Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for December 12, 2023

Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the Constitution on December 12, 1787.

Guglielmo Marconi completed the first transatlantic radio transmission from Cornwall, England to Newfoundland on December 12, 1901.

Jimmy Carter announced he would run for President of the United States on December 12, 1974.

Dickey Betts, guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band, was born on December 12, 1943.

The United States Supreme Court released its decision in Bush v. Gore on December 12, 2000, stopping manual recounts of contested ballots in Florida.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

DeKalb County Board of Education Chair Diijon DaCosta had a medical emergency in a BOE meeting, according to the AJC.

DaCosta was mid-sentence during a regular board meeting when he slumped over in his seat. Other board members and Superintendent Devon Horton came to his side and called for medical help.

“Mr. DaCosta experienced a medical emergency and was transported to an area medical facility for further evaluation,” a district spokesperson said after the meeting resumed.

DaCosta was first elected to the school board in 2018.

Potential candidates for newly-drawn legislative seats are waiting to hear whether U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones will approve the new maps, according to the AJC.

Now [Cobb County Commissioner Jerica] Richardson and other office seekers — along with millions of Georgia voters — are in a state of limbo after Republicans seemed to defy the judge’s order and instead opened what could be a longer-term legal battle over the federal Voting Rights Act.

The new maps that Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law last week create a new majority-Black district in west metro Atlanta as ordered by U.S. District Judge Steve Jones — but at the expense of a majority-minority seat based in Gwinnett County’s that’s held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath.

And while Democrats express confidence that Jones will toss out the congressional maps after a hearing next week, they are less optimistic about what could happen next, when the decision is reviewed by a conservative-leaning federal appeals court.

“I got into this to deliver some real benefits to voters,” Richardson said on “Politically Georgia” on WABE. “But it’s hard for me to answer questions on maps that I don’t think are going to hold. I don’t think they pass the sniff test.”

There could be even less clarity about state legislative races, since state law requires legislators to live in their districts a year before an election. That means it’s already too late for any candidates to move to another district to compete.

“We are locked in limbo, and the people who are most impacted right now are the voters of Georgia,” said Erick Allen, a former state legislator who chairs the Cobb Democratic Party.

“As for candidates, everyone is in a holding pattern,” Allen said. “They don’t know where to campaign, who to call, who to add to their Christmas lists.”

I wonder if there is a point at which legal wrangling over district lines will affect the timing of the May 21, 2024 General Primary Election.

A report from the University of Georgia predicts the state will experience slower economic growth, according to AccessWDUN.

UGA’s Selig Center for Economic Growth, which is a part of the Terry College of Business, held its annual Georgia Economic Outlook Monday at the Georgia Aquarium. The University said Georgia’s GDP is expected to increase by 1.1% in 2024, down from 3% in 2023. However, the state is expected to continue to outpace the national GDP growth rate, which forecasters project to be 0.8% in 2024.

“Georgia is well positioned to weather an economic slowdown and our economy will outperform the U.S. economy,” Terry College of Business Dean Ben Ayers told the crowd gathered at Atlanta’s Georgia Aquarium for the kickoff of the 2024 Georgia Economic Outlook series. “The build-out of many large projects in the economic development pipeline and favorable demographics are the main reasons why Georgia will fare better than the nation.”

Ayers said there is about a 33% probability that Georgia will slip into a recession in 2024, compared to around 50% across the U.S. The number of jobs will rise by 0.7% in 2024, which is slower compared to the 2.3% gain estimated for Georgia in 2023 but higher than the national job growth rate of 0.3%.

Economists predict Georgia’s unemployment rate will only hit 4% in 2024 compared to the 3.4% average in 2023.

Additionally, inflation is expected to dip to 2.5% in the second half of 2024.

From the AJC:

“The state of Georgia will experience an economic slowdown, but the good news is that we are not projecting a recession,” he said.

Not that a downturn is impossible, Ayers said: “Chances of a recession are one-in-three. We think a ‘soft landing’ is more likely than not.”

The Federal Reserve’s campaign of rate hikes, aimed at taming inflation, has made borrowing more expensive for households and business. With inflation dropping, but still higher than the Fed would like, those rates aren’t rising, but they are not coming down either.

That means less energetic hiring and more trouble paying bills.

Higher mortgage rates have chilled the housing market, so even with few homes on the market, average home prices are likely to drop this year, according to the forecast. With so many people working remotely at least part of the week, vacancies in office space are rising.

