Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for March 22, 2019

King George III approved of the passage of the Stamp Act legislation on March 22, 1765 designed to pay for some of the costs the UK incurred in protecting the colonies, but it would lead to the movement that culminated in the American Revolution.

Patrick Henry addressed the Virginia Convention in Richmond on March 23, 1775, stating,  “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

On March 23, 1861, the Georgia Secession Convention adopted a new state Constitution to be submitted to a referendum of the voters on the first Tuesday in July and then adjourned

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Beer and Wine Revenue Act on March 22, 1933, allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages, and later that year, the federal Prohibition was ended.

The first Masters golf tournament began on March 22, 1934 in Augusta, Georgia.

The state prohibition on all alcoholic beverages ended on March 22, 1935 with Governor Eugene Talmadge’s signature of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act.

Governor E.D. Rivers signed a resolution on March 24, 1939, calling for the return of “General” locomotive made famous in the Great Train Chase from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Georgia. It currently resides in The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, Georgia. The other locomotive involved in the chase, The Texas, was displayed at the Atlanta Cyclorama in Grant Park  until 2015, when it was removed for restoration and is now displayed in the Atlanta History Center.

Elvis Presley was inducted into the United States Army on March 24, 1958.

On March 24, 1970, Gov. Lester Maddox signed legislation naming the Largemouth Bass the Official State Fish.

The United States Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment on March 22, 1972; it would fail to garner enough state ratifications.

On March 23, 1972, in the case of Gooding v. Wilson, the United States Supreme Court held that a Georgia statute, OCGA § 26-6303, which provided: “Any person who shall, without provocation, use to or of another, and in his presence . . . opprobrious words or abusive language, tending to cause a breach of the peace . . . shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,” was unconstitutionally vague and violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan called for the development of an anti-missile system that would come to be known as the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Pixies released Surfer Rosa on March 21, 1988.

On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Vice President Mike Pence spoke in Atlanta yesterday, according to the AJC.

Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday blasted Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms over her decision last year to bar the city jail from holding federal immigration detainees.

“It is amazing to think the mayor actually said – in her words — she would not be complicit in an immigration policy that intentionally inflicts misery,” said Pence, who met with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials during a stop in Atlanta.

“I would say to the mayor that criminal illegal immigrants – gang members on our streets – are what inflict misery. The flow of illegal drugs like cocaine and meth and fentanyl inflict misery and wreck our families and communities. Human trafficking inflicts misery.”

Flanked by Gov. Brian Kemp, U.S. Sen. David Perdue and U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, Pence said ICE officials “do not inflict misery. They bring safety and security to the people of Atlanta, and they deserve the respect of every elected official in this country.”

From WSB-TV:

Pence took aim at Bottoms on his way to a campaign fundraiser for Perdue, who is up for re-election next year. Among Perdue’s possible Democratic challengers is Stacey Abrams, a former Georgia House minority leader who narrowly lost the race for governor against Kemp last year. After Bottoms signed her executive order last year, a spokeswoman for Abrams commended the mayor’s “efforts to combat the impact of the administration’s cruel and inhumane family separation policy. Anyone who stands against keeping families together lacks any kind of moral compass.”

Axios reports that advisors to former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden are discussing adding Stacey Abrams to a potential Presidential bid.

The popular Georgia Democrat, who at age 45 is 31 years younger than Biden, would bring diversity and excitement to the ticket — showing voters, in the words of a close source, that Biden “isn’t just another old white guy.”

But the decision poses considerable risk, and some advisers are flatly opposed. Some have pointed out that in a Democratic debate, he could be asked why no one on the stage would be a worthy running mate.

