Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for September 15, 2017

James Oglethorpe arrived at Augusta on September 12, 1739, 277 years ago today.

The Second Continental Congress opened in Philadelphia on September 13, 1775; Georgia was represented by Archibald Bulloch, Lyman Hall,  John Houstoun, and John Zubly.

French troops arrived near Savannah to prepare for a siege against British forces there on September 12, 1779.

On September 13, 1788, the Confederation Congress voted to implement the Constitution and authorized states to elect Senators and Representatives and called the first Presidential election, with selection of presidential electors in the states to be held on January 7, 1789, and February 4, 1789 as the day electors would cast their ballots.

Francis Scott Key composed the lyrics to “The Star Spangled Banner” on September 14, 1814.

On September 15, 1831, Dr. Samuel Worcester and Dr. Elizur Butler – missionaries – were tried in a Lawrenceville courtroom for living as white people among the Cherokee and refusing to take an oath of loyalty to Georgia, convicted and sentenced to hard labor. Some historians refer to this case, which went to the United States Supreme Court on appeal, as the beginning of the events that led to the forced removal of the Cherokee people from Georgia on the “Trail of Tears.”

HMS Beagle, carrying Charles Darwin, arrived at the Gallapagos Islands on September 15, 1835.

On September 14, 1885, Georgia Governor Henry McDaniel signed legislation granting up to 200 acres in Fulton and DeKalb Counties to the federal government to be used in the constuction of Fort McPherson, which was named after Union Maj. Gen. James McPherson, who was killed in the Battle of Atlanta in 1864.

On September 14, 1901, President William McKinley died of an infection from gunshot wounds suffered eight days earlier.

On September 15, 1904, Wilbur Wright made the first in-flight turn in an airplane.

The first two women to enter the Georgia General Assembly, Viola Ross Napier of Bibb County and Atlanta Constitution reporter Bessie Kempton of Fulton County, were elected on September 13, 1922.

Early on the morning of September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls.

On September 15, 1996, the Texas Rangers retired #34 in honor of the most dominant pitcher in professional baseball history, Nolan Ryan.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Georgia Power reported outages of more than 950,000 customers. Their twitter profile says they serve 2.5 million customers. Math tells me they had nearly 40% of customers offline at the height of the outages. Because of the company’s statewide footprint, you can just think of that as being roughly 35-40% of Georgia without electric power in order to get a sense of the scale of the outages. The latest is that the company has restored service to 920,000 customers, with about 75,000 remaining offline.

Georgia Power also warned about post-hurricane scams.

In a news release Thursday, the company stated it wanted to make customers aware of potential scams during the statewide recovery from Hurricane Irma. The company offers the following tips to avoid scams and fraud.

• Georgia Power will not offer to expedite power restoration for an additional fee.

• Georgia Power will not refuse to reconnect service to customers impacted by Hurricane Irma due to a past due bill and demand payment prior to re-connection. The company will work with customers who are behind on payments or need to make payment arrangements through its usual customer service process.

Customers can check the status of outages, sign up for outage alerts and get safety tips at www.georgiapower.com/storm. Customers can report and check the status of an outage 24 hours a day by contacting Georgia Power at 888-891-0938.

An Arkansas lineman working to restore electricity in Georgia was electrocuted earlier this week and is in serious condition.

Marshal Freeman is in serious condition after he was nearly electrocuted Wednesday night.

Freeman was working in the 200 block of West Society Avenue with Southern Electric Corporation, an electrical company out of Fullwood, Mississippi when the incident happened.

Ocilla Police said Freeman was working on the power lines when he was shocked.

Southern Electrical Corporation has been helping Georgia Power restore electricity to the area.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the injured employee,” said Lynn Lovett, the area manager for Georgia Power.

Lovett said safety is a top priority.

“Our jobs are dangerous and that’s why initially when the storm blew through on Monday we could not even start work because it wasn’t safe,” explained Lovett. “We don’t want to rush. We want to get customers back on, but we need to do it safely.”

