Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for May 6, 2020

On May 6, 1789, the Constitutional Convention in Augusta, Georgia adopted a new Georgia Constitution.

Jefferson Davis spoke in Savannah, Georgia on May 6, 1866.

Davis … defend[ed] the South’s cause in the Civil War, stating, “In 1776 the colonies acquired State sovereignty. They revolted from the mother country in a desperate struggle. That was the cause for which they fought. Is it a lost cause now? Never. Has Georgia lost the State sovereignty which … she won in 1776? No, a thousand times no.” Davis’s fiery remarks were captured by reporters for the New York Times and other northern newspapers.

Because of the national attention generated over his visit to Alabama and Georgia, Davis took a more conciliatory tone in a speech that evening, noting, “There are some who take it for granted that when I allude to State sovereignty I want to bring on another war. I am too old to fight again, and God knows I don’t want you to have the necessity of fighting again… . The celebration today is a link in the long chain of affection that binds you and the North together. Long may it be true.”

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister became the first person to break the four-minute barrier for running the mile.

For years, so many athletes had tried and failed to run a mile in less than four minutes that people made it out to be a physical impossibility. The world record for a mile was 4 minutes and 1.3 seconds, set by Gunder Hagg of Sweden in 1945. Despite, or perhaps because of, the psychological mystique surrounding the four-minute barrier, several runners in the early 1950s dedicated themselves to being the first to cross into the three-minute zone.

At 6 p.m., the starting gun was fired. In a carefully planned race, Bannister was aided by Chris Brasher, a former Cambridge runner who acted as a pacemaker. For the first half-mile, Brasher led the field, with Bannister close behind, and then another runner took up the lead and reached the three-quarter-mile mark in 3 minutes 0.4 seconds, with Bannister at 3 minutes 0.7 seconds. Bannister took the lead with about 350 yards to go and passed an unofficial timekeeper at the 1,500-meter mark in 3 minutes 43 seconds, thus equaling the world’s record for that distance. Thereafter, Bannister threw in all his reserves and broke the tape in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. As soon as the first part of his score was announced–”three minutes…”–the crowd erupted in pandemonium.

A “sub-four” is still a notable time, but top international runners now routinely accomplish the feat. Because a mile is not a metric measurement, it is not a regular track event nor featured in the Olympics. It continues, however, to be run by many top runners as a glamour event.

On May 6, 1984, Spinal Tap played a “comeback show” at CBGB’s in New York.

On May 6, 1996, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Atlanta was the most dangerous city in America.

Parliament-Funkadelic were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio on May 6, 1997.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Gainesville may be the newest COVID-19 hotspot in Georgia, according to the AJC.

The number of new cases in the Gainesville area increased exponentially each week during April, according to state data. By Tuesday, nearly four dozen patients had died in the area’s dominant hospital system.

State officials are setting up a mobile hospital and sending in reinforcements: as many as 100 physicians, nurses and other health care professionals.

“They’re being strained pretty hard up there at the moment,” Gov. Brian Kemp said Tuesday. He spoke in Albany, the center of what has been Georgia’s most concentrated outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and said he hopes lessons from that region will help avert catastrophe across the state.

“We’re doing a lot of things that we did here (in Albany) in Gainesville,” Kemp said. “Because of what we learned going through this first, it has really better prepared us.”

On Tuesday, a new model by researchers at the University of Washington contained its starkest projection yet for Georgia: as many as 4,913 COVID-19 deaths by early August. The projection shows deaths continuing to increase at a steady pace well into July.

Hall County, which includes Gainesville, has seen a dramatic increase in confirmed cases in the past five weeks. During the week of March 29, the county recorded 86 new cases, or 12 a day. The daily average increased to 22 the following week, then 47 and then 61. Last week, Hall confirmed 662 new cases, or 95 a day — more than a seven-fold increase in five weeks.

Last week’s numbers could rise further when laboratory tests are completed.

“It’s an investment, for sure,” Kemp said in Albany on Tuesday. “We know that this isn’t going away any time soon. … So whatever happens in the fall, or until we get a vaccine, it will help us continue to be ready.”

