Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 27, 2022

On June 27, 1864, Sherman’s Union forces attacked General Johnston’s Confederates at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.

One year later, the Military Department of Georgia was created to oversee Reconstruction in the state.

The Gone with the Wind scene that includes the line, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” was filmed on June 27, 1939, along with an alternate that used the line, “Frankly, my dear, I just don’t care.”

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

A tied election in Alabama will be decided by drawing lots, according to WTVM.

The Alabama Republican Party Candidate Committee has released its final decision on the Senate District 29 primary election race.

Following deliberations at a Saturday hearing, the committee declared the race between Auburn City Councilman Jay Hovey and incumbent Tom Whatley a tie.

The committee said the tie will be broken in the same manner established for general elections set forth in Alabama Code 17-12-23. It reads:

“In all elections where there is a tie between the two highest candidates for the same office, for all county or precinct offices, it shall be decided by lot by the judge of probate of the county in the presence of the candidates; and in the case of the office of circuit judge, senator, representative, or any state officer not otherwise provided for, the Secretary of State shall, in the presence of the Governor, and such other electors as may choose to be present, decide the tie by lot.”

The Savannah Morning News has reactions to the Dobbs decision.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp – “Today’s landmark ruling is a historic victory for life. I look forward to its impact on the legal proceeding surrounding Georgia’s LIFE Act, and hope our law will be fully implemented and ultimately protect countless unborn lives here in the Peach State. Working closely with the General Assembly, we have made significant strides to stand for life at all stages -from adoption and foster care reform, to combatting human trafficking and passing the heartbeat bill — and we will continue that important work in the days and months to come.”

Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams – “As the next Governor of Georgia, I will fight each day to defend the right to choose and veto any legislation that further restricts abortion rights. I will work to ensure equity in access and family planning, increase availability of Plan B and emergency contraception, expand Medicaid to support low income women, and invest in critical maternal health care to reduce the maternal and infant death rates in Georgia. And I will work with the legislature to reverse the draconian law that will now rule our state.”

“I want to lead One Georgia — a state where women have the right to choose, control their bodies and not have their rights stripped away. This callous decision proves once again that Georgians cannot afford four more years of a governor who puts his personal politics ahead of Georgians.”

Senator John Ossoff – With its decision in Dobbs, the Court has stripped American women of autonomy over their most personal health care decisions.

“The Court has given license to prosecute and imprison women for making the intensely personal decision to end a pregnancy — even when their health is at risk, even in the first hours or weeks after conception, and even when pregnancy results from rape — and to prosecute doctors and nurses whose private relationships with their patients have been protected by Roe v. Wade for half a century.”

“Under Georgia’s HB481, the Court’s decision means Georgia women and medical providers could face prosecution for ending a pregnancy as early as six weeks after conception – before many women even know they are pregnant. This decision also creates risk of investigation and prosecution for women who miscarry and will force some women seeking access to abortion toward unsafe, unqualified alternatives that put their lives at risk.”

Republican 1st Congressional District incumbent Rep. Buddy Carter – “Millions of children have been silent victims of a decades-long siege on their right to life. The heartbeats heard in ultrasound appointments have now been heard by the Supreme Court, and we finally have a nation that honors the humanity of unborn children,” said Carter. “We followed the science, and it led us to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that life begins at conception. The same unborn children that can feel pain in the womb will one day feel immense joy knowing that their life was valued from day one.”

It’s a well-written article with a large variety of voices.

From the Gwinnett Daily Post:

“This is the most damnable Supreme Court decision in my lifetime,” said U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga. “For the first time in our nation’s history, the Supreme Court has snatched away a fundamental civil right. For half a century, the reproductive right has been a hallmark of gender equality in our nation. Women have now had that right ripped away by a callous and extreme, draconian Supreme Court.” “What civil right is next? Will it be the right to use contraceptives? Will it be marriage equality? Or will it be the civil and voting rights of Black and Brown people? Just how far backwards does this ultra-reactionary Court plan to take us?”

“We could not be more thrilled that the protection of life is being upheld and Roe has been overturned,” [U.S. Rep. Jody] Hice said. “So, we’re excited today and understanding two things. No. 1, that this is a great day for life, a great day for America, but this is also the beginning of a great battle that turns to the states.”

Meanwhile, [U.S. Rep. Carolyn] Bourdeaux predicted “women will die because of this decision.” “I am mortified to see the work of generations of women wiped away by Supreme Court Justices who do not share the values of a vast majority of Americans,” Bourdeaux said. “Women’s health care is not debatable.”