The Irwin County coroner said Wednesday night that Freeman was alive, but he was taken to the Augusta Burn Unit for his injuries.

Governor Nathan Deal surveyed damage from Hurricane Irma yesterday and viewed coastal areas by helicopter.

Gov. Nathan Deal took a helicopter tour of the hardest-hit areas of the Southeast Georgia coast Thursday, and while he said he knows the damage is extensive, he also knows it looks much worse on the ground.

“It’s hard to tell the effects of flooding from a helicopter, but you could tell where the debris had been, that it was a significant amount of flooding,” Deal said.

“Normally, it is a situation where when we ask for federal assistance with regard to debris removal, it is usually a 75 percent federal, 25 percent local match, or state match,” Deal said. “In the past, that 25 percent has been divided equally between the local communities and the state of Georgia.

“I’m here to tell you that for the six coastal counties — in terms of debris removal, which we will be using the (Army) Corps of Engineers for that purpose. They will have contractors in place and they will become the primary source of debris removal. But, we will pay as the state, we will pay the entire 25 percent.”

He said local governments could better use their money on specific local needs, rather than matching money for federal relief. Also, Deal transferred $3 million from a state emergency fund to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency to cover costs already incurred from 600 National Guard troops and 50 Georgia State Patrol officers lending Florida assistance.

In Habersham County, Gov. Deal said that addressing power outages was the largest recovery item.

Deal made his comments following a morning stop at the Habersham County Airport in Cornelia, the first of several during an aerial tour to survey damage in north and coastal Georgia.

“The biggest problem we have is outages of power and the inability in some cases to get traffic through because down power lines still exist,” Deal said, surrounded by reporters and photographers on the tarmac.

The governor said power companies are “working extremely hard” with out-of-state assistance to help Georgia “at a time of disaster.”

“Some of the lines are not going be restored as fast as you’d like them to be, but you have every assurance that the utilities are working around the clock literally to restore power to everybody,” Deal said.

“Everything from the president calling me personally a couple of days ago and the national FEMA director has also talked to me personally,” Deal said. “They have their personnel scattered throughout our state, and there again, it is a scattered effect from this hurricane. It’s literally all over the state.”

Deal said his request has been granted for emergency public assistance at the federal level. He said the process requires that local jurisdictions keep a tally of the amount of damage they have suffered and submit the appropriate application for reimbursement of funding.

Deal said his administration also made a request for assistance to individuals, which he said has been granted for the coastal areas.

Deal said he expects former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, who is now U.S. secretary of agriculture, will likely visit the state Friday.

“They will be doing a more extensive look as to the damage to agriculture,” Deal said.

Glynn County courts will reopen on Monday.

Southern Soul BBQ on St. Simons Island was already my favorite, but here’s another reason.

The Port of Savannah brought in its first post-Irma ship on Tuesday.

[T]he Georgia Ports Authority bounced back from Hurricane Irma almost immediately, bringing in its first ship Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the storm passed.

On Wednesday, the port worked eight ships, including the CMA CGM John Adams, a 14,000-plus TEU sister ship to the Theodore Roosevelt, the largest ship ever to call on the U.S. East Coast.

The Roosevelt came in to Garden City Terminal earlier this month.

“We were incredibly fortunate with Irma in that water came right up to the docks but didn’t overflow,” GPA executive director Griff Lynch said. “And the work we did on the front end of the storm really paid off – we didn’t have a single container blown over.”

Some 100 miles to our south, the Coast Guard reopened the Port of Brunswick Wednesday afternoon, urging mariners to transit with caution due to the possibility that aids to navigation discrepancies or other hazards may still exist.

GPA spokesman Robert Morris said Thursday the port was fully operational, with three car carriers working on Colonel’s Island.

Savannah-Chatham Police reported more than 50 burglaries during the evacuation.

