Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 12, 2024

The first Georgia-Florida war game weekend began on June 12, 1740, as Georgia founder James Oglethorpe led 400 soldiers landing opposite the Spanish fort at St. Augustine.

A “Liberty Tree” was planted in Savannah on June 13, 1775 to symbolize support for independence. The first liberty tree was an elm in Boston that became a meeting spot for patriots, but Savannah’s was actually a Liberty Pole. In 2006, a seedling grown from the last of the original Liberty Trees on the campus of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland was planted in Dalton, Georgia.

The Marquis de Lafayette arrived in South Carolina to assist General George Washington on June 13, 1775.

The Virginia Convention adopted George Mason’s “Declaration of Rights” on June 12, 1776. From Wikipedia:

The Declaration was adopted unanimously by the Fifth Virginia Convention at Williamsburg, Virginia on June 12, 1776 as a separate document from the Constitution of Virginia which was later adopted on June 29, 1776. In 1830, the Declaration of Rights was incorporated within the Virginia State Constitution as Article I, but even before that Virginia’s Declaration of Rights stated that it was ‘”the basis and foundation of government” in Virginia. A slightly updated version may still be seen in Virginia’s Constitution, making it legally in effect to this day.

It was initially drafted by George Mason circa May 20, 1776; James Madison assisted him with the section on religious freedom.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights heavily influenced later documents. Thomas Jefferson is thought to have drawn on it when he drafted the United States Declaration of Independence in the same month (June 1776). James Madison was also influenced by the Declaration while drafting the Bill of Rights (introduced September 1789, ratified 1791), as was the Marquis de Lafayette in voting the French Revolution‘s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789).

The importance of the Virginia Declaration of Rights is that it was the first constitutional protection of individual rights, rather than protecting only members of Parliament or consisting of simple laws that can be changed as easily as passed.

On June 12, 1924, George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts.

On June 13, 1966, the United States Supreme Court released its decision in Miranda v. Arizona. In Miranda, the Court held that a confession obtained by police without informing the suspect of his rights against self-incrimination (Fifth Amendment) and to the service of a lawyer (Sixth Amendment) was inadmissible.

Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson on June 13, 1967.

As the NAACP’s chief counsel from 1938 to 1961, he argued 32 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, successfully challenging racial segregation, most notably in public education. He won 29 of these cases, including a groundbreaking victory in 1954′s Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregation violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and was thus illegal. The decision served as a great impetus for the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and ultimately led to the abolishment of segregation in all public facilities and accommodations.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals, but his nomination was opposed by many Southern senators, and he was not confirmed until the next year. In June 1967, President Johnson nominated him to the Supreme Court, and in late August he was confirmed. During his 24 years on the high court, Associate Justice Marshall consistently challenged discrimination based on race or sex, opposed the death penalty, and supported the rights of criminal defendants. He also defended affirmative action and women’s right to abortion. As appointments by a largely Republican White House changed the politics of the Court, Marshall found his liberal opinions increasingly in the minority. He retired in 1991, and two years later passed away.

The New York Times began publishing excerpts from the “Pentagon Papers” on June 13, 1971.

After failing to persuade the Times to voluntarily cease publication on June 14, Attorney General John N. Mitchell and Nixon obtained a federal court injunction forcing the Times to cease publication after three articles.Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger said:

Newspapers, as our editorial said this morning, we’re really a part of history that should have been made available, considerably longer ago. I just didn’t feel there was any breach of national security, in the sense that we were giving secrets to the enemy.

The newspaper appealed the injunction, and the case New York Times Co. v. United States (403 U.S. 713) quickly rose through the U.S. legal system to the Supreme Court.

On June 18, 1971, The Washington Post began publishing its own series of articles based upon the Pentagon Papers; Ellsberg gave portions to editor Ben Bradlee. That day, Assistant U.S. Attorney General William Rehnquist asked the Post to cease publication. After the paper refused, Rehnquist sought an injunction in U.S. district court. Judge Murray Gurfein declined to issue such an injunction, writing that “[t]he security of the Nation is not at the ramparts alone. Security also lies in the value of our free institutions. A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know.” The government appealed that decision, and on June 26 the Supreme Court agreed to hear it jointly with the New York Times case.Fifteen other newspapers received copies of the study and began publishing it.

On June 30, 1971, the Supreme Court decided, 6–3, that the government failed to meet the heavy burden of proof required for prior restraint injunction. The nine justices wrote nine opinions disagreeing on significant, substantive matters.

Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.

