Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for August 19, 2015

USS Constitution earned the nickname “Old Ironsides” in battle against the British ship Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia on August 19, 1812. Launched in 1797, Constitution is today the oldest commissioned vessel in the United States Navy. Live oak from St. Simons Island were cut and milled for timber used in the constructions of Constitution. From a 1977 New York Times article:

The Constitution won her way into Americans’ hearts in 1812, when she defeated the British Guerriere off Nova Scotia in an exchange of broadsides. The spirit of the Constitution crew was noted by the Guerriere’s commander, James Dacres, who boarded the Constitution to present his sword in surrender.

”I will not take your sword, Sir,” the captain of the Constitution, Isaac Hull, replied. ”But I will trouble you for your hat.”

In the battle, a sailor — whether British or American is disputed by historians — is said to have cried out, ”Huzzah, her sides are made of iron!” as he watched an English cannonball bounce off the side of the Constitution. It was the birth of her nickname.

Part of the ship’s secret lay in the wood used in the design by Joshua Humphreys. He picked live oak, from St. Simons Island, Ga. The wood has proved so strong and resistant to rot that the original hull is intact, said Anne Grimes Rand, curator of the Constitution Museum in Charlestown, Mass.

The Georgia Department of Insurance was created on August 19, 1912 when Governor Joseph Brown signed legislation regulating companies selling policies in the states.

Governor Nathaniel Harris signed the first state law requiring school attendance for children 8-14 years of age on August 19, 1916; on the same day, Harris also signed legislation authorizing women to practice law in Georgia.

“Georgia” was designated the official state song on August 19, 1922 with Gov. Thomas Hardwick’s signature on a joint resolution passed by the General Assembly; in 1979, “Georgia On My Mind,” replaced it.

Adolf Hitler became President of Germany on August 19, 1934.

The United States Central Intelligence Agency supported a coup in Iran that restored the Shah of Iran on August 19, 1953.

On August 19, 1976, President Gerald R. Ford was nominated for President by the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. Ford received 1,157 (52.6%) delegates to 1,087 for Ronald Reagan (47.4%). Georgia’s 48 delegates voted for Reagan on the first ballot.

Dr. Betty Siegel became the first female President of a state college or university in Georgia when she was named President of Kennesaw College on August 19, 1981; under her leadership, it became Kennesaw State University in 1996. Siegel served until 2006. Kennesaw State was recently named the 4th best college for food in the nation.

Also on August 19, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

On August 19, 1984, President Ronald Reagan was nominated for reelection by the Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Yesterday, Jeb! Bush visited Atlanta and made a stop at the Varsity to visit the commoners get on television.

“We’re going to work hard to earn the support of Georgians in the March 1 primary. It’s the second largest state in the primary, it’s our neighbor to our north, we’re going to be working hard,” Bush said.

According to the Federal Elections Commission website, people from Georgia have donated more than $300,000 to Bush so far. The maximum contribution allowed is $2,700.

But getting money might not be the only reason Bush is making a stop in Atlanta, especially if you believe the old saying, “All publicity is good publicity.” The former Florida governor might be looking for publicity because a look at the latest Real Clear Politics average polls show that he’s behind with 10.7 percent to Republican front runner Donald Trump’s 22 percent.

This is pretty cool – Fox5Atlanta posted the video of the entire scrum Jeb! held on the way out of the Varsity.

Here are the questions he was asked:

1. Is Donald Trump making it increasingly difficult to attract Hispanic voters in this election?

2. Where are you on birthright citizenship?

3. How do you get your message out when Donald Trump is overshadowing all of the candidates?

4. When you hear a Republican candidate talk about deporting some 12 million people, how do you respond to that?

Bush: “I’ve writen a book about it, I have a plan on how you secure the border. We need to create a path to earn legal status, that’s the thoughtful way of dealing with this. What Mr. Trump has proposed will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, will disrupt communities, isn’t feasible, isn’t practical. It appeals to people’s legitimate anger that they feel like Barack Obama hasn’t been fulfilling his duties of enfocing the law. But we need now plans and solutions to fix these things. This immigration issue has been part of the political landscape for years and years. It’s time to fix it and I know how to do it.”