From the Gainesville Times:

State Rep. Emory Dunahoo, R-Gillsville, said he expects the legislature to take up the issue when it reconvenes in January.

Asked whether he believes an outright ban could happen, he said, “With the leadership we have now in the House, I think the speaker will try to have carve-outs somewhere here and there. Me? I’m 100% pro-life.”

Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones (D) spoke of her reaction to the decision, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones, [] denounced the overturning of the 1976 ruling, saying it set the country back and puts prosecutors in a precarious position. “I want you to know that the decision the court made today puts prosecutors like myself on the firing line,” she said.

Originally set to take effect in 2020, H.B. 481 was struck down as unconstitutional. The state filed an appeal in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, where it has languished. In a tweet Friday afternoon, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced his office filed a notice requesting the 11th Circuit Court reverse the decision and allow the law to take effect. Should it take effect, the bill would allow for the criminalization of people who seek abortions.

Jones spoke briefly with a Savannah Morning News reporter on whether she will prosecute those who chose to get an abortion. While she did not give a definitive “yes” or “no,” Jones said she will use her prosecutorial discretion to prosecute offenses that pose the greatest risk to public safety and public health.

“For example, we need to be focusing on serious violent crime, ending gun violence and gang violence,” she said. “We need to focus our already limited resources on those. And that’s how I plan to continue to keep the streets of Chatham County safe.”

Jones added she didn’t think any prosecutor could unequivocally say “yes” or “no,” because cases have to be addressed on a case-by-case matter. “The prosecutor’s job is to address each case on a case-by-case. But when I am evaluating cases, I am looking for cases that pose threat and I don’t see this as being one of them.”

Jones’ comments come as DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston publicly said she would not prosecute people who get an abortion.

“It is my contention that law enforcement and prosecutors should not be thrust into this health space, regardless of the legislation on the books,” Boston said in a lengthy Facebook post.

Democrat Stacey Abrams is calling for federal legislation to return to the Roe status quo, according ot CNN via the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams on Sunday called for a legislative solution that would restore nationwide access to abortion following last week’s US Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade as some states, including her own, move to restrict the procedure.

“We know that the right to choose should not be divvied up amongst states. And that the sinister practice of taking constitutional rights and allowing each state to decide the quality of your citizenship is wrong. Women deserve bodily autonomy, they deserve the right to make these choices,” Abrams told CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union.

“In Georgia in particular, in a matter of days, this six-week ban will be the law of the land. That is horrendous. That is appalling. And it is wrong. And, as the next governor, I’m going to do everything in my power to reverse it,” Abrams said Sunday.

Asked if President Joe Biden is doing enough on the issue, Abrams said the President “should do what is within the purview of the executive.” She emphasized the need for a “legislative solution that restores the constitutional protection to women, regardless of the state they live in.”

A small group in Brunswick protested the Dobbs decision, according to The Brunswick News.

A group of about 60 people gathered outside the Glynn County Courthouse on Saturday evening to protest the Supreme Court’s ruling Friday that overturned Roe v. Wade, which protected abortion rights at a federal level.

Julie Jordan, chair of the Glynn County Democrats, spoke to the assembled group first. “When your rights are being taken away, it hits everyone hard,” Jordan said. “We’re appreciative of not only all the women that showed up today, but all the men. Glynn County needs to know that we’re here. We’re not just a red county, We’re a county that cares about everybody.”

Local resident Bonnie Hunter said the Supreme Court’s ruling put already vulnerable women in more danger[,] “Politics are truly personal when it comes to this issue. We all have our experiences and the experiences of women we know that have enforced how we feel.”

From WTOC in Savannah:

A rally was held in Johnson Square on Friday after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

District Attorney Shalena Cook-Jones, said, “I question a government that’s more invested in closing doors limiting the freedoms of women and families across this country than it is in investing in equal access to medical care and preventative care.” “They want to create laws that restrict your freedom in the most personal and intimate way. I question a government.”

From 13WMAZ in Macon:

On Saturday, dozens of people marched through downtown Macon to express their feelings about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

The Call to Action: #Ourbodiesourchoice March began at 11 a.m.

The Georgia Women’s Network and the Women’s March brought organizers together.

Event organizer Mia Robbins-Aguliar says rallies like theirs tell legislators that they will not stay silent. “My initial goal was to just come out and meet with other people and express outrage, get support and take advantage of being an American. So that was my goal,” she said.

Georgia representative Miriam Paris also spoke at the rally.

