, chaired by Hickman, has been tasked with finding resolutions to strike a balance between preserving the state’s farmland and strengthening the state’s economy through growth and development.

“We have to protect ag but also have to provide jobs,” said Hickman. “The goal of this committee is info. We don’t know what the answer is but hopefully we can come up with bills.”

Hickman and the other Senators serving on the committee ― Jason Anavitarte (R-Dist. 31), Brandon Beach (R-Dist. 21), Jason Esteves (D-Dist. 6), Russ Goodmen (R-Dist. 8), Freddie Powell Sims (D-Dist. 12) and Sam Watson (R-Dist. 11) ― plan to meet monthly through November, after which they will draft the committee report. The committee’s next meeting will be Aug. 30 in Cornelia, Ga.

James DePaola is circulating a new petition for the recall of Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

DePaola began the recall effort shortly after the February death of Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student fatally assaulted while running near the University of Georgia’s Lake Herrick. A 26-year-old undocumented Venezuelan immigrant, Jose Antonio Ibarra, is charged with murder and other offenses in Riley’s death.

DePaola loudly announced his intention to recall Girtz and other local officials during a public meeting of the mayor and Athens-Clarke County commissioners in the days after Riley’s death. Since then, DePaola has dropped all recall initiatives, except his effort targeting the mayor.

DePaola’s recall effort had been halted since May, when a judge hearing a petition filed by Girtz challenging the initiative ordered all recall activities halted while the petition was under review.

The final July 19 court ruling allowed DePaola to resume his effort, setting a July 31 deadline for him to obtain a new recall petition from Athens-Clarke County elections officials.

The Statewide Opioid Task Force met in Augusta Wednesday, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

During the latest Statewide Opioid Task Force meeting at Augusta University Wednesday morning, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr discussed the “war on fentanyl” and his office’s continued efforts to combat the opioid crisis across the state.

Attendees received updates from public, private and nonprofit partners working to address the issue, including Augusta University, Georgia Opioid Abatement Trust, GBI Director Chris Hosey, Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson, Augusta Fire Chief Antonio Burden, Richmond County Sheriff-elect Eugene “Gino Rock” Brantley, Georgia Sheriff’s Association executive director Terry Norris, and Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs president Terry Smith.

“We know that the opioid epidemic knows no geographic, demographic or economic boundaries,” Carr said. “So we’ve got to get all over the state, getting folks talking about the issue of the opioid crisis – how we prevent, how we intervene, what we do on restoration and treatment, and what we do on law enforcement. … Our Opioid Task Force is bringing everybody together to talk about the issue and [figure out] how we leverage the expertise, assets and resources we have to combat this crisis that’s impacting everybody.”

Augusta City Commissioners began discussing infrastructure projects to include in a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for Transportation (T-SPLOST) referendum next year, according to WJBF.

City leaders are working in the project list for the next phase of the tax and hearing from the Engineering Department.

The department’s wish list totals almost one hundred eighty million dollars in projects like road resurfacing and drainage work.

Commissioners are looking to approve a final list for the next SPLOST early next year.

Hall County Board of Elections is hiring 300 workers for the November elections, according to AccessWDUN.

They will host a hiring drive from Aug. 12-15 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Hall County Government Center.

“We need poll workers who are willing to serve during the upcoming general election on Nov. 5,” Hall County Elections Manager Paige Thompson said.

Poll workers must be at least 16-year-old and a resident of Hall County, although Hall County elections say residents of neighboring counties may qualify.

“Poll working is a critical part of the election process and ensures Hall County continues to provide secure, successful and stress-free elections to its citizens,” Thompson said.

The Fayette County Board of Elections passed testing by the Secretary of State’s Office, according to WRDW.

“By doing it with a surprise audit, you’re seeing exactly what the machines are capable of, what they’re doing, recording votes accurately,” he said. “We want to give voters confidence in the process.”

Fayette County wasn’t the first — and certainly won’t be the last — audit before the Nov. 5 presidential election, less than 100 days away.

United States Representative Buddy Carter (R-Pooler SSI) has moved to St Simons Island, according to The Brunswick News.

United States Rep. Buddy Carter is now, as he says, “on island time,” after being a lifelong resident of the Savannah area, most recently Pooler.

The Republican representative of Congressional District 1, which covers the Georgia coast, said he and his wife decided to relocate to the north end of St. Simons Island largely because of the grandkids. With three children and several grandchildren spread all over the country, Carter said it was a strategic move — everyone wants to go to grandma and grandpa’s house when it’s close to the beach.

“We’ve always loved the area, it’s beautiful. Living on the island is like being on vacation all the time. It has a character and an ambiance of its own. We’ve always wanted to be on the water as well,” Carter said. “… The coast is the coast. I tell people all the time, 435 districts in the U.S. and I get to represent the very best one. One hundred miles of pristine coast, and I get to represent all of it.”

Rincon City Manager Jonathan Lynn resigned, according to WTOC.

Jonathan Lynn says stepping down is a personal decision and he is not leaving to take another city manager job. He tells WTOC he will take time to tend to family and focus on personal life.

Lynn says he was not forced to leave the position and wishes the city of Rincon nothing but the best and hopes their accomplishments will be continued with whoever the next person is.

At this time it is unclear what the city plans to do to replace him.