Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 28, 2022

On June 28, 1742, Spanish forces based in Florida invaded Georgia.

On June 28, 1776, Thomas Jefferson’s second draft of the Declaration of Independence was presented to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

On June 28, 1887, John Pemberton patented Coca-Cola Syrup and Extract.

Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia on June 28, 1914, sparking the First World War.

The first production Corvette was assembled on June 28, 1953 in Flint, Michigan.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

You’re more likely to learn what a bear does in the woods as rising numbers of bear sightings are reported in Georgia and Tennessee. From the Chattanooga Times Free Press via the Rome News Tribune:

Yearling male black bears are on the move this month, looking for their own territory, while female bears with young cubs are looking for food, and that search can put the large mammals and humans in dangerous conflict, according to bear advocates and state and federal officials.

Bears emerge hungry in spring and are on the hunt for food for the rest of the season, and easy access to human trash can cause problems between humans and bears.

Forest Service officials are urging visitors to exercise caution in the area and be on the lookout for black bears and to remember federal orders for the Cherokee National Forest prohibit possessing or leaving food, bear attractant or refuse unless it is possessed properly or stored properly, Miller said.

“If humans do not properly secure their trash, bird feeders, wildlife feeders, or clean and secure their grills, they all become attractants,” Hodge said, noting recent bear problems in the metro-Atlanta area.

“They are spreading into their historic range,” he said. “They follow noses, water and food sources both natural and unnatural. Black bears are opportunistic feeders, and sometimes it gets them into trouble around humans.”

The Muscogee County Clerk of Superior Court‘s office will close to the public temporarily due to COVID, according to WTVM.

Chief Judge of Superior Court Gil McBride declared a COVID Judicial Emergency on June 27.

“The conditions of such public health emergency substantially have endangered normal functioning of the offices of clerk of superior court,” explained McBride.

Employees will continue to work at the office. However, the public will not have access to the 2nd floor of the Superior Court Clerk’s Office.

The order will remain in place until July 11 at 11:59 p.m.

The 11th Circuit United States Court of Appeals has asked for briefs on the effect of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision on a federal stay of Georgia’s “Heartbeat Bill,” according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Rome News Tribune.

Georgia’s “heartbeat law” banning abortions after the first six weeks won’t take effect until at least mid-July despite last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized the procedure.

Hours after the court announced its decision, Georgia attorney general Chris Carr filed a notice asking the appellate court to rule on Georgia’s law.

State Sen. Jen Jordan Monday signaled what could be Georgia Democrats’ legal strategy in the case. Jordan, D-Atlanta, who is challenging Republican Carr’s reelection bid, told reporters at a news conference the heartbeat law is unconstitutional both under Georgia and federal law.

A right of privacy has been recognized in Georgia since approximately 1903,” she said.
“Georgia’s [right] has been reaffirmed over and over and over, and it is considered to be one of the strongest in the nation in terms of the case law interpreting it. There is absolutely a viable path in terms of challenging the law under the Georgia constitution.”

The DeKalb County Board of Elections voted to certify last week’s runoff election results, according to the AJC.

Key local results from last week’s runoffs included Democrat Michelle Long Spears’ victory in DeKalb Commission District 2. Spears bested opponent Lauren Alexander by a healthy margin in the runoff — which initial, erroneous primary results suggested she would miss altogether.

A series of programming errors introduced by the Georgia secretary of state’s office created an issue that didn’t count Spears’ votes properly in May’s three-way primary. A hand count of paper ballots later showed Spears and Alexander finishing one-two, with Marshall Orson in third place and out of the runoff.

Orson, a longtime DeKalb school board member trying to join the commission, later asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to look into things. It declined.

In the race to replace Orson on the school board, newcomer Whitney McGinniss bested opponent Candice D. McKinley. District 6 representative Diijon DaCosta topped challenger Janet Hughes to retain his seat on the board.

