Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for September 26, 2017

On September 26, 1928, future President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke in Atlanta on behalf of Democrat Alfred Smith’s campaign for President.

The first televised debate between major party candidates for President took place on September 26, 1960 between Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon.

Kennedy emerged the apparent winner from this first of four televised debates, partly owing to his greater ease before the camera than Nixon, who, unlike Kennedy, seemed nervous and declined to wear makeup. Nixon fared better in the second and third debates, and on October 21 the candidates met to discuss foreign affairs in their fourth and final debate. Less than three weeks later, on November 8, Kennedy won 49.7 percent of the popular vote in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history, surpassing by a fraction the 49.6 percent received by his Republican opponent.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Georgia Court of Appeals Judge William “Billy” Ray, II was introduced to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee by Senators Johnny Isakson and David Perdue, as the committee begins its confirmation process on his nomination as a U.S. District Court Judge.

Most nominees were introduced by one senator from their state, but there were two nominees to two District Court seats in Georgia, so Sens. Johnny Isakson and David Perdue introduced both men. The other nominee was Michael Brown. Both men were nominated by President Donald Trump earlier this year.

“Billy is from Gwinnett County, Ga., and served in the Georgia State Senate for six years, went from there to the Superior Court of Gwinnett County and from there to the Court of Appeals in Georgia, and has been an outstanding participant in the bench all of those times,” Isakson said.

Perdue praised both Ray and Brown in his remarks.

“I’m proud to support both of these impressive nominees without reservation and applaud the president for his selection of two such qualified and well-regarded Georgians to fill these seats on the federal bench in my state,” he said. “This is a high honor to introduce both of these candidates from Georgia.”

“I’d like to thank President Trump for his nomination of me, and for the support that both Sen. Isakson and Sen. Perdue have given me in forwarding my name to the White House for consideration,” Ray said.

He also thanked his fellow judges on the Gwinnett County Superior Court and the Georgia Court of Appeals.

Georgia Senate President Pro Tem David Shafer will kick-off his campaign for Lieutenant Governor on October 22d.

Shafer and a group calling itself Gwinnett County for David Shafer have posted an event announcement on Facebook promoting a campaign kickoff from 2 to 4 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Atlanta Coliseum, 2075 Market St. in Duluth. The event posting invites supporters to enjoy “barbecue, live music and a special guest.”

The Cherokee County School District says that a Republican candidate for Governor will not be allowed to host a protest on school grounds.

A protest scheduled for Wednesday at River Ridge High School will not be allowed on the school’s campus because of student safety issues, a statement released Monday from the office of the Cherokee County superintendent of schools said.

The protest was organized by state Sen. Michael Williams, a gubernatorial candidate, after River Ridge math teacher Lyn Orletsky told two students wearing “Make America Great Again” to leave her classroom Aug. 31.

“We have determined that your protest, while advertised by you as ‘peaceful,’ cannot be guaranteed as such, and will significantly disrupt teaching and learning and may endanger the safety of more than 3,200 students and staff,” [Cherokee County School District Chief Communications Officer Barbara] Jacoby said. “While we strongly support the constitutional right to air grievances through peaceful protest, we support the courts’ interpretation that this right is limited in regard to school campuses.”

Access to the school will be limited on Wednesday to teachers, students, employees and parents, who must bring appropriate identification. The building will be on Code Yellow that day, meaning no outdoor activities are to take place. School police and other public safety personnel will monitor driveway entrances and other areas on campus. Anticipating increased traffic, the district advised that students ride the bus and families consider alternate routes.

Republican candidate for Governor Brian Kemp and Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams are once again trading jabs over voter registration.

Snellville Mayor Tom Witts voluntarily suspended himself from office after a 66-count indictment was handed down.

“In consultation with my legal defense team, I have been advised that I should focus my full attention on answering the charges made against me,” Witts wrote in the letter that City Attorney Tony Powell read during the meeting. “Because of this advice, I have decided to notify the Governor that I am voluntarily surrendering my authority as Mayor of the City of Snellville … until such time as this matter is resolved.”

Georgia law dictates that Gov. Nathan Deal convene a panel consisting of the attorney general and two mayors from nearby cities to determine whether an indicted mayor can continue to serve in his position.

But there’s a 14-day period before that panel is convened in which a mayor can voluntarily suspend himself. Witts wrote in his letter that he chose that course to keep Snellville’s council on track.

“My decision to accept a suspension of my office voluntarily is designed to get my issues out of the way so the other leaders can pick up our banner without the distraction of my defense,” he wrote.

Mayor Pro Tem Barbara Bender led Monday evening’s meeting.

Witts maintains that he is innocent of the charges.

In the statement, Witts said he would soon “have the opportunity to assert my plea that I am not guilty of the charges filed against me” and that he didn’t want his legal battle to interfere with the city’s business.

“I am sorry I am unable to be with you tonight, but I will look forward to being with you again as soon as I can deal with the charges that have been asserted against me,” the statement said.

The Red and Black profiles the candidates in State House District 117’s Special Election.

[Deborah Gonzalez – Democrat]

What specific changes are you hoping to bring to the community? 

A2. You can’t do anything if you don’t have your health. I think we have to make sure that people throughout Georgia are healthy and that they have access to appropriate healthcare. To me, healthcare is a human right. It should not be something that’s restricted only because of your ability to pay for it. I support the expansion of Medicaid. I support Medicare for all. I support that we have healthy Georgians. Healthy Georgians are going to equal a healthy economy.