According to a preliminary summary provided by Savannah-Chatham police, there have been nearly 50 burglaries of evacuated properties reported since Sept. 8. The bulk of those burglaries — 24 of the 49 listed so far — were reported Tuesday after the worst of the storm had passed. Another 10 burglaries were reported in Savannah and unincorporated Chatham on Wednesday, after the evacuation order for the county was lifted.

By comparison, more than 180 burglaries were reported from Oct. 5 to Oct. 12, 2016, during the time period associated with the evacuation from Hurricane Matthew. Only two evacuation-related burglaries were reported last September during the time period associated with the arrival of Tropical Storm Hermine.

Former State Representative Byung J. “BJay” Pak was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee as President Trump’s nominee for United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

The Judiciary Committee approved Pak’s nomination with a voice vote.

President Donald Trump nominated Pak, a former federal prosecutor in Atlanta and the state’s first Korean-American legislator, to the Northern District post on July 27. The Judiciary Committee voted to send Pak’s nomination to the Senate floor without a confirmation hearing.

Douglas Chalmers, Pak’s law partner at Atlanta’s Chalmers Pak Burch & Adams and Pak’s former campaign attorney, said he was not surprised the Judiciary Committee only needed a voice vote to forward Pak’s nomination to the Senate floor. “It’s a credit to BJay,” Chalmers said. “He has wide bipartisan support because of his integrity, his reputation and his qualifications. And I would expect a relatively quick Senate confirmation.”

Georgia’s state morgue is being overcrowded by suspected opioid overdose cases.

Several times on any given week, coroners have been told there’s no room at any of the state’s forensic labs until other bodies are released. The backlog has sometimes left local officials who rely on the state facilities scrambling to find ways to store bodies. Meanwhile, anxious family members must delay funerals, burials or cremations.

Officials hope the pressure on the lab will lessen when a new, much larger $6.68 million morgue, 17,511 square feet, opens in November. Expanded “intake” and body storage areas at that Decatur site opened last week.

But others caution the backlog could continue, fueled by a surge in opioid overdose deaths, a rising number of suicides and Georgia’s growing population.

“It’s tough,” Catoosa County Coroner Venita Hullinger said about the delays. “These families have given up someone. Their whole world is upside down. And they can’t even start their grieving.”

This year, the state Legislature gave the GBI money to hire five additional part-time morgue staff as well as give pay raises to pathologists to make the crime lab more competitive with Georgia counties, other states and hospitals in hiring. The lab can now pay a starting board-certified pathologist $195,851 a year, which is more than the GBI director’s salary but less than other states; the chair of the Augusta University Pathology Department makes almost $429,000 and an associate there makes more than $218,000.

“I think our new morgue will hold us 10 years,” said GBI director Vernon Keenan. “What we’ll need is more doctors.”

Congressman Barry Loudermilk and his wife, Desiree, are recovering from a car accident.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s office says the Republican lawmaker and his wife, Desiree, were treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released from a Tennessee hospital after the two-car incident early Tuesday morning in Knoxville.

The statement says the Loudermilks’ vehicle was rear-ended on the eastbound lanes of Interstate 40, causing the vehicle to leave the roadway and overturn multiple times before coming to a stop. The congressman was driving.

The couple is returning to Georgia for additional medical care.

Senators Johnny Isakson and David Perdue and three of their house colleagues penned a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis, urging that the JSTARS program be retained at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, GA.

In a Sept. 8 letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis, they wrote that they’d recently been informed that the Air Force wants to consider “alternative intelligence and surveillance platforms” instead of upgrading the existing Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System or JSTARS fleet.

“JSTARS is truly a joint platform, and we are tremendously concerned about the possibility of any capability gap,” they wrote. “we hope that any decision regarding the future of JSTARS is made with consideration for the needs of the Active Duty, National Guard, and Reserve components across the services, as well as combatant commander requirements.”

The five are U.S. Senators David Perdue and Johnny Isakson and Reps. Sanford Bishop Jr., 2nd District; Austin Scott, 8th District; and Tom Graves, 14th District.