From the Athens Banner Herald:

Emotions ran high as hundreds gathered on College Square in Athens the day after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. For two hours, pro-abortion demonstrators chanted, marched and mourned the expected heavy-handed restrictions on abortion in Georgia.

Saturday’s rally took place 26 hours after the opinion from the highest court in the land came down. While groups such as the Athens Area Democratic Socialists of America, Athens Reproductive Justice Collective, Party for Socialism and Liberation, and Students for Socialism organized the rally, individuals in the crowd also had their own stories to share.

From WALB:

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court on Friday, protests have erupted everywhere, even here in South Georgia.

Saturday, Americus residents pulled out not only their signs and flags but also their voices in the wake of the ruling. ‘Keep your laws off my daughter’ and ‘We won’t go back’ were just some of the phrases written on protesters’ signs.

From the Savannah Morning News:

Anders Compitello, a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, … feels strongly about access to reproductive healthcare and has experienced plenty of his own struggles when seeking treatment and diagnosis for gynecological health concerns. However, as a gender-fluid trans man, Compitello doesn’t look like the average face of a reproductive justice march, and he has had a difficult time making his voice heard.

“A lot of the marches are very woman-centric,” Compitello said. “I get it, but it’s very disheartening.”

Since Compitello began medically transitioning, he’s experienced pushback when joining conversations around reproductive health.

“I still take birth control, and I still go to a gynecologist, so I feel like as long as I’m doing that, I shouldn’t be shunned from this conversation,” Compitello said.

This includes any transgender person who was assigned female at birth (or AFAB), including but not limited to transgender men and nonbinary and intersex people, including those who choose not to go on hormone replacement therapy, or HRT.

“The biggest concern with this potential decision in the LGBTQ community that I’m hearing that everybody that I’m talking to is just terrified that it’s going to erode the rights that we’ve gained over the past 10 to 15 years,” said Carla Moore, a transgender woman who runs the First City Pride Center transgender support group in Savannah.

“There’s also the overall anxiety level for a dude with a beard, showing up at a OBGYN office because, obviously, they still need to see the doctor. Then you throw the whole Roe v. Wade thing in…I think it’s more than just a fear of eroding rights and being discriminated against.” Moore said.

A number of District Attorneys said publicly that they will not prosecute any abortion cases. From the Augusta Chronicle:

In a statement distributed by Fair and Just Prosecution, 84 elected prosecutors nationwide, including seven in Georgia, said they would not use their offices’ resources to criminalize reproductive health decisions and won’t prosecute those who seek, provide or support abortions.

“As elected prosecutors, ministers of justice, and leaders in our communities, we cannot stand by and allow members of our community to live in fear of the ramifications of this deeply troubling decision,” the statement noted, addressing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to repeal Roe v. Wade on Friday.

Concerned with a “potential ripple effect,” Athens’ Western Judicial Circuit DA Deborah Gonzalez echoed [Chatham County DA] Williams’ sentiment.

“I will not be complacent in a system attempting to strip away the rights of American citizens,” she noted in a released statement.

Other Georgia DA’s in the nationwide statement include Patsy Austin-Gatson from the Gwinnett Judicial Circuit, former DA David Cooke from the Macon Judicial Circuit and Dalia Racine from Douglas County.

From the Athens Banner Herald:

Not only did District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez condemn the SCOTUS opinion, she asserted that with her position, she would not prosecute women seeking reproductive health care.

“​​At 10:15 this morning, The Supreme Court issued a decision heard around the world, a decision overturning the constitutional protection of a woman’s bodily autonomy. The overturning of Roe v. Wade will not end abortions but it will end the lives of countless women. It will devastate families. It will cause harm to communities,

“As your District Attorney, I will not prosecute women seeking reproductive health care. I will not prosecute doctors providing women with care. I will not be complacent in a system attempting to strip away the rights of American citizens. I stand with the 82 elected prosecutors around the country that pledge not to criminalize abortion. I stand with the 61% of Americans who believe in the right to choose.”

Athens-Clarke County Commissioner Mariah Parker denounced the decision by the Supreme Court and highlighted the failure of Democrats to protect reproductive rights.

“From upholding slavery and Jim Crow laws to upholding anti-gay ‘sodomy’ laws, the Supreme Court is a proven enemy of the people and an enemy of democracy,” Parker said in a statement. “This no different — over 72% of Americans oppose the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and yet an undemocratically appointed body has decided to deny thousands of Athenians and untold millions of Americans their basic human right to healthcare. The Supreme Court is an illegitimate institution and should be abolished.”

