Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 1, 2018

Benjamin Franklin became Georgia’s agent in England on June 1, 1768, making him also Georgia’s first lobbyist.

On June 2, 1774, Britain’s Parliament passed the Quartering Act, the last of the Coercive Acts, meant to punish the American colonies and reassert British control. Eventually, the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution would prohibit the forcible quartering of soldiers in private homes.

On June 1, 1775, Georgia patriots sent a care package to their brethren in Massachusetts comprising 63 barrels of rice and £122 after the battles at Lexington and Concord.

The court martial of Benedict Arnold convened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 1, 1779.

Arnold negotiated his defection to the British and the subversion of West Point over several months. The British already held control of New York City and believed that by taking West Point they could effectively cut off the American’s New England forces from the rest of the fledgling nation.

In August 1780, Sir Henry Clinton offered Arnold £20,000 for delivering West Point and 3,000 troops. Arnold told General Washington that West Point was adequately prepared for an attack even though he was busy making sure that that it really wasn’t. He even tried to set up General Washington’s capture as a bonus. His plan might have been successful but his message was delivered too late and Washington escaped. The West Point surrender was also foiled when an American colonel ignored Arnold’s order not to fire on an approaching British ship.

Arnold’s defection was revealed to the Americans when British officer John André, acting as a messenger, was robbed by AWOL Americans working as pirates in the woods north of New York City. The notes revealing Arnold’s traitorous agreement were stashed in his boots.

Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commanding forces west of the Mississippi, surrendered on June 2, 1865, and this date is generally considered the end of the Civil War.

On June 3, 1941, Georgia voters ratified a Constitutional Amendment extending the term of office for Governor and the other Constitutional Officers from two years to four. Governor Eugene Talmadge campaigned for the Amendment, hoping to serve a four-year term after the two-year term he currently held, but was defeated in the 1942 Democratic Primary by Ellis Arnall. Remember this phrase: legislation almost always has unintended consequences.

On June 1, 1942, a Polish newspaper first published information about the gassing of Jews at Nazi concentration camps in Poland.

On June 3, 1942, Curtis Mayfield was born in Chicago, Illinois and would later live in Atlanta, dying in Roswell in 1999.

Queen Elizabeth II was crowned on June 2, 1953.

On June 2, 1962, Georgia-born Ray Charles hit #1 on the charts with “I Can’t Stop Loving You.”

On the morning of June 3, 1962, a plane carrying 106 Georgians crashed on take-off from Orly near Paris, the deadliest crash in aviation to that date.

The Beatles released Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on June 1, 1967. The album is listed as #1 on the Rolling Stone top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the most important rock & roll album ever made, an unsurpassed adventure in concept, sound, songwriting, cover art and studio technology by the greatest rock & roll group of all time. From the title song’s regal blasts of brass and fuzz guitar to the orchestral seizure and long, dying piano chord at the end of “A Day in the Life,” the 13 tracks on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are the pinnacle of the Beatles’ eight years as recording artists. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were never more fearless and unified in their pursuit of magic and transcendence.

Issued in Britain on June 1st, 1967, and a day later in America, Sgt. Pepper is also rock’s ultimate declaration of change. For the Beatles, it was a decisive goodbye to matching suits, world tours and assembly-line record-making. “We were fed up with being Beatles,” McCartney said decades later, in Many Years From Now, Barry Miles’ McCartney biography. “We were not boys, we were men… artists rather than performers.

“It was a peak,” Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1970, describing both the album and his collaborative relationship with McCartney. “Paul and I were definitely working together,” Lennon said….

Rolling Stone should stick to writing about music.

On June 3, 1980, Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter had amassed enough delegates to assure his nomination in the Democratic Primary for President.

A summit between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev ended on May 31, 1988. Four years later, in 1992, Gorbachev was dancing for dollars in the United States, including the keynote address at Emory University’s graduation.

Sunday, June 3d is the anniversary of the beginning of the Tiananman Square Massacre in Beijing, China. Pro-democracy protests had begun on April 15, 1989 and on May 20, martial law was declared. The People’s Liberation Army began taking the square back on the evening of June 3d.

Tom Barton of the Savannah Morning News writes about the historic Savannah Powder Magazine, built in 1898.

The historic Savannah Powder Magazine was built 120 years ago during a time when gunpowder and dynamite were the explosives of choice and when citizens were rightly worried that an accidental ignition of these stored materials could wipe out much of the city.

As always, city leaders, including then-Mayor Peter Meldrim, were worried about their political self-preservation.

The two architects designed the new powder magazine in the Gothic style, technically called the King Arthur style.

This impressive structure is hidden by a thicket of trees and bushes on the north side of a busy stretch of Ogeechee Road just east of Chatham Parkway. There’s no marker to note its presence.

The red-brick building was completed in 1898. Inside the magazine are two rooms, each accessible to the outside by its own door.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Blythe, Georgia saw a tied election on May 22d, with the candidates headed to a July 24 runoff, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

The May 22 contest saw Judy Cordova, manager of the AM-PM convenience store in Blythe, and Blythe rental property owner John Daniel Martin tie 75-75. The special election was called to fill the council seat of Cindy Parham, who resigned to run for mayor of the town of about 700 on the Richmond-Burke county line.