From another AJC story:

During his visit [to Albany], Kemp said southwest Georgia has fought the disease “tooth and nail” and talked of hospitals “literally being almost out of protective equipment, people flying things in, the new techniques that the medical team worked through to give the best patient care possible.”

Among the lessons was establishing four mobile hospital sites around the state that provide extra bed capacity and can help relieve the strain if facility is damaged by a storm or devastated by a water main break.

One of those hospital units is now being set up in Gainesville, the heart of Georgia’s prized poultry industry. At least 400 poultry workers have tested positive for the disease, and officials have scrambled to try protect workers while aiming to prevent disruptions to the $41 billion industry.

Gainesville City Council voted to extend their emergency declaration, according to AccessWDUN.

The Gainesville City Council voted on an updated resolution at a regularly-scheduled meeting Tuesday, May 5. The resolution calls for the extension of the local state of emergency until 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 19.

Meanwhile, some Gainesville municipal offices are scheduled for reopening, according to the Gainesville Times.

Update, May 5: Gainesville plans to reopen some of its offices on May 18. Hours will be 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at its administration building, the historic City Hall building and the Community and Economic Development building off the downtown square.

State revenues are a billion dollars behind projections for April, according to the AJC.

The coronavirus pandemic took a brutal toll on state finances in April, with tax collections off about $1 billion for the month.

April’s 35.9% drop is expected to be only the first of several bad months for state government, which relies heavily on income and sales taxes to help pay teacher salaries, provide public health care, patrol highways, keep felons behind bars, protect the environment and inspect food.

Wednesday’s revenue announcement shows the state has a lot of work to do to get through this fiscal year and pay for its $27.5 billion budget.

Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan (R-Forsyth County) will take a pay cut voluntarily, according to the AJC.

Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said Wednesday he’ll take a 14% salary cut in the coming year as legislators ask state agencies to slash the same amount from their budgets because of the mounting economic cost of the coronavirus pandemic.

“As we work through the budget process ahead of us it will be necessary for everyone to make sacrifices, and I will do my part and take a cut as well,” said Duncan in a statement.

Duncan makes roughly $90,000 a year, meaning his salary cut will cost him about $12,600.

Georgia’s legislative budget chairs have written the state’s Congressional delegation asking for additional COVID-19 aid to states, according to the AJC.

[House Appropriations Chairman Terry England, (R-Auburn), and Senate Appropriations Chairman Blake Tillery, (R-Vidalia)] sent a letter Monday to the state’s congressional delegation lending their voice of support for more federal aid.

“As the chairs of the appropriations committees of the Georgia General Assembly, we are formally requesting your support for the timely approval and disbursement of these funds to close the unprecedented gap in dollars required to maintain a conservative and lean government framework of services for the state of Georgia and our constituents,” the letter read.

“We share your regard for conservative spending practices, and despite the expected reductions in force and services for our people because of these painful budget cuts, we will do our part,” it read. “In turn, we respectfully ask that you advocate and support the appropriation of $500 billion in flexible state stabilization funds that are proportionately distributed to help offset greater upheaval and longer recovery in Georgia.”

They said key elements of Georgia’s economy, including Atlanta’s airport and the hospitality industry, have been crippled by the pandemic.

Two Athens farmers markets are working to reopen this weekend, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

Muscogee County School District will receive more than $775k in digital learning grants from the Georgia Department of Education, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

The grants are designed to boost digital technology infrastructure and utility for schools during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Georgia schools have been closed since March as part of the state’s effort to decrease the spread of the deadly coronavirus. With class instruction online only, distance learning is tougher for schools with predominantly disadvantaged students.

“The ‘digital divide’ in Georgia is not a new issue, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more apparent,” GaDOE superintendent Richard Woods said in the department’s news release. “School districts have done incredible work during the COVID-19 school closures and have been hard-working, creative and thoughtful with the resources they have. But there is still a need for better digital learning infrastructure within our state, particularly in rural and underserved communities. These funds will help districts strengthen their digital learning capacity, extend summer learning opportunities and ensure no student is left unconnected.”

Read more here: https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/education/article242485896.html#storylink=cpy

The Whitfield County Board of Public Health will provide free COVID-19 testing with an appointment this weekend, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

Chatham County is expanding COVID-19 testing, according to the Savannah Morning News.