“As well, the failure of the Democratic majority in Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have enshrined abortion rights into law, highlights that the only way we can win the rights we deserve is through mass movements,” Parker added. “The Supreme Court does not represent the majority of the country. But as the iconic Black feminist Florynce Kennedy once put it, ‘When you want to get to the suites, start in the streets.'”

Governor Brian Kemp spoke at the Georgia Municipal Association convention in Savannah, according to WSAV.

On Sunday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.) took the stage, touting his record of bringing employment and industries to the state, including the recent announcement of the Hyundai plant coming to Bryan County.

Looking ahead, the governor says school safety continues to be a priority.

“The thought of something like that happening as we saw in Uvalde, Texas, is one of my biggest concerns, one that I know we all share,” said Kemp. “That’s why my first year in office, when we supported the General Assembly, I allocated $69 billion for school safety grants to provide every single school in Georgia $30,000 to improve the security of their campuses and for their students.”

The governor says in the coming months, he plans to give more funding for school safety efforts, including school resource officer training.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R) filed a motion in federal court seeking to lift the stay against Georgia’s “Heartbeat bill,”  according to WTOC.

The State of Georgia has filed notice asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to reverse a previous decision and allow the Heartbeat Law to take effect.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr issued a statement regarding the Supreme Court’s decision.

“I believe in the dignity, value and worth of every human being, both born and unborn. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs is constitutionally correct and rightfully returns the issue of abortion to the states and to the people – where it belongs.

We have just filed a notice in the 11th Circuit requesting it reverse the District Court’s decision and allow Georgia’s Heartbeat Law to take effect.”

A judge blocked the state’s bill from taking effect in July of 2020.

Physicians practicing medicine in Georgia would be prohibited from offering abortion services to pregnant women if a “fetal heartbeat” is present, which typically occurs in the sixth week of pregnancy.

The Associated Press reports that a wave of suburban voters are converting to Republicans, according to WSAV.

More than 1 million voters across 43 states have switched to the Republican Party over the last year, according to voter registration data analyzed by The Associated Press. — Democratic and Republican states along with cities and small towns — in the period since President Joe Biden replaced former President Donald Trump.

But nowhere is the shift more pronounced — and dangerous for Democrats — than in the suburbs, where well-educated swing voters who turned against Trump’s Republican Party in recent years appear to be swinging back. Over the last year, far more people are switching to the GOP across suburban counties from Denver to Atlanta and Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Republicans also gained ground in counties around medium-size cities such as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Raleigh, North Carolina; Augusta, Georgia; and Des Moines, Iowa.

The AP examined nearly 1.7 million voters who had likely switched affiliations across 42 states for which there is data over the last 12 months, according to L2, a political data firm. L2 uses a combination of state voter records and statistical modeling to determine party affiliation. While party switching is not uncommon, the data shows a definite reversal from the period while Trump was in office, when Democrats enjoyed a slight edge in the number of party switchers nationwide.

But over the last year, roughly two-thirds of the 1.7 million voters who changed their party affiliation shifted to the Republican Party. In all, more than 1 million people became Republicans compared to about 630,000 who became Democrats.

Roughly four months before Election Day, Democrats have no clear strategy to address Biden’s weak popularity and voters’ overwhelming fear that the country is headed in the wrong direction with their party in charge. And while Republicans have offered few policy solutions of their own, the GOP has been working effectively to capitalize on the Democrats’ shortcomings.

In Florida, Republicans captured 58 percent of party switchers during those last years of the Trump era. Now, over the last year, they command 70 percent. And in Pennsylvania, the Republicans went from 58 to 63 percent of party changers.

But the Supreme Court decision could scramble things.

 

 

Macon-Bibb County Commissioners adopted an ordinance requiring reduced business hours for “vice marts,” according to 13WMAZ.

In just a few weeks, Macon food and vice marts will be required to change up their hours.

It comes after three deaths in the last couple months at a Houston Avenue food mart. Last week, Macon-Bibb commissioners approved the new ordinance, which would close food marts between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

“You’d be amazed how much of it is around vice marts,” Commissioner Bill Howell said.

According to the county, vice marts are convenience stores that sell inexpensive grab-and-go food, lottery products and gifts. Food marts sell a mix of food and non-alcohol items.

Howell says limiting the hours may help take some pressure off the sheriff’s office, since they’re still understaffed.

“Our deputies are overworked. They answer a lot of calls. Maybe this is a way to slow down those calls,” Howell said.

Gas stations are not affected by the ordinance, even if the signage reads, ‘Food Mart.’ Grocery stores, discount stores and pharmacies are also not affected.

The ordinance will go effect in July, according to the ordinance. It should be around July 21.