Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for July 3, 2017

On July 4, 1776, the United States declared its independence from Great Britain.

On July 2, 1826, representatives from Georgia and Alabama met to begin surveying the border between the two.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826.

On July 4, 1868, the Georgia General Assembly convened for the first time after passage of the Constitution of 1868 with a legislature comprising 186 members, of whom 36 were African-American.

On July 3, 1889, the Georgia General Assembly held its last session at the Kimball Opera House, located at the corner of Marietta and Forsyth Streets in downtown Atlanta before moving into a new Georgia State Capitol. On July 4, 1889, the Georgia State Capitol was dedicated, then housing all three branches of the state government.

Happy birthday to Idaho, which became a state on July 3, 1890.

On July 3, 1913, the Georgia state Senate tabled a motion to allow the Georgia Women’s Suffrage Association to address the chamber.

On July 3, 1970, the Atlanta Pop Festival was held in Byron, Georgia.

Among the artists playing at Byron were the Allman Brothers Band and Jimi Hendrix.

The Clash played their first live show on July 4, 1976 at The Black Swan in Sheffield, England.

Back to the Future was released on July 3, 1985.

On July 3, 1986, President Ronald Reagan reopened the Statue of Liberty after a two-year restoration.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Heading into the long Independence Day weekend, Gov. Nathan Deal announced 51 appointments to various boards, among them:

Charlotte Nash, Board of Directors of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (Reappointment)

Narender G. Reddy, Board of Directors of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (Reappointment)

Michael J. Register, Judicial Qualifications Commission – Register is the chief of police for Cobb County and has more than 25 years of experience in law enforcement.

Edward D. Tolley, Judicial Qualifications Commission – Tolley is a partner at Cook & Tolley LLP.

House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) told members of the House Transit Governance and Funding Committee that the legislature should consider funding for MARTA.

The speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives indicated Thursday he’d support state funding for rail and bus transit.

“I am not of the opinion that the state must wholly control or take over a transit system in order to provide funding,” he said.

Atlanta’s transit agency, MARTA, is the largest heavy rail system in the country that doesn’t receive annual state funding.

From Maggie Lee, writing for the Saporta Report.

“Your recommendations may include restructuring governance or creating agreements between governments to make transit delivery more efficient. Your recommendations may also include reasonable state funding to support our transit systems subject to appropriate controls,” said state House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) as he opened the meeting in a state Capitol hearing room.

“As our ports grow and our economy strengthens, we’ve got to be able to move more people and more goods through our state. Transit gives us a powerful opportunity to achieve both goals,” he said.

The committee will look at transit statewide, which includes everything from small rural counties where folks can arrange modest services like bus rides to the doctor to the behemoth: MARTA.

One of the state House’s key gatekeepers in transportation, Transportation Committee Chairman Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville) is chairing the commission.

“When I’m talking to people about transit,” said Tanner, “there’s a lot of people that think transit should be self-sufficient at the fare box and that’s just not ever going to be the case.”

Campus Carry went into effect at Georgia Tech over the weekend.

“Our objective is to be smart and be safe as we move forward with that implementation,” Pat McKenna, Georgia Tech’s associate vice president for legal affairs and risk management, told a crowd of more than 200 people.

He was joined by Georgia Tech Police Chief Robert Connolly who read from a prepared PowerPoint from the University System of Georgia that will be presented at each of the 28 institutions.

“We want to be consistent throughout the system,” Connolly said as he listed the places where guns can and cannot be carried.

Child care centers are taboo and so are faculty and staff offices, but hallways, lobby spaces and tailgating events are open for concealed guns. Concealed guns also can be carried into classrooms, unless there’s a high school student attending.

Georgia Tech will not put up any signage with the new law. Those licensed to carry will have to meet with school officials to receive guidance as to where they can and cannot carry. Carrying a gun in a handgun-free space can result in a $25 fine.

From the Augusta Chronicle:

“I think it was already happening before,” graduate student Stephanie Anderson said while relaxing outside the library on Saturday afternoon. “I think it’s just legal now.”