The greatest dangers to the Georgia economy may come from far-off geopolitical events like the war in Ukraine or an expanded Middle East war that disrupts oil shipments and sends energy prices soaring. But unless those kind of crises spin out of control, the Georgia economy should skirt disaster, according to the UGA prediction.

After several years of robust hiring and higher wages, virtually all the signals from companies and consumers will show a deceleration without reversing those gains, Ayers said. “We expect late payments and bankruptcies will increase but only to the levels we saw before the pandemic.”

Local legislators discussed redistricting at the Golden Isles Republican Women’s Club, according to The Brunswick News.

State Sen. Mike Hodges, R-St. Simons Island, explained the voting district lines approved by the Republican-controlled legislature had to be redrawn after a judge ruled the new voting boundaries violated federal voting rights act regulations.

Hodges and other state lawmakers representing Glynn County spoke Monday at the Golden Isles Republican Women’s Club meeting to discuss the special session and the legislative session that begins in January.

“We did what the judge asked us to do,” Hodges said. “Had we not done what he asked, the judge would have done it for us.”

Hodges cautioned while the expectation is all three maps will be approved, it’s possible one or more may be rejected and a special master will have to be appointed to redraw the lines.

State Rep. Rick Townsend, R-St. Simons Island, said he was disappointed some metro-Atlanta state lawmakers walked out of the special session before the vote.

During the upcoming session, Townsend wants to expand pre-K programs to help more children reach the important education milestone of being able to read at grade level by the third grade and expand STEM education programs in schools.

He is also pushing for legislation that will move the supplement kratom behind the counter at stores statewide and raise the minimum age to purchase it to 21 years old. A new Glynn County ordinance now requires kratom to be sold behind the counter.

State Rep. Steven Sainz, R-St. Marys, whose district includes all of Camden County and parts of South Glynn County, including all of Jekyll Island, said he believes the voting district lines were redrawn fairly.

“All ballots need protection,” he said.

“State income tax elimination is the ultimate goal,” [Rep. Sainz] said.

Georgia State Rep. Carl Gilliard (D-Garden City) writes about Medicare Advantage in a letter to the editor published in the Savannah Morning News.

As Georgia legislators continue working to ensure access to health care for minority and rural communities, we need the continued support of our representatives in Washington to support the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. MA plans are incredibly beneficial for those who are underserved by traditional Medicare or other healthcare plans. They provide high-quality plans with affordable monthly premium payments – the average 2023 premium is $18, which is a 16-year low. According to a report by Better Medicare Alliance, MA beneficiaries pay $2,400 – or 44% less than traditional Medicare beneficiaries – in out-of-pocket costs and premiums each year.

Medicare Advantage continues to reach underprivileged communities with a wide variety of plans. Medicare Advantage plans can offer supplemental benefits such as dental or vision care, and 97% of plans offer telehealth benefits, which are crucial for rural Georgians who live far away from their nearest provider.

Medicare-eligible beneficiaries are speaking up in large numbers by continuing to choose Medicare Advantage over traditional Medicare, and Congress should listen by supporting this immensely popular program and bolstering the future of affordable health care.

Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones’s (R-Jackson) office announced they held mobile office hours in all 159 Georgia counties, according to the Albany Herald.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones recently announced that the three field representatives assigned to hold mobile office hours throughout Georgia have hosted meetings in all 159 counties. The newly created Statewide Field Representative Program was announced in February, shortly after Jones took office.

The program and mobile office hours, including extended hours in partnership with state agencies and community groups, will continue in 2024. Each representative has held weekly mobile office hours throughout their assigned regions. The representatives are available to respond to constituent requests and questions.

“I want to thank our field representatives, constituent services team, state and local officials, and everyone who partnered with our staff to host mobile office hours throughout Georgia,” Jones said in a news release. “The program was started to support our constituent services office at the Capitol because we recognize that constituent issues are not uniform across our counties, cities, and local communities.”

“This program will continue in 2024 as we implement additional services to ensure we serve all of Georgia’s citizens.”

Georgia’s Secretary of State’s office wants a state Constitutional Amendment to ban non-citizens from voting, according to WRDW.

“With open borders, citizenship verification for voter registration is more important than ever,” Raffensperger said. “Organizations like the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda are currently suing to end critical citizenship verification in our registration process, potentially exposing our elections to foreign interference, and diluting the power of legally registered voters.”

Raffensperger told the [Congressional January 6th] committee the Nov. 6, 2020, election went “remarkably smooth,” with average ballot-casting wait times between two to three minutes statewide.

