Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for October 27, 2021

On October 27, 1775, King George III addressed Parliament, raising concerns about an American rebellion.

The First of the Federalist Papers, an essay by Alexander Hamilton published under the pseudonym Publius, was published on October 27, 1787.

The United States and Spain signed the Treaty of San Lorenzo, also called Pinckney’s Treaty on October 27, 1795, setting the 31st parallel as the border between Georgia and Florida.

The nation’s first Gold Rush started after Benjamin Parks discovered gold in what is now Lumpkin County, Georgia on October 27, 1828.

Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York City on October 27, 1858.

President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the Volstead Act, which implemented the Eighteenth Amendment prohibition on alcohol, on October 27, 1919; the House overrode his veto that same day and the United States Senate overrode the veto on October 28, 1919.

Navy Day was established on October 27, 1922.

October 27 was suggested by the Navy League to recognize Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday. Roosevelt had been an Assistant Secretary of the Navy and supported a strong Navy as well as the idea of Navy Day. In addition, October 27 was the anniversary of a 1775 report issued by a special committee of the Continental Congress favoring the purchase of merchant ships as the foundation of an American Navy.

Ronald Reagan delivered the “A Time for Choosing” speech on October 27, 1964.

And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man.

This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down—[up] man’s old—old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

Jimmy Carter campaigned in New York on October 27, 1976.

Gladys Knight and the Pips reached #1 with “Midnight Train to Georgia” on October 27, 1973.

Andrew Young was elected Mayor of Atlanta on October 27, 1981.

Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy accepted the last Ford Taurus built in Hapeville, Georgia on October 27, 2006.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Governor Brian Kemp issued Executive Order #10.26.21.01, appointing members of the Judicial Qualifications Commission. I compared the list with the current membership and identified the following changes.

First, the new list contains thirty-five names, while the list on the JNC website this morning contained twenty names.

Second, the following members appear to be additions to the JNC:

Tye Darland
Sheetal Desai
Charles E. Evans, Jr.
T. Mills Fleming
Patrick Flynn
Soo Hong
Jamie Inagawa
Shawn LaGrua
Benjamin Land
James B. Manley, Jr.
Shondeana Morris
Haynes Studstill
Richard Valladares

Third, it appears that the Board will now be more diverse, especially in terms of the number of Asian-American members.

Lowndes County yesterday reported 997 early ballots having been cast, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

Between the 11 races up for grabs, the Lowndes County Board of Elections reported 529 advanced votes received between Oct. 18-23 – 61 more than the nearly 500 votes reported in the previous week of early voting.

A total of 997 advanced voters have cast their ballots between weeks one and two.

Oct. 19 saw the highest amount of voters with 122 advanced votes cast, while Oct. 23 saw the lowest with 50 advanced votes cast. Oct. 18, 20, 21, and 22 saw 104, 91, 72 and 90 votes respectively.

As of week 1, the election board has issued 38 absentee votes with only 13 being returned. None have been rejected. No provisional votes have been cast either.

A total of 90 absentee votes have been sent out with 19 returned between weeks one and two.

Neither candidate for Mayor of Statesboro recommends how to vote on a liquor sales referendum, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Neither current Mayor Jonathan McCollar nor challenger Ernest Larry Lawton wants to tell Statesboro voters how to vote on the other citywide question on the Nov. 2 ballot, a referendum on allowing liquor stores in the city limits, they indicated in separate interviews.

But Lawton, who doesn’t drink and is a minister as well as a truck driver and trucking company owner, said he would have opposed putting the question on the ballot. McCollar, who also doesn’t drink and is a Georgia Southern University administrator, said it was time for Statesboro residents to decide the liquor store question for themselves. Early voting on that question, along with the mayoral race and, in District 4 only, a City Council race, has been underway for two weeks and will end at 5 p.m. Friday, before voting at traditional polling places opens 7 a.m.–7 p.m. next Tuesday.

[T]he one form of alcoholic beverage retailing Statesboro still does not allow that is permitted by many other Georgia cities is the sale of distilled liquor for off-premises consumption. Under Georgia law, this can only be done by specially licensed “package shops,” or in other words liquor stores.

A change in state law enacted earlier this year by the Georgia General Assembly and Gov. Brian Kemp made it easier to bring a liquor store referendum to city or county voters. Previously, a petition was required, but the question can now be put on the ballot by a majority vote of a local governing authority, and that is what Statesboro City Council did by a 3-2 vote in June.

The Port Wentworth Chamber of Commerce hosted a forum for city council candidates, according to WTOC.

Five of the Candidates attended the forum. Mayor Gary Norton and At large Council woman Linda Smith did not respond to the forum invitation. District 3 council candidate Lynwood Griner declined the invitation to attend. The participants focused on many ways to improve Port Wentworth. They discussed traffic problems,city growth and how to bring businesses to their community. When asked how they would encourage businesses to move to Port Wentworth, this is what they had to say.

Fort Valley mayoral candidates discussed crime prevention and youth, according to 13WMAZ.

Jeffery Lundy is a pastor at Love and Kindness Ministry, and worked in law enforcement as a uniform patrol division at Fort Valley for more than 30 years.

LeMario Brown has been a City Council at Large member for six years now, and served as mayor pro tem for two years.

Lundy says he wants to teach the youth on how to avoid trouble by creating a place for them to go.

“Where the youth can come together and we can offer these life skills, offer things to do. Studies showing a young person that’s idle, don’t have anything to do, they’re more prone to get into mishaps and mischief and things of that nature,” said Lundy.

