Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for May 10, 2016

Savannah received news of the battle at Lexington on May 10, 1775, leading to a raid of British gunpowder for the colonial effort.

On May 10, 1863, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died a week after being shot at by his own troops.

He died, as he had wished, on the Sabbath, May 10, 1863, with these last words: “Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.”

The first observance of Mother’s Day was May 10, 1908 at St Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first official “Mother’s Day.”

On May 10, 2006, Georgia State School Superintendent Linda Schrenko, a Republican, pled guilty to federal charges of fraud and money laundering, beginning a streak of Republican State School Supers to leave office under a cloud.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Today, we are two weeks from the Primary Elections, so we’ll look at some of the crazier elections out there. The top prize has to go to the Senate District 19 Republican Primary between Blake Tillery and former State Rep. Delvis Dutton.

The craziness got started in earnest with an April 15 column taking Tillery to task.

Earlier this week, in an even more tragic series of events, Toombs County Commission Chairman and State Senate candidate Blake Tillery was traveling in a vehicle when he fatally struck a bicyclist who was enroute to work in Vidalia Monday morning. The 44-year-old man left behind two children and a wife.

According to Georgia State Patrol, charges are pending against Tillery, ones that could be as serious as vehicular homicide to manslaughter. Even more horrifying: a wrongful death suit was filed against Tillery on Thursday and rumors have it that the family couldn’t even afford a proper burial, but Tillery was at Wayne Dasher’s Annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Dinner Thursday evening…campaigning. His campaign has shown no signs of slowing down or dropping out – even though a man is dead.

This isn’t about guilt, no, this is about how much a seat means to these people seeking public office – what people are willing to make others endure in order to serve.

Disclosure: AllOnGeorgia.com is owned, in part, by Delvis Dutton who is also a candidate for State Senate. The article does not necessarily reflect his views and the author is an independent contractor of AllOnGeorgia. She has previously expressed support for Delvis Dutton’s Senate race.

A couple notable things about that column. First is that Delvis Dutton is part owner of the website, according to filings with the Georgia State Ethics Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. Second is that the writer was formerly employed by Dutton’s Congressional Campaign.

Another website, SoutheastGeorgiaToday.com published a response to the AllOnGeorgia advertisement piece, titled Tillery Pilloried by Campaign Worker.

Szilagyi claimed the Georgia State Patrol confirmed charges are pending against Tillery, however, Middle Judicial Circuit District Attorney Hayward Altman says no charges are pending.  A state patrol “Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team” is still investigating what happened, according to the District Attorney.

Dutton says he won’t disavow or approve what his campaign worker wrote,  but adds that he personally agrees with her position.

“I’m not going to disavow or approve anyone’s personal opinion, only I can speak for this campaign.  As for my (website) company, we do hire independent contractors and we do not censor them.  If you’re asking my personal opinion, I do believe there should have been more time between the untimely tragic accident and returning to the campaign trail,” Dutton said.

More recently, a new website appeared specifically to delve into the connection between Dutton’s website business and his campaign. The site has since been taken down, but Blake Tillery posted about it on Facebook:

About 30 minutes ago, my wife received an anonymous text directing her to a website that had negative things to say about one of my opponents in this Senate race. As someone who has been the victim of these same types of attacks, I DO NOT support them. I am not posting the site because I do not wish to drive any additional traffic to it. If this was one of my supporters, please stop.

There are 15 more days until Election Day and I’m very content to allow our friends to make a decision based on the issues and legitimate campaigning already done. There will be a time for comparing and contrasting the candidates and we will spend money on mail and radio doing so, but this isn’t how you do it.

Classy move. Since then, someone has gone truly bat guano crazy, dropping direct mail attacking incumbent Sen. Tommie Williams, whose retirement opened up this seat.

Two negative campaign flyers sent out on behalf of 19th Senatorial District candidate Delvis Dutton are untrue, according to State Senator Tommie Williams of Lyons whom Dutton is trying to succeed.

Williams has endorsed Dutton’s opponent, Toombs County Commission Chairman Blake Tillery.

One flyer claims Senator Williams declared bankruptcy before he ran for office more than 18 years ago.

“I have never been bankrupt in my life. I’ve paid everybody that I’ve ever owed any money to and I’ve been in business for 40 years and have never even contemplated bankruptcy. I’ve paid my taxes and paid my bills and I frankly don’t appreciate it. In an effort to build himself up, he thinks he’s got to put somebody else down. I’m not in the race, I’m retiring and this is really unusual,” Senator Williams said.

Another flyer regards the ongoing Georgia State Patrol investigation of a fatal accident involving Tillery last month. An entity calling itself “Citizens for a Better Georgia” sent the flyer out from 148 Williams Avenue in Lyons which is Senator Williams’ business address.

“This is a fictitious group and nobody knows who they are. The odd thing is that Delvis Dutton’s team used my return address as where this came from. I’ve got questions whether that’s mail fraud. I know nothing about this and it certainly didn’t come from me, I’m a supporter of Blake.

“This was an accident and the investigation has yet to be completed. To use this kind of thing goes to the point of what will you do to win,” the Senator said.

Senator Tommie Williams responded to the mailer on Facebook:

Today, I received a negative mail piece from Delvis Dutton to the 19th senate district.