“I feel a twinge of feeling unsafe just because I couldn’t predict if this would make more people more likely to carry them or if they were already carrying them, but it does make me feel a little more unsafe because there are people who feel like they have more of a reason to bring out a gun,” said Leah Sutton. “The gun isn’t the problem. It’s the people that have the guns.”

AU is taking action to ensure that students are properly educated and that security is “on point,” according to Student Government Association member Joshua Lafavor.

“I know that the faculty and the security staff here are planning different training events for people,” said Lafavor, who is on the association’s student justice committee. “I trust our police force on campus. They do a great job of taking care of the students for us.”

From the Valdosta Daily Times:

But it’s unclear how many of the tens of thousands of students who are old enough to carry a gun will actually do so once the law takes effect. Most observers expect it to be a small number.

“There’s no real way to tell,” said Luke Crawford, who is state director for Georgia Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.

“The bill is allowing for concealed carry so the whole idea is that even as people are carrying on campus that nobody’s going to know because there’s really no need for anyone to know,” he added.

Failing to keep the firearm out of sight, or to steer clear of areas of campus that remain off limits, is a misdemeanor offense. It can also result in a violation of the school’s student code of conduct or personnel rules.

Cobb County Commissioners are scrambling to find $900k to pay for law enforcement operations around the new Braves stadium.

CBS46 learned that Cobb County commissioners failed to allocate $900,000 in last year’s budget to pay for police officers to direct traffic. The oversight is forcing officials to dig into other funds to cover the costs.

“Right now I’m focused on the current situation, which is to provide public safety for the stadium,” new Cobb County Chairman Mike Boyce said.

Boyce says he inherited this problem.

That leaves a shortage in other parts of the county.

“I mean to harm security in other areas just to secure this facility that’s for profit, I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” Toma said.

Cobb County’s Community Development Agency has released its 2040 Comprehensive Plan final draft.

Navicent Health won an auction to buy Oconee Regional Medical Center on eBay in a bankruptcy auction.

Oconee Regional Medical Center in Milledgeville will be sold to Macon-based Navicent Health according to a ruling issued Friday by Judge Austin E. Carter of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Georgia.

Navicent Health submitted a bid Tuesday and participated in an auction that was held on Thursday and Friday. During an emergency hour-long hearing with Carter at 5 p.m. Thursday, conducted by conference call, much of the discussion was regarding two bids submitted by Navicent. One of those bids included Jasper Memorial Hospital, which has a leasing arrangement with Oconee Regional.

By Friday morning’s hearing, Navicent had removed the bid with Jasper Memorial as part of the deal.

Andrew Turnbull, managing director with Houlihan Lokey, a global investment bank, said Navicent’s bid was $200,000 higher than Prime’s bid.

“I don’t believe (Oconee Regional) can continue as a going concern without the Navicent offer,” he said.

Former DeKalb County Commissioner Stan Watson (D) has hired former DeKalb District Attorney Robert James to represent him after being indicted for official corruption.

Henry County Commissioner Dee Clemmons responded via lawyer to allegations of ethics violations.

Clemmons’ attorney, Lawanda Hodges out of Atlanta, said Coria’s complaint against Clemmons is “riddled with false information and no evidentiary or jurisdictional basis for proceeding on the complaint” under the Commission.

“Any alleged failure by Commissioner Dee Clemmons to provide the occupations and employers of non-corporate donations is not a violation of the Act. Likewise nothing in the Act precludes contributors from living outside of Henry County,” stated Hodges in the response. “This is simply Complainant’s attempt to disparage Commissioner Clemmons to her constituents, whom Complainant circulated the complaint to.”

In response to Coria’s allegation that Clemmons does not live in Henry County, and instead at an Atlanta property with her spouse, Hodges stated that the Atlanta address is listed in Clemmons’ campaign records as her spouses’ property and that they are not “tenants-in-common.”

