Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for July 15, 2020

On July 15, 1864, Sherman’s army began crossing the Chattahoochee River and would take the better part of three days to complete the crossing. Georgia Public Broadcasting has a series on Sherman’s Georgia campaign, and you can watch this week’s episode here.

Major General George Stoneman’s cavalry had come to the area south of Atlanta. On July 15, 1864, Stoneman wrote from camp near Villa Rica, Georgia.

As I indicated to you in my last note, we completed the bridge (Moore’s), and were ready to cross at daybreak yesterday morning, but before we essayed it a report came from Major Buck, in command of a battalion seven miles above, that the enemy had been crossing above him on a boat or a bridge, and that his pickets had been cut off.

Colonel Biddle, who was left with his brigade at Campbellton, reports the enemy quite strong at that point, with two guns of long range in each of the two redoubts on the opposite bluff, which are opened upon him whenever any of his men show themselves.

I was very anxious to strike the railroad from personal as well as other considerations, but I became convinced that to attempt it would incur risks inadequate to the results, and unless we could hold the bridge, as well as penetrate into the country, the risk of capture or dispersion, with loss of animals (as I could hear of no ford), was almost certain.

On July 15, 1870, Georgia was readmitted to the United States, with the signature by President Ulysses Grant of the “Georgia Bill” by the U.S. Congress.

On July 15, 1948, President Harry Truman was nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to run for a full term as President of the United States.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

President Donald Trump visits Atlanta today, according to 11Alive.

This trip will take him to the UPS Hapeville Airport Hub, which is located at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

According to a White House official, while there, the president will announce the implementation of a new policy allowing for expedited infrastructure projects in the Atlanta area and across the nation. The official said he is expected to champion his actions to cut red tape and remove burdensome regulations.

In particular, the rule changes that the president is expected to address, according to that same White House official, are tied to regulations associated with infrastructure projects like the Interstate 75 Commercial Vehicle Lane expansion project.

The project would enhance freight mobility from the Port of Savannah and Florida, according to a White House official, and promote economic development along the corridor.

Prior to the rule, the official said, it took an average of seven years to permit a highway project in the United States. Under the new rule, the process would be cut to under two years.

From the AJC.

He’s confronting a very different political reality when he arrives Wednesday at a UPS facility near Atlanta’s airport to discuss transportation initiatives — and appear side by side with Georgia Republicans hoping he can rebound before November.

Polls show him neck-and-neck with Joe Biden, margins so tight that his campaign laid out a seven-figure ad buy this summer to defend a state that Republicans have carried in every presidential vote since 1996.

“When is the last time a Republican presidential candidate had to advertise in Georgia at all, let alone in June?” said Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee, who since her defeat has built the Fair Fight voting rights group into a national political force.

“When you add the enthusiasm, the moment, you know that Georgia isn’t just a battleground state,” she said. “It’s the battleground state.”

Since his last visit, Democrats outvoted Republicans in the June primary and the party avoided what could have been damaging August runoffs in two of the year’s premier races: the contest against Perdue and a U.S. House race for a Gwinnett County-based district that’s one of the party’s top targets this year.

From a separate AJC article:

The president is scheduled to arrive at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport around 3 p.m. and will head directly to the UPS Hapeville hub in the airport complex, meaning that the impact on traffic should be limited.

He’s set to leave around an hour later to return to Washington and has no fundraisers or other events planned during his brief trip to Atlanta.

Fulton County will again accept emailed Absentee Ballot applications, according to the AJC.

Election officials in Fulton County on Tuesday resumed accepting absentee ballot requests submitted by email, backtracking from a decision to require absentee applications by mail, fax or in person.

The county’s reversal came quickly after complaints that its refusal to process emailed ballot requests would reduce voting access and violate Georgia voting laws.

The county on Tuesday restarted processing absentee ballot requests for the Aug. 11 runoff, with some limits meant to avoid problems that surfaced before the primary.

Only one absentee ballot application may be attached to each email. Absentee ballot applications submitted by email must be less than 5 megabytes in size, legible and in pdf or jpg file format.

“We briefly paused in acceptance of email applications as we identified specific parameters in file format to ensure that we could process applications successfully,” county spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez said.

No word on whether anyone ever checked the fax machine for lost absentee ballot applications from last month’s elections.

United States Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-Atlanta) will campaign in North Georgia on Friday, according to the Rome News Tribune.

U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., will make stops in Rome and Cartersville Friday on her “All About Georgia” campaign tour.

Her closest Republican rival, U.S. Congressman Doug Collins, visited Rome in mid-June and Loeffler came in late February to Swift & Finch downtown.