Cordova and Martin each appeared at a Friday recount of votes performed by Richmond County Board of Elections because of the tie. Martin said he hoped a stray vote would surface to move him to the lead but the recount left the count at 75 for each.

In elections, “ties are rare, but not unheard of,” said Charles Bullock, University of Georgia Richard B. Russell Professor of Political Science. A recent example was a fall contest in the lower house of the Virginia legislature that determined whether Republicans or Democrats controlled the house, he said.

While some jurisdictions decide ties with a coin flip, the Blythe contest now heads to a runoff July 24 because neither candidate received a majority of votes, said Board of Elections Executive Director Lynn Bailey. Richmond County will already be holding elections that day to decide several statewide primary runoffs.

Cordova said she hoped action on Martin’s criminal case ahead of the runoff would help voters make up their minds.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office in March announced an investigation into vote-buying in a special Blythe election for mayor, and while the state probe remains open, a Richmond County Grand Jury subsequently indicted Martin for buying a man alcohol and tobacco at the AM-PM in exchange for voting for mayor candidate Phillip Stewart, and for furnishing alcohol to a minor because the man, Jacob Odum, was under 21.

So, let me get this straight: Daniel Martin is accused of vote buying at the convenience store managed by the other candidate?

Twiggs County Sheriff Darren Mitchum is in the spotlight after jailing local parents who gave their 15-year old son marijuana, according to the Macon Telegraph.

Mitchum last month jailed a Macon mother and father after they allegedly gave their 15-year-old son marijuana to smoke to treat the boy’s seizures. The teen had been taken from the couple’s home and placed in child services’ care.

That triggered a media firestorm, and Mitchum himself tossed more fuel into the mix Thursday at a press conference where he tried to explain himself.

“Whatever the law is, it’s my job to enforce it,” Mitchum said “The fact is that, as of today, marijuana is not legal in the state of Georgia to possess or smoke or use for recreational use. And that’s it.”

The Brills were jailed April 20 on reckless conduct charges. Their son, after being taken from the home by DFCS, suffered a seizure that day and was hospitalized, the sheriff’s statement said.

Gainesville City Council is proposing a .5 mill increase in the property tax millage rate, according to the Gainesville Times.

Gainesville officials are proposing a 0.5-mill increase in the city’s property tax rate to fund transportation projects and raises for public safety workers as part of the city’s $40.2 million budget.

There is not a water or sewer rate increase in the proposed budget, which was presented at the City Council’s work session on Thursday, May 31.

The city’s informational video on the proposed budget explains that for every city tax dollar, 30 cents goes to general operations, including Gainesville Police; 44 cents to the fire department and 26 cents to parks and recreation. The millage rate increase would add 17 cents to that dollar — 11 cents for transportation, four for public safety and two for general operations. That would provide the city with $2.3 million in additional revenue to invest.

The proposed millage increase would result in a $100 tax increase for someone with a $200,000 home.

The US Army Corps of Engineers is releasing more water from the Buford Dam to deal with heavy rainfall and a high water level, according to the Gainesville Times.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needs to release water from the dam because six to eight inches of rain during the past 48 hours pushed lake levels higher than 1,073 feet above sea level, E. Patrick Robbins, Mobile District spokesman, said in an email. Summer full pool is 1,071 feet.

Robbins said the lake needs to maintain that level so facilities on the lake can operate efficiently.

“When the lake goes above that level, it impacts recreation facilities, private docks and marinas, as they are all designed for maximum operation at the summer pool level,” he said.

“People can stay safe near the dam by making sure they swim in designated swim areas only and practice boat safety,” Robbins said. “We are also asking that if you swim in Lake Lanier that you wear a life jacket.”

Savannah extended the application date for fire fee discounts to June 15, according to the Savannah Morning News.

The revenue department has received nearly 1,000 calls each day for the past three days from property owners seeking help with their applications and the number of applications received has nearly doubled in the past few days, according to city officials.

On Tuesday the city reported that about 2,000 applications had been recieved, while 47,345 properties are eligible for the discount.

The Georgia Peach Festival kicks off today and tomorrow in Fort Valley and continues next Saturday in Byron, according to the Macon Telegraph.

Strong peach crops are expected this year, despite the rain, according to the Macon Telegraph.

Near daily rainfall over the past two weeks has left midstate peach growers struggling to get their crop to the shed, but so far they have met the challenge.

“It’s been kind of unprecedented, the number of days of rain we have had,” said Robert Dickey, owner of Dickey Farms in Crawford County. “I don’t know what normal is anymore.”

Although too much rain can cause disease and impact peach quality, Dickey said the biggest problem has been the picking process. Wet weather can cause equipment to get stuck.

Jeff Cook, county agent for Peach and Taylor counties, said harvesting has been the biggest problem for all of the growers. Rain has caused some bacterial disease on the leaves, but he said it has not significantly hurt the peaches.

Equal Rights Amendment advocates will target Georgia for ratification of the Amendment, despite a 1982 deadline, according to AccessWDUN.