—Justice Black

On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan spoke in then-divided Berlin and challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Gwinnett County voters will elect a new Superior Court Judge and two Board of Education members, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Early voting got underway this past weekend for the runoff. County officials initially opened four voting sites, but expanded to 10 early voting locations on Monday.

Republicans and Democrats each have at least one legislative race left to resolve, but both parties will carry the nonpartisan races for school board districts 1 and 3, and to fill an open Superior Court seat on their runoff ballots.

In school board district 1, incumbent board Vice-Chairwoman Karen Watkins is facing a challenge from Rachel Stone. The Gwinnett County Association of Educators, which initially endorsed Leroy Ranel in this race before the May 21 election, recently switched its backing to Stone.

In District 3, Steve Gasper and Shana V. White are in a runoff to see who will replace retiring school board member Mary Kay Murphy. The Gwinnett County Democratic Party recently waded into this race, criticizing Gasper for a May 2023 Facebook post in which he shared a meme questioning why the LGBTQ community gets an entire month to celebrate Pride while military personnel who die in combat are only highlighted on Memorial Day.

The county’s lone remaining judicial race has Magistrate Court Judge Regina Matthews facing off against former County Attorney Tuwanda Rush Williams to see who will replace retiring Superior Court Judge Karen Beyers.

As for the legislative races, Republicans have a runoff in Senate District 7, where Fred Clayton and J. Gregory Howard are squaring off to see who will face state Sen. Nabilah Islam-Parkes in November.

Meanwhile, Democrats have two legislative races left to decide.

In the Democratic runoff for state Senate District 55, Iris Knight-Hamilton faces Randal Mangham. The winner will face Republican Mary Williams Benefield in November.

In the state House District 96 race, former Norcross City Councilwoman Arlene Beckles faces Sonia Lopez.

DeKalb County Democratic voters will elect a new County CEO, according to the AJC.

Lorraine Cochran-Johnson and Larry Johnson took questions from panelists and each other as part of the group’s Loudermilk-Young Debate series, which featured the DeKalb race as well as two congressional races that are on the June 18 primary ballot.

The two Democrats were the top vote-getters during May’s primary, beating out fellow Commissioner Steve Bradshaw, and are competing to replace Michael Thurmond, who is term-limited. The June 18 runoff will determine the next CEO as no Republicans filed in the race.

Cochran-Johnson is the front-runner in the race and would be the second woman and first African American woman to hold the job if elected. In the primary, she was shy of the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff but led in 156 out of 191 precincts countywide. The only part of the county where she didn’t dominate was southwestern DeKalb’s District 3, where Johnson has served as commissioner for the past 22 years.

In a late May poll of likely voters, Cochran-Johnson held an 18-point lead over Johnson and led in every commission district, even District 3. Pollster Fred Hicks predicted in a news release that she is likely to win.

Dougherty County voters will elect a new Superior Court Judge in the June 18 Runoff Election, according to the Albany Herald.

The two candidates vying to replace Superior Court Chief Justice Willie Lockette’s spot on the bench are Victoria Johnson and Valerie Brown-Williams.

The candidates come from different legal backgrounds. Johnson has been working as a Magistrate Judge in Dougherty County since 2018. Williams is an Albany native and has worked in private practice for 28 years.

With this race being non-partisan, whoever wins on June 18th will be named the winner.

Early voting runs through Friday, June 14t with the General Election Runoff on Tuesday, June 18.

Habersham County Commission District 1 voters will elect a new Commissioner after the incumbent failed to make the Runoff Election, according to NowHabersham.

Eric Holbrooks and Kelly Woodall are facing each other in the local runoff after no candidate in the three person race secured more than 50% of the votes during the primary election.

Incumbent Commissioner Bruce Palmer finished third in the primary election with only 20 votes separating him and second place finisher Holbrooks. Palmer requested a recount that resulted in no change in the vote count for that race, securing a spot in the runoff for Holbrooks.

The Habersham County Elections Office has posted on the county’s website the voter turnout totals for the two days of early voting so far. Voters have cast 358 ballots in the runoff race during the two day period. There were 318 in-person ballots cast and 40 absentee ballots returned.

There are two precincts open for early voting, the Habersham North Precinct in Clarkesville and the Habersham South Precinct in Cornelia. Both precincts were open on Saturday, June 8, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and reopened on Monday, June 10, for early voting.

Voters still have an opportunity to cast their ballots early. Early voting will continue this week through Friday. Polls at both precincts will be open each day at 8:00 a.m. and will close at 7:00 p.m. All six voting precincts will be open on election day for in-person voting on Tuesday, June 18, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Runoff elections cost local governments, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Early ballots are being cast for the sheriff run-off between Richard Roundtree and Eugene Brantley, and Superior Court judge race between Charles Lyons and Matt Matson.

