Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 29, 2021

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 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.

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

Governor Brian Kemp will speak at the Cobb County Republican Party’s Celebrate Freedom event on July 3, 2021, according to the AJC.

The Cobb County Republican Party invites the community to “Celebrate Freedom” and put Cobb First on Saturday, July 3rd at the Cobb Civic Center.

This family friendly event is indoors and features live music, a BBQ lunch, a tribute to our armed forces, and a kid’s zone with fun activities.

The patriotic program salutes the 245^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and our freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Local citizens and community leaders will give inspirational speeches about how our freedoms bring opportunity and hope and inspire us to serve.

Sponsorships and discounted tickets are still available.  Doors open at 11:30 am, following the Marietta Parade; the event concludes at 3:00 pm.  Children ages 10 and under are admitted free. Tickets purchased in advance by June 30^th are priced at $20 for Cobb GOP members and $25 for non-members. Tickets will be sold at the door for an additional $5.00 per ticket. Commemorative T-shirts are also available.  Visit  www.cobbgop.org for sponsorships and ticket sales.

Governor Kemp visited students in Savannah, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Gov. Brian Kemp, first lady Marty Kemp, and DECAL Commissioner Amy Jacobs were on hand Friday at the Avant Learning Academy in Savannah to see its program first hand.

For the 11th year DECAL is offering a six-week summer transition program to support students who either did not attend a pre-K or Head Start program or who need additional help prior to entering kindergarten.

Due to COVID, state officials say this year’s program is even more important and to that end, DECAL more than doubled its offerings of classes for rising kindergarteners – students who will be five years old before Sept. 1.

“We have been focused on that from a state perspective. We’ve been working with our school superintendents,” said Gov. Kemp. “We got a lot of great activities for the kids; but it is a learning program to make sure that they’re ready going into the fall.”

Because of learning loss that may be evident after students return to school, Gov. Kemp added this summer transition program may have to continue for several years to fill that gap. Funding for the program is from the state’s allotment of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Gov. Kemp will launch his reelection campaign in Perry on July 10, according to the AJC.

Kemp is headed for the Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry, blazing hot in the summer and the beating heart of the state’s agriculture industry.

Perry is also the backyard of former Gov. Sonny Perdue, who was most recently Donald Trump’s top official at the USDA and is still angling to be the next chancellor of Georgia’s higher education system, with Kemp’s support…

Georgia is asking the Biden Administration for a delay in implementing its Medicaid waiver, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Gwinnett Daily Post.

In a letter dated June 24, state Community Health Commissioner Frank Berry cited a decision during the early weeks of the Biden administration to withhold approval of a Georgia Medicaid waver application then-President Donald Trump’s administration signed off on last year.

Biden’s Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services objected to provisions in the proposed Georgia Pathways program requiring Medicaid recipients to work, attend school or volunteer at least 80 hours a month. CMS officials argued recipients would have a particularly hard time complying with a work requirement during the pandemic.

“Georgia Pathways provides a wide range of qualifying activities in which individuals can engage,” the commissioner wrote. “Moreover, there is also a temporary ‘good cause’ exception if, after enrolling in Medicaid through Georgia Pathways, an individual or immediate family member experiences a hospitalization or serious illness or needs to quarantine due to COVID exposure.”

Gov. Brian Kemp rolled out the limited Medicaid expansion plan early in 2019 as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act then-President Barack Obama steered through a Democratic Congress in 2010. The General Assembly passed legislation later in 2019 authorizing the governor to submit two waiver applications to the feds.

Lucy Kemp was honored as an honorary Statesboro citizen, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Lucy Kemp, daughter of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and First Lady Marty Kemp, was recently made an Honorary Citizen of Statesboro by proclamation of Mayor Jonathan McCollar in the presence of City Council. The presentation was also made in memory of Bulloch County resident Harrison Deal, who was Lucy Kemp’s boyfriend.

Harrison, the 20-year-old son of Bulloch County Commissioner Curt Deal and Jenni Deal, died in a motor vehicle crash on Interstate 16 near Pooler Parkway in Chatham County on Dec. 4, 2020.

United States Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Atlanta) visited a solar manufacturing facility in Dalton, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

“I’d love to see that,” said U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia. “I think it’s possible. It’s something I’m trying to support. That’s why we are here at the largest solar manufacturing facility in the Western Hemisphere, which is in Dalton.”

Warnock spoke Monday after touring the Hanwha Q Cells solar module manufacturing plant in the Carbondale Business Park just south of Dalton.

“I think it’s important to say that we can create a future that is both ecologically sustainable and economically sustainable,” he said. “We cannot we have one without the other. That’s why companies like this are so important. This is a company, and this is a community, that will help us transition from the old industrial era to the industries of the future — green, sustainable.”

Since taking office, Warnock has made “clean energy,” which doesn’t rely on fossil fuels such as petroleum and natural gas, one of his main focuses.

