On March 4, 1762, legislation was passed by the Georgia General Assembly requiring church attendance on Sundays.
The first Session of the United States Congress was held on March 4, 1789 at Federal Hall in New York City. Congress would not have a quorum for another month.
On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as President of the United States.
In his inaugural address, Lincoln promised not to interfere with the institution of slavery where it existed, and pledged to suspend the activities of the federal government temporarily in areas of hostility. However, he also took a firm stance against secession and the seizure of federal property. The government, insisted Lincoln, would “hold, occupy, and possess” its property and collect its taxes. He closed his remarks with an eloquent reminder of the nation’s common heritage:
“In your hand, my fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it… We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Also on March 4, 1861, the Confederate Congress adopted a first national flag.
This flag is depicted with varying numbers of stars – originally adopted with seven stars, by December 1861, a version with thirteen stars was flying.
Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married on March 4, 1952 in Los Angeles, California.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
A Columbus restaurant is serving “Trump Loaf,” according to the Ledger-Enquirer.
If you want to eat like a certain former president, look no further than a restaurant in downtown Columbus.
Ruth Ann’s Restaurant serves meatloaf claiming to be the recipe used by former President Donald Trump’s mother.
Mary Heisey, owner of Ruth Ann’s, said the staff was prompted to make a dish the former president liked when it was announced that Trump would be appearing at the Georgia GOP Convention in Columbus last summer.
After some research, Heisey found Trump liked meatloaf and found a recipe online claiming to be that of “Mama Trump.”
Heisey said Ruth Ann’s was considered for a possible Trump visit and the Secret Service conducted a site analysis. However, the former president decided to visit a Waffle House in Columbus.
Qualifying runs this week for state and local offices to be elected this year, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
Qualifying for public office elections in Athens-Clarke County will begin at 9 a.m. Monday and remain open until noon Friday.
Numerous offices are open for the election including clerk of Superior Court, tax commissioner, sheriff, coroner and five seats on the Athens-Clarke County Board of Commissioners and four school board seats.
Nonpartisan and partisan candidates seeking the offices must file an affidavit at the Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections and Registration during the week.
The primaries for both partisan and nonpartisan races will take place on May 21 and the winners will be on the November General Election ballot, according to Charlotte Sosebee, director of Athens-Clarke Elections and Voter Registration.
Qualifying for local offices begins Monday and will run through March 8. This will be a loaded year for elections with more than 50 congressional, legislative, judicial, school board and county offices appearing on ballots in Gwinnett in 2024.
Hundreds of candidates will gather in the state Capitol this week in a biennial parade to qualify for legislative and congressional races ahead of a 2024 presidential race that will put Georgia in the crosshairs of both national parties.
Over the next five days, ambitious office-seekers will crowd the Statehouse lobby to file paperwork to run for Georgia’s 14 U.S. House seats and all 236 spots in the General Assembly for the first time since a court-ordered redo of the state’s political maps.
President Joe Biden is set to campaign in Atlanta on March 9 to defend his narrow 2020 victory, while it’s still unclear if former President Donald Trump will trek to Georgia, the home of some of his biggest political setbacks.
Drawn out of her district for the second time in two years, Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Marietta will run in the newly created 6th District, which shifts from Atlanta’s northern suburbs to encompass parts of four counties on the city’s westside.
First-term Republican U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick will compete in the 7th District, a Gwinnett-based seat now held by McBath that was redrawn to be GOP-friendly territory that reaches from north Fulton County to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
And long-serving Democratic U.S. Rep. David Scott of Atlanta has said he plans to remain in the 13th District, which shifted from southwest Atlanta to a five-county stretch on Atlanta’s Eastside.
Democrats are hoping to topple Republicans in competitive metro Atlanta districts, including state Reps. Scott Hilton, Jan Jones, and Deborah Silcox. They also will try to unseat state Rep. Meisha Mainor, a Republican aiming to defend her deep-blue Atlanta district after switching parties last year.
Republicans will try to flip a few seats of their own, including the Gwinnett-based seats of state Reps. Farooq Mughal and Jasmine Clarke after they narrowly staved off GOP opponents in 2022.
