Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for December 8, 2017

Solomon’s Masonic Lodge, the first in Georgia, was organized on December 10, 1735. Upon his return to the colony, James Oglethorpe would join the group.

Patriots captured liberated Virginia on December 9, 1775 as militias from Virginia and North Carolina defeated the redcoats at Great Bridge.

John Jay was elected President of the Continental Congress on December 10, 1778.

Emory College was incorporated on December 10, 1836, as Governor William Schley signed legislation chartering the school.

On December 10, 1850, a special convention met in Milledgeville to determine the state’s reaction to the Compromise of 1850, a series of five bills passed in Congress attempting to deal with issues between slave states and free states.

The [Georgia] platform established Georgia’s conditional acceptance of the Compromise of 1850. Much of the document followed a draft written by Charles Jones Jenkins and represented a collaboration between Georgia Whigs and moderate Democrats dedicated to preserving the Union. In effect, the proclamation accepted the measures of the compromise so long as the North complied with the Fugitive Slave Act and would no longer attempt to ban the expansion of slavery into new territories and states. Northern contempt for these conditions, the platform warned, would make secession inevitable.

This qualified endorsement of the Compromise of 1850 essentially undermined the movement for immediate secession throughout the South. Newspapers across the nation credited Georgia with saving the Union.

President Abraham Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction on December 8, 1863.

First, it allowed for a full pardon for and restoration of property to all engaged in the rebellion with the exception of the highest Confederate officials and military leaders.

Second, it allowed for a new state government to be formed when 10 percent of the eligible voters had taken an oath of allegiance to the United States.

Third, the Southern states admitted in this fashion were encouraged to enact plans to deal with the freed slaves so long as their freedom was not compromised.

On December 9, 1867, a Constitutional Convention to draft a new state document convened in Atlanta. Among the 166 to 169 delegates elected to the Constitutional Convention were 33 or 37 African-American members – accounts vary.

The Atlanta City Council appointed the first Board of Education on December 10, 1869.

The Spanish-American War was ended on December 10, 1898, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

On December 8, 1899, Georgia Governor Allen Candler signed legislation to levy a tax on all dogs older than four months.

The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941. Montana Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin, the first female elected to the United States House of Representatives, cast the sole dissenting vote.

Gregg Allman was born December 8, 1947 in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1964 in Oslo, Norway, becoming the youngest recipient of the award.

John Lennon was shot and killed outside his apartment building in New York City on December 8, 1980.

Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 2002.

From the Ledger-Enquirer on the role played by Georgia Congressman Carl Vinson in building the U.S. Navy before the attack at Pearl Harbor.

For nearly a decade before Pearl Harbor, Vinson had schemed and politicked in brilliant fashion to ensure that America was building a two-ocean navy larger than all the major navies of the world combined.

Vinson had assumed in the mid-1930s that fascist Japan and Germany posed existential threats to the United States. For America to survive, he saw that America would need mastery of the seas to transport its armies across the Pacific and Atlantic.

From 1934 to 1940, Vinson pushed through Congress four major naval appropriations bills. The result was that the U.S. Pacific Fleet which Japan thought it had almost destroyed in December 1941 was already slated to be replaced by a far larger and updated armada.

A little more than seven months after Pearl Harbor, the USS Essex — the finest carrier in the world — was launched. Essex was the first of 24 such state-of-the-art fleet carriers of its class to be built during the war.

Vinson’s various prewar naval construction bills also ensured the launching of hundreds of modern battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines. As bombs fell at Pearl Harbor, ships of the new American fleet were soon to be deployed, under construction or already authorized.

Vinson’s foresight would save thousands of American lives in the Atlantic and Pacific. American naval power quickly allowed the U.S. to fight a two-front war against Japan, Germany and Italy.

Vinson, a rural Georgian, was an unlikely advocate of global naval supremacy.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Governor Nathan Deal announced that November’s state revenue was up 7.3 percent over November 2016.