Under the Gold Dome Today

9:00 AM RULES 341 CAP

9:00 AM INDUSTRY AND LABOR 403 CAP

9:30 AM FLOOR SESSION (LD 35) House Chamber

TBD RULES UPON ADJOURNMENT 450 CAP

1:00 PM PUBLIC SAFETY & HOMELAND SECURITY 406 CLOB

SENATE RULES CALENDAR

HB 197 – Office of Planning and Budget; provide for the establishment of the Strategic Integrated Data System (S&T-45th) Dempsey-13th

HB 128– Insurance; insurers do not have to notify the Georgia Composite Medical Board of agreements to settle medical malpractice claims against physicians when the settlement resulted in the low payment under a high/low agreement; provide (I&L-18th) Silcox-52nd

HB 196 – Retirement and pensions; each public retirement system trustee to complete appropriate education applicable to his or her fiduciary duties; require (RET-52nd) Benton-31st

HB 405 – Revenue and taxation; Level 1 Freeport Exemption; modify provisions (FIN-52nd) Knight-130th

HB 507 – Ad valorem tax; criteria used by tax assessors to determine the fair market value of real property; revise (FIN-56th) Wilensky-79th

HB 481 – Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act; enact (Substitute)(S&T-45th) Setzler-35th

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has opened an investigation into lost absentee ballot applications, according to the Gainesville Times.

The Democratic Party of Georgia has claimed that at least 4,700 absentee ballot applications were misplaced, preventing voters from getting their absentee ballots.

The investigation will be done by the Investigations Division of the Secretary of State’s Office.

“We look forward to working closely with the Democratic Party of Georgia to examine every piece of evidence related to these allegations,” said Chief Investigator Russell Lewis.

House Bill 481, the fetal heartbeat bill, is scheduled for a vote today in the Georgia Senate, according to the Rome News Tribune.

Legislation that would ban most abortions in Georgia when a fetal heartbeat is detected — as early as six weeks — is slated to go before the Senate this morning.

The measure has already passed the House, with “yes” votes from Floyd County’s delegates, Reps. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome; Eddie Lumsden, R-Armuchee; and Mitchell Scoggins, R-Cartersville.

HB 481 also includes exceptions for ectopic or medically futile pregnancies, to remove a dead fetus or in cases of medical emergencies — to prevent the death or “substantial and irreversible” damage to a “major bodily function” of a pregnant woman.

Local lawmaker Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, could not be reached for comment Thursday. On Wednesday he said the measure had been heavily amended in the Senate committee and he hadn’t had a chance to read the new version. If approved, it would have to go back to the House for a vote.

Hufstetler is one of 14 Republican senators targeted by opponents trying to stop the legislation. An online flyer names some as holding seats vulnerable in the next election. Hufstetler and several others are listed in the “seen as reasonable” category.

A number of Floyd County Republicans were discussing the possibility of going to the Capitol today in a show of support for passage, although County GOP Chair Diane Lewis said Thursday it’s unclear if a trip can be organized in time.

House Bill 197 by State Rep. Katie Dempsey (R-Rome) will be on the Senate floor for a vote today, according to the Rome News Tribune.

Rep. Katie Dempsey’s bill creating a state database merging reports from an array of agencies is scheduled for a vote in the Senate this morning.

“It’s first on the calendar, so I’m hoping we can get it wrapped up early,” the Rome Republican said Thursday.

HB 197 would create a central warehouse of information — the Georgia Data Analytic Center — under the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget. Reports using aggregate data from all constituent services would be available to lawmakers, state agencies, academic institutions and public and private researchers.

House Bill 511 by State Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville) hit a roadblock, according to the AJC.

House Bill 511 would create new programs to aid low-income rural residents and others who need rides. It would pay for those programs by devoting sales taxes on rides for hire to mass transit.

But its most controversial provisions would consolidate state transit functions under a single new agency. Currently, six state agencies have transit programs — a division the bill’s supporters say creates bureaucratic hassles and stifles innovation.

“If it doesn’t fit in a box, then it’s not happening,” state Rep. Kevin Tanner, the bill’s sponsor, told the Senate Transportation Committee on Thursday.

Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry spoke against the consolidation, saying it could have unintended consequences. Among other things, McMurry said it could complicate the financing of some Georgia Department of Transportation road projects.

