Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for November 25, 2024

On November 25, 1864, Sherman’s 14th and 20th Corps moved toward Sandersville while the 17th Corps fought briefly against a mix of Kentucky Militia, Georgia Military Institute cadets, and Georgia convicts.

On November 25, 1867, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel filed a patent for dynamite. On November 25, 1895, Nobel wrote his will, leaving the equivalent of roughly $186 million (2008 dollars) to endow the Nobel prizes.

On November 25, 1920, the first play-by-play broadcast of a college football game took place at College Station as Texas A&M (then Mechanical College of Texas) took the field against Texas University.

President John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on November 25, 1963.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience played its first show at the Bag O’Nails Club in London on November 25, 1966.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Georgia Labor Commissioner Bruce Thompson has died, according to Atlanta News First and the Associated Press via WTOC.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Bruce Thompson has died at 59, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.

Georgia’s Department of Labor administers unemployment insurance and helps place job seekers.

Thompson announced he had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer in March. In his announcement, he said the cancer had spread to his liver.

“I can assure you I will continue to be who I have always been — a fighter,” Thompson said at the time. “From the start, my life has been full of what seem like insurmountable challenges, but I’ve never given up and this farm boy from Montana doesn’t intend to start now.”

He had previously served in the State Senate from 2013 to 2023. During his time in the Senate, he served on the Science & Technology Committee, the Veterans and Homeland Security Committee, and the Economic Development and Tourism Committee.

Thompson was elected as labor commissioner in 2022 and took office in 2023. He assumed control of a state agency that had been battered during the pandemic by a huge wave of unemployment claims, raising questions about the management of the department under his predecessor, Republican Mark Butler.

In August 2023, Thompson announced his office had found more than $105 million in money that should have been handed over to the state treasury but which Thompson had alleged was squirreled away.

In a statement, the Georgia Department of Labor called Thompson’s tenure “transformative.” The statement said, “[Thompson] often said ‘We’re in the people business,’ and it was this unwavering conviction that defined his servant-based leadership. Bruce led from the heart with a relentless spirit, setting him apart as a leader who truly understood the heart of our state.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said “Bruce was a passionate voice for what he believed in throughout his years of service to the people of Georgia. We are thankful for that commitment to our state and, like so many others, have been inspired by the strength and courage he showed over the past year in his fight against cancer.

Thompson previously served as the state senator for District 14. That seat is currently held by Democrat Josh McLaurin.

Thompson was an Army veteran who founded a pair of automatic swimming pool cover businesses, an insurance agency, an insurance software company and a commercial development company. His record in the General Assembly was marked by opposition to abortion and advocacy for adoption.

Gov. Brian Kemp will appoint a successor, who would serve the remainder of Thompson’s four-year term until early 2027.

From 13WMAZ:

Thompson became the Peach State’s Commissioner of Labor on January 12, 2023. He was born and raised on a farm in Montana and later moved to the Cartersville area with his wife, Becky, and their kids.

In a post on X, Gov. Brian Kemp wrote, “Marty, the girls and I are saddened by the passing of Commissioner Bruce Thompson and ask all Georgians to join us in praying for his wife, Becky, their children, and all those who knew and loved him during this difficult time.”

Kemp also described Thompson as “a successful businessman and respected leader of his community, Bruce was a passionate voice for what he believed in throughout his years of service to the people of Georgia.”

“We are thankful for that commitment to our state and, like so many others, have been inspired by the strength and courage he showed over the past year in his fight against cancer. That bravery and determination, along with his impact on others will not be forgotten,” Kemp added.

Georgia’s Secretary of State certified the vote totals from the General Election on November 5, 2024, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.

Official certification of President-elect Donald Trump’s win in the Peach State over Vice President Kamala Harris came after county election officials completed a hand count of more than 700,000 ballots statewide.

The risk-limiting audit found minor discrepancies in the totals for Trump and Harris but nothing that would change the results. Trump gained 11 more votes than he received from the machine count after the polls closed on Election Night, while Harris received six fewer votes.

With the results now certified, the next step will be certification of Georgia’s slate of presidential electors by Gov. Brian Kemp. Those electors will meet at the state Capitol Dec. 17 to certify the results they will send to Washington, D.C., where Congress will meet on Jan. 6 to count all of the states’ electoral votes.

