Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for May 21, 2021

Georgia Colonists signed the Treaty of Savannah with the Lower Creeks on May 21, 1733.

John Hancock was elected President of the Second Continental Congress on May 24, 1775.

George Washington left Georgia on May 21, 1791, crossing a bridge over the Savannah River at Augusta.

On May 22, 1819, the steamship Savannah left the port of Savannah for Liverpool, England. After 29 days, it became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. On May 22, 1944, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the voyage of the Savannah.

On May 22, 1856, Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with his cane. Brooks used the cane as the result of injury sustained in a previous duel, and found Sumner at his desk in the Senate Chamber. In the course of a two-day Senate speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which would have nullified the Missouri Compromise on the expansion of slavery, Sumner had criticized three legislators, including a cousin of Rep. Brooks, Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina.

The Brooklyn Bridge opened on May 24, 1883.

American Charles Lindbergh landed at Paris on May 21, 1927 in The Spirit of St. Louis, completing both the first nonstop transatlantic flight and the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris.

On May 22, 1932, New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the commencement address for Oglethorpe University at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.

Serial bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death near Sailes, Louisiana by a group of LA and Texas state police on May 23, 1934.

On May 21, 1942, German authorities removed 4300 Polish Jews from Chelm to an extermination camp at Sobibor and killed them by poison gas. The Sobibor camp’s five gas chambers would kill 250,000 Jews during 1942 and 1943.

On May 23, 1954, the NAACP petitioned the Fulton County Board of Education to desegregate after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Then-Lt. Governor Marvin Griffin announced his candidacy for Governor on May 24, 1954.

Former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter won the Virginia Caucus on May 23, 1976, gaining 24 delegates.

On May 23, 1990, the NFL announced that Atlanta would host the 1994 Super Bowl.

John Smoltz tied the record for most strikeouts by a Braves pitcher, throwing 15 Ks against Montreal Expos on May 24, 1992.

On May 21, 2011, Herman Cain announced his candidacy for President of the United States at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park.

Happy Birthday to Bob Dylan, who was born on May 24, 1941.

Two new historical markers on Tybee Island commemorate desegregation efforts there in the early 1960s, according to the Savannah Morning News.

“When you come across the bridge to Tybee Island and stick your feet in the sand, you know you’re in a place where it was desegregated before the civil rights was passed,” said Edna Jackson, former Savannah mayor and civil rights activist.

Jackson is referring to the explosive summers of 1960 to 1963, where young African Americans risked their lives to wade in the waters of Tybee Island beach in defiance of Jim Crow laws. It was these wade-ins that led to the eventual desegregation of the formerly whites-only beach eight months before the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964.

Two markers, a wooden panel commemorating the historical wade-ins and another documenting recent efforts at racial justice, were installed in early March between the Tybee Island Lighthouse and Fort Screven.

The markers are the result of the combined efforts of Tybee MLK Human Rights Organization and the Tybee Island Historical Society to pay tribute to the largely uncharted history of Black life on the island.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Ralph Puckett, Jr., of Columbus, Georgia will receive the Medal of Honor today, according to the New York Times.

Colonel Puckett, 94, initially received a Distinguished Service Cross for his command of the Eighth U.S. Army Ranger Company in November 1950. But that citation was upgraded after a campaign by a retired Army officer who believed the actions by the young lieutenant from Georgia warranted the nation’s highest military honor.

Colonel Puckett’s soldiers were “inspired and motivated by the extraordinary leadership and courageous example” he provided, the administration said in a statement.

First Lt. Puckett, his rank at the time, was hit in the foot by a hand grenade as he began to organize the defense of an American-controlled hill against a chaotic assault by a Chinese force that greatly outnumbered his own.

But he refused medical evaluation, and darted in and out of his foxhole to rally his men, exposing himself repeatedly to danger, according to an oral history project documenting his heroism.

When the Chinese finally overran the position, Lieutenant Puckett — who had been hit by mortar fire twice after his foot was nearly blown off — ordered his company to evacuate and said he wanted to be left behind.

