Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for January 17, 2017

On January 17, 1733, Georgia’s Trustees in London voted to ban Jews from the colony.

On January 16, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, prohibiting alcoholic beverages, when Nebraska became the 36th of the 48 states then in the Union to ratify the Amendment.

Martin Luther King, Jr. began the Chicago civil rights campaign on January 17, 1966.

At 4:30 PM on January 16, 1991, the Persian Gulf War began as air attacks against Iraq launched from US and British aircraft carriers, beginning Operation Desert Storm.

On January 16, 1997, a bomb exploded in a Sandy Springs abortion clinic, later determined to be the work of Eric Rudolph, who also bombed Centennial Olympic Park in 1996, a lesbian bar in Atlanta in February 1997, and a Birmingham abortion clinic in 1998.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

The Georgia General Assembly is not legislating this week, but they’re doing something just as scary – budget meetings continue on the current year Amended Budget.

9:45 AM Joint Budget Hearings 341 CAP

Trump Inaugural

I’m not sure how all the Trump brand sparkling wine hasn’t been bought off the shelves. These were at the Brookhaven Total Wine store yesterday. I didn’t see a price on the shelf, but they typically see for about $25.

Congressman John Lewis won’t be attending the Trump inaugural this week.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., said he does not believe Donald Trump is a “legitimate president,” citing Russian interference in last year’s election.

Asked whether he would try to forge a relationship with the president-elect, Lewis said that he believes in forgiveness, but added, “it’s going to be very difficult. I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president.”

Lewis told NBC News that he does not plan on attending President-elect Trump’s swearing-in next Friday.

“It will be the first one that I miss since I’ve been in Congress,” he said. “You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong, is not right.”

Trump fired back on Twitter.

“Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to……mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk — no action or results. Sad!” Trump wrote in two tweets Saturday morning.

Apparently, Lewis also boycotted the first inauguration of President George W. Bush. From a 2001 Washington Post article.

Some members of the Black Caucus decided to boycott Inauguration Day; John Lewis, for instance, spent the day in his Atlanta district. He thought it would be hypocritical to attend Bush’s swearing-in because he doesn’t believe Bush is the true elected president.

Rep. Lewis will deliver an MLK address at LaGrange College on January 26th at 3:30 PM in Callaway Auditorium.

Martin Luther King, III met with Trump yesterday, and they prayed together.

Trump “prayed with Martin Luther King III & discussed the legacy & work of his father #martinlutherkingday #MLKDAY” tweeted incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicier Monday afternoon.

Spicer included a photograph of Trump flashing a ‘thumbs ’ and posing next to King in front of a wall of grip-and-grin photos inside Trump’s Trump Tower office. Included on Trump’s ‘me wall’ are photos of him with John F. Kennedy Jr. and Ronald Reagan, and a 1990 copy of Playboy Magazine with Trump on the cover.

The prayer and reflection came on a day when Trump  hailed the ‘wonderful things’ that King stood for – following a nasty online spat with civil Lewis, who is skipping Trump’s inauguration after saying his election was ‘not legitimate.’

Georgians who will attend the inaugural include a family from Macon with personal ties to Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

Kristin Oren and several family members will be on hand for the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in Washington, D.C. The family’s connection with Pence dates back to when Oren’s father, Robert Kersey, was among a group of Indiana businessmen who decided to back a young attorney for Congress in 1988.
While Pence lost the campaign to unseat veteran Sen. Philip Sharp, he would later become a congressman, then governor before becoming vice president. And Pence and the Kerseys continued a friendship.

“They maintained contact, and my parents supported him for all of his campaigns,” Oren said. “It’s amazing to know someone that my dad has supported for so long, took interest in and has really liked. My mom and dad have admired how Mike has conducted himself and how Mike and (wife) Karen have been public servants.”

Now, the 82-year-old Kersey will be joined by his daughter, son and a daughter-in-law to capture a momentous occasion for the longtime family friend. Pence attended last year’s memorial service for Oren’s mother, Jayne Kersey, who envisioned Pence in the White House years ago, Oren said.

“I hope we have a minute to see (the Pences) and congratulate them in person,” Oren said. “When I saw him in Georgia, I said I just wanted to give him some Hoosier love in my adopted Peach State.”

Several large Georgia companies are pitching in to help pay for the inaugural, according to Greg Bluestein at the AJC.

UPS is among a growing list of Georgia’s biggest businesses that plan to help fund the activities surrounding the Jan. 20 inauguration after Trump cleared the way for corporations to make large donations for the event.

Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines and Southern Co. are among the Georgia-based Fortune 500 firms ponying up for the inauguration or one of the many galas or other events revolving around Trump’s swearing-in ceremony.