The SOS Office also wants to buy ballot code readers for every precinct, according to the AJC.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is asking legislators for $4.7 million to buy devices to allow voters to verify that computer codes printed on their ballots accurately reflect their choices.

The technology would be available in every Georgia voting location so skeptical voters could confirm that QR codes match the printed text on ballots before they’re scanned and counted.

Election integrity advocates have said QR codes prevent human verification of ballots and could be manipulated by hackers, though there’s no evidence that has ever happened in an election.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Blake Tillery said election officials should consider removing QR codes from ballots entirely and instead scan them like standardized tests.

Savannah City Council will consider revisions to the Historic District regulations, according to WSAV.

Savannah City Council is thinking about adding additional steps when it comes to changes to zoning, but some say this new process could be a violation of personal property rights.

The city’s goal is to avoid alterations to the original city plan created by James Oglethorpe.

“I know the council members including myself have a lot of big questions like what problem is this trying to solve, is this the best route to get there and how does this intercept with personal property rights and will this benefit our landmark historic district,” District 4 Alderman Nick Palumbo explained.

The new amendment would require residents to essentially ask for permission from a separate review board if you own property and want to subdivide it, meaning separate your home into two separate entities like a duplex, or if you own two separate properties and want to recombine them like a carriage house and your family home, you would have to do the same.

The proposed amendment was created in response to concerns about a lot located at 336 Barnard where a three-story building is being built in place of what used to be a single-story apartment building. The parcel where the home is being built was subdivided from the lot of a Downtown Savannah home facing Charlton St.

“We are trying to solve some very tight issues that are popping up from time to time about the facing and orientation of buildings specifically in the historic district we were put on the threatened list a couple of years ago and the city of Savannah has been working overtime to turn that around and get back to satisfactory,” Palumbo told News 3.

There will be a city council meeting next Thursday to vote on the amendment. If the amendment is approved, it will go into effect in the new year.

Dougherty County Commissioners will consider legislation to address zoning and blighted properties, according to WALB.

The county ordinances haven’t been updated since 1986. That is why Commissioner Chair for District 5 Gloria Gaines called this meeting.

According to Advancing Georgia’s Counties, best practices include updating the ordinances once every five to 10 years and keeping codes current with the times. The first two areas that Commissioner Gaines wants to tackle are zoning and vegetation control.

“How do we use our ordinances to create a better living environment for our citizens? And that call went out and we have a list that we will pass on to our legal consultants and they will have a look at it and try to help us try to codify some of the updates,” Gaines said.

“For example, you have heard about code enforcement because blight is an issue that they want to address. And so we have gathered information from board staff and we are going to continue gathering information from other stakeholders. And we will likely engage a consultant,” [County Attorney Alex] Shalishali said.

“We have a lot of problems with maintaining properties around here, vacant properties around here, maintaining yards with animals that are out of control. With junk cards and that kind of stuff,” Gaines said.

The commission is also considering tougher fines for owners that allow weeds to grow out of control on their properties. And regulation on junk vehicles that are stored on front lawns.

Bibb County will install six new speed cameras in school zones, according to 13WMAZ.

Speed limit cameras were first installed in the fall of last year to catch drivers going too fast in the county’s school zones.

Now, new speed limit cameras are coming to six school zones here in Bibb County, and folks say it’s all about who they’re slowing down for.

According to the county, because it hasn’t been a full year since cameras at the current schools were activated, they could not say how many speeding tickets been handed out.

The cameras go live on Jan. 4, but for the first month, they’ll only issue warnings. Full enforcement will begin on Feb. 5.

It’s important to remember, the school zone speed cameras actively enforce the reduced limit on school days when classes are in session. From one hour before school starts until one hour after dismissal.

Flashing lights in a school zone indicate the reduced limit, but the cameras also enforce the regular, non-flashing limit in the middle of the school day.

Valdosta school zone speed cameras are coming online also, according to WALB.

In January 2024, the school zone speed cameras will be up and running in Valdosta, and speeders will be getting citations. Those cameras will be running near three elementary schools.

A study conducted in 2022 found that S.L. Mason and Pinevale Elementary both had an average of over 200 students crossing a day, with over 125 violations recorded. W.G. Nunn is where the third camera will be placed, and there was an average of 150 children crossing a day with 114 violations recorded.

Citations will only be issued from one hour before school, throughout the school day, to one hour after, only when school is in session. Police citations won’t be issued outside of these hours.

“We are hoping to get people’s attention,” Valdosta Police Chief Leslie Manahan said. “Our whole purpose is to change behavior, and if you know you’re speeding through there, and you get a citation, you’re going to remember next time don’t speed through that area. That’s the goal.”

