Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for May 25, 2021

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787.

With George Washington presiding, the Constitutional Convention formally convenes on this day in 1787. The convention faced a daunting task: the peaceful overthrow of the new American government as it had been defined by the Article of Confederation.

The process began with the proposal of James Madison’s Virginia Plan. Madison had dedicated the winter of 1787 to the study of confederacies throughout history and arrived in Philadelphia with a wealth of knowledge and an idea for a new American government. It featured a bicameral legislature, with representation in both houses apportioned to states based upon population; this was seen immediately as giving more power to large states, like Virginia. The two houses would in turn elect the executive and the judiciary and would possess veto power over the state legislatures.

William Patterson soon countered with a plan more attractive to the new nation’s smaller states. It too bore the imprint of America’s British experience. Under the New Jersey Plan, as it became known, each state would have a single vote in Congress as it had been under the Articles of Confederation, to even out power between large and small states.

Alexander Hamilton then put forward to the delegates a third plan, a perfect copy of the British Constitution including an upper house and legislature that would serve on good behavior.

Confronted by three counter-revolutionary options, the representatives of Connecticut finally came up with a workable compromise: a government with an upper house made up of equal numbers of delegates from each state and a lower house with proportional representation based upon population. This idea formed the basis of the new U.S. Constitution, which became the law of the land in 1789.

The Battle of New Hope Church was fought near Dallas, Georgia May 25-26, 1864 between Confederates under General Joseph E. Johnston and Federal troops under General William T. Sherman.

On May 25, 1907, an equine statue of John B. Gordon was unveiled on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia held on May 25, 1962 that the Georgia General Assembly was malapportioned and ordered the reapportionment of the State House and Senate.

Star Wars opened on May 25, 1977.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Governor Brian Kemp has moved $5 million dollars in discretionary funding to fight street racing in Atlanta, according to WTOC.

The Republican said Monday that the money will come from the emergency fund he controls.

Kemp spokesperson Cody Hall says it could pay for overtime and other expenses incurred by state troopers and other state agencies.

The state budget year ends June 30. State troopers say they and Atlanta police jointly stopped 691 vehicles during the weekend in an effort to suppress crime and stop street racing.

The United States Department of Agriculture will pay out $4 billion dollars in COVID relief funds for African-American farmers, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

The provision in the federal package, championed by U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, is aimed at combatting what many say is decades of loan discrimination against Black farmers by the USDA. The Farm Service Agency expects payments to begin trickling down to about 16,000 farmers as early as June.

A promise when he took office, Warnock pledged to address systemic discrimination against farmers of color and work with the USDA to bring them direct relief after COVID-19 plagued the agriculture industry. Coupled with a history of what leaders have called a biased lending programs, about 17,000 Black farmers indebted to the agency have been driven into foreclosure.

“This debt relief is long overdue. And let me be clear: supporting socially disadvantaged farmers in rural Georgia means supporting local jobs and the local economies they are inextricably a part of,” Warnock said.

“Today, the federal government is taking a critical step to keep its promise to socially disadvantaged farmers through debt relief on eligible USDA loans,” Warnock said. “But we must also look forward to ensure we are positioning our farmers for longterm success.”

In 2017, according to the USDA, only about 49,000 farmers out of 3.4 million across the country were Black — with 2,870 of those in Georgia. The number is down from nearly a million Black farmers a century ago.

From the AJC:

U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were at Fort Valley State University Saturday for a press conference with U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsak to detail the new $4 billion federal aid program to Black farmers.

After telling them earlier this spring that, “Help is on the way,” Warnock told them Saturday, “Help is here.”

Henry County Superior Court Judge Brian Amero will order the unsealing of more than 145,000 absentee ballots in Fulton County from the November 2020 election, according to the Associated Press via the Rome News Tribune.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit against the county that alleges evidence of fraudulent ballots and improper counting. The judge said he’ll order county officials to scan the ballots and produce high resolution images. The plaintiffs plan to use those images to determine whether the ballots were completed by hand or machine to determine their legitimacy, the newspaper reported.

Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts issued a statement after Friday’s ruling saying it’s “outrageous that Fulton County continues to be a target of those who cannot accept the results from last year’s election.”

“The votes have been counted multiple times, including a hand recount, and no evidence of fraud has been found,” Pitts said, “The fact remains that Fulton County safely and securely carried out an election in the midst of a public health crisis. It’s a shame to see that the ‘Big Lie’ lives on and could cost the hardworking taxpayers of this county.”

The plaintiffs wanted to take the absentee ballots to a private company for scanning and inspection, the newspaper reported. But Amero cited federal and state law Friday in saying that county election officials must retain custody of the ballots during the audit. That could avoid issues like those raised during an audit in Arizona.

From the AJC:

The latest Georgia review cannot change the election results, which were certified months ago and have already been confirmed by multiple recounts. But the plaintiffs say an examination of ballots would get to the bottom of what they see as suspicious activity by election officials at State Farm Arena in November.

In a court brief filed last month, attorneys for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said unsealing the paper ballots would be illegal. They said the plaintiffs have no legal authority to independently verify and tabulate ballots.

In a statement Friday, Raffensperger, a Republican facing a tough GOP primary challenge in 2022, struck a different tone.

“From day one I have encouraged Georgians with concerns about the election in their counties to pursue those claims through legal avenues,” Raffensperger said. “Fulton County has a long-standing history of election mismanagement that has understandably weakened voters’ faith in its system. Allowing this audit provides another layer of transparency and citizen engagement.”

Legislation passed this year to reform probation will allow some offenders to end their probation early, according to WTVM.

”You have to pay your probation fees, you have to pay your counselor, you have to pay for drug testing” said Dr. Xavier McCaskey Probation Counselor.

A new Georgia law will now give people serving long probation sentences a pathway to early termination, but only those who have already served three years of their probation could be eligible if they have no new arrests, no probation revocations in the last 24 months and have all their court fees paid.

“As a former prosecutor I always felt like if a person is going to mess up you’ll get another shot at them,” said Alonza Whitaker, former Columbus recorder’s court judge and defense attorney.

The Georgia Justice Project says this law could allow for up to one out of every four people currently on probation to be eligible to get out of the system sooner. A judge must still consider and grant an end to a person’s probation sentence.

The Stone Mountain Memorial Association Board voted to move Confederate flags and make other changes, according to the Associated Press via the Savannah Morning News.

The board overseeing a mountain park near Atlanta with a giant carving of Confederate leaders voted Monday to relocate Confederate flags from a busy walking trail and create a museum exhibit that acknowledges the site’s connection to the Ku Klux Klan.

The moves were part of an effort by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association to address criticism of the park’s Confederate legacy and shore up its finances. The chairman of the association’s board promised more changes.

“We’ve just taken our first step today to where we need to go,” the Rev. Abraham Mosley said at a news conference after the vote. Mosley, appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp last month, is the board’s first African American chairman.

From the Statesboro Herald:

The proposed exhibit for the carving would give an “honest telling of the whole story” on the mountain’s history as the site where the Ku Klux Klan was revived in 1915, as well as its significance as the world’s largest granite formation and “a gathering place since pre-history,” according to a summary of the proposals.

A set of flags including the Confederate battle emblem that stand beneath the 90-foot-tall carving would be relocated to a new site allowing “stronger identification with the carving and an ideal photo vantage point,” according to the proposals.

Additionally, the changes would include renaming the park’s Confederate Hall Historical and Environmental Education Center to “Heritage Hall,” revising the association’s logo to remove a depiction of the carving and building a new chapel on the mountain’s summit.

“If these things are approved, we’re going with them,” Mosley said after last month’s meeting. “I want to see the whole story told. History is history. There’s the good, bad and the ugly.”

Supporters of the carving’s removal face an uphill battle due to legislation Gov. Brian Kemp signed in 2019 that bans altering or relocating Confederate monuments on property owned by the state, including Stone Mountain.

From the Capitol Beat News Service via the Gwinnett Daily Post:

“By law, Stone Mountain Park is a Confederate memorial,” Bill Stephens, the association’s CEO and a former state senator, said following Monday’s votes. “But there were things we could do to tell a complete story that’s acceptable to the 3 million Georgians who come here every year.”