5. [something, something message going] and his numbers keep going up and yours are not.

Bush: “Man, it’s a long haul, brother. We’ve got a long way to go. Y’all come back here next month and you ask me the same question and I think the context will be different.”

6. What do you say to those who say we don’t need another Bush White House?

7.  There’s a lot of Republicans here in Georgia who [loathe?] Common Core. What do you say to those folks?

8. Georgians are going to get to vote next year on whether or not the state should have the power to take over failing schools.

Bush: “I respect Governor Deal’s position on this. I think it’s the right thing. We should have very little tolerance for failure because we know what the result will be. Instead of going to college or instead of being able to get a job with purpose, kids are going to be drifting, they’re not going to be able to get a job. And so we should have no tolerance for the kind of abject failure that occasionally takes place. The soft bigotry of low expectations is one of the great dangers in America today. If we just keep lowering expectations down, and where kids languish with horrific learning results, we see what happens. Just look a Ferguson. Look at Baltimore. Look at the places where there’s such despair and what you’ll find is education outcomes are far, far below where kids live in intact families, and they’re doing fine. And I just don’t believe America’s going to work well unless every child has their God-given ability to rise up through a quality education.”

“The one here in Georgia was for the state to take over and try something different. Have high-performing charter schools be implemented. In Florida – this out to be state-by-state – we created the largest voucher programs in the country to give parents in failing schools choices that otherwise  they would never have. We graded schools A, B, C, D, and F. Everybody knows that an F is not as good as an A, and we rewarded schools that showed improvement, and we had no tolerance for failing schools. That’s what we need is just a sense of urgency about this. The political arguments about education need to be put aside and we need to recognize that if you’re getting a result of a third of your kids truly being college or career ready, that is a disaster for this country. And while that’s not a federal issue, that’s a national crisis. And that’s why I’m passionate about this.”

9. Do you think this email controversy will bring Hillary Clinton down?

10. Do you get a sense that Democrats are getting itchy about whether Hillary Clinton is going to remain as strong as she has been?

So the tally is four questions about Donald Trump or something he said, two questions about Hillary Clinton, one Bush Dynasty, one Common Core, one Opportunity School District question.

And some guy asked, “Are you Batman, Governor Bush?”

Back to the Georgia politics side, in addition to traveling with Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, who previously endorsed Jeb Bush, we also saw Georgia Senate Rules Committee Chairman Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Wilkinson (R-Toccoa). Sen. Wilkinson told me both have signed up to endorse Bush in the Republican primary.

Senator Butch Miller (R-Gainesville) asked Gov. Bush for a photo with two of his constituents. Miller told me he has not endorsed Bush “yet.”

And here’s something interesting I learned at the event. Gov. Bush wears an Apple Watch and a memorial bracelet with the name of a soldier killed in action.

11Alive informs us that Jeb Bush was headed to a private fundraiser at The Commerce Club last night.

Bush is in Atlanta for a private fundraising event at the Commerce Club Tuesday evening, before heading to Manchester, NH. His team says he plans to return to Georgia often, and considers Georgia a key state in the 2016 campaign.

Georgia’s primary is expected to be March 1, 2016. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has been working with a number of other southern states in an attempt to get them all to hold primaries on that date, even going as far as to refer to the date as the “SEC Primary,” after the collegiate Southeastern Conference.

Two additional Republican candidates for President will be visiting Aiken, South Carolina in upcoming days.

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson will be the guest speaker at the Aiken Republican Club’s September Luncheon on Saturday, Sept. 12, at Newberry Hall in downtown Aiken.

On Friday, Oct. 2, candidate Carly Fiorina will speak at a noon luncheon held by Sen. Tim Scott at USC Aiken’s Etherredge Center.

Columbia County Commission District 3 voters will choose a new Commissioner on Novermber 3, 2015, after the resignation of Mack Taylor.

Anyone desiring to be a candidate in this Special Election must file a Notice of Candidacy not earlier than Monday, August 31, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. and not later than Wednesday, September 2, 2015 at 12:00 p.m.