Brown says he wants to see the youth become productive citizens.

“We want them to have the right resources. We don’t want them to go out and get involved in gangs or illegal activity to get money to provide for their family. We want them to have the opportunity here in Fort Valley, where they grow up at, where they go to school at, where they are going to start their family at,” said Brown.

Oakwood Mayor Lamar Scroggs is running unopposed for reelection, according to AccessWDUN.

The mayor of Oakwood is likely Georgia’s longest currently serving mayor. Lamar Scroggs is up for reelection in the November 2 municipal elections in Hall County but faces no challengers.

Scroggs is an Oakwood native with an agriculture, timber, and trucking background. He’s a widower, a father, a grandfather, and a great-grandfather. Scroggs said he had just finished building his home in Oakwood in the early 1970s when community members encouraged him to run for city council. He earned a seat in 1974 and became mayor in 1975, a post he has held ever since.

For the next generation of politics, Scroggs had some advice to those wanting to get involved in the game, advice he said he follows himself.

“Number one is be straight up and honest. Number two, don’t say something you can’t remember six months from now, and you can’t say the same thing and it connect.”

He also said collaboration with others, from the city council, city managers, other politicians, and community members made Oakwood what it is today. The secret to his collaboration skills was simple: “It’s not a ‘Big Guy, Little You,’ it’s just not.”

AccessWDUN has great stories on the Gainesville Mayor’s race involving infrastructure and public safety.

Georgia will file a lawsuit Friday challenging the federal vaccine mandate, according to the AJC.

Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr are set to file the lawsuit by Friday, according to two people with direct knowledge of the litigation who requested anonymity to discuss confidential proceedings.

Kemp had warned that he would “pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration” shortly after the president announced a range of vaccine requirements that could affect as many as 100 million Americans.

The rules mandate that businesses with more than 100 workers require their staffers be vaccinated or tested regularly for COVID-19. An additional 17 million workers at health care facilities that receive federal medical funding would have to be vaccinated.

The state’s litigation would target a separate executive order that requires that federal executive branch employees and contractors be vaccinated. That could affect thousands of Georgians who are vendors of the federal government or work for certain public agencies, such as the higher education system.

Renaming Fort Benning to honor the late Colin Powell appears to have some momentum, according to WTVM.

More people are submitting Fort Colin Powell as the new name change for Fort Benning, according to the naming commission.

The first black Secretary of State completed two assignments at Fort Benning.

Other possible options include Colonel Ralph Puckett Jr., Lieutenant General Hal Moore or Former Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall.

A fourth suspect pled guilty to charges related to theft from the Muscogee Superior Court Clerk’s office, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

A fourth suspect pleaded guilty Tuesday in the Muscogee Superior Court Clerk’s office scandal involving former worker Willie Demps, who’s accused of stealing nearly half a million dollars in government funds.

Terry McBride was among eight suspects indicted with Demps in his scheme of writing checks on clerk’s office accounts to his cohorts, who cashed them at local banks before giving Demps the money.

McBride, 44, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud before U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land, who already has taken pleas from codefendants Lamarcus Palmer, Samuel Cole and George Cook. They are all to be sentenced Feb. 15.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Melvin Hyde cited 38 instances in which McBride cashed checks on Demps’ behalf between March 21 and Nov. 26, 2019, the amounts ranging from $2,438 to $9,725. McBride is to pay $299,285 in restitution, Hyde said.

The Columbia County Board of Education approved one-time stipends for employees to help with retention, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

In an effort to combat the staffing shortages that have plagued schools across the nation, the Columbia County School District Board of Education approved at Tuesday’s meeting a one-time stipend for all employees that will be dispersed by Thanksgiving break.

Full-time certified and non-certified employees will receive $1,000 while part-time employees will receive a pro-rated portion of that amount. The total expected to be distributed is $4 million, which will be taken from the general fund, according to Superintendent Dr. Steven Flynt.

New hires who begin after the board’s approval will also receive a $500 stipend one month after their start date and an additional $500 in June if they are still employed with the district. The new hire stipends will come from CARES Act funding the district received.

The Stone Mountain Memorial Association board voted to move forward in negotiating a management contract for the park, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Gwinnett Daily Post.

The Stone Mountain Memorial Association’s board voted unanimously to enter into negotiations with Thrive Attraction Management. The new firm’s owner, Michael Dombrowski, has served as the park’s vice president and general manager since 2014.

“We are honored to have been selected to continue the great work of managing Stone Mountain Park for the past several years and to keep in place an experienced group of senior managers and engaged employees,” Dombrowski said Monday. “We’ll build on our success by … ensuring Stone Mountain Park is a welcoming and inclusive environment for all visitors from Atlanta, the nation and the world.”

Subject to a final agreement, Thrive Attractions Management would take over at Stone Mountain next July 31, when the park’s current lease with Herschend Family Entertainment expires. The new company will partner with Crescent Hotels and Resorts to oversee operations at the Evergreen Resort and Conference Center and the Stone Mountain Inn.

The board also announced Monday it is releasing a request for proposals for a company with experience in museum exhibition design to develop an interpretive plan for the exhibit at Memorial Hall.

“We want to provide an expanded interpretation of the sculpture as art, the technological achievement it reflects and its relationship to local history,” the RFP states. “The new exhibit should be thought-provoking and engaging and should entice new visitors to the museum as well as encourage and excite Georgians to revisit it.”