Georgia’s net tax collections for November totaled $1.84 billion, for an increase of nearly $124.7 million, or 7.3 percent, compared to last year when net tax collections totaled $1.72 billion. Year-to-date, net tax collections totaled almost $9.04 billion, for an increase of $238.6 million, or 2.7 percent, over November 2016, when net tax revenues totaled roughly $8.8 billion, five months into the fiscal year.

State Senator Butch Miller (R-Gainesville) appears to have a lead in the race for President Pro Tem of the Georgia Senate, according to the AJC Political Insider.

Supporters of the Gainesville Republican said he has the 19 votes needed to succeed David Shafer of Duluth. A Senate Republican caucus vote next week pits Miller against Senate Majority Leader Bill Cowsert of Athens.

Shafer, a Republican from Duluth, is running for lieutenant governor in 2018.

“Butch has really put in the work in this caucus election. I’ve looked Butch in eye and told him that he has my vote,” [Senate Rules Committee Chair Jeff] Mullis said. “A lot of other senators have done the same, and I think that’s enough to give him the majority he needs.”

State Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, said she, too, is confident Miller has the 19 votes he needs. “I think a majority of the caucus is with him because he’s effective, competent and efficient – everything we want in a leader and what voters wish Washington could be,” she said.

Qualifying for two state legislative districts – Senate District 17 and House District 111 – ends at 1 PM today. Qualified candidates so far include:

SD 17
Brian Strickland – R
Ed Toney – R
Nelva Lee – R
Phyllis Hatcher – D

HD 111
El-Madhi Holly – D
Geoffrey Cauble – R
Larry K. Morey – R

Roswell Mayor Jere Wood will run for State House District 48 against incumbent Republican Betty Price.

Jere Wood on Wednesday announced that he will run for the State House District 48 seat held by Rep. Betty Price, a legislator he’s criticized for having a hand in trying to remove him from office.

Wood made the announcement at a gathering for hundreds of friends held at his home, and used the opportunity to thank his supporters who’ve stood by his side during his 20-year tenure in office.

“They have been my most productive years and the great joy of my life,” he said in prepared comments shared with Patch, adding his goal when he was elected mayor in 1997 at the age of 49 was to make the city the “best place to live” in the Peach State.

A bid to run for the House District 48 seat, Wood said, will allow him to continue efforts to make Roswell a better place to live. He also said he feels more qualified to help the city today than when he was first elected.

“House District 48 and the city of Roswell need a new face at the capital,” he added. “They need a representative who knows Roswell, who listens to Roswell and who can work well with other to get things done for Roswell. I am the best person for that job.”

As a political nerd, I collect weird election results. In Austell City Council Ward 1, a runoff was held this week after the only two candidates in November tied at 76 votes each. In the runoff, Marlin Lamar built on his November results and garnered 88 votes, while Ikaika Anderson lost significant support, earning 49 votes, roughly two-thirds of her November total.

So, Marlin Lamar won the runoff with the exact same number of votes he had in November, while his opponent, Ikaika Anderson shed two votes.

In Ocilla last month, voters approved a referendum to stop adding fluoride to the municipal water supply by 68.76% of votes cast.

From The Ocilla Star via the Fluoride Action Network:

The decision affects only artificial fluoride in the city water, which also adds things like mercury, arsenic and lead to the mix, according to McMahan. Since fluoridation is state-mandated in Georgia, 10% of registered city voters who voted in last election were needed to sign a petition to put “Stop Fluoridation” on the ballot.

Ocilla Mayor Seale states that enacting the decision should not be a difficult task.

“We just have to file the proper paperwork with the state and they will either amend our current certificate or issue a new one, eliminating the added artificial fluoride from our water,” he explained.

House Speaker David Ralston spoke about the upcoming 2018 Session of the Georgia General Assembly.

