Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for December 15, 2015

On December 15, 1791, Virginia ratified the Bill of Rights, giving the first ten Amendments a three-quarter majority required to become law.

On December 15, 1859, Georgia Governor Joseph Brown signed legislation outlawing public execution of criminals. The previous day he signed legislation prohibiting slave owners from freeing their slaves on the owner’s death.

President Jimmy Carter announced on December 15, 1978 that U.S. diplomatic recognition of the People’s Republic of China would begin on January 1, 1979.

The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee released a report on Dcember 15, 1998 that recommended impeachment against President Bill Clinton and introduced H.Res. 611.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

In Henry County, the Mayor of Stockbridge, Tim Thompson, left office after a City Council session devolved into a discussion of his temper.

Back in March, Thompson was accused of threatening to fight the mayor pro tem in the parking lot.

The City Council ordered an investigation and asked Thompson to undergo anger management courses. He says he met with his pastors, starting the day after.

“I didn’t really go about it the right way. For that, I’m extremely sorry,” Thompson said.

Monday evening, former and future council members gave harsh critiques of the mayor.

Thompson told 11Alive he resigned because of a hostile environment at the city.

After he announced his resignation, Thompson said, “All I ever wanted was the best for the City of Stockbridge,” but added, “I got my life back.”

Thompson was supposed to be the city’s mayor until 2017, according to the City of Stockbridge’s website.

Governor Nathan Deal received the 2015 Champion of Justice Award from the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association. Writing for the AJC Political Insider, Greg Bluestein contextualized the relationship between GTLA and Republicans,

Trial lawyers enthusiastically supported some of his biggest legislative initiatives, including his criminal justice overhauls.

The association’s president, Darren Penn, cited his support for legislation that gives child sexual abuse victims more time to pursue civil lawsuits against their abusers and “a strong track record of appointing highly-qualified judges” to openings.

Penn said there’s another reason for the show of support for Georgia’s top Republican: The trial lawyers association has become more bipartisan as GOP rule became more entrenched here.

Former State House Majority Leader Larry Walker wrote an open letter to his son, Larry Walker, III, who was recently elected to the State Senate. It should be required reading for all newly-elected officials.

Georgia Democrats continue to struggle to field a 2016 candidate against United States Senator Johnny Isakson, according to an article out of McClatchey’s Washington operation.

 “To even have a chance to unseat him, they would need to run someone that’s a quality challenger,” said M.V. Hood, a political science professor at the University of Georgia. “Someone that’s got political experience, elected office-holding experience – and it doesn’t look like they have anyone who wants to jump into the fray.”

Potential Democratic challengers who’ve passed on the chance to challenge Isakson include state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, state Reps. Stacey Evans and Margaret Kaiser, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Hood thinks viable Democratic candidates may be simply waiting to run for an open seat. “They’re waiting for a better opportunity. That’s not uncommon,” he said.

But part of their reluctance could stem from Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn’s 8 percentage point loss to Republican David Perdue in 2014, said Jennifer Duffy, senior editor at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

“I think the problem they face is, ‘If Michelle Nunn can’t win, then who can win?’ That makes recruiting really hard,” Duffy said.

Howard Franklin, a Democratic strategist in Atlanta, expects a slight dropoff among Georgia’s black voters next year without Obama on the ballot. But “the combination of direct mail, urban radio and telephone calls has proven effective at bringing black voter turnout in line with other ethnic groups, regardless of whether the White House is in play,” Franklin said in an email.

Duffy said it’s no coincidence that Democrats are courting a number of black candidates to run against Isakson, in hopes of replicating Georgia’s strong black turnout in 2008 and 2012. But Franklin said ethnicity alone won’t be enough.

“In 2014, Georgia Democrats fielded a historic statewide ticket featuring five African-American women – the backbone of the Democratic coalition – but it didn’t translate into success at the polls. Candidates still have to raise impressive sums, build a statewide apparatus and offer voters a clear choice on Election Day,” Franklin wrote.

I would argue that the lesson of 2014 and of the 2015 election in HD 80, the most heavily-contested race between a Democrat and a Republican this year, is that a candidate without prior political experience may be the best candidate.

Whenever state legislators have dollar signs in their eyes and Scrooge McDuck fantasies of swimming through the state coffers, you can assume we’re all about to get Scrooge McDucked.

That’s what it looks like to me when lawmakers are debating tax rates on casino gambling before addressing the merits of legalizing it. From WABE,

 Casinos will likely pay Georgia more than the 12 percent tax on gross gaming income included in pending legislation (House Bill 677) that would change the state constitution to allow casino gambling.

State Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah), the main sponsor of the legislation, said he’s worried a high tax rate could scare away the big-name casinos.

“You don’t get the reinvestment back into the facilities to keep it looking fresh and to keep people coming,” he said.

Stephens acknowledged that the 12 percent rate is negotiable.

“I believe 12 and 25 percent is the correct number and we all need to decide what that number is going to be.”

State Rep. Stacey Evans (D-Smyrna) is behind a push to expand scholarship programs with casino tax money.

She said the tax rate in the current legislation needs to change.

“I don’t know what it’s going to be. I’m not going to pretend to sit here and know the answer. But it’s higher than 12,” she said.

That’s how I know the legislature is more likely to legalize casino gambling than growing cannabis – they’re talking about how much to tax casinos but not cannabis.