He falsely claims that I declared bankruptcy and failed to pay back small business owners. I am not sure why he is attacking me since I am retiring, but just to clear up any confusion, I have never declared bankruptcy in the almost forty years I have been in business. I pay all my bills and taxes on time because, as a small business owner, I understand the importance of this.

Reputations are hard to earn and can take a life time to secure, and certainly no one wants to be discredited. But Jesus perfection shows me that we all have a reputation in some form. As a man I have many faults, but owing money is not one of them.

There is only one logical conclusion in this case about who is desperate enough to return to the General Assembly to engage in this kind of campaigning. I hope the people of South Georgia’s 19th Senate District will elect Blake Tillery to represent them. I know Blake Tillery to be a man of character, and I would be proud to vote for him if I was in his district.

The other crazy Senate race is taking place in Metro Atlanta, in the 21st Senate District, which includes parts of North Fulton and Cherokee Counties. Brandon Beach is probably the Senate incumbent most in danger of being defeated in a primary election this year. Beach has been an outspoken advocate of transit and the expansion of MARTA, which is an iffy proposition for North Fulton, but his district is dominated by the more ideologically-conservative Cherokee County, for whom MARTA expansion is anathema. Barlow is an outspoken opponent of legislation offered by Beach that would expand MARTA.

In this race, the craziness started after Beach sent a mailer claiming endorsements from several legislators whose districts either overlap or adjoin his. Several of the legislators depicted on the mailpiece publicly disavowed the claimed endorsements.

State Senator Brandon Beach sent out the mailer to constituents, naming 10 Cherokee County leaders that he said stand with him in his bid for re-election.

When asked if he heard his name was on the mailer, Georgia Senator Bruce Thompson said, “Not until after I had several people that called me and said, ‘Do you know that you endorsed Brandon Beach?'”

Our investigation found that not only did Thompson not endorse him, but neither did Georgia Representative Michael Caldwell.

“Senator Beach is a good friend of mine, but I didn’t endorse either candidate because I don’t intend to get involved in the race and I still don’t,” Caldwell said.

“I did not give permission for my name to be on any candidate’s piece,” Thompson added.

CBS46 called all 10 leaders mentioned in the mailer. Some did not respond. The mayor of Ball Ground and Canton said they didn’t know their name was on the mailer, but didn’t seem concerned. Only one said he endorsed Beach and that was Chairman of the Cherokee Commission Buzz Ahrens.

Beach responded to the accusations by saying Thompson said he “had his full support” and added that every person on the list made a commitment they were on board.

Since then, Beach has been airing a TV ad touting his record, and an endorsement by former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz. He’s called into question Aaron Barlow’s voting record, writing,

Unlike my opponent, I haven’t missed an election since I was 18. I simply believe protecting our values and the future of our community – and country – is too important to stay home on Election Day. While Aaron Barlow continues to spread lies about my record, one look at his voting history over the last decade tells you all you need to know about his priorities.

Beach also questioned Barlow’s residency commitment to the district in a forum earlier this season.

Beach accused Barlow of only moving to the state eight months ago and said the challenger’s ties to the community weren’t nearly as strong.

However, Barlow, who lists his residence as Milton, said he had lived in Georgia for 12 years and raised his family in the state.

Beach also notes that Barlow sent a negative mailer blaming Beach for T-SPLOST, which passed the legislature before Beach took office.

I got a good laugh out of the latest negative mailer from our friend from Chicago attacking me over TSPLOST. For starters, I wasn’t in office when TSPLOST passed. But the best part is that my opponent didn’t even vote in the TSPLOST election – just like he didn’t vote to defend Georgia’s Senate seat against Obama and liberal Michelle Nunn in 2014. I think we can all agree that we’re tired of politicians claiming they’ll fight for us, but never showing up when it matters most.

Barlow’s campaign also received a brushback pitch over a claim it made regarding legislation sponsored by Beach.

In a letter, Randy Evans, the attorney for Jackson Healthcare of Alpharetta warned Barlow that he was dallying with a slander suit for alleging that Jackson Healthcare and its CEO, Richard Jackson, were the sole entity behind Senate Bill 86, a measure sponsored by Beach and other Republicans that would have greatly curtailed malpractice lawsuits.

When his turn came to speak, Barlow said this:

“This particular legislation is a form of crony politics. The only serious supporter of this particular bill is an organization called Jackson Healthcare. It’s funded $100,000 in political contributions to my opponent and several other politicians….

“This bill benefits nobody except them….”

Jackson Healthcare’s attorney took exception:

“These statements are false and deceptive with actual knowledge. In addition, since neither Jackson nor Jackson Healthcare are public figures, the standard for imposition of liability is much lower than for public figures.”

Evans, as you know, is a member of the Republican National Committee and one of the most politically connected attorneys in Atlanta….

The Barlow camp pointed to the Beach campaign for the legal warning. “There is nothing to this besides bully tactics by the Beach campaign to try and shut Aaron up regarding his extensive campaign contributions from big business, particularly Jackson Healthcare,” said Barlow spokesman Andrew O’Shea.

We’ve only begun documenting the campaign craziness that is the 2016 Primary Elections. Over the course of the rest of the week, we’ll look at accusations flying in a judicial race, and a lawsuit by a political consultant against his own client. And in the meantime, as pressure in the election ratchets up, we’ll certainly see a higher level of crazy emerge.