Fulton County’s Board of Elections certified their election results, according to the AJC.

The only hiccup was a human error of sending out about three dozen incorrect ballots to voters, but the correct ballots were sent overnight in the mail to the voters with a letter explaining what happened, said interim elections director Nadine Williams.

Home to a tenth of all Georgia residents, Fulton is likely to endure a problem if there’s going to be one statewide, making it crucial to the four statewide Democratic runoffs.

Democrat Stacey Abrams trashed the “Heartbeat Bill” in Savannah, according to WTOC.

“Because we know that Georgia has one of the weakest public health infrastructures, and because maternal mortality is one of the highest of the nation, and because this law would prohibit women getting the medical care they need after six weeks, we know that’s going to put a lot of our lives in danger. So I’m deeply concerned.”

Governor Brian Kemp gave his reaction to the ruling this past weekend.

He called Roe V. Wade a bad ruling to begin with and is pushing for the Heartbeat Bill hoping that this decision will help get it implemented in Georgia soon.

“We feel like the ruling will help us get the heartbeat bill implemented. That’s what I would like to see, what the General Assembly voted on but I think it’s also now time for the pro-life movement to step up and say, ‘how can we support these mothers, how can we support the pro-life movement further with different benefits.’ And if you look at how the legislation works in the heartbeat bill, we did a lot of that thinking through that, but we got to continue to do more of that,” said Governor Kemp.

The governor’s comments come after the state filed a notice Friday asking a U.S. court of appeals for the 11th circuit to reverse a previous decision and allow the Heart Beat law to take affect.

A [federal] judge originally blocked that law from taking effect which would have banned most abortions after six weeks.

From WSAV:

“I think that so many Georgians are tired of the extremist and dangerous policies that we have seen from the governor,” Abrams said. “His willingness to expand access to guns to dangerous people instead of making it safer in our state. His willingness to ban access to abortion when we know that more women will die in this state … We can get good done for all of Georgia but we have to have a governor willing to work with everyone to get it done.”

On Sunday, Kemp focused on how he kept Georgia’s businesses open during the pandemic and says school safety in the peach state continues to be one of his biggest priorities.

“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,” Kemp said. “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 dollars to improve the security of their campuses and for their students.”

“I believe that we can reverse this law,” Abrams said. “I think as more Georgians come to a realization of what’s been done, that this law is a 6 week ban that essentially bans abortion in the state of Georgia, bans reproductive care and hurts women who are miscarrying, women who have other challenges, that we can get the legislature to undo this law. It barely passed in 2019 and I believe when I become Governor we can absolutely reverse this law.”

Is Abrams trying to trash Georgia’s economy again? From Axios:

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Sunday said companies should consider the “danger that [Gov.] Brian Kemp poses to the life and welfare of women” in Georgia when doing business there.

“He has already broken our health care system by refusing to expand Medicaid, and Georgia already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation,” Abrams said about Kemp on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

She added: “I would tell every single business and every single woman that they should do what is best for the women who work for them. They need to make certain that they are accommodating the very real health care challenges that will face women in the state of Georgia.”

Abrams said she hopes to reverse the law by passing new legislation in 2023.

Tybee Island election officials continue working to clean voter rolls, according to WTOC.

After comparing Tybee’s population size of eligible voters to how many people voted in the November 2021 municipal election, some residents and the city clerk have been working to compile a list of people they’d like the Chatham County Board of Registrars to challenge.

The Chairman of the Chatham County Board of Registrars, Colin McRae, said, “our board is not tasked with looking backwards and nullifying votes in the past. That’s not something we can do. What we can do is make sure that going forward that those who are not properly registered in a location don’t get to vote in that location in the future.”

“This is not denying anybody’s right to vote. It’s just we need clarification if you’re truly eligible or not,” said Ken Williams, who lives on the island.