On whether allegations of sexual harassment at the Capitol will surface this year

I’m not making predictions about that. I certainly hope not. You know, it’s not a perfect environment. I don’t know any environment that is perfect, but you know we have, in our General Assembly employee handbook, spelled out a zero-tolerance for sexual harassment policy.

On the consequences for sexual harassment in the General Assembly

The consequences would be internal sanctions by supervisors or, in the case of members, having their conduct reviewed by the appropriate committees. And in fact, about a week and a half ago, I appointed a joint subcommittee of the Legislative Services Committee to see if there’s improvements we can make. I think that it’s incumbent upon us to always look for ways that we can do things even better.

On whether lawmakers should reconsider the state law that bars moving or concealing Confederate monuments

If we are a state, then we share the same history. The history of Georgia is the same whether you live in Blue Ridge or whether you live in Bainbridge or whether you live in Decatur. And so to allow that history to be controlled depending on the jurisdiction you’re in strikes me as being divisive in and of itself. So, I think we have to be very careful as we go forward. You know there’s much about our history as a state that is dark. We share that with other states. But we also are growing, and we have made a lot of progress. And so I would hate to see us become so fixated on looking back that we lose our focus on looking forward as a state.

On whether state lawmakers will consider ‘religious liberty’ legislation 

My view now is let’s move forward. This is a big, diverse state, and I frankly don’t plan to spend a lot of time on that issue as we go into this next session.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp spoke about religious liberty legislation.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp told the Roswell Rotary Club Nov. 30 that if he is elected governor, he would sign a “religious freedom and restoration bill” similar to the ones Gov. Nathan Deal has twice vetoed if came before him.

Kemp said he would support a bill that guaranteed Georgians religious freedom under the U.S. Constitution.

“I don’t know what other provisions that may have been in [the bills Deal vetoed]. But I would support a bill that is in line with federal law,” Kemp said. “It would be simply codifying what is already in the Constitution.”

Savannah City Council voted to move forward with a fee to cover the costs of providing fire services.

After hearing opposition from a number of speakers during a public hearing, the council also held the first reading of a charter amendment to implement a fee charged to all properties for fire service. The rate would amount to a fee of $240 for single-family homes, rather than $370 as initially proposed. In addition, the property tax rate would be reduced by 1 mill so that the financial impact on the average household would amount to about $194, according to city officials. A hardship account will also provide $400,000 to assist low-income property owners who have difficulty affording the fire fee, as part of the proposal.

The budget and fire fee are expected to be adopted at the next meeting on Dec. 21.

Savannah Mayor Eddie DeLoach lost support during a budget workshop Thursday morning for including $2.2 million in next year’s budget for the center he touted as an anti-poverty initiative.

Alderman Brian Foster said he could not fund a program he knew little about, joining aldermen Van Johnson, Estella Shabazz and Tony Thomas in raising concerns about the proposed center.

“I cannot in good conscious vote to spend $2.2 million on a program that doesn’t exist,” Foster said.

Daron Lee won a runoff election for Warner Robins City Council Post 1.

Gwinnett County held a meeting with their legislative delegation and everyone wanted to talk about transit.

The transit issue has grown up to become a key topic in state government, with committees being created to study the topic. Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston appointed Gwinnett County Commission Chairwoman Charlotte Nash to serve on the House’s committee that looked into the issue earlier this year.

Transportation funding in general is one of the major issues county leaders want the Gwinnett legislative delegation to take on during the 2018 state legislative session, with a request to extend the length on T-SPLOSTs. Those special taxes are currently capped at five years in length.

“I’m asking for 30 years,” Nash told the legislators. “I think ACCG is asking for 20 years. Two reasons for that is if you’re going to get federal dollars, then you’ve got to have 20 years of shared revenues, and if you’re going to do transit projects, you’ve got to be able to do bonds and the time frame for bonding is typically 25 to 30 years for these types of projects so you need to be sure of a revenue stream for that.”