This afternoon, Augusta’s Elections office requesting $190,000 dollars from commissioners to cover the costs because run-offs are not budgeted.

“When you have a run-off, and this one is countrywide, you basically have to redo what we did before,” said Travis Doss, Richmond County Elections Director. “We have to have all 43 polling locations open, we got to have poll workers, we have advance voting. So yeah, it comes with a cost.”

Early voting continues through Friday at the Municipal Building, Diamond Lakes Community Center, Warren Road Community Center and Charles Evans Community Center. Polls are open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Two new lawsuits seek to enjoin the election of Mulberry City Council members following a successful incorporation campaign, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

The attorney for Stephen Hughes has filed two new lawsuits in the ongoing legal battle over the city of Mulberry, whose creation was approved by voters on May 21. One of the lawsuits is against Gwinnett County government and the other is against the county’s elections board.

Governor Brian Kemp is leading a trade trip to Korea, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Albany Herald.

Georgia’s first couple left Tuesday and plan to return next week at the head of a delegation that includes several state legislators and representatives of the state Department of Economic Development, Georgia Environmental Protection Division, and the Georgia Ports Authority.

Rather than drumming up new business, the trip will focus on strengthening existing relationships.

“The Republic of Korea was the very first country I visited when I became governor for a good reason — because of the incredible partners located there,” Kemp said. “Marty and I are glad to return so that we can reinforce those great friendships that are bringing historic investments and jobs to communities all across the state.”

The delegation will meet with executives from industries now operating in Georgia or building new facilities in the Peach State. The list includes Hyundai Motor Group, Kia, CJ Foodville, LG Group, SK Group and Hanwha Qcells.

As that roster indicates, many of the companies hosting the Georgia group are involved in the state’s rapidly growing electric vehicles industry.

“Connectivity leads to business, and relationships build the foundations of mutual progress,” Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, said. ”Meeting with the leadership of existing industries at their headquarters provides a unique opportunity to learn more about their perspective on an industry and where it is headed.”

“Keeping the lines of communication open, we can stay ahead of the curve in industry shifts, positioning Georgia at the forefront of new opportunities.”

From the AJC:

The international business pilgrimage, which began Tuesday with Kemp’s arrival in Korea, comes at a nexus point for his political future. The second-term governor has made business recruitment a cornerstone of his campaigns as he builds political influence as a high-profile Republican, despite his clashes with party head Donald Trump. He’s also an oft-floated name to potentially challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2026 or run for president himself in 2028.

The roughly 10-day trip will feature meetings with several existing industries that are either operational or under construction in Georgia, including Hyundai, Kia, CJ Foodville, Hanwha Qcells, LG Group and SK Group.

Korea has emerged as one of Georgia’s most important international business partners, especially in recent years. The country was Georgia’s top foreign investor for the past three years, and Korean companies announced more than $10 billion in investments and 12,605 jobs across Georgia during the 2023 fiscal year.

The largest contributor to the past few years of Korean investment in Georgia was Hyundai’s $7.6 billion electric vehicle “Metaplant” in Bryan County, which is expected to employ 8,500 workers in addition to attracting a vast network of suppliers to Coastal Georgia. The automotive juggernaut in late 2022 also announced a joint $5 billion EV battery plant in Bartow County with SK Innovation, just a few weeks before Qcells announced a $2.5 billion expansion to its Georgia solar panel production footprint.

The pipeline of Korean announcements and accolades has been consistent, but state leaders are not resting on their laurels, said Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson. There are more Korean corporate projects they’re looking to recruit.

“We have a number of very hot, active projects that we’re trying to get over the finish line,” Wilson said of the confidential business meetings. “So the governor will be able to go in, be the best salesman and hopefully close the deal on some of these projects.”

The state delegation visiting Korea will also include state Senate President Pro Tem John Kennedy, R-Macon, state Rep. Soo Hong, R-Lawrenceville, and state Rep. Lehman Franklin, R-Statesboro, in addition to officials from the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Georgia Environmental Protection Division and Georgia Ports Authority. Hyundai will host a “Georgia Day” event during the trip to celebrate the burgeoning relationship between the Peach State and Korean companies.

A clerical error postponed the Glynn County Board of Education’s consideration of their proposed FY 2025 budget, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

The board originally planned to consider adopting the $184 million operating budget at the monthly meeting. Those deliberations had to be postponed due to clerical errors that school district staff discovered in the budget after issuing a public notice on the hearing late last month.

The school board did not set a date Tuesday for the special-called meeting. The board went into executive session after approving multiple items on a consent agenda. It returned from executive session at around 7:40 p.m., and immediately adjourned.

