Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 28, 2023

On June 29, 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés sailed from Cadiz, Spain to invade Florida.

Johan De Kalb was born on June 29, 1721 in Germany. In 1777, De Kalb joined the Marquis de Lafayette in supporting the Americans against British forces, dying in Camden, South Carolina in 1780. In 1822, the Georgia General Assembly created DeKalb County.

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

On June 29, 1767, the British Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, levying a tax on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea in order to raise funds from the colonies.

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.

The United States Supreme Court released its 5-4 opinion in Furman v. Georgia on June 29, 1972, holding that the death penalty violated the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

On June 29, 1993, Governor Zell Miller bought the first ticket in the Georgia Lottery.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta will trade A-10s for F-35s, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

The Air Force announced in a statement Monday that Moody will receive two squadrons equipped with single-engine F-35A Lightning II fighters starting in FY2027. This will require about 500 additional personnel, the statement said.

One of the criticisms leveled at the F-35 series was that it was meant to be an “all-purpose” fighter not specifically designed for close troop support missions. The A-10C, originally designed as a flying tank-buster, gained a reputation as a ground attack vehicle. Famed for flying “low and slow,” the A-10C could loiter over a battlefield to provide aerial firepower for ground troops.

The A-10C has a rated top speed of Mach 0.56, while the F-35A can reach Mach 1.6; The A-10C’s range is 800 miles compared to the F-35A’s 1,350 miles, Air Force documents show. The F-35A’s single engine also has almost 2.5 times as much thrust as both of the A-10C’s two engines.

Attempts by the military to retire the A-10C fleet in the mid-2010s were set aside due to intense political pressure. At the same time, the Joint Strike Fighter program fell behind schedule and suffered budget overruns.

Moody received its first A-10C in 2006.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said “This is a major step forward in our ongoing effort to strengthen and sustain Moody Air Force Base for decades to come. Moody is a critical national security asset and a vital job creator for South Georgia. The men and women who serve at Moody are among the finest in our armed forces.”

The United States Department of Agriculture declared a natural emergency affecting 18 Georgia counties, according to Fox5Atlanta.

A natural disaster declaration has been issued for 18 counties across Georgia so far. Those areas will receive much-needed loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help offset the significant damage on Georgia’s peach crop from March’s untimely freeze.

The USDA’s Farm Service Agency is looking to “extend essential emergency credit” to the farmers in need. That credit comes in the form of a loan that can be used to buy new farm equipment or livestock, reorganize an entire farming operation, or even refinance other loans.

“I’m grateful to USDA Secretary Vilsack for recognizing the importance of delivering much-needed relief to Georgia farmers following the untimely freezes in March,” said Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper.

“Since the freeze, we’ve worked with our farmers and producers to ensure USDA clearly understood the severity of the situation and the needs of those impacted by the freeze,” Harper said. “Georgia peaches are a symbol of the success of our state’s number one industry, and this much-needed relief will help farmers and producers across the state bounce back better than before.”

From the AJC:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued the disaster declaration on Monday. The primary counties included are: Banks, Crawford, Fannin, Gilmer, Habersham, Hall, Jackson, Johnson, Macon, Madison, Meriwether, Monroe, Peach, Pike, Taylor, Towns, Union and Upson. More than three dozen other counties scattered across the state are also covered.

The move allows the USDA’s Farm Service Agency to offer emergency loans to affected farmers who need it. The deadline to apply for assistance is February 26, 2024.

An estimated 90% of Georgia’s peach crop was destroyed when temperatures across much of Middle Georgia dipped below freezing for several days in March. In 2022, Georgia’s peach crop was worth $34 million.

While the freezes dealt a death blow to many farmers’ crops, it was an exceptionally hot winter — one of the warmest on record in Georgia — that set the stage for the devastation. Abnormally warm temperatures across the state caused peaches to develop weeks earlier than normal, making the crop vulnerable to freeze damage. The cold temperatures hit while many trees were in bloom or had already set fruit.

Anti-gang state legislation will go into effect this week, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Statesboro Herald.

Senate Bill 44 is one of dozens of bills the General Assembly passed this year that will become law with the start of a new fiscal year.

Passed by the legislature’s Republican majorities along party lines, the bill requires judges to impose prison sentences of at least five years on those convicted of recruiting gang members. It also mandates tougher penalties for recruiting to a gang anyone under age 17 or with a disability, requiring at least a 10-year sentence.

