Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for August 29, 2022

General Robert E. Lee’s Confederates met General John Pope’s federal forces at the Second Battle of Manassas on August 29, 1862.

Union General William T. Sherman’s forces tore up 12 miles of railroad between Red Oak and Fairburn on August 29, 1864.

The United States Air Force Academy moved to its permanent home in Colorado Springs on August 29, 1958.

The Beatles played their final concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966.

On August 29, 1971, Hank Aaron broke the National League record for most seasons with 100 or more RBI, as he drove in his 100th run to make 11 seasons hitting that mark.

On August 29, 1977, Lou Brock stole his 893d base, to surpass the record set by Georgia-born Ty Cobb.

A new historic marker was placed at the Alabama birth home of the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis (D-Atlanta), according to the Associated Press via WJBF.

The marker for Lewis’ birthplace was unveiled Saturday in Troy, WSFA-TV reported.

“When we see something that is not right, not fair, not just — we have a moral obligation to speak up and speak out,” said nephew Jerrick Lewis.

The family created the John R. Lewis Legacy Institute to support civil rights education and engage in social justice, education equality, and health awareness.

Troy Mayor Jason Reeves said the house, now a historic landmark, will become part of the story of the civil rights movement in Alabama, starting with his birthplace and ending in Montgomery.

Lewis was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 1981 and to Congress in 1986.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Homelessness is a problem in rural Georgia, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Statesboro Herald.

Though many associate homelessness with urban centers, the problem of lack of housing is more widespread, speakers said at a recent state Senate hearing on homelessness.

Rising rental prices and wages that have not kept up have pushed some Georgians out of their homes, experts and local observers alike affirmed.

Federal data shows that there are around 10,000 homeless people in Georgia. Around one-third of those people are located outside of Georgia’s cities.

The housing crunch is not always as visible in rural Georgia as in Atlanta, said Dr. Bambie Hayes-Brown, CEO of Georgia Advancing Communities Together, a statewide coalition of affordable housing groups.

“People are doubling and tripling up,” she said, referring to a practice where families or individuals share housing in close quarters to help make ends meet.

Another concern is the lack of emergency shelters and other places for people to live when getting back on their feet, Hayes-Brown said.

“Recently, we’ve had an upsurge of homeless people,” [John Winecoff of Community Share Ministries in Cedartown] said. “Places to live … have become unaffordable.”

Winecoff said many homeless people lack basic identification documents that would help them get services or find a job, so his organization tries to help.

Small cities are facing similar problems, said Gainesville Chief of Police Jay Parrish, who has noticed an uptick in homelessness over the past three to five years.

“In simple economics, the increased demand for housing coupled with a decreased supply created a higher market price for housing,” Parrish said. “Affordable housing is more difficult to come by. This has left many of our population homeless.”

The AJC writes similarly about suburban homelessness.

Experts and social service agency officials say the [homeless] population is increasing, particularly in the suburbs due to ever-rising rents. And officials with the organizations that serve suburban communities in Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb counties say there is no relief in sight.

The exact number of homeless people is difficult to track — because of the transitory nature of many people caught in the cycle of homelessness. But the men and women who run suburban shelters or advocacy organizations say they have seen an uptick in people seeking their services in recent years.

And metro Atlanta school systems, which are required to track the number of homeless students annually, also report increasing numbers, last academic year over 2020-21.

“Homelessness is a very pervasive issue, even though you can’t see it,” [Elizabeth Sirk, chief development officer for St. Vincent de Paul Georgia] said. “It’s just as much of a problem outside of downtown as it is downtown. It just looks different.”

Many people experiencing suburban homelessness are not easily visible, officials say, because they are living in cars, abandoned buildings or extended stay hotels.

Steve Berg, the vice president for programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said increased housing costs is the main culprit behind surging homelessness in the suburbs.

“The data we have indicates that particularly for certain individuals, like not families with kids, but just individual homeless people, it’s been going up faster in the suburbs than in urban areas,” Berg said.