This is the last week of Early Voting for the March 12, 2024 Presidential Preference Primary, according to WRDW.
In Richmond County, advance voting is taking place from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, plus Feb. 24 and March 2[.]
The last day to vote advance will be March 8.
Election Day voting will be available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on March 12, and all polling locations in Augusta-Richmond County will be open.
This Week’s Legislative Schedule
Monday, March 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 29
Tuesday, March 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 30
Wednesday, March 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . committee work day
Thursday, March 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 31
Friday, March 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 32
Under the Gold Dome Today – Legislative Day 29
TBD Senate Rules: Upon Adjournment – 450 CAP
10:00 AM HOUSE FLOOR SESSION (LD29) – House Chamber
10:00 AM Senate Floor Session (LD 29) –Senate Chamber
1:00 PM Senate Agriculture & Consumer Affairs – 450 CAP
1:00 PM Senate Transportation – Mezz 1 CAP
2:00 PM Cancelled- Senate Government Oversight – 307 CLOB
2:00 PM Senate Health & Human Services – 450 CAP
3:00 PM Senate Finance – Mezz 1 CAP
4:00 PM Senate Judiciary – 307 CLOB
I suspect the fact that no House committee meetings are reflected in the online scheduling system is an error.
Governor Brian Kemp issued Executive Order # 03.01.24.01, appointing Frank H. Wood, III as District Attorney of the Appalachian Judicial Circuit, which serves Fannin, Gilmer, and Pickens counties. From Now Habersham:
Wood fills the role vacated by Alison Sosebee’s appointment to Superior Court judge.
A native of Fannin County, Wood has served as an assistant district attorney in the Appalachian Circuit for nearly ten years and has been the chief assistant DA since 2022. He has worked in the circuit’s drug court, veterans court, and mental health court programs, according to a release from the governor’s office.
Wood’s wife, Kali, and their daughter live in Blue Ridge in Fannin County.
Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Yvette Miller will not seek reelection this year, according to a Facebook post by former Georgia Supreme Court Justice Leah Ward Sears.
Judge Yvette Miller has decided to retire from the Georgia Court of Appeals and will not qualify to run for reelection when qualification opens early next week. She is currently the only African American on the 15 member Court of Appeals.
Judge Miller is the first Black woman to have served on the court. She also became the first women of color to serve as Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals.
Judge Miller has served our state with honor and dignity since 1999 when she was appointed. She will be missed.
Thank you for your service, judge.
Columbia County Republicans rallied in memory of Laken Riley, according to WJBF.
“Any one of our daughters could have been Laken, any one of our daughters. So, what can we do in the state to secure our borders, let’s talk about that for a moment,” Chairman for Columbia County Republican Party Joe Edelmon said.
This week Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz responded to criticism by saying that Athens is not a sanctuary city, adding that the state banned them and makes them prove every year they’re not breaking the law – claiming that data shows immigration and crime are not connected.
First Lady Jill Biden visited Atlanta to campaign for her husband, according to the AJC.
Four years ago, Georgia voted in favor of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden by about 12,000 votes, helping cement the former vice president’s path to the nation’s highest office.
On the first day of Women’s History Month, first lady Jill Biden visited Atlanta on a rainy Friday to thank female voters in the state for their contributions to his campaign’s victory and to launch “Women for Biden-Harris,” a national organizing program intended to motivate women across the country to vote for President Biden and encourage their friends and family members to follow.
Female voters are among those the Biden-Harris campaign is most eager to court.
They have been pivotal to both the president’s coalition and victories for Democrats nationwide. Black women in particular — who represent a large sector of Georgia’s voting body — proved their most staunch supporters, with 93% casting a ballot in their favor in the 2020 presidential election, according to AP VoteCast, a national survey of the electorate.
The first lady’s visit, though, comes as her husband’s approval ratings have waned, and he faces a fractured base, including some Democratic voters in Michigan angry over the administration’s stance on Israel’s war against Hamas who encouraged voters to mark “uncommitted” this week on primary ballots.