“There’s no room for street gangs in Georgia,” Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, one of Kemp’s Senate floor leaders, said when the bill was debated on the Senate floor in March. “[Senate Bill 44] is going to help prosecutors across the state. It’s going to help children. It’s going to really provide serious penalties for someone that tries to recruit a child into a life of crime by asking them to join a street gang.”

➤ House Bill 31 ensures that the money that goes into the state’s Hazardous Waste Trust Fund is used to clean up hazardous waste sites and isn’t siphoned off for unrelated purposes.

➤ House Bill 383 increases penalties for criminal suspects charged with assaulting health-care workers or hospital peace officers on a hospital campus.

➤ Senate Bill 55, the Lemonade Stand bill, will allow Georgians under age 18 to sell non-consumable goods, pre-packaged food items and non-alcoholic beverages on private property without requiring a permit or license or paying a tax.

➤ Senate Bill 220 creates a program to fund preservation of agricultural properties from development.

Also going into effect this week is legislation to tighten the rules for public vaping, according to Atlanta News First via WALB.

Georgia is just days away from a new law going into effect that will extend regulations from Georgia’s 2005 Smoke-Free Air Act to include anyone caught vaping. That means anywhere you can’t smoke cigarettes you can’t vape. That includes any public indoor space, excluding some stores, bars, and conventions

Also going into effect this week, according to 11Alive:

Senate Bill 140 (Gender-Affirming Care)

Arguably the most controversial law of the bunch to go into effect, Senate Bill 140 will prevent minors in the state of Georgia from being able to get gender reassignment surgery or hormone therapy. The use of puberty blockers is still allowed.

HB 188 (Mariam’s Law)

“Mariam’s Law” is named after an Atlanta woman, Mariam Abdulrab, who was kidnapped and killed in 2021. It later emerged her accused killer had a prior sex assault and molestation conviction.

According to a Georgia House release on the signing of the bill, HB 188, it will increase penalties for violent repeat sex offenders, among other provisions. It also changes a state offender review board’s “risk assessment evaluation process/timelines for sexually dangerous predators” and “improves how the state handles sexual offenders who move to Georgia.”

Senate Bill 92 (District Attorney Oversight Board)

This will create an oversight commission to review complaints against local district attorneys and issue possible sanctions. The law also makes it easier to recall DAs from office.

Senate Bill 222

Another election-focused law that will ensure all costs and expenses relating to election administration are paid for with public funds. In addition, it will be a felony for local officials to accept direct donations for administering elections.

House Bill 147 (Safe Schools Act)

Georgia classrooms will now be required to conduct intruder alert drills and generate safety plans that must be reported to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. However, parents can opt-out of their child from participating.

Finally, House Bill 147 will help train teachers to identify gang members in their classes.

From WRDW on SB 140 and gender-affirming care:

[Dr. Izzy Lowell, an Atlanta-based doctor who specializes in gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary individuals]…. said her practice currently treats 300 to 400 Georgia minors who have been prescribed hormone replacement therapy, said she will try to see patients from other states through telemedicine appointments.

“They literally just have to drive over the (state) border,” Lowell said. “They can sit in their car in a parking lot over the border at the time of the visit.”

Patients seeking care must be in the same state as the licensed provider to be seen in a telemedicine appointment. Physicians who violate the new law could be disciplined by the state medical board.

Georgia Senate Bill 20 goes into effect this week addressing telemedicine, according to the AJC.

Senate Bill 20, passed by lawmakers in the last legislative session, seeks to end extra and unexpected costs that could be applied to patients who opt to obtain health care services virtually, via telehealth. It also works to ensure health insurance plans have an adequate array of options for patients. The law will take effect in January.

Telehealth usage surged during the coronavirus pandemic as patients and providers limited nonessential in-person care. An April federal Department of Health and Human Services report found that nationally usage has fallen since the peak of the virus’ spread but continues to be elevated over pre-pandemic levels.

Marietta Republican state Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, the law’s lead sponsor, said it was important to make sure patients were being treated the same no matter the service they were seeking, especially as telehealth’s usage has risen.

“That has become a big part of medical practice, and it’s even more important that our insurance folks have the ability to police that,” Kirkpatrick said.