Opioid Crisis and Healthcare

Senator Renee Unterman (R-Buford) and Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Kathy Schrader held a press conference on Friday.

“My community desperately needs a transition center, a recovery center, a therapeutic center so that we don’t allow people who have gotten so wrapped up in substance abuse disorders to get in to the system and then be released before they can find appropriate care,” Schrader said.

“I believe that now it’s our duty and our burden to make sure that we have brick and mortar appropriate care in every community in this state and in every community in this country.”

Unterman said “The most important thing is education — that’s what we’re doing here on a holiday weekend — prevention and most importantly therapeutic services.”

Unterman plans to push for more funding in the next state budget, but she said the state’s budget discussions are in their early stages so she’s not sure how much money will be asked for yet.

One area she wants to secure extra funding for, however, is toxicology testing done at the GBI’s lab so it has more resources to quickly identify which drugs caused a person’s death.

“It’s not fair to these parents to ask that question, ‘What did your son die of?’ and they have to wait maybe three months or six months and don’t know what (their loved ones) died of,” Unterman said. “It’s also good for intelligence in the law enforcement community to know exactly what’s on the street and what people are dying from.”

Voter Data

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp (R) said he will comply with the Trump administration request for voter data.

Georgia plans to provide publicly available voter information to President Donald Trump’s commission on election integrity, but will not share information considered private under state law such as registered voters’ driver’s license numbers or Social Security numbers.

Trump formed the commission in May to investigate alleged acts of voter fraud after he made unsubstantiated claims of “millions” of illegal votes during last year’s presidential election.

Officials from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office have repeatedly said there were no illegal votes in Georgia.

Former Georgia Republican Hans von Spakovsky will lead the federal effort.

Von Spakovsky, 58, will join the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, though it remains unclear what role he will take. The White House’s Thursday night announcement, which included several other administration posts, did not provide further details.

The appointment is the second opportunity for von Spakovsky to take part in shaping election and voting policy from the executive branch. Congressional Democrats blocked his nomination to the Federal Election Commission in 2008 following accusations of partisanship and voter rights suppression in his role at the Justice Department from 2002 to 2005, where he was counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights.

Von Spakovsky’s nomination at the FEC stretched for two years as Democrats painted a picture of an official who steamrolled the recommendations of career Justice lawyers. He overruled colleagues to approve a Georgia law in 2005 requiring that people present photo identification to vote, which some of his colleagues said would disproportionately impact African American voters. He also led unsuccessful suits to purge voter rolls in Missouri.

He currently heads the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, where he is also a senior legal fellow.

Nuclear News

Georgia Power and sister company Southern Nuclear said they are prepared to take over construction of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle.

Georgia Power announced late Wednesday that it and Southern Nuclear are prepared to take over management at the Burke County nuclear power plant in late July, under the terms of a new service agreement struck June 9.

“There are thousands of workers that remain onsite at the Vogtle nuclear expansion today – working in all areas of the site, to keep construction of the new units moving forward,” said Georgia Power spokesman Jacob Hawkins. “Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear are fully prepared, working with Westinghouse, to assume project management at the site by the end of next month.”

“The scope of the service agreement includes engineering, procurement and licensing support from Westinghouse, as well as access to Westinghouse intellectual property needed for the project,” Georgia Power said in a news release. “To allow time for all approvals, the interim assessment agreement has been extended through July 20.”

The agreement also firms up $3.68 billion in parental guarantees to Georgia Power by Toshiba. That money acts as protection for Georgia electric customers after Westinghouse’s bankruptcy.

From the AJC:

The Plant Vogtle expansion is already at least $3 billion over budget and well over three years behind schedule. Disruptions from the Westinghouse bankruptcy are expected to add more costs and delays.

The company also said it expects to receive a $300 million payment in October from Toshiba Corp, Westinghouse’s parent company, as the first installment toward making good on almost $3.7 billion in earlier financial guarantees it promised on the Vogtle project.