There are 17 JSTARS aircraft, all assigned to the Georgia National Guard’s 116th Air Control Wing at Robins Air Force Base. JSTARS has the ability to monitor enemy ground movements over large areas while penetrating adverse weather conditions.

The JSTARS were evacuated last week to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma because of Hurricane Irma.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled against a challenge to a 2016 election for the Baker County Board of Education.

According to the unanimous opinion, the court has thrown out a judge’s refusal to dismiss a lawsuit by Brendette Williams’ opponent, Sharon Heard, who challenged the primary election as fraudulent and irregular.

“We conclude that Heard’s challenge to the primary election is now moot, and we therefore vacate the trial court’s order and remand this case for the contest action to be dismissed,” Justice Michael P. Boggs writes for the Court.

Williams and Heard ran for the Elmodel District seat on the Baker County Board of Education in the Democratic primary election held May 24, 2016. Following Heard’s defeat by 21 votes, the results were certified on May 27 as accurate, but Heard requested a recount.

Heard then filed a “Petition to Contest Primary Election,” alleging “misconduct, fraud or irregularity” on the part of the Baker County Board of Elections, claiming that some poll workers allegedly urged voters in the polling place to vote for Williams and not for Heard.

“[T]he established rule in Georgia is that a primary election contest becomes moot after the general election has taken place,” today’s opinion says. As this Court explained in its 1997 decision in Payne v. Chatman and cases following, “[we] adhere to the rule that litigants should make every effort to dispose of election disputes with dispatch and that the courts should not interfere with the orderly process of elections after the general election has been held.”

“Heard could have requested an expedited hearing on her contest petition in the trial court, moved to stay the general election, or requested expedited consideration of Williams’ application for interlocutory appeal,” the opinion says. “But Heard took no action to ensure that her challenge to the primary election result was considered in a timely manner.”

Candidates for Johns Creek Mayor and City Council will meet in a forum on Sunday, September 17th.

Polk County candidates will introduce themselves at a forum sponsored by the Polk County Chamber of Commerce.

The Polk County Chamber of Commerce is giving Polk’s candidates a podium to share their ideals and positions on various topics with a candidates forum on Tuesday, Sept. 26, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Polk County Commission meeting room at 73 Clines Ingram Jackson Road in Cedartown.

The forum is open to the public, and anyone who wishes to gain a better understanding of the county and school board’s potential representatives are urged to attend.

Campaigners that received an invitation are likely to be present at the forum. The full list of candidates include:

Cedartown: Jessica Payton, Matt Foster, Jordan Hubbard, and Patrick McNalley.

Rockmart (incumbents:) Sherman Ross, Lucille Harris, and Joe Henderson.

Aragon: Judson Fee and Amy Causey. Any additional candidates who signed up to be a council member during the re-opening of qualifying on Monday will also be invited as well.

School Board District 6: Judy Wiggins, Chris Culver, and Carolyn Williams.

Ringgold voters will not weigh-in on allowing liquor stores within the city limits.

Developer Alvin Mashburn’s attempt to put a referendum on this November’s ballot failed. Mashburn hoped voters would approve a change in city law to allow him to open a liquor store on Battlefield Highway, but he did not get enough signatures on a petition to add the item to this year’s ballot.

Mashburn needed 698 signatures by the end of last week. That would represent 35 percent of the voters who participated in the last Ringgold city election. Instead, Mashburn received about 170 signatures.

Catoosa County Elections Superintendent Tonya Moore said Mashburn told him last Wednesday he would not be able to put the item on the ballot. But, Mashburn said Monday, he hopes to bring the issue up again next year.

Fifteen candidates are running for seven seats on the Rome city Board of Education.

The race for seven open seats on theRome Board of Education is packed with five incumbents and 10 challengers, all hoping to be one of the top seven vote-getters in the Nov. 7 election.