Rev. Abraham Mosley, who took the reins recently as the association’s first Black chairman, said there was no way the board could please everybody, given such polarized views on the park’s purpose.

“We want to tell the whole story, the good, the bad and the ugly,” he said. “History isn’t good and pleasant to all of us. But it’s history.”

The board is due to adopt a design for a new logo by July 1.

Dalton former Mayor Dennis Mock is running for City Council, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

Former Dalton mayor Dennis Mock says he will seek to fill the remainder of Derek Waugh’s term in the Ward 1 seat on the City Council.

“We’ve got a lot of projects to work on over the next two years, and I think someone who has experience on the council can catch up more quickly and get to work on those projects than someone who has never served before,” Mock said.

There will be a special election to fill the remainder of Waugh’s term on the council, which runs through Dec. 31, 2023, in November as an addition to the regular city ballot. Qualifying for the position, which is nonpartisan, will take place in August.

Mock won a special election in 2014 to fill current mayor David Pennington’s unexpired term as mayor after Pennington stepped down in an unsuccessful bid for governor. Mock won a full four-year term in 2015. He lost to Pennington by 11 votes in the 2019 election.

“When Derek announced he was stepping down, I was approached by a number of people to see if I would be interested in serving for the next two years,” said Mock. “I’ve got the experience. I’ve got the time, and I think I can make a contribution.”

Mihae Park will become the first Asian-American woman on the Gwinnett County Recorder’s Court bench, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

The county’s State Court bench has picked Norcross resident Mihae Park to join the Recorder’s Court bench, making her the first Asian-American woman to serve as a Recorder’s Court judge. She is also the second judge of Korean descent to sit on the bench, following in the steps of Judge Ramón Alvarado, who was of Korean and Puerto Rican descent and who died last summer.

Park — who is set to be sworn in May 28 — will fill out the unexpired term of retired Judge Michael Greene, who stepped down April 30 to enter retirement. Her term lasts through Dec. 31, 2023.

Park is a native of Seoul, South Korea who become a U.S. citizen when she was 19. She is also a University of Florida law school graduate who previously worked in the Gwinnett County Solicitor’s Office for more than a decade after college, starting in 1988.

Hall County will return to in-person public meetings, but will continue to livestream the meetings, according to the Gainesville Times.

Hall County government is ending virtual meetings, including public hearings, beginning June 1 but will continue to livestream them, County Administrator Jock Connell said Monday, May 24 at a Hall County Board of Commissioners meeting.

Residents can either attend meetings in-person or watch Hall County Board of Commissioners and Hall Planning Commission meetings in real time on the Hall County’s website.

Livestreaming doesn’t allow viewer interaction. So, those opting to watch meetings remotely can file comments using public comment forms on the county’s website, which will be open until 8 a.m. on the day of the meeting, Connell said.

Tybee Island beaches were hit by thousands of cannonball jellyfish, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Cannonball jellyfish can’t swim. Instead they go where the winds and currents take them. A strong easterly wind on Friday pushed the jellyfish onshore, not only on Tybee but other Georgia beaches as well, including Jekyll, said Tyler Jones, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

“It’s just a regular occurrence,” Jones said. “It isn’t like a sign of the apocalypse or anything.”

Cannonballs are most prominent species of jellyfish in the Southeast, according to the Ga DNR web site. During the summer and fall they make up over 16% of biomass on the coastline.

Although they’re generally considered to be non-stinging and no threat to beachgoers, Tybee Island Public Works Director Danny Carpenter advises people to avoid handling them.

CMA CGM Marco Polo, the largest container ship to ever call on East coast ports, will in Savannah tomorrow, according to the Savannah Morning News.

The Polo is the largest container ship ever to serve the U.S. East Coast at 1,300 feet in length — longer than the Empire State Building is high — and 177 feet wide and can accommodate 16,000 containers. The vessel scheduled to pass River Street on the way to the Port of Savannah at approximately 8:30 a.m.