Construction of the two reactors is now 32 percent complete, said William Jacobs Jr., the PSC’s independent construction monitor.

He and [PSC staffer] Roetger said many of the cost overruns that pushed Westinghouse into bankruptcy probably could have been avoided if the company had updated a complete plan for managing, supplying and staffing the complex project, which involves more than 200,000 tasks to be completed in a specific order.

The monitors testified that Georgia Power wasn’t responsible for those missing plans and estimates, but should have made sure they were done and updated as the project was built.

“One hundred percent of CEOs” would have wanted to know ahead of time if a massive loss was going to strike the company five years down the road, said Roetger. Those documents would have helped detect looming problems “much earlier,” he said.

As it was, the lack of solid information on progress at Vogtle “does raise a question of reasonableness,” he said. “We simply didn’t believe their forecasts or schedule.”

2018 Elections

Philip Wilheit of Gainesville, a very prominent supporter of Gov. Deal’s elections, has endorsed Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle in the 2018 election for Governor.

Wilheit penned an email on Friday calling Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle “the very best person” for the job. He and his wife gave more than $12,000 to Cagle, he wrote, and he urged his friends and colleagues to do the same.

“There will be no ‘learning curve’ when Casey steps into office in 2019,” wrote Wilheit.

Wilheit, who owns a packaging firm in Gainesville, chaired [Deal’s] election campaign and was appointed to the Board of Regents soon after Deal took office. His son, Philip Wilheit Jr., also was chair of the Department of Natural Resources board.

Here’s a portion of the Wilheit letter:

As Governor Deal’s second term comes to an end, we need to be looking forward very carefully to see which candidate can continue Governor Deal’s legacy of job creation, criminal justice reform, education, a very business friendly climate and a myriad of other initiatives he has instituted very successfully.

I have taken a lot of time studying this and have come to the firm conclusion that Lt. Governor Casey Cagle is the very best person to continue making Georgia the number one state in the Union to live, play, work and raise a family.  Casey has stood by Governor Deal in all of the programs I mentioned above.  There will be no “learning curve” when Casey steps into office in 2019.

I have had many discussions with Casey over the last several months and I am very comfortable in my support of his candidacy.  He understands that the Governor’s office needs to continue to support the business community, education at all levels,  healthcare and will welcome our input and advice as he moves Georgia forward.

Mary Hart and I have “maxed” out to Casey.  Each individual can give $6.600.00 as well as corporate money.  I urge each of you to send Casey a check today at the level you think appropriate.

Political Events

Cobb County Republicans annually hold one of the best grassroots political events of the year on Independence Day. This year, the Celebration of Freedom: Cobb County Annual July 4th BBQ and Straw Poll takes place from 11:30 AM to 3:30 PM at Jim R. Miller Park, 2245 Callaway Road SW, Marietta, GA 30008.

Lowndes County Democrats will hold a barbecue at their Thursday night meeting.

The event will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 6, at Mathis Municipal Auditorium, 2300 N. Ashley St., according to an organizational press release. Tickets are $25 each and may be purchased from any Lowndes County Democratic Party committee member or at the door.

“Thank our Teachers” signs, food provided by Miller BBQ and plans from Democratic candidates seeking office will be available, according to organizers.

“Democrats have a lot to be proud of,” said J.D. Rice, Lowndes County Democratic Party chairman. ““After all, Social Security (Franklin Delano Roosevelt), Medicare and Medicaid (Lyndon Baines Johnson) and the Affordable Care Act (Barack Obama) were all passed under Democratic presidents. The LCDP advocates for our health, especially considering South Georgia Medical Center is a mainstay of our local economy. LCDP also advocates for public transportation so our residents can get to work, to the benefit of our businesses, as both the chamber and the development authority also recommend. LCDP’s platform includes equal and impartial justice under the law and leaving the earth as safe, beautiful, and majestic as we found it, so LCDP continues to advocate against the Sabal Trail pipeline and for solar power. Help us make Lowndes County a more beautiful and better place to live for all.”