According to the Valdosta Police Department, citations will begin on January 8, 2024, for the camera at S.L. Mason Elementary School.

Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson released a letter reacting to results of an audit, according to WTVM.

In the statement, the mayor says after the Internal Auditor for CCG indicated that over $45 million of unprocessed transactional activity “has not been banked,” he requested Deputy City Manager Pam Hodge and Finance Director Angelica Alexander to review the supporting documents for verification.

As a result, the deputy city manager informed Henderson of evidence of bank statements, deposit slips and canceled checks showing the transactional activity had been deposited into city accounts.

Hodge clarified that while a small portion of businesses have not received their city license, payments have been put into city accounts.

“At last week’s council meeting, the Internal Auditor for the Columbus Consolidated Government indicated that $45.1M of unprocessed transactional activity “has not been banked”. As Mayor, I requested that Deputy City Manager Pam Hodge and Finance Director Angelica Alexander review the supporting documentation of the Internal Auditor and verify whether the amounts contained in the supplemental attachment had, in fact, been deposited into city accounts. As a result of this request, I have been informed by Deputy City Manager Hodge that the transactional activity identified by the Internal Auditor has been deposited into city accounts as evidenced by bank statements, deposit slips and cancelled checks. DCM Hodge further clarified that while a small percentage of businesses have yet to receive their city license, payments received have been deposited into city accounts.” [said Henderson’s statement.]

New Guyton Mayor Andy Harville discussed how he will work with City Council, according to the Savannah Morning News.

“I had faith in the citizens of Guyton to get me in that position,” said Harville. “I reached out to all the citizens. I have always been a personable person and they understand where I am coming from. I had confidence in myself to win this position.”

In 2019, Harville ran for an open seat in city council but was defeated by Hursula Pelote. He had a brief stint in the planning and zoning department before running for council again in 2022, but would go on to lose against Michael Johnson. Still, something kept driving Harville to pursue politics.

“The passion is what carried me over and caring for the citizens and wanting to do what’s right,” said Harville. “I don’t let past things affect me. I’ve learned a lot and there is still going to be a learning process.”

According to Harville, the town he grew up in was marred by decision-making in city hall. He publicly slammed Deen on social media but is confident he can find a common ground with the rest of the administration in city hall.

“You have to take away the aspect of being a citizen versus a coworker,” said Harville. “I think when we get behind the scenes, we will be able to see what’s going on. It’s going to be a rebuilding process between the people that work there. We can work together and get things worked out. I’ve always been willing to work with other people.”

Hall County Magistrate Court Judge Andy Maddox announced he is running for the Hall County State Court seat being vacated by John Breakfield, who is running for Superior Court, according to AccessWDUN.

“I have a long history of experience serving this community, and a track record that proves my dedication to the rule of law and fundamental fairness,” Maddox said in a statement Monday. “I know Hall County, I care about the people here, and I will leverage my experience across the court system in a way that truly honors this position. I am running for State Court to give back to this community that I love.”

Maddox will face fellow Hall County Magistrate Court Judge Brian Heck in the 2024 non-partisan election.

Columbia County Chief Superior Court Judge James G. Blanchard Jr. will retire after the end of the year, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

When Blanchard was about 14 or 15 years old, he watched a jury trial as part of a school civics event. It was during that trial he decided what he wanted to do in life.

“Carl Sanders, who eventually became governor, was a lawyer in the trial and I was just amazed at what he did,” Blanchard said. “I said, ‘I’d really like to do that.’”

After his father, a Columbia County commission chairman, passed away, his father’s friends encouraged him to run to fulfill his seat. Blanchard was elected and served from 1973 to 1976.

He continued practicing law until he was appointed to the bench by then-Governor Roy Barnes on Jan. 1, 2002.

Blanchard had a strong hand in the creation of accountability court in 2007, which includes drug court, behavioral court, parental accountability court and veterans court.

The courts are designed to save taxpayers money by giving those facing jail time an opportunity to turn their lives around, with strict surveillance.

Blanchard first saw a judge in Buffalo, New York start a large veterans court and thought it was a great idea. Veterans court helps veterans who may be homeless, suffering from drug addiction or PTSD, get rehabilitated. They are supported by other veterans who can relate to the struggles they may be facing.

“We try to help any veteran that has a problem, because they paid the price for us,” Blanchard said. “They’ve seen things you and I would never believe and it haunts them – many come back with post traumatic stress disorder. We also see veterans with traumatic brain injuries after that fourth, fifth or sixth roadside bomb goes off.”