Voters must be city residents and registered by Oct. 10 to be able to submit a ballot. They can only select seven candidates — the race is nonpartisan. With all the votes tallied up, the seven candidates with the most votes will become the faces of a new four-year term on the board.

Democrats have begun winning some down-ballot special elections across the nation.

There were two more special elections on Tuesday, and there were two more very good results for Democrats. We’re now at the point where the disappointment Democrats experienced in Georgia is looking like an aberration.

The two special elections Tuesday were held in state House districts in Oklahoma and New Hampshire. Both had gone for President Trump by double digits in 2016, according to numbers crunched by Daily Kos Elections, but both went for the Democrat on Tuesday by double digits.

In New Hampshire, a 17-point Trump win became a 12-point win for Democrat Charles St. Clair. In Oklahoma, an 11-point Trump win became a 20-point win for Democrat Jacob Rosecrants.

According to data assembled by Daily Kos and mapped by Daniel Donner, Democrats have performed better than Hillary Clinton in 27 out of 35 congressional and state-legislative special elections held this year. And they’ve done better than President Barack Obama’s 2012 margins in 25 out of 35.

And often it hasn’t been close: In 23 out of 35 races, Democrats have bettered Clinton’s margin by double digits. In 12 races, they’ve done so by 20-plus points — i.e., turning a 10-point Clinton loss into a 10-point Democratic win.

The one glaring exception to all of this, of course, was the highest-profile special election of all — in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. Tens of millions of dollars flooded a suburban Atlanta district that Mitt Romney carried easily in 2012 but Trump narrowly won in 2016. In the end, it was a bad gamble; Democrat Jon Ossoff narrowly underperformed Clinton in the runoff and Democrats were heartbroken.

Campaign Announcements

Qualifying for the “Six-Pack” of legislative special elections will close today at 1 PM, and we’ll cover it for Monday.

Republican businessman Clay Tippins has filed paperwork to raise money in the 2018 Gubernatorial race.

The nephew of state Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-west Cobb, Clay, 44, was born in Cobb County and graduated from Shiloh High School, where he was an All American swimmer. He won a gold medal in the Pan Am Games in 1991. A swimming scholarship took him to Stanford University, where he swam on three national championship teams.

From there he became a Navy SEAL before entering the private sector, working in various startups in Silicon Valley. Clay Tippins moved back to Georgia in 2002 and is an executive vice president of Capgemini, an information technology consulting corporation.

Republican Tom Lord qualified for the Special Election in State House District 119, formerly held by State Rep. Chuck Williams. From the Press Release:

“This community has supported me and my business for many years, and I want to give back to friends and neighbors by working in the House for our conservative values,” Lord said. “The constituents in this district believe the government should invest in education, transportation and public safety – and then return the rest to the taxpayers. As a small businessman, I never forget who I’m working for and I keep them in the forefront of my mind. That’s exactly how I will approach this new job as I advocate for our community and our principles at the state Capitol.

“As your representative, I’ll fight for lower taxes, less regulation, the sanctity of life and our Second Amendment rights. I believe we must promote the rule of law by strictly enforcing our immigration laws and working with the Trump administration to deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.”

A native of Clarke County, Lord lives in Oconee County and owns Lord and Stephens funeral homes. He is a member of the Oconee County Chamber of Commerce, the Oconee County GOP and Beech Haven Baptist Church. Lord currently serves on the Georgia Board of Funeral Service and is a former three-term coroner for Clarke County. He’s a former president of the Georgia Funeral Directors Association, a former board member of the National Funeral Directors Association, from which he earned five “Pursuit of Excellence” designations.

“I will work hard to earn the support of voters in this district and then I will work just as hard to represent them under the Gold Dome.”