“There were a number of residents who had registered on Tybee, but had a homestead elsewhere we had to go by statute and say that they do not live on Tybee.” [said Chatham County Board of Registrars Chair Colin McRae]

“If there are people registered to vote here, but don’t live here then that dilutes the vote of the permanent residents here,” said Williams.

U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Athens) has introduced legislation to lift the federal excise tax on guns and ammo, according to WDUN.

[I believe that if you can tax a constitutional right, then it is not truly a constitutional right,” Clyde told WDUN’s Newsroom.

Right now, the federal government applies an excise tax at the manufacturer level for every firearm and all ammunition sold in the United States. For handguns, the tax is 10%, and for long guns and ammunition, it is 11%.

Currently, the money generated from the tax goes toward hunter education and environmental causes. Under Mr. Clyde’s bill, the funding for those items would come from unallocated lease revenue generated by energy development on federal lands.

Clyde knows the bill is unlikely to pass while Democrats control the House, but he hopes the midterms will lead to some changes.

“I think it’s important to lay down a marker, that this is where we stand and what we stand for, that we’re going to defend the Constitution of the United States,” he said.

The Georgia Department of Transportation will suspend road closures for the upcoming holiday weekend, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Georgia DOT’s five-day travel forecast for the long holiday weekend indicates the heaviest traffic volumes may materialize as early as Friday, with moderately heavy traffic predicted on both Saturday and July 5. Forecasts are based on historical traffic volumes on similar dates around the July 4 holiday.

The Lowndes County Commission approved grants to accountability courts, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

The Lowndes County Commission approved two Fiscal Year 2023 grant cash matches totaling $38,087 for the Lowndes County Accountability Court and the Lowndes County Juvenile Accountability Court.

Jennifer Fabbri, LCAC program coordinator, reported to the commissioners that LCAC is funded through a reimbursable state grant, with this year’s award totaling $26,147. To receive funding through the grant, LCAC must secure a cash match from the county.

Fabbri said since 2016, 51 participants have graduated from the program and the current program census is 28. Additionally, LCAC received full certification from the Council of Accountability Court Judges the first part of May, meaning that the LCAC was “compliant with all state standards and best practices” and continues to be qualified to receive state funding.

The Whitfield County Board of Education adopted a FY 2023 budget, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

Whitfield County Schools’ fiscal year 2023 budget includes general fund revenues of $130.4 million and expenditures of $129.9 million, and Whitfield County Board of Education members approved the budget 4-0 during a meeting last week.

The projected total general fund revenue of $130.4 million is 1.1% higher than in fiscal year 2022, she said. She assumes zero percent growth in tax digest revenue based on fiscal year 2022 collections, but more information will be available in July.

The $129.9 million in fiscal year 2023 general fund expenditures is 4.4% higher than fiscal year 2022 and includes a $1.32 hourly rate increase for classified staff members, 17.5 new teacher allotments, four new paraprofessional allotments and five nurses moving on staff that had previously worked with the school system via a contract with the local health department, she said. Many of the new teachers and paraprofessionals fill needs in Exceptional Student Services, an area that continues to grow.

Savannah City Council is considering levying impact fees on developers, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Chatham County’s largest city is looking to adopt impact fees on new construction, which could charge developers up to $5,545 per single-family home if adopted, to help fund road improvements, parks and recreation services, and public safety facilities needed to support new growth.

Although the ordinance is a top priority for this council, the high cost of the proposed plan gave many aldermen pause, particularly when it came to the cost developers of housing units could pay.

Chatham County is seeing rising numbers of opioid overdoses, according to the Savannah Morning News.

The director for Chatham-Savannah Counter Narcotics recently told County Commissioners Narcan doses doubled last month compared to May of 2021.

One of the first points CNT Director Michael Sarhatt made to Chatham County Commissioners last week was how fentanyl is still wreaking havoc in the community.

“The May number really, year to date, should be 400. So that’s a very big increase from last year to this year. The upside to that is that, if you go down to the overdose deaths, we’re at half,” said Sarhatt.