In the past year, there has been a 13% increase in the number of homeless students statewide. And the problem is more dramatic in metro Atlanta — where the six biggest school districts reported a 19% increase, year over year.

The late Mrs. GaPundit worked for years on homelessness and would have encouraged you to read both stories in their entirety. She also would have noted that people living in their cars or “couch-surfing” with friends are also homeless but less visible.

Lowndes County faces a shortage of foster homes for children, according to WALB.

WALB News 10 Investigates reported in July that many foster kids are staying temporarily in hotels. Now, the crisis is so bad in Lowndes County, that children in foster care there, may have to be moved to other regions.

Currently there are 233 children in foster care and only 24 available homes for them.

The ongoing shortage of foster homes could mean children in Lowndes County can be displaced. Camp Rock of Georgia Foster Agency and Perimeter Road Baptist Church are making a plea to the public so these children will not be ripped away from their community.

“So many children are coming into care, and we just don’t have the homes to take care of them. They don’t have placements for them. They are put in hotels and the case workers stay with them in the hotels and that’s just not a good setting for them. Those children that come out of traumatic situations.” said Denise Buchanan, executive director of Camp Rock GA.

Georgia became the last state to move WIC to electronic payments, according to the Macon Telegraph.

WIC, a federally funded supplemental nutrition program for pregnant and postpartum women and their kids, up to age 5 [] only helps pay for certain grocery items and brands, which can often run out of stock in areas with lots of WIC participants.

Every month, Callahan gets paper vouchers that can be redeemed at the store and a corresponding shopping list through WIC. She gets her benefits in three-month increments. The vouchers are slightly larger than a paper check.

Paper WIC vouchers have been around since the program started in the 1970s. In an effort to modernize and attract more people to WIC, the USDA mandated a switch to the “preferred method” of electronic benefit cards in 2016 and set a deadline. By 2020, states and territories that didn’t already have electronic benefits had to switch.

A 2021 nationwide study in the Journal of the American Medical Association saw WIC participation increase 8% over three years in places with electronic benefits.

“What happened was we had a large enterprise-wide project across the department that incorporated the eWIC project,” said Sean Mack, WIC director for the state.

Mack said Georgia was supposed to roll out electronic WIC cards in 2020, as part of a statewide upgrade to the back end of the entire state Department of Public Health. “So when the bids came in and everything for that first round, we looked at it and the department decided we need to split this up,” Mack said. That larger project got too complicated, so eWIC was broken out on its own.”

Participants in Savannah and surrounding counties were the first in Georgia to get their debit cards this summer as part of a phased roll of the eWIC program. That area, part of the Coastal Public Health District, was chosen for its “broad swath of participants, clinics, settings and vendors,” Mack said.

Some Cook County residents object to a biomass pellet plant, according to the Albany Herald.

The Southern Environmental Law Center and Concerned Citizens of Cook County are asking a judge to revoke an air quality permit for the planned Adel plant on the grounds that the state Environmental Protection Division did not take into consideration the serious health risks that the pollution would pose to those living closest to it.

The Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings could hold a hearing on the appeal before the end of the year for what community advocates say is another industrial project that would perpetuate a legacy of environmental injustice.

The plans call for Georgia-based Spectrum Energy to build a plant capable of producing 1.3 million tons of wood pellets annually, a product that is most commonly shipped overseas where the pellets are burned to generate electricity.

About a mile away from the proposed Spectrum plant is the future home of another wood pellet manufacturer where Renewable Biomass Group plans to produce 450,000 tons of pellets annually.

“What happens when you’re processing all this wood, it produces a ton of dust in this fine particulate matter that when you breathe it in can be dangerous,” Jennifer Whitfield, an attorney for the environmental law center, said. “(Renewable’s plant) is about a mile out from this sort of dense neighborhood in Adel, but it’s kind of shocking how nestled in the community Spectrum is proposing to be.”

Located about 25 miles north of Valdosta, Adel is a small city with about 5,500 residents and a railroad track separating the white and more affluent east side from the west, where the majority of residents are minorities. The west side has a long history of pollution-producing industrial sites.