“I am committed to President (Joe) Biden’s goal of getting us to carbon neutral energy by 2035,” he said. “I think it is possible. The technology is real and present. We have seen some of it here today.”

Warnock and Georgia’s other U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, also a Democrat, are among the sponsors of the Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act, which was introduced on June 21. Warnock says the act will boost solar manufacturing in Georgia and the rest of the United States. Ossoff toured the Hanwha Q Cells plant in May.

“It will provide tax incentives at every stage of the manufacturing process for production just like this,” he said. “This is the future. It is economically smart, and it is ecologically smart.”

“Jobs cure a whole range of problems,” he said. “A job is about supporting yourself and your family, but it should also be about dignity. And one of my jobs as Georgia’s senator is to make sure we have these kinds of jobs and these kinds of industries here in Georgia.”

Sen. Warnock also visited Rome yesterday, according to the Rome News Tribune.

Sandwiching a lunch visit with invited community leaders in Rome between visits to a solar panel manufacturing plant in Dalton and the Appalachian Regional Port in Murray County, Warnock said many Georgians are still in a position where they need the extra $300 in federal unemployment assistance which was cut off by the state Saturday.

“We’re making our way out of this pandemic but we’re not out of the woods yet,” Warnock said. He explained that the Georgia economy and U.S. economy are experiencing a “reset.”

The goal, he said, is to meet with business and government leaders to ensure their needs are being met by Congress as well as to take advantage of an opportunity “to re-imagine the future.”

Rome Mayor Craig McDaniel and County Commission Chair Wright Bagby joined Warnock for lunch along with City Commissioners Sundai Stevenson, Bonny Askew, Wendy Davis and Bill Collins. Rome Floyd Chamber Board Chair Cassandra Wheeler and a few others also attended the session at Jazzy Hot Wings on Redmond Circle.

His message also concerned plans at the federal level to bolster Georgia’s economy as well as boosting public health coverage and local economies. Warnock took the state legislature to task for being one of just a dozen states to not expand Medicaid.

“That’s a drag on the Georgia economy,” Warnock said. “A baseline of health care support gives people the capacity they need to work and pursue various job possibilities because their health care is already covered.”

United States Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Atlanta) will visit Columbus touting child care tax credits from the federal government, according to WTVM.

Ossoff, along with Mayor Skip Henderson and State Representative Carolyn Hugley, will be at the East Columbus Boys and Girls Club on Forrest Road Thursday.

The tax credit plan includes families receiving $300 in monthly tax refunds per child under age 6, and $250 per child from 6 to 17 years of age.

This is to assist families financially who may be affected by the pandemic. Some people will start receiving checks July 15th.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R-Cobb County) announced his reelection campaign, according to the AJC.

Carr is facing a tough general election fight next November, with two Democrats already in the race to challenge him – state Sen. Jen Jordan and former prosecutor Charlie Bailey. It was Bailey who almost bested Carr in 2018, capturing nearly 49% of the vote.

In his remarks, Carr focused on fighting crime around the state as AG and touted his ties to the former giants of the Georgia GOP who hosted his official campaign kickoff.

If there was a theme it was “protecting lives and protecting livelihoods” — a phrase he invoked several times.

Along with his time with Deal, Carr also served as Isakson’s chief of staff in the Senate and worked with Chambliss while he was there.

“These are three individuals that I emulate, that I want to be like and I’ve tried to be like over the past five years and will continue to do,” Carr said. “Because I think the legacy that they have left, the legacy of success for this state, is something that needs to continue.”

State Senator Tyler Harper (R-Ocilla) will run for Commissioner of Agriculture, according to the AJC.

Republican state Sen. Tyler Harper launched his campaign Tuesday for agriculture commissioner with an emphasis on his family’s deep roots in farming and a pledge to keep “liberal Washington, D.C. policies out of Georgia.”

The Ocilla legislator is the first prominent Republican in the race to succeed incumbent Gary Black, who is running for the U.S. Senate after three terms as the state’s top agriculture official.

“I’ll stand up to foreign competitors,” Harper said in his announcement video. “Stand up to those who want to change our way of life. And I’ll protect Georgia values. Defending our farmers from bad policies.”

Democrat Nakita Hemingway, who lost a suburban Gwinnett County legislative race last year, is also in the running.

Harper, who is close with former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, is expected to make what his aides say is a significant investment in his campaign. He’s also eager to remind voters of his south Georgia background in a state power structure that’s increasingly tilted toward metro Atlanta.

“For me, being a farmer is more than just a job— it’s a way of life,” he said. “As Agriculture Commissioner, I will use my background, experience, and record of results to fight for our farmers, the consumer, our conservative values and our way of life here in Georgia.”

Longtime Democrat Vernon Jones spoke in South Georgia, according to The Brunswick News.

Jones, who is Black, switched parties earlier this year and is now seeking the Republican nomination for Georgia governor. He made his first campaign swing in the Golden Isles on Sunday, with other stops in Jesup, Darien and Blackshear.