HB 511 would divide the state outside metro Atlanta into eight zones for the purposes of transit planning. It would allow individual counties to raise sales taxes for transit construction and operations. And it would create state-funded pilot programs to aid low-income workers and companies that subsidize their employees’ transportation to work.

House Bill 471 by State Rep. Steven Sainz passed the Senate and is headed to Governor Kemp, according to the AJC.

Police officers would no longer tell motorists suspected of drunken driving that their refusal to take a breathalyzer test could be used against them in court, according to a bill approved Thursday by the state Senate.

The bill was introduced in response to a Georgia Supreme Court ruling last month that requiring suspects to blow into breathalyzers is a violation of constitutional protections against self-incrimination.

Officers can still mandate blood or urine tests, and they can also ask drivers to voluntarily take breathalyzer tests.

The legislation corrects the language police officers read to drivers when they’re pulled over. Under current Georgia laws, police tell drivers that breath tests could be evidence in their criminal cases, which is no longer the case since the Georgia Supreme Court’s decision.

Gwinnett County is considering how to move forward after rejection of the MARTA contract by voters, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

“We’ll be looking what our options are in terms of how we go forward,” county commission Chairwoman Charlotte Nash said. “Transit is such an important issue. I still think we’ve got a good plan (and) we had a good contract so it’s a matter of looking at all of the options and making a decision about how we move forward.”

The defeat of a contract with MARTA means what the future of transit in Gwinnett County looks like is now in the hands of the board governing the newly-formed 13-county Atlanta Transit Link Authority, also known as “The ATL.”

“We’ve got the process that’s been laid out for The ATL, which means that we would submit our projects for consideration into the regional plan and then there would be another referendum as a result of that,” said Nash, who is a member of The ATL’s governing board.

The law that created The ATL also allowed individual counties to hold a vote on 30-year transportation-related special purpose local option sales tax to pay for projects approved by the regional authority for that county. Any heavy rail projects, however, would automatically be run by MARTA under the law.

“Regardless of whether it’s MARTA or the new transit tax or some other mechanism, we’re now under the purview of The ATL in terms of projects,” Nash said.

While it may sound confusing that Gwinnett just had a MARTA vote without waiting for The ATL’s regional plan, there is a reason why they could go ahead with this vote.

“Kind of what we had a waiver on, if you want to call it that, is that if we had a contract in place before The ATL was officially organized as of Dec. 1 of last year, we didn’t have to wait for the regional transit plan to be adopted by the ATL board,” Nash said. “That was really the most important thing allowing us to move forward now (with the MARTA vote).”

Augusta Regional Airport is seeking to provide direct service to the Metro DC region, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Augusta Regional Airport Director Herbert Judon Jr. said during a briefing to the Augusta Convention & Visitors Bureau that the airport is working on getting non-stop flights to metro D.C. via Baltimore to better serve business travelers heading to major federal installations such as Fort Gordon and Savannah River Site.

“We understand that is a priority for our community, so that is something we are continuing to push very hard on,” Judon said. “I’m very bullish on that and I think we’re trending in the right direction. Hopefully we’ll have a breakthrough in the near future.”

A public hearing on water levels on the Savannah River near Augusta was held yesterday, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

At times indignant and defiant, at times funny or filled with angry shouts from the audience, the cities gathered public comments to send to the Corps as part of its response to its recommended plan that would also lower the pool in the river between the two communities.

The pool of water in the river will drop if the Corps use its plan to remove the lock and dam and replace it with a rock weir that will dam the Savannah at a certain height but also allow fish to migrate over it. The project is mitigation for the impact the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project will have on spawning grounds in river near the port, where deepening is projected to allow saltwater to creep father up the river and damage areas now used by endangered shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon and other migratory fish. Removing the lock and dam and putting in the weir would allow those fish to access historic spawning grounds in the Augusta Shoals the Corps believes were blocked when the structure was completed in 1937.

But Corps spokesman Russell Wicke said the drop was 3½ feet at the dam and the river level must be higher than that downtown.