I like that note about the railroad tracks dividing the town.

Harris County schools flagged an online threat, according to WTVM.

Reports of a threat to Harris County High School (HCHS) were spotted on multiple online chat sites late Thursday night on August, 25.

HCHS administrators, Harris County School District (HCSD) administrators, and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) swiftly went to work to identify and eliminate the threat.

The school district said their top priority is to be alert and keep students safe. Officials said it appears The Harris County Sheriffs Office has contained the threat.

The school district is working with the sheriffs office and will have additional officers on campus Friday morning as classes are still in session. All School Resource Officers will be on alert.

Chatham County reports a 20 percent increase in overdose deaths, according to WTOC.

Drug overdose deaths in Chatham County are up 20 percent compared to this time last year and officials say fentanyl is to blame.

During a presentation to Chatham County Comission, Counter Narcotics Team Director Michael Sarhatt says there have been 47 drug overdose deaths. He says after the 20 percent increase compared to last year, it will most likely only get worse.

“The volume of drugs that are coming across the southwest boarder, we’ve never seen that kind of volume,” Sarhatt said.

Sarhatt says people dying by overdose are typically between ages 18 and 45. He’s visited public schools before and says he will continue spreading awareness at private schools in the community in the next few months.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney will compel Governor Brian Kemp to testify before the Fulton Grand Jury but may delay it until after the November election, according to the AJC.

[T]he Monday morning ruling from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney did say Kemp could appear before the grand jury at “some date soon after” the contentious November election.

In addition to suggesting the summons was a political move in the middle of a heated election season, the governor’s legal team argued last week that sovereign immunity prevents him from being forced to testify.

McBurney — who pointed out Thursday that Kemp is facing no accusations of criminal activity and is effectively a “victim” of any improper actions undertaken by Trump or his allies — largely sided with Willis’ office. Though his ruling did grant the Kemp camp’s request that his appearance before the special grand jury be delayed until after Nov. 8, should he be forced to testify.

“Once the election is over, the Court expects the Governor’s legal team promptly to make arrangements for his appearance,” McBurney wrote.

Democrat Stacey Abrams will host an event for deaf residents in Cave Spring, according to the Rome News Tribune.

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams starts it off with a meeting with the deaf community in Cave Spring this Sunday at 7 p.m. Guests are asked to register, and let the campaign know if they will need special accommodation. An ASL interpreter will be there. We have notes in to the campaign for the specific venue. Abrams is challenging incumbent Republican Brian Kemp.

That’s an excellent idea for a campaign event.

Abrams also spoke to the Democratic state convention in Columbus along with other Democratic candidates, according to the Associated Press via WSAV.

“We’re going to defy all the naysayers and take our state all the way back,” Abrams told delegates to the Democratic state convention Saturday. “Georgia Democrats, we’ve got unfinished business to take care of.”

“The party of Trump is a party of extremism, a party of election deniers, a party of authoritarianism,” Charlie Bailey, the nominee for lieutenant governor, said ahead of the convention.

The approach aligns with the national pitch that Biden made Thursday at a campaign rally in Maryland, where he framed voters’ choice in November as being between Democrats and Trump’s “MAGA movement,” a dominant strain of the GOP that Biden said resembles “semi-fascism.”

Bee Nguyen, a legislator challenging Raffensperger, hammers the secretary of state for his part in overhauling state voting procedures. Nguyen notes that Raffensperger, as a state lawmaker, compiled a staunchly conservative record on abortion and guns, among other matters.

“We can build a Georgia where we believe in democracy,” Nguyen told convention delegates Saturday. “You can’t gerrymander the statewide seats.”

“I’ll tell you that people are much more concerned about protecting their rights and their access to health care than anything else,” said attorney general nominee Jen Jordan, a state senator who has made her support of abortion rights a centerpiece of her bid.

Jordan talks openly of crime increases but dismisses Republicans’ effort to cast it as “an Atlanta problem” — GOP framing aimed at white voters beyond the demographically diverse and heavily Democratic city.