On Friday she’s scheduled to be at Moe’s Original BBQ, 101 W. First St., at noon. She’ll go first, at 9:30 a.m., to Bartow County’s Lakepoint Station, 77 Old Allatoona Road in Cartersville.

Each event, billed as meet-and-greets, is expected to last about an hour. A stop at Springhill Suites in Ringgold at 5 p.m. will wrap up her two-week tour.

Senator Loeffler campaigned in Brunswick yesterday, according to The Brunswick News.

Around 20-30 people attended the morning gathering in Sunrise Diner on U.S. 341, to listen to Loeffler speak. She spent much of the time assuring attendees that she would hold to typical Republican stances on “faith, family, the Second Amendment,” free speech protections, immigration control and abortion.

Securing infrastructure funding is an important item on her personal agenda, Loeffler said, referencing the Port of Brunswick as a major economic driver in the state.

She said jobs and health care are among the top priorities she’s heard from constituents and that they’ll be her priorities as well if elected.

On the subject of COVID-19, she stood behind guidelines issued by state and federal health authorities, which include wearing masks in public, washing hands regularly, covering coughs and sneezes and staying away from crowded places.

She did not comment on orders issued by mayors in Atlanta, Savannah and Athens requiring citizens to wear masks, which Kemp has said are legally unenforcable.

The Valdosta Board of Education voted to delay the re-opening of city schools, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

The [September 8] start date is the day after the Labor Day holiday and does not affect teachers beginning pre-planning July 30. Classes were originally scheduled to start Aug. 6.

The later start date means the cancellation of fall break, school officials said during the school board meeting. The school year will still end May 21.

Richmond County also pushed school opening to September 8, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

The class start date has moved back a month to Sept. 8., due to the recent surge of coronavirus cases. According to Superintendent Kenneth Bradshaw’s presentation, cases have more than doubled and there have been 14 new deaths since the initial reopening plan was presented June 30. Richmond County’s virus numbers stand at 1,830 cases, 62 deaths and 268 hospitalizations as of Tuesday, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

The plan allows families to choose between two options for their children: face-to-face learning Monday through Friday or completely virtual learning.

Columbia County schools adopted a reopening plan, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

With about 15 percent of parents opting to have their children in distance learning, the number of bus routes is expected to be reduced. Assigned seating will also take places on buses, with siblings being place together and other students strategically placed to limit contact with one another. Buses will also be sanitized between routes.

The plan contains two different scheduling methods for the in-person model. The first states all students will attend Monday through Friday as usual, the second is a contingency plan. In the event of an outbreak, students will be separated into two different groups (in which they will be assigned at the beginning of the year) and will attend school on different days, twice a week.

For those returning to school for in-person instruction, classes begin Aug. 3 under the mitigation measures. For distant-learning students, they begin Aug. 10 for middle and high school and Aug. 17 for elementary school.

The University of Georgia campus will require face masks inside buildings, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

Masks will be required on the University of Georgia campus Wednesday “while inside campus facilities/buildings where six feet social distancing may not always be possible,” according to a UGA announcement. “Face covering use will be in addition to and is not a substitute for social distancing.”

Face coverings were optional in earlier versions of the reopening plan — a directive from the University System of Georgia rather than UGA administrators. But USG administrators changed to require masks after widespread criticism.

UGA has purchased 150,000 face masks to begin the fall semester and is mailing most of them to workers and students — two each for nearly 40,000 students (as of fall, 2019) and around 10,000 faculty and staff. The university is also providing thermometers to students and employees, who are being told to check their temperature before coming to campus each day. UGA has received 2.5 million hand sanitizing wipes, with more on the way, and has ordered 4,000 gallons of hand sanitizer, UGA announced.

Columbus State University faculty members have called for online classes for fall, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

As coronavirus cases rise in the region, more than 100 Columbus State University faculty members have signed an open letter to University System of Georgia officials, calling for online instruction as the “default mode” for classes.

The CSU faculty letter concludes, “In summary, we lack confidence that USG’s current plans and protocols for the return to face-to-face instruction are adequate to protect the health and wellbeing of our students and fellow employees, as well as all our families and surrounding communities.”

Bulloch County Public Schools will continue providing USDA-paid bagged meals through July 31, according to the Statesboro Herald.

With a long-established annual summer meal program now stretched from eight weeks to 10 following with the unprecedented 10-week spring emergency effort, the school system will have provided meals to children outside of ordinary school settings for 20 weeks this calendar year.

“When we were originally going to end on July 17th, we would have served approximately 344,600 meals,” said Hayley Greene, the school system’s public relations director. “So, adding those two additional weeks, we’re going to be well over 360,000 meals served. Through the 17th, it would have been an 18-week program. Now it’s going to be a 20-week program.”