He would recover, and go on serve in Vietnam, before retiring as a colonel in 1971 as one of the most decorated combat veterans in the country’s history.

Georgia’s unemployment rate continues to fall, according to the Associated Press via AccessWDUN.

In April 2020, amid a huge wave of pandemic induced layoffs, the state was hitting an all-time high jobless rate of 12.5%. In April 2021, the state’s unemployment rate fell for the 12th straight month, dipping to 4.3% from 4.5% in March.

The nationwide unemployment rate in April was 6.1%.

More Georgians sought and found jobs in April, pushing the number of unemployed people down to about 221,000. The labor force is now less than 1% below where it was before the pandemic.

Georgia workers continue to file for unemployment at elevated levels. More than 25,000 workers made initial filings for benefits during the week ended May 15, a level about twice the weekly average before the pandemic began.

About 117,000 people are still collecting regular state unemployment, while 125,000 people are collecting special federal unemployment assistance available to people who are self-employed, independent contractors, gig workers, or employees of churches and nonprofits. Another 105,000 are getting a another 13 weeks of benefits paid from federal money after the regular 26 weeks run out.

Governor Brian Kemp wrote a letter to the Georgia Board of Education members criticizing critical race theory.

From Newsweek:

In an open letter to the State Board of Education, Gov. Kemp said he had heard from parents and students in Georgia who were “extremely concerned” about critical race theory being taught in the state.

He also took aim at a Biden administration rule to encourage the teaching of programs that address systemic racism and diversity with grant funding.

The Republican state leader also said Georgia schools needed to focus on providing “the highest quality education to every child” without “partisan or political influence” entering the curriculum.

Critical race theory is an ideological movement that seeks to frame instances of racism as the result of deeper, structural racism and injustice at the core of a society. The theory’s backers argue that it helps society to address problems with racism and other biases, but critics believe it is divisive.

From the AJC:

Pressed for its definition of the concept, Kemp’s aides referred to an Encyclopedia Britannica entry that calls the theory a loosely organized framework based on the premise that U.S. legal institutions “are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites.”

Kemp’s office didn’t provide examples of whether it was being taught in any of Georgia’s 181 public school districts, though his aides said a new education policy would preempt that possibility.

The Georgia Department of Education does not mandate the teaching of any particular curriculum. Rather, the agency adopts standards about things students are expected to know and be able to do by certain grades, whether it’s addition in math or the history of the United States in social studies.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky visited Dalton yesterday, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

Walensky added that the number of people seeking the vaccine has begun to plateau. She visited the Whitfield County Health Department Thursday afternoon, where she spoke to local public health officials as well as people waiting to be vaccinated.

“When the vaccine first came out, we had a lot of people who wanted it,” she said. “Now, we’ve got to reach the people who might be hesitant. They are going to want to hear from friends and neighbors and family members they trust.”

“Not everyone wants to be first. I understand that. But now we have 270 million shots that have been given. People are doing well. There haven’t been any challenging issues. We do have to keep getting the message out. It will take time. We have to celebrate the wins and keep working hard to get the message out and get more people vaccinated.”

Walensky said she chose to visit Whitfield County because “I wanted to see a county where the people are working hard to get people vaccinated.”

In Whitfield County, 24% of residents are fully vaccinated and 29% have received at least one dose. For the state as a whole, 31% of residents are fully vaccinated and 39% have received at least one dose. By comparison, for the U.S. as a whole 38.1% of residents are fully vaccinated and 48.2% have received at least one dose, according to the CDC.

“My job is to convey the science to people, and the science is evolving,” Walensky said. “It has continued to evolve throughout this pandemic. The recommendation we have last week is for individuals, and what we said was in the context of cases going down nationwide and vaccines being available nationwide. Vaccines work well. It is working against the variants that we have in the U.S., and if you have been fully vaccinated, even if you get the virus you can’t give it to someone else.”