With Georgia’s presidential primary on March 12, the campaign is keen to secure the support of suburban women, once reliably conservative voters who have moved toward more liberal candidates in recent years. For example, exit polls showed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams won 51% of the vote in 2018 among suburban women — 5 points more than Hillary Clinton in her presidential campaign in 2016. That group, which includes many college-educated women who have begun to favor Democrats, also unseated Republican U.S. Rep. Karen Handel in the 6th Congressional District in 2018.
Among these groups, the Biden campaign sees an opportunity. According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll in January, 46.2% of women said they would vote for Biden compared with 26.4% of men.
During her remarks Friday, Jill Biden touted a list of her husband’s accomplishments benefiting women, including efforts to expand access to contraceptives following the repeal of Roe v. Wade and efforts to make child care more affordable. She also trumpeted the president’s U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to ascend to the role.
President Biden will visit Atlanta on Saturday, according to the AJC.
The White House said Biden will travel to Atlanta on March 9, but it didn’t immediately release other details.
State Democrats are pressuring Biden to make Georgia a top-tier target in November when he faces a likely rematch against former President Donald Trump. Polls indicate the two are in a tight race for Georgia’s 16 electoral votes.
The Biden campaign is already stepping up its focus on Georgia as November nears. Vice President Kamala Harris has visited several times, and first lady Jill Biden launched a “Women for Biden” event Friday in Atlanta with an unusually sharp attack against Trump.
It’s not yet known whether Trump will visit Georgia before the March 12 primary, though his campaign has touted endorsements from a growing number of state GOP officials, activists and donors. Meanwhile, Gov. Brian Kemp and other Republicans who have fraught relationships with Trump have pledged to support him if he’s the nominee.
Biden may also need to shore up support among liberal voters, according to the AJC.
Georgia doesn’t have an “uncommitted” option on its Democratic primary ballot like Michigan, where roughly one-in-eight Democrats used the method to lodge a protest vote over Biden’s foreign policy. He has been working to negotiate a cease-fire and has been critical of Israel’s handling of the conflict while still supporting the longtime ally.
But the law does allow Georgians to cast blank ballots. That’s what happened during the 2022 U.S. Senate runoff, when some Republicans made their disgust with GOP nominee Herschel Walker known by showing up to the voting booth but not casting a vote for either Walker or Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock.
State Rep. Ruwa Romman, Georgia’s first Palestinian-American legislator, said the idea is spreading like “wildfire” in progressive circles ahead of next week’s primary.
“Phone banking organizers that have been calling members of Congress are now shifting to this,” the Duluth Democrat said. “It’s completely grassroots. I’ve never seen anything like it and hope that no matter the outcome people listen.”
Flyers are circulating among liberal and Muslim activists in Georgia that read: “Tell Biden, ceasefire now! Leave it blank on March 12.” Some encourage non-voters to post a #leaveitblank hashtag.
Richmond County Board of Elections is working to improve procedures for voters with disabilities, according to WRDW.
The Richmond County Board of Elections teamed up with the “I Vote My Vote” campaign, to help voters with disabilities practice casting their ballots for upcoming elections.
Poll workers and people from the National Federation of the Blind, Georgia Garden City Chapter, helped while encouraging people who are learning the process for the first time.
“A lot of people do not realize how important their vision is, until you see somebody who doesn’t have it. And to watch them what they have to go through. Just a simple task all of us take for granted. Voting was kind of a major ordeal for them, because not only did they have to listen to everything they had to learn and how to manipulate the actual controller to use the demo machine, and then also to vote,” said Barbara Roberts, Poll Manager.
But voting just like many other tasks in our daily lives can be taken for granted. Even figuring out a ride to the polls is something they have to coordinate.
“Then we figure out okay, where’s the transportation coming from today? Then, after the transportation, okay, let’s get there and find out where the walkways are, are there sidewalks and then is this the right side of the building, is the cab driver or the Lyft, driver, blind friendly, and then they lead us off in some way. But we don’t know where we are. Now. We got to figure it out,” said Dr. Bishop Darryl Rutledge, President of the National Federation of the Blind, Georgia Garden City Chapter.
One person even voted for the very first time today.