Trump won 312 electoral votes in this month’s election, well above the 270 required to win the presidency. Harris totaled 226 electoral votes.

Georgia holds a $16.5 billion dollar surplus ahead of the 2025 legislative session, according to the AJC.

The state closed the fiscal year that ended in July with nearly $16.5 billion in “rainy day” and undesignated reserves, according to a recent state report. That’s enough to pay for nearly half a year’s state spending.

Those reserves should ensure Georgia can avoid significant budget problems for now despite a small decrease in state revenue in recent months.

Georgia budget reserves have surged over the last four years — fueled by a combination of massive federal spending, the economic boom that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and other factors. According to a State Accounting Office report released last month, Georgia finished the fiscal year that ended June 30 with an $11 billion undesignated budget surplus, plus nearly $5.5 billion set aside in case of revenue shortfalls.

That doesn’t include $2.4 billion in lottery funds and other restricted reserves.

That big financial cushion is a dramatic improvement from 14 years ago, when the fallout from the Great Recession left Georgia with just enough cash on hand to pay for a couple days’ worth of spending.

Then-Gov. Nathan Deal began rebuilding the state’s reserves in the 2010s by holding the line on spending as revenue improved. Gov. Brian Kemp has continued that approach.

By law, legislators can only appropriate as much as the governor estimates the state will collect in revenue each year. In recent years, Kemp’s conservative revenue estimates have restrained state spending. When revenue exceeded Kemp’s estimates, it led to billions of dollars in surpluses.

That has allowed the governor and legislators to spend big in recent years on priorities such as raises and bonuses for teachers and state employees, while still providing tax rebates and tax cuts to Georgian residents and businesses.

The Georgia State Senate Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports may recommend legislation for the coming session, according to the Savannah Morning News.

An all-male panel of lawmakers on the Senate Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports announced Thursday that it is preparing to make recommendations to the state legislature about how to regulate transgender student athletes ahead of the 2025 legislative session. The committee may push for legislation that would ban trans students from competing on teams or using locker rooms that align with their gender identity.

Thursday was the third of four legislative hearings, and the first in which the committee solicited testimony from advocates of the transgender community. Previous hearings almost exclusively featured testimony from conservative groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy organization that opposes LGBTQ rights.

…[L]awmakers on the committee pushed back against policy suggestions that would allow trans children to be included in athletic programs, repeatedly alluding to safety concerns for cisgender students while asking repeated, probing questions centered on trans children’s genitals.

“I just personally have a concern, you know, having two daughters, having a trans female that still has male genitalia changing in her restroom,” said state Sen. Clint Dixon (R-Gwinnett). “I just see a big issue with that. I was hoping there would be some type of separation there.”

The issue of transgender children’s rights in Georgia became a focal point during the 2024 legislative session, with lawmakers introducing bills that would ban puberty blockers from being used to treat gender dysphoria and prevent students from using school bathrooms that aligned with their gender identity. Both bills died on the final day of the 2024 legislative session.

The committee will meet once more before the state legislature reconvenes on Jan. 13, 2025, to issue its final list of recommendations, but a date for the meeting has not yet been announced.

The Georgia State Senate Supporting Safety and Welfare of All Individuals in Department of Corrections Facilities Study Committee wants to improve the health and safety of Georgia inmates, according to WRDW.

This comes after the U.S. Department of Justice released an investigation that found the current state of Georgia’s prisons is “unconstitutional.”

On Friday, the Department of Corrections Facilities Study Committee met with representatives from the Department of Corrections.

State Sen. Randy Robertson, the head of the committee, told representatives from the Department of Corrections that it was the committee’s responsibility to make sure that they have filled in all of the cracks.

Robertson made it clear they would be talking about goods and services afforded to inmates — everything from toilet paper to inmate health care.

“They should have access to all the resources that the average citizen has when it comes to sanitation, nutrition, and health care,” said Robertson.

This year is on track to become one of the most deadly years inside Georgia’s corrections facilities.

The Department of Justice report listed 17 problematic prisons in a dozen counties where they investigated cases of violence, rape, drug overdoses, exploitation and gang intimidation.

The investigation of Georgia’s state-operated prisons found that “the State of Georgia engages in a pattern or practice of violating incarcerated persons’ constitutional rights.”

“What citizens have to understand, what the taxpayers have to understand, this is a very expensive process because these individuals are being housed and cared for by the state of Georgia, and every taxpayer and every non-taxpayer who lives in Georgia, they’re responsible for that,” said Robertson.