Several of the Georgia companies are putting a local spin on their donations. Coca-Cola, Delta, Southern Co. and Cox Enterprises are among the corporate sponsors of the Georgia State Society’s inaugural ball. (Cox Enterprises is the parent company of Cox Communications and has media holdings that include The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.)

Southern Co., which donated $100,000 to Obama’s event, noted a “long history” of supporting the inaugural committee and said the firm was deciding its level of participation.

And Aflac, the Columbus-based insurance firm, said it has long contributed to the inaugural funds for presidents from both parties and plans to do so again.

“Aflac is firmly committed to good governance and corporate citizenship. Part of this commitment involves being fully participatory in the democratic process,” said company spokeswoman Catherine Blades, who noted her company is also a sponsor of the Georgia bash.

Several Georgians are helping put on the Inaugural, according to the AJC.

Billy Kirkland, who ran Trump’s Georgia campaign, is assigned to help senators attending the ceremony while Jennifer Hazelton, the campaign’s Georgia spokeswoman, is handling celebrity attendees and is on the parade planning team.

Rayna Casey, an early Trump supporter who also helped organize his campaign in Georgia, is raising money in the Peach State for the inauguration. Her co-chair is Tony Simon, a lobbyist and former legislative aide.

And Peachtree City’s Brian Jack, who served as Trump’s chief delegate wrangler during the Republican convention last summer, is one of the president-elect’s personnel gurus. He’s in charge of placing Trump campaign staffers in key positions in the administration.

Emory Morsberger, a Gwinnett County developer with deep ties to Georgia’s GOP, said it took plenty of “soul searching” to warm up to Trump after the brutal primary. But his rising health care premiums under the Affordable Care Act — which Trump has vowed to repeal and replace — helped win him over.

“I’m looking for a decrease in the government’s intrusion into my life,” Morsberger said. “I’m looking forward to keeping more of the money I work four jobs to earn. I’m looking for tax policy where the federal government quickly repatriates $2 trillion American companies have overseas.”

Cowboy Church in Jerusalem from Fairmount, Georgia will send a contingent to the inaugural.

“He’s just a man, he’s human just like we are, he can’t change this whole thing but God can,” said founder Rebecca Hampton.

“We have purpose to pray for him every day to give him wisdom and help him make the right decision to help us, help our children and help our nation.”

She and first-time voter Ava Coxe are among those who will be in Washington. Both say Mr Trump remains their choice.

The trip will also include a group of students who will vote in the next presidential election. They are also Trump fans.

“I think some things have been a little rocky because some people are just not very happy about it,” said 15-year-old Kaylin Prosser.

“I just keep getting more and more excited about it.”

Bill Barrow of the Associated Press writes from Lula, Georgia about some citizens’ expectations for the Trump administration.

Patti Thomas owns a flower shop in the north Georgia town of Lula. Xavier Bryant runs an independent pharmacy just outside Atlanta. Looking toward the inauguration of an entrepreneur as president, the two share this expectation: Donald Trump will be good for business.

“He’s already proven he can turn things around,” the 52-year-old Thomas said, crediting Trump with Ford Motor Co.’s recent announcement that it would scrap a planned Mexico plant while expanding in Michigan. “Just his business enthusiasm, we’ve been lacking that.”

“My intuition,” the 33-year-old Bryant agrees, “is telling me that small business owners will win” in Trump’s economy.

But beyond that commonality, Thomas and Bryant – a white baby boomer from a tiny town and a black millennial from the big city – illuminate widening cultural fissures that help explain Trump’s rise and may well define his presidency.

Trump draws his strength from places like Lula, a railroad town with 2,800 residents and no stoplight in the central business district. He won almost 3 out of 4 votes cast in surrounding Hall County, which abuts the multi-county cluster that makes up metro Atlanta. Even with a growing Hispanic population, Hall is whiter than Georgia and the United States as a whole, and conservatism carries the day.

“This is Trump country up here,” explains Margaret Luther, who works in Thomas’ flower shop, festooned with fresh and artificial flowers, crosses for religious arrangements and a conspicuous wreath celebrating the University of Georgia Bulldogs.

Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter turned up the heat on Lewis in a Facebook post and has since taken incoming flack from Democrats.

Hunter, who voted for Trump, said he felt as if Lewis was calling him illegitimate as well when he made his remark about the president-elect.

“I got upset because of what Lewis said about ‘Oh, Trump’s illegitimate,’” Hunter said. “I voted for the guy. I don’t think my vote’s illegitimate, and I let my emotions get ahead of me and typed something up. Looking back on it, it was probably not the best decision.

“I tell people all of the time, ‘Don’t let your emotions get the best of you,’ but I’m the world’s worst sometimes about letting them do it. That’s what happened. It definitely wasn’t the best choice of words.”