It did not set a date for the required budget before The News went to press.

The legally required public notice of the hearing ran May 28 in Glynn County’s newspaper of record, The Brunswick News. Afterward, district staff discovered that line items in the budget’s capital outlay and special revenue accounts had not been updated, said Avery Coty, the school district’s executive director of finance.

The district’s overall proposed operating budget remained unchanged by the errors, Coty said.

“First of all, I want to apologize for the last-minute change to the agenda,” Coty told school board members during a workshop that preceded the regular monthly meeting. “There was an error. We’ll have to hold a second budget hearing later in the month to formally adopt the budget.”

Tift County Commissioners voted to accept grant funding from the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council for their drug accountability courts, according to the Tifton Gazette.

The Adult Felony Drug Court will receive $345,371, with $72,125 going to personnel, $175,491 to contract services, $35,000 for drug testing supplies, and $10,949 to travel and training, Ingram stated.

Calhoun reported that the DUI Drug Court would gain $146,794 through the grant, likewise divvying it out to personnel, supplies, contract services, and travel and training.

Both grants will require a 15% match from the county, with the grant for the Adult Felony Drug Court needing $34,898.62 and the DUI Drug Court grant needing $24,700.

Funds for this match will be taken from reserve, with the excess going to support the other financial obligations of the court the grants will not support.

Whitfield County Commissioners are considering an ordinance designed to ease the regulatory burden for new residential development, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners Monday held the first reading of two ordinances that seek to cut red tape and costs for some residential developments.

The first would create a definition of a minor subdivision as a “subdivision of five or fewer lots, which does not require the construction of a new road for the purpose of lawful access.”

The second would exempt minor subdivisions from land disturbance permits if all the structures are one- or two-family homes, the land disturbing area is less than one acre and “no portion of the minor subdivision is within one linear mile upstream of and within the same watershed as any portion of an Impaired Stream Segment as defined by Georgia (Environmental Protection Division, or EPD).”

“Our goal is to match, but not exceed, what the state EPD requires for stormwater and erosion control,” said board Chairman Jevin Jensen. “We also want to be competitive with surrounding counties to keep our building costs low and regulations at a minimum.”

“After the discussion at our May commissioners meeting with various developers and additional research by county staff, we proposed minor subdivisions of five lots or less that can be exempt from stormwater planning and erosion control permits,” he said. “This is similar to Catoosa’s (County) ordinance and less restrictive than Bartow’s. The larger subdivisions will still require these plans and permits prior to construction.”

Columbus Police Chief Stoney Mathis updated City Council on the first year of his tenure, according to WTVM.

Improved morale and a much higher retention rate were just two of the highlights Columbus’s police chief shared with city council Tuesday as part of the department’s yearly update.

Chief Stoney Mathis said that morale has improved and most of the vacant positions are now filled.

Mathis has completed a year as the police chief of Columbus. Reflecting on his tenure, he recalls reviewing the Jensen and Hughes report, which led to the departure of the former police chief, and the SWAT analysis conducted by Columbus State University. Both reports yielded similar findings, according to Mathis.

“Which were micromanaging, lack of leadership, cronyism and policy issues…well you’re going to hear today that you got a sound command staff at the police department,” said Mathis.

When Mathis assumed his role, he said one of the major challenges was a shortage of personnel. Deputy Chief Roderick Graham played a pivotal role in recruiting officers to the department, resulting in a retention rate of 53 percent this year.

“Making the comparison today, looking at 2023 and 2024, what we see now is this year, so far, we have hired 53 individuals and, so far, have lost 23,” said Roderick Graham, Columbus deputy chief.

Graham says right now the police department is almost fully staffed.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is working through a backlog with improved staffing, according to 11Alive via 13WMAZ.

“The progress has really been around retaining the staff,” GBI Crime Lab Director Cleveland Miles said. “We want to get out of this cycle of hiring, training and losing because if we stay in that cycle, we’re not able to get the cases out the door.”

Miles said a boost in state support has helped process more cases than the agency has received for the first time in several years. Now, it is able to make headway on an evidence backlog.

The GBI received about 103,000 requests for testing so far this fiscal year; it reported 105,000 back.

“Whenever we’re in a position to be able to do that, it allows us to decrease our turnaround time, meaning that we can do cases a lot faster,” Miles said. “Those will translate to the citizens of the state seeing the police departments, seeing the court systems move a lot faster because they’re not being held up by waiting on forensic work.”

The agency is also embracing new technology that allows some of the work to be automated.