“It’s not an urban problem or a suburban problem. It’s a Georgia problem, and the people who have been in charge have a lot to answer for,” Jordan said.

“Standing with me is the most extraordinary ticket Georgia has ever produced,” Abrams said before she addressed the convention. “It looks like Georgia; it sounds like Georgia; it knows Georgia.”

The Ledger-Enquirer also covered the Democratic convention.

For them, the reliably-blue city is a gateway to southwestern counties that will be key come November. GOP organizers and candidates understand that every vote will be important, even in places like Columbus. The Republican National Committee opened a local field office last weekend as part of its efforts to increase voter engagement and avoid a repeat of losses in 2020 and 2021.

But picking Columbus isn’t just about [U.S. Rep. Sanford] Bishop, party leaders and elected officials said. Carolyn Hugley, a Columbus state representative and co-chair of the state party’s coordinating campaign, said that holding the convention here sends a message that all corners of the state matter.

“Columbus has a strong group of Democrats in our area, and it also signals that the Democratic Party is going to engage all areas of our state, not just the metro areas,” she said. “That’s the biggest indicator. …This is an important part of our state.”

The region is also the “gateway” to southwest Georgia, a key region for Democrats, Hugley said. The area is home to some of the state’s highest poverty rates, and Abrams has said in previous stops that its residents are often left behind.

The AJC writes about the 8th Congressional District GOP Fish Fry in Perry this past weekend.

[L]eading Republicans traveled to a fish fry in Perry, one of the birthplaces of the modern GOP renaissance. It was this fertile territory, Gov. Brian Kemp reminded his audience, where Sonny Perdue’s rise to political power blossomed two decades ago.

And in Buckhead, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz headlined a super PAC’s “Together for Truth” conference before a legion of conservatives who were pummeled with the message that the November midterm was a referendum on President Joe Biden’s agenda.

At stops around the state, Kemp ties his rival to “Biden-Abrams inflation” and other Republicans eagerly invoke the president’s name. Herschel Walker claims that U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock has done more to help Biden than he has for Georgia voters.

And at the Truth and Courage PAC’s summit, Cruz predicted Biden has unwittingly birthed a Republican “revival.”

“Every time we see some dumbass decision from this White House, part of me grieves but part of me quietly celebrates,” Cruz said. “Because it is accelerating the process of peoples’ eyes opening up and people coming back.”

The LIBRE Initiative says that Hispanic Georgians are being affected by inflation, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

The LIBRE Initiative, a national group with a Georgia presence, recently descended on a supermarket in Smyrna to meet with residents, share their perspectives on the benefits of limited government and hand out $48.27 gift cards, which the group said represents about half a week of inflation for a family of four.

Q: What’s the most significant concern people are sharing?

A: “The biggest concern that they’re facing is that they’re paralyzed. They’re paralyzed because Hispanics, on average, tend to make less than the average Americans. I would say less than $50,000 a year for a family of four.”

“They’re having to choose [between] buying groceries or filling up their car. … They’re spending all their money to survive right now, so there’s no investment, there’s no 401k, there’s no savings, they’re just trying to make do.”

Q: Is there anything state lawmakers can do?

A: “When it comes to immigration, at least, one thing that we’re … advocating for is House Bill 120. Here in Georgia, it’s for DACA recipients to … qualify for in-state tuition. You have people that have lived here their entire lives, and they have to pay out-of-state tuition. We just want to make sure that they have the same opportunity.”

United States Representative Buddy Carter (R-Pooler) and his Democratic opponent discussed federal loan forgiveness, according to The Brunswick News.

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, the Republican incumbent, considers it a bad investment. Wade Herring, the Savannah Democrat trying to unseat the five-term House member, appreciates the president’s action.

“Woke universities don’t need $300 billion in taxpayer dollars, especially when they continue to raise tuition even as the value of a four-year degree declines,” Carter said. “Workers are being crushed by inflation, and instead of helping the lowest 10% of income earners, Biden is throwing taxpayer dollars at the highest 10%.”