The General Assembly passed legislation in 2019 clarifying rules and regulations for the telehealth industry in the state, but Kirkpatrick said the new law puts an “exclamation point” on the sector’s operations after the rise in its usage.

“It’s a way to protect telemedicine into the future and the use of it,” said state Rep. Lee Hawkins, a Gainesville Republican. Hawkins was the lead sponsor of the original legislation on surprise billing that SB 20 adds to.

Governor Brian Kemp shared his thoughts on taxpayer-subsidies for electric vehicles, according to the Associated Press.

“Georgia’s electric mobility boom is taking place because our state is second to none for companies looking to invest, relocate, expand, and innovate – not because the federal government continues to put their thumb on the scale, favoring a few companies over the industry as a whole,” Kemp said, according to advance remarks of his speech at Anovion Technologies.

The remarks are unusually partisan for a factory groundbreaking. Anovion’s $800 million investment promises 400 new jobs in rural Bainbridge, in the state’s far southwest corner.

“When President Biden and others falsely try to take credit for Georgia’s success, don’t forget that next year is an election year,” Kemp said.

The Republican governor planned this attack knowing Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff would likely share his stage at the groundbreaking. Ossoff has been Georgia’s most high-profile supporter of Biden’s electric vehicle policies. The two could be rivals for the Senate seat in 2026.

Ossoff has argued that Georgia’s investment boom wouldn’t happen without Democratic policies.

“It is bizarre to attend a groundbreaking and launch a political attack on the very policy that made the groundbreaking possible,” Ossoff told The Associated Press before the event, where he was invited but not scheduled for a speaking role. “The governor is throwing a panicked political tantrum over the success of federal manufacturing policies in his own state.”

Kemp has said it’s wrong to credit Biden for the boom, noting that Rivian Automotive announced a $5 billion plant east of Atlanta in December 2021, while Hyundai announced in May 2022, both before Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Unlike top-down systems like China’s, and those advocated by some on the federal level, we aren’t dictating how this growth happens,” Kemp said Tuesday. “We aren’t picking winners and losers. We’re letting the market drive this innovation and expansion.”

Augusta Commissioners will vote on whether to hold a referendum on funding a new arena, according to WJBF.

Augusta Commissioners will vote Thursday to authorize a 1/2 cent sales tax to be used for the construction of the new arena. If approved it will go on the ballot in the November election.

“Our main objection right now is to educate the public so we just want to educate everybody about what the new arena means from the amenities of the arena itself to what it brings to the community economically and from a quality of life stand”, said Brad Usry, Vice Chairman, Augusta Coliseum Authority.

This will allow them to issue a $250 million bond for the project. Voters rejected a bond referendum in 2021. That one involved raising property taxes.

“It’s an exciting time for Augusta , his is the biggest civic project in the history of Augusta Georgia we’ve got a big vote in November and we’ve got to educate the people it’s up to us the Augusta coliseum authority to educate the public so they know the benefits if a new arena,” said Usry.

Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney Anita Howard seeks to prosecute Nazis, according to 13WMAZ.

Macon’s district attorney says she’s working with the US attorney’s office on possible charges against an anti-semitic group that protested in Central Georgia last week.

In a news release on Tuesday, Howard wrote:

“We have a very diverse community in Macon, Bibb and Peach Counties. Bigotry and hate have no place here. We appreciate people of all backgrounds, religious beliefs and those who want to build strong communities that support peaceful and prosperous lifestyles for everyone.”

“We will not tolerate people from outside this area who work to divide us. What you saw this weekend from our community were our own amazing people standing together to support each other in doing what is right, regardless of political, religious, or racial backgrounds.”

“My office will continue to investigate this matter with the US Attorney’s office to hold Jon Minadeo accountable to the fullest extent of the law for the wrongdoing that he brought to our city.”

Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez (D) is rescinding earlier policy statements, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

Western Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez this week issued a statement that she is withdrawing a written policy she announced upon taking office in 2021 in regard to how her office would handle certain prosecutions.

Among the policies she announced in writing were to stop prosecutions for simple possession of marijuana and other low-level drug offenses, reducing the amount of probation imposed on some defendants and declining to seek the death penalty.

But recently Gonzalez has faced lawsuits in civil court over violations of victim’s rights and the alleged failure of her office to carry out state law, along with failing to abide by open records requests.

Gonzalez, who is in her first term of office, explained why she is withdrawing the policy memorandum along with an updated policy she released after two years in office. The statement was issued through Dawn Brinkley, director of external relations for the office.