UGA researchers seek to produce more resilient peanuts, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Georgia’s peanut industry is worth more than $2.2 billion annually, according to the Georgia Peanut Commission. The state’s commission for pecans said the nut adds another $200-$300 million in revenues.

Unpredictable and extreme temperatures associated with climate change can have a negative impact on these high commodity crops.

“Georgia is the No. 1 peanut producing state,” said Nino Brown, assistant research scientist at the University of Georgia in the Department of Crop and Soil Science. “We produce about half of the U.S. peanut supply each year.”

Brown is also a research scientist at the Institute for Plant Breeding Genetics & Genomics, a research program based at UGA focused on developing new crop varieties by studying plants to improve agricultural traits and sustainability.

“Usually it’s between 700,000 to 800,000 acres of peanuts grown in our state,” said Brown. “Of those 700,000 to 800,000 acres, most of those acres are grown with UGA developed peanut varieties. We have an excellent expert team of scientists here in the state. We’re all working toward trying to ensure that peanut production in our state remains financially sustainable and environmentally sound.”

That includes seeking ways to combat rising temperatures and other symptoms associated with climate change that are negatively impacting crops.

“The occurrence of drought is a big problem for peanut production in Georgia,” said Brown. “While peanuts are fairly drought tolerant … when we do experience a drought in peanuts, it can cause a spike in incidence of a disease called Aspergillus flavus.”

Researchers are seeking ways to make the crop more profitable by increasing peanut oil production per acre by testing different strategies and farming practices.

“We’re trying to understand what we can do with the peanut varieties that are currently available on the market. What can we do to try to get the most oil per acre?,” Brown asked.

Brown said a U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant for $490,000 has been dedicated to a five-year project to answer that question. Researchers are in the first year of the project.

The Georgia Department of Public Health dismissed all members of the Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) after information leaked to the press, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Officials at the Georgia Department of Public Health fired all members of the Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) on Nov. 8 after an internal investigation failed to determine which of the committee’s members had leaked documents to the press. News of the committee’s dismissal was first published by ProPublica on Thursday.

Findings from the committee were a central part of a September ProPublica series which alleged that the deaths of two Georgia women — Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller — were preventable and allegedly linked to Georgia’s six-week abortion ban.

The committee, which is composed of doctors, nurses, public health workers and epidemiologists, is responsible for identifying and investigating maternal deaths in Georgia and formulating solutions to reduce maternal mortality rates. Georgia law stipulates that the MMRC’s work is confidential and prohibits members of the committee from sharing their findings with the public.

A 2023 report from the Georgia Department of Public Health revealed that 89% of pregnancy-related deaths in Georgia had at least some chance of being prevented.

In response to the article, officials from Georgia’s Department of Public Health launched an investigation to try and determine how confidential findings from the MMRC had been divulged to the press. However, in a Nov. 8 letter addressed to the committee, Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey announced that an internal investigation was unable to determine who had leaked the findings, and that all members of the committee would be replaced.

“Therefore, effective immediately the current MMRC is disbanded, and all member seats will be filled through a new application process,” Toomey wrote. “Additionally, other procedures for on-boarding committee members better ensuring confidentiality, committee oversight and MMRC organizational structure will be evaluated for possible modifications.”

A spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Public Health provided a copy of the letter but declined to comment further. Gov. Brian Kemp’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chatham County hosted a legislative dinner to unveil their agenda for the 2025 Session, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Chatham County and the Board of Commissioners held a legislative dinner with members of the local state delegation on Nov. 18. This installment of On Our Radar will lay out priorities for Chatham County heading into the legislative session.

Chatham County’s list of legislative priorities featured multiple items that are responses to the region’s heavy storm season this year.

One request involves a potential disaster preparedness sales tax holiday, which could be applied to specific items such as generators, shovels or plug-in fans. Florida employs this type of exemption, and it covers items such as nonelectric food storage coolers, self-powered radios all the way down to pet food.

Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah), who chairs the local delegation, said the proposal was a “great idea” but may face challenges because the state of Georgia incrementally moving away from income taxes towards consumption taxes.

“Many of these sales tax exemptions that come before the Ways and Means Committee immediately run into a buzz saw,” Stephens said.