The Chatham County Health Department is expanding its COVID-19 testing program to make appointments available seven days a week, according to a press release issued Friday, May 1.

The Health Department is now offering appointments on Sunday afternoons at its drive-through specimen collection site in Savannah. In order to adequately staff this collection site, the department is consolidating most of its services at its Eisenhower Drive clinic.

Chatham County residents need an appointment for testing at the collection site, and can arrange this by calling the Coastal Health District COVID-19 Testing Call Center for a brief telephone screening.

Patients who meet the criteria will be referred for a test, and can often get an appointment the same day. The Testing Call Center number is 1-912-230-9744, and the center takes calls Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. – 7 p.m., and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Floyd County Elections is working on the logistics of June elections, according to the Rome News Tribune.

Local election officials are hoping to pinpoint a site by the end of this week for early in-person voting in the June 9 primary election.

Floyd County Chief Elections Clerk Robert Brady told a meeting of the Rome-Floyd County Joint Services Committee Tuesday that he is concerned the county administration building would not be the best location given social distancing rules in place for the election.

Early voting for the presidential and statewide primary elections is scheduled from May 18 through June 5, with one Saturday, May 30, included.

Special rules for the election call for no more than 10 voters inside the balloting area at any given time.

Everyone on staff at the elections office falls into the age group that Gov. Brian Kemp has ordered to continue to shelter in place, Brady said, adding that he does not want to jeopardize anyone’s health during the early voting period.

At this point, they’re down some of their pollworkers — usually older retirees — because of concerns about the new coronavirus.

Also, there will be at least one precinct change for Election Day voting.

Tybee Island has released new rules for using the reopened beaches, according to the Savannah Morning News.

The Augusta Commission will reopen city offices in phases, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Departments reopening to employees Monday at increased staffing levels include human resources, the tax commissioner and assessors offices, engineering, planning and development, utilities, the clerk of commission and environmental services, according to the plan from Interim Administrator Jarvis Sims.

The Richmond County Tax Commissioner’s Office will spend the week preparing a safe environment for employees as well as customers, Tax Commissioner Steven Kendrick said.

Most services have remained available by drop-off, online or mail since the government closed in March, but Kendrick said the office anticipates a huge run on payments when it opens to the public with extended hours May 18.

Two candidates are running for an open seat on Chatham County Superior Court, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Two candidates will face off in the June 9 non-partisan race for the Chatham County Superior Court post being vacated by the retirement of Judge James F. Bass Jr. at year’s end.

The winner of the primary race between Chatham County Juvenile Court Judge Lisa Goldwire Colbert and attorney Tracy O’Connell, a partner and 27-year member of the Savannah law firm of Ellis Painter, Ratterree & Adams, will be the new judge in the six-member court.

The winner will take office on Jan. 1, 2021.

Four candidates are running for Hall County Clerk of Court, according to the Gainesville Times.

Incumbent Hall County Clerk of Court Charles Baker faces three challengers — Bradford Rounds, Jennifer Gibbs and Laura Stiner — for the position he has held since 2008.

Baker, who at one point considered not running for reelection, said he had a change of heart.

“I feel like I’ve got more to offer for the clerk’s office,” he said.

Andy Miller writes for Georgia Health News that raising the state tax on tobacco may have a new popularity.

The economic downturn caused by COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on the state budget.

More than $3 billion is expected to be sliced from state spending. The depth of those budget cuts could mean furloughs and layoffs for educators and other employees.

But could the financial devastation from COVID lead the state to accept long-stalled ideas to generate new revenue, such as raising the state’s tobacco tax?

The American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network thinks so. There’s more momentum than ever among legislators to hike Georgia’s tax on a pack of cigarettes, currently the third-lowest in the nation, said Andy Freeman, government relations director for the organization in Georgia.

“There’s a lot more interest from legislators probably than ever before,” Freeman said Tuesday. “From both parties.”

A spokeswoman for Gov. Brian Kemp, Candice Broce, told GHN on Tuesday that “we’re aware that those discussions are under way in the Legislature, but we will decline to comment at this stage.”

Rep. Terry England (R-Auburn), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, told GHN, “I don’t know on the tobacco tax issue. Have heard a little talk, but there is still time for that to develop.”