Matthew Gambill of Cartersville announced he will run for State House District 15 in 2018. From the Press Release:

Matthew Gambill, Bartow County native and Executive Director of the Georgia Association for Career & Technical Education, announced his campaign for State House District 15, seeking to fill the vacancy from Representative Paul Battles’ upcoming retirement.  Gambill wants to bring more jobs to Georgia and make Bartow County a destination location for manufacturing, tourism and trade.  Running as a Republican, his conservative principles will guide him in keeping taxes and regulation low, while working to improve education and economic opportunities in Georgia.

“I am excited to announce my campaign for State House, and I want to thank Paul Battles for his record of distinguished service to our community. I come from a family with deep roots in Cartersville and Bartow County and a solid record of service in the civic, church, business, and political arenas. It’s my commitment to that legacy of service that now fuels my desire to serve our community in the State House.”

“In the State House, I will provide the servant leadership we need to keep Bartow County the very best place to raise our families, build a business, or find a good job. I will focus on making Bartow County the #1 place to do business in Northwest Georgia by continuing the efforts I have led for years to ensure we have a skilled workforce prepared for the jobs of tomorrow – today. I will promote small business and entrepreneurship by eliminating regulation and red tape.”

“To protect taxpayers, I will use my background and conservative principles to keep state government in check.  By reigning in wasteful spending and eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy, we can make sure that we have a smart and conservative state government that spends our hard earned tax dollars wisely and efficiently.”

“Finally, I will work with local and state leaders to maintain and cultivate a pro-family culture in Cartersville and Bartow County—including making sure our law enforcement agencies and officers have the training and resources they need. Families are at the core of our society and I will fight for District 15 families in the State House.”

MORE ABOUT MATTHEW GAMBILL

A life-long resident of Bartow County, Matthew Gambill comes from a family with a long record of service to our community. His grandfather, Frank Harris, moved to Cartersville in the 1920s and made numerous personal sacrifices to help create the thriving community we enjoy today—from chairing the Cartersville City School Board, to helping organize Faith United Methodist Church, and using his own money to pay for trips to recruit business to Bartow County. His uncle, Joe Frank Harris, represented Bartow County in the Georgia House of Representatives for 18 years prior to serving as Georgia’s Governor from 1983-1991. Matthew’s parents, Bill & Glenda Gambill, are both retired from long careers in public education and they instilled in him a deep appreciation for strong schools and vibrant teachers.

He is a graduate of Cartersville High School and holds a Bachelors of Arts Degree from Lee University.

Since 2004, Matthew has served as the Executive Director of the Georgia Association of Career and Technical Education (GACTE) where he advocates for Career, Technical & Agricultural Education and works with teachers and school systems across the state to support their work in ensuring students are career ready upon graduation. Matthew’s appreciation for these programs began as a student at Cartersville High School.

No stranger to the legislative process, Matthew previously worked as an aide to the Higher Education and Education Committees for the Georgia House of Representatives. It was during this time that Matthew met his wife, Danae, a former State Representative from Columbus.

Active in our community, Matthew is a member of the Cartersville-Bartow County Chamber of Commerce, serves on the Board of Directors of the Indian Springs Holiness Camp Meeting, Boys and Girls Clubs of Bartow County, and is the Past Chair of the Boys and Girls Clubs Georgia Area Council and the Murphy-Harpst Children’s Home.

Matthew also serves on the board of directors for the National Association for Career & Technical Education, ACTE National Executive Directors Association, and the Boys and Girls Clubs Georgia Alliance. He is also a member of the Georgia Society of Association Executives, Georgia Chamber of Commerce where he serves on the Governmental Affairs Council, The Georgia Economic Developers Association, and the Georgia Department of Economic Development Work Force Division Trade 5 Advisory Council.

Gambill is a graduate of the 2007 Leadership Bartow Class, a graduate of the 2010 Leadership Georgia Class, and was selected by Georgia Trend Magazine for their 2012 “40 Under 40” publication.

Committed to faith and family, Matthew and his wife Danae are the proud parents of 3 children—Mary Harris, David, and James. The Gambills are members of Tabernacle Baptist Church where they are actively involved.