Another storm-related legislative priority would require drinking wells and independent living facilities to have generators in case of power outages.

There were 25 “smaller community” water systems that lost pressure during one of the storms, leading to the county having to issue a boil water advisory, according to county Resilience Program Administrator Jackie Jackson.

Another top discussion item was legislation to allow the use of Local Option Sales Tax revenues for the county’s Special Service District fund, which supports services for unincorporated Chatham County. Currently, LOST revenues go toward the county’s general fund.

Stephens said there may be legislative opportunity to allow unincorporated counties that provide municipal services to impose franchise fees. Franchise fees could provide the county an added funding source to support the unincorporated area.o

Cordele City Commissioner Royce Reeves pled guilty to charges that were filed in 2021, according to WALB.

Royce Reeves pled guilty to violation of oath by a public officer, criminal trespass, and obstruction of an officer misdemeanor. He was found not guilty of obstruction of an officer felony, disorderly conduct, and count 4 of obstruction of an officer.

Maurice King, Reeves’ attorney, is challenging the verdict.

“Based on the law, the violation of oath of office cannot stand,” he said.

King also says he’s asking for a dismissal because a state trooper lied under oath during the trial. he tells me the whole case stems from a tragic incident involving Reeves’ close friend.

In June 2021, Reeves learned that his friend died in a motorcycle accident. When Reeves went to the scene that’s when officers say Reeves abused his power to try to get on to the scene. Police also say during the incident, Reeves pushed a state trooper.

“That’s basically what the fight has been from day 1 and of course, we won that fight because the jury said it was a misdemeanor and not a felony therefore there should not have been a violation of oath charge,” King said.

Following the verdict, the city of Cordele now has to decide if Reeves will be suspended from his seat.

“We’re going to listen to Mr. Reeves’ lawyer and make an assessment based upon the facts and the argument that they make and what our research is as well,” said Tommy Coleman, Cordele’s city attorney.

Coleman said he will have a decision about his seat before the next commission meeting.

Reeves will stay out of jail on bond and will be sentenced on Wednesday, Dec. 4.

Tangie Reese Johnson was sworn in as Bulloch County Commissioner for District 1, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Tangie Reese Johnson took the oath office as council member from District 1 at the beginning of the Tuesday, Nov. 19, Statesboro City Council meeting, restoring the council to its full contingent of five members and the mayor for the first time since Aug. 1.

That date more than three months ago was when former District 1 Councilmember Phil Boyum’s resignation took effect. He had represented the district for almost 12 years. Johnson was one of three District 1 residents who qualified as candidates in the city’s special election for that district, held in conjunction with the Nov. 5 county, state and federal general election.

She garnered 1,021 votes, or 50.87% of the 2,007 votes cast in the race, to win without a runoff.

Southern Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Richard W. Cowart will move to senior status at the end of the year, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

Cowart will step down from the bench when his current term ends Dec. 31, but he plans to remain as a senior judge, who can perform a variety of tasks in the Southern Judicial Circuit, including hearing cases when necessary.

Cowart’s successor on the bench, William Whitesell, was elected in May and will take office as a judge in January. The role of chief judge will go to the next most senior Superior Court judge in the circuit, Judge Brian McDaniel of Moultrie.

A Valdosta native and Valdosta State graduate, Cowart began his legal career in 1976. He was sworn in as a part-time judge in Recorders Court — Valdosta’s municipal court — in 1978. He became a part-time judge of State Court in 1983 and took it on full-time in 1991. Then, in 1995, he was appointed to the Superior Court by Gov. Zell Miller.

“I never set out to be a judge,” Cowart confided to the crowd. “… I was just trying to support my family. … I took the job in Recorders Court because it paid $600 a month.”

He recounted that he was researching taxes in the courthouse — now the Historic Courthouse — when he felt the hand of God. The information he was looking through was in the back of the courtroom, and with no one else around, he followed a whim and sat in the judge’s chair behind the bench.

“The Lord spoke to me — he didn’t speak audibly — but the Lord spoke to me and said, ‘Maybe this is what you’re supposed to do,’” Cowart recalled.

County Administrator Paige Dukes gave Cowart a wooden bowl that was made from a pecan tree that had been removed from the site of the Judicial Complex and crafted by a local woodturner.

The Southern Judicial Circuit serves Brooks, Colquitt, Echols, Lowndes, and Thomas Counties.