“With all of that, we can say that you as an individual can take off your mask and you will be safe if you have been vaccinated. However, there are some communities that have lower vaccination rates, higher case rates, so you need to be deferential to community policy.”

Georgia’s mass vaccination sites close today, according to WTOC.

“We’re feeling better every day more and more people are getting vaccinated and it’s so important that they understand that even though these sites are closing they still need to go get vaccinated. There’s so much availability you can go to your local pharmacy, you can go to a health department, but getting vaccinated is going to be the key to eradicating the virus,” Rodriquez-Presley said.

From the Augusta Chronicle:

Rural counties have had a tougher time across the country and in Georgia in getting residents vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to urban or suburban counties, a recent study found. But in the Augusta area, most of the surrounding counties have outperformed the urban center in Richmond County, according to an analysis by The Augusta Chronicle.

In Georgia, it was 20.7% in urban areas vs. 12.9% in rural counties, according to the study, which included data through April 10.

But in the Augusta area, it is almost the opposite. According to a Chronicle analysis of Georgia Department of Public Health data, only Glascock and Jenkins counties among those surrounding Augusta had lower vaccination rates and a smaller number of vaccines given per 100,000 population than Richmond County. Most in fact, fared far better. Jefferson County has 26% of its residents fully vaccinated, Columbia, Lincoln, and Screven counties close behind at 24%, compared to 20% in Augusta, the analysis found.

“Particularly in the very small places, if you go there and you can vaccinate a number of people, it has an impact on the population,” he said. Goggans also pointed to CDC data that shows people in rural areas are more likely to leave their county to get vaccinated, which almost certainly happened with outlying residents taking advantage of large clinics and providers in Augusta.

Athens has stopped enforcing their mask mandate, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

On May 4, the mayor and commission approved the 16th declaration of local emergency for COVID-19. As part of this declaration, mask-wearing in Athens would be required throughout the city.  The mask requirement has been in place since July 7.

The ordinance, however, has an added stipulation. If cases dropped below 100 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population and stayed below that threshold for at least 14 days, masking would not be enforced.

The Georgia Department of Public Health has reported that Athens has not been over that 100-case threshold since May 2. Mayor Kelly Girtz confirmed that this means Athens is no longer requiring masks.

Privately owned businesses, however, can still require patrons to wear masks.

A Gwinnett County Board of Education meeting was disrupted by anti-mask activists, according to the AJC.

About 80 parents and community members refused to wear face masks as required or leave the Thursday night meeting of the Gwinnett County Board of Education, shouting and arguing until the board left and convened the meeting in another room.

Many in the crowd wore T-shirts that said, “Unmask our children,” or “We the people take back our schools.” They yelled, “no,” when board members asked them to wear masks, and chanted, “My body, my choice.”

When the crowd without masks didn’t budge, the five board members and Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks left the room. They returned 10 minutes later, huddling with one of their attorneys and Jorge Gomez, executive director of administration and policy.

Vice Chair Karen Watkins then asked Gomez to work with security to escort out those who were not wearing masks, but the school district employees were outnumbered.

The school board moved back into the regular meeting room for the public comment session, where scores of people without masks still waited in the audience. Watkins and Tarece Johnson, another board member, quickly left the room.

Meanwhile, across the metro area in Cobb County, several parents stood outside a district board of education meeting there and chanted, “Unmask our kids.”

Secret recordings of Paulding County District Attorney Donald Richard “Dick” Donovan have surfaced, according to 13WMAZ.

In February, the Georgia Attorney General’s office announced a grand jury indicted Paulding County District Attorney Donald Richard “Dick” Donovan with bribery, violation of oath of office by a public officer and false swearing.

All of Donovan’s charges are loosely connected to Jamie White, a former victim’s advocate who accused him of sexual harassment while working in his office.

Starting in 2017, White recorded audio of their conversations she later used as evidence in a complaint and lawsuit against the county.