Jones said Trump should have won the election in a landslide, blaming drop boxes for changing the results. He said the drop boxes, approved during the pandemic, were never approved by the state legislature and none of the votes cast in them should have been counted.

“Every ballot in a drop-off box was illegal,” he said. “Only the legislature can change election laws. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say the executive branch can change election laws.”

Gov. Kemp should have called a special session to consider approving drop boxes in the November elections and in the U.S. Senate runoffs in January, he said.

“Brian Kemp is the reason Joe Biden is in office,” he said. “Brian Kemp it the reason Georgia has two Democratic senators.”

Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor (D) settled a lawsuit alleging he attempted to extort a bail bonding company, according to the AJC.

Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor has settled a lawsuit with a bonding company that accused him of shutting them down after attempting to extort the company as a candidate, according to the company’s lawyer.

Taylor was scheduled to testify in Gwinnett County Superior Court Monday morning. But the hearing in Anytime Bail Bonding’s lawsuit was cancelled when the two sides agreed on a settlement Sunday night, company attorney Bob Cheeley said.

The settlement allows the company to resume operations in Gwinnett but does not include monetary damages, according to Cheeley.

… Scott Hall, one of the owners of Anytime Bail Bonding, contended his business was shut down after he forwarded security camera footage to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation of Taylor saying, “if folks don’t support me, I’m not gonna let them bond here.”

Cheeley said he plans to dismiss a federal civil case that he brought against the sheriff. Mike Bowers, an attorney for two other bonding companies that were also shut down, said those cases are ongoing.

Bowers said he expects the central question of the cases — to what degree can a sheriff exercise discretion? — to be decided in appeals.

“You can’t let elected officials just do as they please,” said Bowers, a former Georgia attorney general. “The question is, how much discretion does he have? There is no such thing that’s unlimited discretion.”

The Gwinnett County Board of Elections voted to hire Zach Manifold as the new Elections Supervisor, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Manifold is from Franklin County, Ohio — which is the Columbus area — and is expected to begin his new job as Gwinnett’s elections supervisor in August, county Elections Board Chairwoman Alice O’Lenick said during the called meeting.

“Our decision to confirm Mr. Manifold as the new elections supervisor was a thoughtful one,” O’Lenick said in a statement after the meeting. “He brings a wealth of knowledge to this position, having served in various election administrative capacities — including leading a bipartisan staff of Democrats and Republicans to conduct a controversy free-election in Columbus.”

Two Augusta Commissioners called for forensic audits of all departments, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

The pair – commissioners John Clarke and Catherine Smith McKnight – have been two of the biggest critics of Mayor Hardie Davis’ credit card spending.

“If we don’t do it, it doesn’t say a lot about us as city leaders,” McKnight said. “This isn’t a personal attack – let’s be transparent for the citizens of Augusta, Ga. They want to know what’s going on. It’s taxpayers’ money.”

“Any department that receives funds from the taxpayers of Richmond County,” he said. “I never singled the mayor’s office out.”

An exhaustive forensic audit – which would include a search for unlawful spending – could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but could ease the din of community suspicion about how the city spends taxpayer dollars, he said.

Cave Spring City Council meets today and is expected to adopt a budget for FY 2022, according to the Rome News Tribune.

Spencer Lee will retire from his position as Dougherty County Attorney, according to the Albany Herald.

The Dougherty County Commission approved a budget that inclues a paid Juneteenth holiday, according to the Albany Herald.

The addition of Juneteenth as a paid holiday for Dougherty County employees, included in the county’s 2020-2021 budget, will replace a floating holiday that was eliminated some two decades ago.

While the $73.7 million budget approved by the Dougherty County Commission on Monday does not include a pay increase for workers, it does include funding for a pay study that will be conducted in coming months.

One of the biggest issues in putting together the spending plan for the fiscal year that begins Thursday was dealing with a steep hike in health insurance costs that totaled some $3 million. That included $2.3 million in direct health plan costs and the balance for the risk management insurance plan for the county’s self-insurance system.

The commission did not increase taxes to handle the additional costs, but earmarked up to $6.6 million in the county’s fund balance of $14.4 million to balance the budget.

The Northeast Georgia Inland Port will receive more than $48 million dollars in federal funding, according to the Gainesville Times.

The Georgia Ports Authority, in partnership with the Norfolk Southern Railway and Hall County, received this grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation INFRA Grant, which the authority applied for in March. U.S. Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Gainesville) were notified of the award by the U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday June 25.

“The new Inland Port will link the Ninth District directly to the Port of Savannah, bringing with it significant economic advantages to businesses in North Georgia and the Greater Appalachian Region,” Clyde wrote in a statement Friday. “Undoubtedly, this smart and targeted investment will bolster communities and businesses across the Ninth District and completion of the Inland Port will be pivotal to ensuring that Georgia remains among the top states for doing business for years to come.”

Hall County recently received $3 million in grants from the Economic Development Administration and the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank to improve White Sulphur Road, which would connect to the port.