“This is one of the worst dollar-for-dollar investments we could possibly make in our country.”

“On student debt, Carter’s playing politics as usual, making accusations without offering solutions,” Herring said. “Carter does not want to help working families. The student-debt forgiveness plan is a reasonable, common-sense start to help end a financial crisis that locks people into poverty.”

Atlanta Municipal Court judge Terrine Gundy was suspended for 90 days by the Supreme Court of Georgia, according to the AJC.

The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered Atlanta Municipal Court Judge Terrinee Gundy receive a public reprimand and be suspended 90 days without pay for ethical lapses.

The decision notes that, from September 2015 to February 2018, Gundy often showed up late to work, including well after she was supposed to be presiding over court hearings. She also was accused of “excessive absenteeism,” missing work 122 days from January 2016 through July 2018.

Gundy was also accused of taking steps to conceal her tardiness and absenteeism and misleading the state judicial watchdog agency’s investigative panel, the court said.

The ruling also notes that because Gundy refused to allow six defendants to be brought to her courtroom from the jail in March 2017, they remained incarcerated for several days after they should have been released.

Georgia Court of Appeals Chief Judge Brian Rickman spoke to Rotarians about the court, according to the Albany Herald.

“I think one of the easiest ways to describe it is we’re the replay booth,” Chief Judge Brian Rickman said. “Local judges are like the referees, making calls in real time. We get to slow things down and review, (providing) an extra level for citizens to appeal what happens in your local trial courts.”

The court doesn’t review the facts of individual cases, but makes its rulings on the law, said the judge, who was appointed to the court by then-Gov. Nathan Deal in 2015 and sworn in as chief judge in June 2021. Cases reviewed by the court can range from shoplifting to multimillion-dollar civil cases.

“They’re all interesting,” said Rickman, who was in Albany with fellow Court of Appeals Judge and former Dougherty County District Attorney Ken Hodges on Thursday to visit the courthouse and speak at a Rotary Club meeting. “The main thing on appeals is we’re not supposed to substitute our judgment for the trial judge’s. We’re a court for correction of errors.”

For Rickman, it’s important for courts to stay clear of politics.
“I think one of the things we need to do is let the public know we are nonpartisan and letting the people know what we do,” he said. “We don’t exist without the trust of the public.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation pays millions annually to subsidize commercial air service to Macon, according to the Center Square via the Albany Herald.

The Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon receives nearly $4.7 million annually — or more than $19.5 million over four years and two months — as part of the Alternate Essential Air Service program. AEAS is similar to the Essential Air Service program, which Congress created in 1978, except that the money may go to a community instead of directly to an air carrier.

“A couple hundred dollar per passenger airline subsidy is not in the public interest,” Marc Scribner, senior transportation policy analyst for the Reason Foundation, told The Center Square. “Reforming the Essential Air Service would be good for both taxpayers and the environment.”

“Macon is just over an hour’s drive from the most frequently traveled airport in the world in Atlanta,” Scribner added. “With Macon and dozens of others, Congress should consider replacing the Essential Air Service … with coach bus feeder service in communities within 150 air miles of a hub airport. This could cut taxpayer costs by more than two-thirds and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly three-quarters.”

Muscogee County Sheriff’s Deputies and federal agents arrested an alleged gang member, according to WTVM.

On Aug. 26, authorities performed a felony arrest warrant for Torrence “Bookie” Hill.

Hill was previously convicted in 2007 for running one of the most extensive drug operations in the Fountain City in the early 2000′s.

Hill’s recent warrants included a felony probation violation and conspiracy to distribute cocaine that the Drug Enforcement Administration issued.

Deputies and officers arrested the suspect and transported him to the Muscogee County Jail.

The Gwinnett County Board of Elections will host six events to hire poll workers for November, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

“Citizens who want to be involved in the electoral process are invited to attend one of Gwinnett County’s upcoming poll official hiring events,” county officials said in an announcement. “The Gwinnett Voter Registrations and Elections Division is looking for citizens of all backgrounds, but especially needs bilingual poll officials.”