Four candidates so far are campaigning to replace Dawson County Sheriff Billy Carlisle, who is not seeking reelection, according to BigCanoeNews.com.

The candidates are Jeff Johnson, Tony Wooten, Frank Sosebee and Jeff Perry.

Jeff Johnson has been a county resident for over 31 years. He is married to Lisa Hodge of Dawson County and they have two children together.

“As a county resident for over 31 years, I have invested interest in our people, our county, and our safety. This is where I work, where I worship and where I play,” said Johnson.

Johnson has nearly 23 years of experience serving in both a Sheriff’s Office and Police Department capacity.

Hit the full article for more on all of the candidates, but it’s a strong field. I totalled up 98 years of law enforcement among the four candidates.

State Senator Michael Williams (R-Forsyth County) will hold a Town Hall meeting at West Forsyth High School on January 11, 2016 at 7 PM.

State Senator Josh McKoon (R-Columbus) has pre-filed legislation to put on the statewide ballot a Constitutional Amendment affirming English as the official language of Georgia state government.

English is the tie that binds us as Americans and is the indisputable language of success in the United States. This idea has been sound public policy in our state for over a decade,” said Sen. McKoon. “All this resolution would do is strengthen what our state’s position currently is and commit that position to our state constitution.”

Georgia passed a bill declaring English the official language during the 1996 legislative session. The resolution would add an amendment to the state constitution reinforcing the measure as the official language of the state government. A constitutional amendment would require voter ratification after being passed by the House and Senate.

The resolution requires that state records, services and official notices be maintained in English. Other languages may be used in many instances outlined in the measure including protecting public health, crime victims and criminal defendants as well as teaching English.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp has released a report on how the agency released 12 CDs containing personal information about all registered voters in Georgia.

The 30-page report is the fullest accounting yet from Kemp’s office after a lawsuit filed last month revealed nearly 6.2 million voters’ Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and birth dates had been released to media outlets and political parties.

The report, produced by two of Kemp’s deputies, faulted an employee in the office’s Information Technology Division for violating policies and procedures, being unclear with a contractor and giving another employee his login to access a file containing voters’ information.

Gov. Nathan Deal also signed an executive order Monday appointing three private-practice lawyers as special attorneys general representing Kemp in the lawsuit filed by two Georgia voters. No cost estimate was provided.

Deal’s executive order said Attorney General Sam Olens and the Georgia Department of Law declined to represent Kemp “due to the potential conflict of interest.” A spokesman for Olens said the office’s consumer protection responsibilities could cause a conflict.

Georgia officials have a new vendor for mailing out car tag renewal notices, thought the first batches won’t include the traditional blue return envelopes, according to the Macon Telegraph.

The state Department of Revenue’s Motor Vehicles Division has contracted with a new vendor to print out the notices that are mailed out as reminders to update registration. Since September, many vehicle owners in Georgia had not been receiving notices after World Marketing, the company that printed them, shut down.

Bibb County Tax Commissioner Wade McCord said he was notified by state officials that people with January birthdays could have their notices mailed out this week.

The Georgia Baptist Convention opposes opening in-state growing of cannabis to provide CBD-oil to Georgia patients allowed the drug, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen.

Mike Griffin said he doesn’t believe that lawmakers are trying to pave the way for recreational marijuana use.

Even so, the spokesman for the Georgia Baptist Convention fears it will happen if cannabis is legally grown in Georgia, which he calls an “incremental step” toward liberalized drug laws.

“Cultivation of marijuana in our state, even for medical purposes, pushes us to a line that will be impossible to maintain,” Griffin, who is also a pastor, said Wednesday to the state’s Commission on Medical Cannabis.

The first right whale calves of the season have been spotted with one mother and calf off the coast of Georgia and another pair off the coast of Florida.

A whale nicknamed Harmony was resting and nursing her calf 10 miles east of Jekyll Island on Thursday, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission aerial survey crew reported. The team saw the other pair near St. Augustine, just a mile and a half off Ponte Vedra on the same day.

Scientists estimate there are as few as 465 right whales remaining, making them among the rarest marine mammals in the world. Every winter, pregnant females travel more than 1,000 miles from their feeding grounds off Canada and New England to the coastal waters of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida’s east coast. Here right whales give birth and nurse their young. The mother whales are about the size of a school bus; the newborns are closer to car-sized. Last season, researchers documented 17 newborn calves.

The population of these critically endangered animals appeared to increasing slowly, but documented births have trailed off over the last five years to an average of 15 a year; that number was 24 a year in the prior decade. Also, fewer nonpregnant whales seem to be traveling to Georgia and Florida. Researchers counted nearly 200 of these other whales in years past.

As they did last year, Georgia researchers plan to tag up to five whales with satellite tags. If they’re successful, the public may be able to follow the whales’ journeys online with a DNR-supported website similar to a popular shark tracking site.

In 1985, a joint resolution of the General Assembly designated the Right Whale the Official Marine Mammal of Georgia.

Train enthusiasts in Macon are working to restore a steam locomotive that has stood in Central City Park and have it under steam by the 100th Anniversary of Macon’s Terminal Station in October of next year.

In 509’s heyday in the 1900s, the train was operated by Central of Georgia Railroad, a name that remains intact on the side of the locomotive.

Macon-Bibb Mayor Robert Reichert said Friday that its a significant undertaking to restore a train like the 509 and that he hopes the nonprofit can pull it through.