“She was learning for the first time and she was very excited about, you know, being able to vote on her own because she never thought being blind that she would be able to do it, you know, but to be able to experience it, and get it done. It was awesome thing for her,” he said Dr. Rutledge.
Forty-nine Georgia state colleges and universities will waive application fees, according to AccessWDUN.
The Georgia Student Finance Commission has partnered with The University System of Georgia, the Technical College System of Georgia and private institutions through the Find Your MATCH in March initiative to provide application fee waivers to Georgia high school seniors.
49 Georgia colleges and universities have agreed to waive their application fee for high school seniors until March 31.
“As our high school seniors enter an important time for shaping their futures, we are proud to once again announce institutions will be waiving application fees for the month of March,” Governor Brian Kemp said in a release. “I encourage students to consider their options during this time by engaging with the GEORGIA MATCH dashboard and applying to schools that best fit their needs. We are confident there is a fit for every student to unlock opportunities for success here in the Number 1 state for opportunity.”
The 2024 application season will be the third year GSFC has promoted application fee waivers for the month of March, as well as the first year the commission has incorporated the GEORGIA MATCH direct admissions initiative.
“Thousands of Georgia students meet the academic eligibility for college admission in Georgia and do not apply,” Georgia Student Finance Commission President Lynne Riley, said. “We hope that by providing application fee waivers and making it easy for students to view their options, compare programs and costs, and claim their spot through the GEORGIA MATCH dashboard we can help more students achieve success in their post-secondary education with the least out-of-pocket costs possible.”
There is no limit to the number of schools a student may apply to through the application fee waivers. The full list of participating schools and information on how to access the application fee waivers can be found at GAfutures.org.
Former State School Superintendent John Barge (R) will lead the Unity Christian School, according to the Rome News Tribune.
Some voters in Cairo will have new polling places, according to WALB.
For voters who previously voted at the Pine Park Volunteer Fire Department, the polling location is now at Pine Park Baptist Church at 121 Faulkner Street.
No boundary lines of any precinct in Grady County have been altered. Only that voting location changed. New precinct cards will be mailed to voters affected by this change.
A former Lowndes County school superintendent was indicted on charges relating to misuse of financial resource, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.
The case was investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which turned its findings over to the district attorney’s office, the statement said.
Haralson became the county’s school superintendent on July 1, 2022. He resigned in June 2023 following allegations that he was filling up his personal vehicle with gas from the county’s gas barn for personal use.
The Valdosta Daily Times reported last March that Haralson filled up his pickup truck and an auxiliary tank in the bed of the truck at the fuel depot on multiple occasions. The school system paid an outside attorney $3,832.50 to investigate the incidents.
After the investigation, Haralson agreed to pay $2,800 to cover the cost of the gasoline. The school board took no disciplinary action. A memorandum agreement between Haralson and the school board indicated the investigator and the board did not believe the superintendent intentionally took gas.
United States Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Atlanta) announced “Constituent Services in Your Community” including a stop in Dalton, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.
Ossoff’s constituent services team works to help families cut through red tape and navigate federal agencies, from resolving issues with Social Security and Medicare to helping families obtain passports and visas to ensuring servicemembers, veterans and their families receive their Veterans Affairs and TRICARE benefits, and more.
The Dalton event is on Tuesday, March 19, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Latin American Association, Mohawk Green Plant, 508 E. Morris St.
Georgians with any questions about an event in their area or seeking assistance can find more information online at ossoff.senate.gov/MobileCasework or by calling (470) 786-7800.
Ossoff announced his staff will hold two constituent services events in Gwinnett County in March. The first one will be in Norcross on Wednesday. The second one will be in Duluth on March 26.
“I have a hard-working team across the state standing by to help you and your families navigate the federal bureaucracy, which can often be confusing and difficult to access and navigate,” Ossoff said in a statement. “We don’t guarantee results, but we always guarantee effort.”
The senator’s office will hold other constituent services events this month in Eatonton, Waycross, Sparta, Dalton and East Point.
Whitfied County Commissioners will vote on whether to use $100,000 in American Rescue Plan funding for the Domestic Violence Court, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.
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