Democrats have been gaining a growing presence in Gwinnett. The county went to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in November, while Hunter himself narrowly won re-election over Democrat Jasper Watkins III.

Cobb County Republicans are holding an Inaugural watch party this week.

The Cobb County Republican Party will host an Inauguration Watch Party on Friday at the GOP headquarters. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. with lunch at 11 a.m.

Admission is $10. RSVP to cobbgop@gmail.com by noon Wednesday. For more information, please contact the Cobb GOP at 770-272-0458.

Georgia Politics

Rep. Amy Carter (R-Valdosta) starred in a brief video that was shown on video screens during Gov. Nathan Deal’s State of the State address.

“Real Teachers, Real Voices,” a series of videos, is a part of Deal’s initiative to promote new teachers, said Martha Ann Todd, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement.

“About every three weeks, we’ll have a new one,” she said. “We’ll actually be releasing another one next week.”

The videos will feature members of Deal’s teacher advisory committee, Todd said.

The Rome News-Tribune looks at campaign disclosure for local legislators.

Dr. Mohammad Ali Bhuiyan announced he will run in the Sixth Congressional District to succeed Rep. Tom Price.

Congressman Barry Loudermilk (R-Cassville) has been appointed to the House Financial Services Committee.

State Rep. Gerald Greene (R-Cuthbert) will Chair the House State Properties Committee.

Leesburg will hold an election for City Council on March 21, with beginning in February.

Qualifying for the election will be held for two and half days, according to state rules, Lee County Elections Supervisor Veronica Johnson said Monday. Johnson said qualifying will be open Feb. 1 and Feb. 2 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Feb. 3 from 8:30 a.m. to noon.

“With a special election you only have to have qualifying for a minimum of two and half days,” said Johnson. “We went with what the law specifies.”

Milton City Council set qualifying fees for the Mayor’s race and three City Council elections later this year.

The qualifying fee for the office of mayor will be $690 while the fees for District 1/Post 1, District 2/Post 1 and District 3/Post 1 are $390.

Mayor Joe Lockwood and Council members Karen Thurman, Bill Lusk and Joe Longoria all hold those aforementioned seats, respectively.

Candidates will be able to file for their candidacy in the office of the city clerk at Milton City Hall from 8;30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday Aug. 21 through Friday, Aug. 25.

The city’s election will be held Nov. 7

Senator Johnny Isakson (R) and Congressman Buddy Carter (R-Pooler) introduced legislation that would lift a cap on the acreage of Fort Frederica National Monument on St Simons Island.

The Georgia Republicans’ Fort Frederica National Monument Boundary Expansion Act would remove a 250-acre cap on the size of the park and set a new one at 305 acres. Congress established the existing limit in 1958 when the ruins of the 18th century British fort and town were made part of the National Park Service.

“Preserving the rich history and archaeological heritage of one of Georgia’s oldest landmarks will give visitors a chance to experience firsthand an area of the state founded by Gen. James Oglethorpe,” Isakson said in a joint release.

“Fort Frederica is a historic treasure and this expansion is critical to ensure the fort’s history is accessible for generations to come,” Carter said.

Oglethorpe established the fortified town in 1736 as a buffer between the British colony of South Carolina and the Spanish in St. Augustine.

The northern area that the Land Trust owns is believed to have been used as campground for troops in 1743, the year after Oglethorpe’s troops repulsed a Spanish invasion in the battles of Bloody Marsh and Gully Hole Creek.

Archival studies and a reconnaissance study have established a high potential that the remains of a colonial cannon battery, known as the Point Battery, exist south of the park. That battery was intended to protect the port from warships sailing up the Frederica River.

A Commission to consider salary raises for statewide officials may be on the way, according to the AJC.

“It’s awkward. Someone up there (in the Legislature) needs to step up and take the initiative. Not for us, but for the next person. He’s underpaid for the job he has,” Deal chief of staff Chris Riley said. “Someone needs to look at it. Yes you get free housing, yes you get transportation. But it’s a 24/7 job.”

Deal’s state salary is in the middle range of gubernatorial pay, according to the Council of State Governments. Salaries range from $70,000 in Maine to the $190,000 that Pennsylvania’s top executive is paid. Several governors have taken voluntary pay cuts or refused any salary at all, including Florida’s Rick Scott and Alabama’s Robert Bentley.

Lawmakers have passed state laws in the past to limit some executive pay, such as a measure capping bonuses handed out by the Georgia Lottery. But some in Deal’s administration warned lawmakers against trying to rein in executive salary. Teresa MacCartney, the head of Deal’s budget planning office, said doing so would hobble state government.

“It’s all about recruiting the best people to run state agencies,” she said. “And if you can’t attract the top talent, you can’t find the right people to run a billion-dollar department.”