In January, White settled her sexual harassment claim with the state and the county for about $300,000.

Governor Kemp suspended Donovan from office in February. In the meantime, Donovan keeps his salary while he’s not working.

State Representative Carl Gilliard (D-Garden City) will serve on the House Redistricting Committee, according to the Savannah Morning News.

“I was blessed to be selected to be on the committee,” Gilliard said. “It’s one of the most intricate and one of the most important committees in this decade. It only comes up every 10 years, so to be on that committee is a tremendous responsibility. There’s going to be a lot of weight on us between now and the time that we have the special session.”

The data used to redraw the districts comes from the Census, and includes ages, demographic data, and population data for the entire state, right down to the number of people on an individual block. Since 2010, Georgia’s population has increased by nearly a million people — up to about 10.7 million total statewide, according to projections from the state’s website.

“Everyone is going to be jockeying for the greater good of their party,” Gilliard said. “Right now the House is only a few seats away from becoming a Democratic majority, and the way these lines are being drawn is going to be instrumental going into 2022.”

“My posture will be to not only make sure things are fair, but to fight for those districts that we have in place to make sure that there is no gerrymandering,” Gilliard said.

“The big battle lines are going to be up toward Atlanta and Fulton County, DeKalb and all those areas that actually brought in the election for the president and the U.S. Senate, I’m expecting to see some very strategic requests being made just to be able to hold on to those seats, and on our side, to garner more votes.”

The closest thing to a solid timeline comes from a quote from Speaker David Ralston, who told Georgia Public Broadcasting he didn’t expect the vote to come until there was “frost on the pumpkin,” vaguely implying November.

The Georgia DOT Board voted to give the DOT Commissioner a $100,000 per year raise, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Gwinnett Daily Post.

The State Transportation Board voted unanimously without discussion Thursday to increase Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry’s annual salary from $350,000 to $450,000, representing a nearly 29% raise.

The last pay increase McMurry received came in 2017, DOT spokesman Scott Higley wrote in an e-mail.

McMurry oversees an annual DOT budget of more than $3.6 billion, including more than $1.9 billion in state funds, and a payroll of nearly 4,000 employees.

Statesboro City Council adopted a new alcohol ordinance, according to the Statesboro Herald.

After a City Council decision Tuesday, pubs and places with low-volume alcoholic beverage licenses can exist closer than 100 yards from a church, school or college building in Statesboro, if the business first gets a waiver from the mayor and council.

The city’s laws already made such “distance waivers” available for restaurants but not for pubs, which by definition derive more of their income from alcoholic drinks than restaurants do, or for low-volume places. A hair salon or barbershop that serves clients a glass of wine or beer is the usual example of a low-volume licensee.

These categories were created in an Alcoholic Beverages Ordinance amendment enacted by the council in October 2019.

“What this would do would be to allow that these pubs, which are still restaurants or they’re in that whole gray area between restaurants and bars – they have a substantial amounts (of income) from food and from alcohol – to get this business waiver permit, along with the newly created low-volume license classification,” City Attorney Cain Smith said Tuesday.

A federal judge ordered a stop to dredging in a shipping channel off the Georgia coast, according to The Brunswick News.

U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker ruled in favor of One Hundred Miles during a hearing in which the environmental nonprofit, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, sought an injunction on the dredging project, which environmentalists have said would pose huge risks to nesting loggerhead sea turtles.

The corps planned to dredge this summer despite a long-standing practice to only dredge during winter months in deference to the safety of sea turtles, which begin nesting on Georgia’s beaches in May. The winter dredging window has been in place nearly 30 years.

“The court has been presented sufficient evidence that summer hopper dredging in the Brunswick Harbor will likely kill and harm an increased number of turtles in this area,” he said.

Corps officials have said that the plan to expand the dredging periods would allow for a more holistic approach that takes into better consideration protections for other species, including North Atlantic right whales, which are facing extinction.

The dredging project was set to begin May 28. Baker’s ruling prohibits the work from being done until December.