Those totals of individual meals count each bag distributed to a child as two meals – a lunch and a breakfast – so the number of meal bags is half that many.

Chatham County Recorder’s Court is closed through July 22 after two employees tested positive for COVID, according to the Savannah Morning News.

In the meantime, Chief Judge Tammy Stokes issued an order stating that “the Chatham County Recorder’s Court is closed until further notice except for essential court hearings.

“Essential court hearings are arraignments for felony cases and arraignments for misdemeanor domestic violence cases. All other court dockets are vacated immediately.”

Chatham County Magistrate Court expects a large number of eviction proceedings to commence, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Judge Michael Barker said Monday that as of last week the court had 502 unanswered eviction actions, formally known as dispossessories, pending court action.

“Since the coronavirus hit in March, we have seen a drop in dispossessorary filings, but we expect a surge in filings, a surge in hearings,” Barker said.

City of Pembroke employees will be required to wear masks on the job, according to the Savannah Morning News.

The city council formalized a set of 18 policies designed to keep employees and city hall visitors safe during the current uptick on COVID-19 cases. Employees are required to follow all of the policies or risk being sent home without pay, according to city administrator Alex Floyd.

The City of Thomasville will continue its closure to the public, according to the Albany Herald.

Last week, Governor Brian Kemp announced that Georgia’s Public Health State of Emergency would be extended until Aug. 11. In response, Thomasville City Manager Alan Carson announced that this extension would have an impact on some city operations, including the re-opening of city administrative buildings and facilities.

City of Thomasville administrative offices were originally scheduled to re-open on Monday.

“While disappointing, we have made the decision to delay our re-opening to ensure the health and safety of our staff, our customers and the citizens we serve,” Carson said in a news release. “This has always been and will continue to be our first priority. We appreciate the continued patience of our community and our customers during this unprecedented time.”

Brunswick City Commission will consider adopting a mask requirement at their meeting tonight, according to The Brunswick News.

[Mayor Cornell] Harvey said he is hoping Gov. Brian Kemp issues an order before tonight’s meeting that would make it unnecessary for commissioners to discuss a mask requirement.

Kemp’s current executive order prohibits any local action that could be more or less restrictive than the state rule.

He is worried about a city mask rule being enforceable in businesses, but masks will continue to be required when entering a municipal building.

The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority in Rome will distribute 2500 masks to residents of public housing, according to the Rome News Tribune.

Banks County Commission Chair Jimmy Hooper is resigning effective August 31 due to health issues, according to AccessWDUN.

“I’ve submitted my letter of resignation effective Aug. 31, 2020. I chose that date because Commissioner [Charles] Turk has already been duly elected and he’ll be able to come onboard.”

After the meeting, County Attorney Randall Frost said there is no clear-cut succession plan for the remaining four months of the term, adding it will be up to the commission to determine who will fill the balance of Hooper’s time in the position.

In Banks County, the commission chairman is elected by the voters to lead the day-to-day operations of the county.

Hooper is nearing the end of his second four-year term, which would have ended Dec. 31.

The City of Lula has adopted HR procedures for COVID 19 that include return to work provisions and hazard pay, according to AccessWDUN.

Under the current policy whenever there is a positive COVID-19 test by an employee, or a positive test by a family member of an employee, or a positive test by someone with whom an employee had close contact, that employee must isolate.

Homans said, “What this policy does is amplify what the council previously adopted.”

According to Homans and Bergin the requirement for a return to work under the new policy would be proof of a negative test result or written authorization from a physician clearing the employee to return to work.

In addition to the new pre-emptive measures being adopted, city leaders thought the time had come to compensate staff members for working under the health risk conditions. Bergin said after conferring with other jurisdictions a $2-per-hour premium was something the city could afford.

The premium pay would extend through the end of the calendar year and be paid retroactive back to March 15th.

The City of Lawrenceville will require permits for protests, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.’

Lawrenceville officials announced Tuesday that they will begin enforcing the city’s public assembly guidelines again, ending a period where protesters were allowed to demonstrate in the county seat without first getting approval to do so.

“As we begin to move forward, learn and grow as a community, we must do so in an organized manner,” city officials announced Tuesday afternoon. “During the past few weeks, the City of Lawrenceville has worked to accommodate those wanting to express their emotions through impromptu marches and gatherings in the City.”

“In order to protect the safety of participants, visitors and citizens, it is time for us to return to our normal operations regarding public gatherings. Therefore, from this day forward, demonstrations and/or any organized public events must go through the standard approval process as set forth by City ordinance.”