“While DA Gonzalez disagrees that either memorandum implied that the office refuses to prosecute any particular offense, DA Gonzalez’s memorandums have become the source of considerable scrutiny and misinterpretation concerning not only DA Gonzalez’s use of her broad prosecutorial discretion but all prosecutors in Georgia,” the statement reads.

She noted her office has prioritized prosecuting violent offenders and “ensuring justice is served with due process.”

“However, disputes concerning the meaning of DA Gonzalez’s memorandums have become a distraction and she is withdrawing both written policy memorandums,” the statement reads.

The statement also affirmed that Gonzalez “profoundly believes in the values expressed in those memorandums.”

Hall County Solicitor General Stephanie Woodard is likely to enter a consent agreement with the Georgia State Ethics Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, according to AccessWDUN.

Woodard was served a subpoena on Nov. 14, 2022, due to her failure to report her campaign contributions in a timely manner.

Woodard was up for reelection in 2022 and was successful in that endeavor. Having been previously elected during the 2010, 2014 and 2018 election cycles, Woodard is subject to the filing rules and requirements as put forward by the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Act.

As a candidate for public office, Woodard is required to file a Personal Financial Disclosure Statement (PFDS) within the corresponding timeframe. Public office candidates are required to file within 15 days of qualifying for an election, according to commission officials.

The commission found that Woodard did not file her PFDS in a timely manner for her 2022 run for office, with reports that would have covered the 2021 calendar year.

Woodard is also required to file a Campaign Contribution Disclosure Report (CCDR) during the election period, as well as in non-election years.

The commission further found Woodard failed to file her election year CCDR on April 30, 2022, and June 30, 2022. She also failed to file her non-election year CCDRs on Dec. 31, 2019, June 30, 2020, Dec. 31, 2020, June 30, 2021 and Dec. 31 2021.

The commission ordered Woodard to pay a fine Tuesday, delivered in two parts. Firstly, Woodard is to pay a $3,000 fine as a civil penalty for violating the Campaign Finance Act. Second, she is to pay $1,000 in late fees for the aforementioned violations.

“I am pleased that the recent investigation by the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission found no malfeasance or criminal wrongdoing,” Woodard wrote in a response Tuesday. “At the same time, I continue to take full responsibility for the mistakes in my filings. I accept the late fees and civil penalties, and have already taken corrective action to update each report.”

Macon-Bibb County and the Macon Housing Authority donated 3.62 acres of land to the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, according to 13WMAZ.

The 2019 John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act (Public Law 116-9) nearly quadrupled the park’s authorized boundary. At the time it was 701 acres.

The added land now increases the park’s boundary to approximately 1860 acres.

“Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park is a memorial to more than 12,000 years of continuous human habitation by multiple Indigenous cultures and peoples,” park superintendent Carla Beasley said. “We are grateful to Macon-Bibb County, Macon Housing Authority, the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative, and National Park Foundation for their on-going support to preserve the rich history of this area.”

The newly acquired area contains evidence of one of the longest periods of human habitation in a relatively small area, the press release says.

The 3.62 acres are situated within the Ocmulgee Old Fields, also known as the Macon Reserve, a three-by-five-mile site revered as a sacred place to Muskogean people.

The Ocmulgee Old Fields-Macon Reserve is comprised of lands specifically retained by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation from 1805 until the 1826 Treaty of Washington and other treaties that culminated in removing Muskogean people from their ancestral home to present-day Oklahoma.

Columbus City Council adopted a budget that partially rolls back the property tax millage rate, according to WTVM.

As part of the city’s new budget, council voted to decrease the millage rate – lowering property taxes for Fountain City residents.

$334 million was approved for the 2024 operating budget which is a $20 million increase from 2023.

“I think the council knew that we need to provide actual tax relief to our citizens, but we have been prudent, we have been responsible, we’re being accountable and transparent,” she said.

The relief coming to homeowners who recently seen an increase in their property taxes.

“The residents will see a deduction within how much money they will pay for property taxes. I mean that’s a huge relief,” Tucker said. “We know that we want individuals to have more disposable income, so whatever relief we can provide to our residents, that’s what this council is going to do.”

Hall County, Gainesville and the United Daughters of the Confederacy are discussing moving a civil war monument from Gainesville, according to the Gainesville Times.