Those who wish to qualify as a candidate for Taylor’s unexpired term may do so at the Columbia County Board of Elections office, located at 500 Faircloth Drive, Building E, in Evans, Georgia.

The qualifying fee is $195.

The last day to register to vote to be eligible to participate in this Special Election shall be Monday, October 5, 2015 at 5:00 p.m.

Former DeKalb County Ethics Board Chair John Ernst has announced his candidacy for Mayor of Brookhaven, presumably opposing current Mayor and former District 1 City Council Member Rebecca Chase Williams.

From the Brookhaven Post:

“For the past three years, others have had the opportunity to address the exact same challenges we are still facing today. We must get back to the basics and fulfill the promise of tax relief, better parks, more greenspace and an open and honest government,” says Ernst. “Together, we can deliver the promise of Brookhaven — this is why I am running for Mayor.”

From 2013 to 2015, John served as Chairman of the DeKalb County Board of Ethics where he successfully filled lingering board vacancies, hired investigators, and increased the board’s annual budget nearly ten-fold to handle a sharp increase in ethics complaints. Ernst oversaw the first reprimand of a public official in DeKalb County in over 15 years as his last act as Chairman.

“Since 2013, the Brookhaven City Council has met secretly over 100 times, and our state’s Attorney General ruled that our city government improperly met behind closed doors,” said Ernst. “Secret meetings do not create a relationship of trust between residents and our city. Only when we truly engage our citizenry will we have an open and responsive city.”

Ernst says if elected to Mayor he will lead efforts to get an ever growing budget back in line, cut government waste and block unnecessary taxes such as the TAD proposed last year, restore trust, drastically reduce closed door meetings, strengthen our parks, protect Brookhaven’s greenspace, and work to create a Brookhaven Beltline.

More on House District 80

I spoke to Jim Galloway at the Varsity yesterday, and let me be clear that I didn’t compare him or anyone to Joseph Goebbels and I don’t think anyone could actually believe I did. What I did was call the after-the-fact reimagining of the Campaign in House District 80 as a pitched battle between gay rights and proponents of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act exactly what it is: political propaganda.

While Taylor Bennet did indeed speak at least twice about the RFRA bill, in both instances it was a response to a question. You don’t make an issue a centerpiece of your campaign by not saying anything about it and hoping someone will ask you the question.

Here’s Taylor Bennett’s pushcard, both versions – one for the Special Election in July, one for the Special Runoff this month.

If you, for instance, spent the first three months of the year writing about the battle between gay rights proponents and supporters of RFRA, you might read the paragraph about Equality as being a statement about that legislation. But that assumes a much greater level of knowledge and civic engagement than the electorate at large possesses. And it comes nowhere close to putting the issue at the center of the campaign.

Yes, I’m told Georgia Equality was backing Bennett, and I believe that, but as a voter in the district I never would have known that until Jim Galloway told me. I didn’t see any media about it, didn’t receive any mail, never heard about the issue or about Georgia Equality’s backing.

And here’s Bennett’s mailpiece.

The only mention of equality is specifically workplace equality, mentioning first equal pay for women, and then “He will also work to make Georgia more welcoming to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation.”

That’s hardly putting gay rights and opposition to RFRA at the center of a campaign when nowhere in your literature or your website do the words “gay” or “religious freedom” appear. Only if you’re looking for a mention of the issue can you find it.

Peach State Economics

State Reps. Jason Spencer (R-Woodbine) and Alex Atwood (R-St Simons Island) said that a new joint venture port between South Carolina and Georgia located in Jasper County, South Carolina will not compete with existing Georgia ports.

Permitting for the new facility, a joint venture between the South Carolina and Georgia port authorities, is about to begin, port officials recently announced.

“According to the Georgia Ports Authority, the Jasper port will not be moving freight similar to that of Brunswick at this time,” Spencer said. “It is my understanding that port will be taking in container cargo. Also, I have been told by GPA that the Garden City Terminal is about to reach capacity and the Jasper port will take some of that cargo that they were getting.