“That technology allows for us to do cases a lot faster, a lot more efficient, with fewer hands involved,” he said. “As far as the scientists, they’re able to redirect their efforts to other things to help keep cases going out the door.”

The technology is already helping them process sexual assault kits and property crime evidence more efficiently.

Newly-appointed Columbus City Council member Byron Hickey came under fire from the children of his predecessor, the late “Pop” Barnes, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

Two children of the late Columbus Councilor Jerry “Pops” Barnes adamantly refuted the narrative that the council appointed someone who Barnes was mentoring to be his successor before he died.

In fact, Simi and Clairmont Barnes told the Columbus Council during Tuesday’s meeting, their father’s phone records indicate the council’s appointee, Byron Hickey, hadn’t communicate with Pops since April 18, 2023.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive,” Simi said. “. . . The appointee greatly misrepresented his relationship, if you can call it that with my dad, for his own personal selfish gain, and those in positions of power colluded with him for their own political interests, so the truth did not matter. They did not do their due diligence.”

In a 6-3 vote May 28, the council appointed Hickey, a retired Columbus police officer, to succeed Pops as the District 1 representative and fill the remaining two years of the four-year term. Barnes, who died April 14 at age 80 from an undisclosed illness, was the District 1 representative on the 10-member council for 17 years.

Hickey was scheduled to be sworn in June 4, but a conflict in city law about the pension plan indefinitely has postponed his appointment. The council is expect to consider amending the pension plan ordinance so Hickey wouldn’t have to suspend withdrawals from his pension while serving on the council.

“My dad expressed that he did not trust the appointee,” she said. “He described him as a bad man and said that he did not have a heart for the people. My dad literally stopped taking his calls. Do you think he would be OK with him taking his seat?

“The lies and the misinformation stop today. No more talk of who my dad was mentoring or what his wishes were unless it comes specifically from the family.”

Oconee County Public Schools dedicated a new Instructional Support Center in Watkinsville, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

Oconee County Board of Education Chair Kim Argo praised the new building and what it will mean to the future of education in the county.

“We can all agree there is nothing more important than our children and grandchildren,” she said. “Today is a day to celebrate and it also marks the first step in a lengthy journey, one that we will make together because the work in education is never done.”

The new three-story building contains 64 offices, 15 meeting spaces and cost more than $14.5 million to construct, according to figures from the school system. Among the services stationed in the building are the superintendent’s office, and staff involved in teaching and learning, nutrition, communications and business services.

A new board room contains 100 seats and a private room accessible to the rear was added for when the elected board goes into closed session.

Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson cautioned parents after a shooting, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Following a gunfight in downtown Augusta early Saturday, Mayor Garnett Johnson addressed Augusta Commission meeting attendees on Tuesday, cautioning parents about letting their teens out on Broad Street late at night.

One of the shooting suspects, identified by the GBI as Amazing Lee Blessed Brigham, 19, of Hephzibah, is charged with two counts of aggravated assault and a weapons charge, according to previous reporting. Deputies reported Brigham had an assault pistol at the time of the shooting.

The gunfire covered an area of two to three blocks and involved multiple gunmen, The Chronicle reported. No deputies were injured in the encounter.

“This past weekend we saw Augusta at its ugliest,” Johnson said. “Downtown is a safe place. However, this body is not going to tolerate lawlessness that occurs in our downtown.”

He said 14- and 15-year-olds have no reason to be “loitering and congregating” downtown after midnight, as most restaurants close at 10 p.m.

“It is now the most dangerous part of the year for teenagers,” Johnson said. “It’s summertime. They’re out of school. If you know friends or family who have teenagers, please encourage them to go other places. Don’t congregate where there are large crowds.”

Roswell City Council voted to pay $340,000 per year for a new Chief Operating Officer, according to the AJC.

Roswell plans to hire a chief operating officer whom officials consider to be a “whale” earning $340,000 annually.

The person will oversee staff and city operations but will not be a Roswell employee. The new chief operating officer will be a contractor for three years for the city while an employee of Seer World consulting firm.

Roswell officials declined to publicly name the individual but plan to do so at a later date.

Seer is Roswell’s economic development consultant. In April, council approved paying the firm up to $2 million per year through 2029 for services. The new chief operating officer will be paid out of those funds, according to the city.

The new COO’s salary will total up to $1,020,000 at the end of his three-year contract period. The person will spend 75% of their time on city matters and 25% with Seer. In the Roswell administration, the COO will report to City Administrator Randy Knighton, who earns a lower salary.

The person will replace Richard Rhinehart who resigned in January after working 10 months in the position. Rhinehart’s annual salary on staff was $198,000.