Anyone interested in serving as a poll worker must be a U.S. citizen who is at least 16-years-old and capable of reading, writing and speaking English. County officials said candidates must also be a Gwinnett County resident or a Gwinnett County government employee.

They will also be required to have access to a computer so they can complete required online training.

Some Adel residents are complaining of billing issues with municipal utilities, according to WALB.

Several people in Adel are angry about their recent utility bills. So much so that over 50 people packed out a recent city council meeting to voice their frustrations.

Several Adel Residents told WALB News 10 that they didn’t have a utility bill for months. And now, the city is proposing a plan they don’t think is fair at all.

The city began a new program where all the utilities are bundled together.

“We hadn’t got a bill since September of last year,” said Altheia Paige, a concerned resident. “So, it went eight months, and what they were saying was that they could not provide any information because it was lost.”

“I mean at this point, y’all charging a late fee close to $100 when y’all late 8 months,” said Janice Reddick, another concerned resident. “How y’all late eight months? Give us some credit.”

I’d say that’s a valid point.

Glynn County and the City of Brunswick reached a preliminary agreement on dividing Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) proceeds, according to The Brunswick News.

As proposed, Glynn County will receive 73% of local option sales tax, or LOST, and Brunswick will receive 27% starting Jan 1., 2023. It is the same percentage the city and county commissions agreed to in 2012.

Glynn County will continue to provide traffic signal maintenance and animal control services within the city for the next 10-year period, the release states, while Brunswick will return to operating its own recreation program, effective no later than Sept. 1, 2023.

All 159 counties in Georgia are able to levy a 1% local option sales tax. Revenue must by law be split between governments within the county based on population, but municipal governments can negotiate for a higher cut.

Negotiations occur every 10 years. All parties must come to an agreement or enter arbitration.

Savannah City Council voted to appeal a decision of Effingham County that may affect water quality, according to the Savannah Morning News.

“A nearby jurisdiction took the opportunity not only to rezone but get a variance to place warehouses 25 feet upstream from everyone’s water source,” Alderman Nick Palumbo said at the Aug. 25 council meeting. “So what happens in the warehouse, may be coming soon to a tap near you.”

The property in question is a 130-acre parcel off Old Augusta Road near the Chatham-Effingham county line that was rezoned from agriculture to industrial to make way for an industrial park.

The property abuts one owned by the City of Savannah, which is used to house its drinking water intake plant on Abercorn Creek. The water pulled from the site is processed in Chatham County, before going to homes in Chatham, Effingham and Bryan counties.

Chatham County is negotiating a severance package for suspended County Manager Lee Smith, according to WTOC.

It’s been two weeks since Chairman Ellis told WTOC they were beginning severance negotiations with Lee Smith who is suspended from the county manager position with pay.

“We are still in the negotiation stage, still in the talking stage so we had an offer and a counter offer so we’ll be meeting this week with his attorney and with Lee Smith and we’ll go from there,” said Chairman Ellis.

Ellis says he’s been advised not to explain the reason for Smith’s suspension.

“I’m being continuously cautioned by the attorneys. There are certain things that I cannot say because they are personnel and that’s one of them…as to the why.”

Tybee Island City Council voted to extend its moratorium on new short-term vacation rentals (STVRs), according to the Savannah Morning News.

The narrow 3-2 vote will take the ban on issuing new STVR permits to properties in the island’s residential neighborhoods over the one year mark until the end of October.

Over the next few weeks, the city will continue to revise the city ordinance governing the operation of STVRs on the island and present the reworked ordinance for the first reading at their Sept. 22 meeting. The second reading, which will codify the new ordinance, is expected on Oct. 13.

Thursday night’s decision incensed vacation rental companies, realtors and some property owners who say that Tybee is stifling the tourism industry and infringing on property rights.

Sea turtles set a new record for nesting on Tybee Island, according to WTOC.

Sea turtle nesting season ends Wednesday, Aug. 31, and volunteers have had their hands full. They say they broke the previous record with 35 nests this year and they couldn’t be happier.