That drastic drop is what spurred homeowners and lawmakers on both sides to come together to fight the plan in what U.S. Rep, Joe Wilson, R-S.C., called a “bi-state and bipartisan” effort. As he spoke, Richmond County Democratic Party Chairman Emeritus Lowell Greenbaum sat directly in front of him nodding in appreciation.

Both Wilson and U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga., who was also on hand, contend that the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act in December 2016, requires the Corps to “maintain the pool for water supply and recreational activities that existed on the date of enactment,” which Wilson said is an average of 113.5 to 114.5 above sea level. That is well above what the Corps is proposing and “I believe it is simply not within the law.”

Wilson said U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina want the pool to remain the same. [Augusta Mayor Hardie] Davis said Georgia’s two U.S. senators have been “noticeably absent in this conversation.” But a representative for U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said he is monitoring the situation with the lock and dam and “working with all stakeholders to find a solution that all stakeholders agree upon. He encourages the community to share its thoughts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the public comment period through April 16.”

The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District seeks new members to serve, according to the Gainesville Times.

The councils provide input by representing the wide variety of stakeholders that rely on the region’s water resources. The Metro Water District will soon begin work on the 2022 update to the Water Resource Management Plan and is looking for voices from diverse interest groups to participate in this process.

Interested citizens are encouraged to apply as well as persons who represent environmental, business, real estate, recreation, neighborhood, agriculture, utility, academic, water resources and other interests.

Individuals must reside within the river basin of the council for which they apply. Members serve two-year terms and may be reappointed for additional terms. Councils hold regular quarterly meetings but may also hold special meetings as needed to provide input on Metro Water District activities and actions.

Statesboro is considering how to link alcohol licenses with the costs of police enforcement, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Statesboro city officials are trying to develop a new range of fees for alcoholic beverage licenses based on the costs of policing different kinds of establishments: bars versus restaurants, for example.

In part to allow more time for the Statesboro Police Department and the city attorney to figure out how much to charge for each category, City Council approved an interim resolution Tuesday evening. As a result, alcohol license holders will receive only a half-year new license or renewal, from July 1 to Dec. 31, with the charge being half of the current full-year rates.

This will also reset the future due dates for Statesboro’s alcohol licenses to Jan. 1, the date used by the Georgia Department of Revenue for state alcohol licenses.

City Attorney Cain Smith and police Capt. James Winskey have had discussions about basing the fees on the average cost of policing each type of business, Smith reported to the mayor and council.

“And at this point …it is conjecture for us to determine what sort of businesses are going to require more allocation of law enforcement resources and which ones won’t,” Smith said.

Glynn County Commissioners are asking the state to provide additional safety measures to prevent suicides from the Sidney Lanier Bridge, according to The Brunswick News.

Former county commissioner Cap Fendig, Kiera Byrd, organizer of the Shine a Light Bridge Walk, and owner of St. Simons Island Ace Hardware Hal Hart presented a resolution to the commission which noted the number of suicides since the bridge was built in 2003 and called on the state delegation and GDOT to take action.

“We’re requesting your approval on a resolution that had to be added to the agenda tonight for our state delegation to take some action concerning the Lanier bridge,” Fendig said. “As you know recently, a young lady jumped to her death. Her body was recently found. She was well-known in the community and well-loved, and it ripped the heart of the community open on a subject that is usually pretty taboo to talk about, and that’s suicide.”

At least 10 people have jumped to their death from the 185-foot-high bridge since it opened in 2003. The most recent was Nicole Wells, owner of Nicole’s Cut Hut on St. Simons Island, who took her own life by jumping off the bridge on Feb. 20.

“The statistics surrounding suicide, particularly from the Sidney Lanier Bridge, are inaccurate at best because it’s something the media doesn’t talk about and something people don’t usually talk about among each other. For instance, there have been more than 18 suicides off the bridge since it was built. Additionally, since Nicole jumped there have been four people talked off the bridge,” Byrd said.