When it comes to education, my belief is that control for schools need to stay at the local level. We have to make sure that we invest in public education. We owe more to our children and our students and even to the teachers. They need to know that their government appreciates them and their community appreciates them.

[Houston Gaines – Republican]

What specific changes are you hoping to bring to the community? 

A2. Economic development is something that I feel strongly about. It’s a place where over the years, particularly being involved in Clarke and Oconee County, that I felt like I’ve seen what’s been able to come to be, whether it’s bringing a Caterpillar [plant] to the area. But I want to continue to work and connect our state economic officials with our local folks.

Transportation and infrastructure is something else I feel strongly about, particularly on Highway 316 and doing what we can to move forward on that project. Trying to help to move that project in other ways to support transportation projects.

Cobb County Commissioners will create a trust fund for maintenance of SunTrust Park.

County commissioners are expected to vote tonight on creating a Stadium Capital Maintenance Trust Fund, which is called for by the Stadium Operating Agreement with the Atlanta Braves approved by commissioners in May 2014. The money put into the fund would be used to pay for capital maintenance and repairs to the stadium, stadium site and parking areas.

Under the operating agreement, the county was committed to contributing $35 million to cover maintenance costs over a 30-year term; the Braves also contribute $35 million for maintenance over the three-decade span in annual amounts equal to the county’s contribution. The county this fiscal year paid $1.2 million and will shell out $1.23 million in fiscal year 2018, with annual amounts increasing each year up to $1.59 million in 2030 but then decrease annually before bottoming out at $250,000 in the final two years of 2045 and 2046.

County Chairman Mike Boyce said Monday the funding for stadium maintenance is not a new expense on the county; rather, the trust fund measure gives clarity to one of the county’s commitments toward the Braves.

John “Bart” Steed will run in 2018 for the Muscogee County School Board seat currently held by John Thomas.

Steed, owner of Kar-Tunes Car Stereo, is the second candidate to announce his campaign for one of the nine-member board’s five seats up for election in 2018. Retired urologist Philip Schley announced last week he will try to regain the District 8 seat, currently filled by Frank Myers, a self-employed lawyer.

The other seats up for election are District 4 (incumbent Naomi Buckner, a special-education teacher in Chattahoochee County), District 6 (incumbent Mark Cantrell, CEO of Action Buildings) and the board’s lone countywide seat (incumbent Kia Chambers, a real-estate broker).

Republican Beau Patton qualified for the House District 4 seat being vacated by Bruce Broadrick.

Qualifying began Monday for the special election for the District 4 seat in the state House of Representatives that became open when Bruce Broadrick stepped down for health reasons recently, and Republican Party activist Beau Patton of Dalton, who had previously announced plans to run for the District 4 seat next year, was the sole qualifier, according to the Secretary of State’s website.

Kasey Carpenter, owner of the Oakwood Cafe and Cherokee Pizza and Brewing, has said he will run in the special election. Carpenter unsuccessfully challenged Broadrick in the 2016 Republican primary.

Savannah is seeking proposals for solar installations to power municipal facilities.

The city is seeking proposals from contractors to install and maintain solar systems that would provide power at a cost below grid rates with no upfront expenses.

“We need to see what comes back and if it looks like they are competitive we could start moving forward pretty quickly,” said Nick Deffley, director of the city’s Environmental Services &Sustainability office. “It doesn’t take long to install panels in a system.”

The potential move to solar is being made as a result of Georgia lawmakers passing the Solar Power Free-Market Financing Act in 2015, Deffley said.

The state legislation allows companies to finance the installation of solar panels for a home, business or institution by having the property owner pay them for the electricity the system produces. Prior to the bill’s passage, state law prohibited anyone from supplying electricity other than a certified utility except for sales to the utility.

Healthcare

Senator Johnny Isakson said he’s open to bipartisan legislation to address Obamacare.

The three-term Republican indicated on Monday evening that he would still prefer to scrap the Affordable Care Act over the next few days, when the GOP has its last chance to use a special budget tool to repeal the law without any Democrats. But Isakson said he would be willing to back any renewed stabilization negotiations if the legislation known as Graham-Cassidy, which seeks to replace Obamacare with lump sum payments to states, fails.

“If Graham-Cassidy runs into difficulty, hopefully we can come back to Alexander and Patty Murray,” he said when asked about recently-stalled talks led by his friend Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Murray, a Washington Democrat. “Stabilizing the market is the most important thing we can do right now for the short-term.”

“I’m not going to get specific until I know specifically what I’m dealing with,” Isakson said on Monday evening, adding that there were still many tweaks being made to the bill. He did, however, back an earlier version of Graham-Cassidy and has voted for all of the GOP’s other Obamacare repeal bills this year, so his vote is not widely considered to be in doubt.

“We need to address the concern with the number of companies leaving, with the problems that we’re having with Obamacare in many of the states. I would like to be a part of a solution. What’s the best route to that end, I don’t know,” Isakson said.

Ariel Hart and Tamar Hallerman of the AJC writes about healthcare funding deadlines set to expire this month.

Nearly one hundred and fifty million dollars to keep Georgia hospitals’ indigent care afloat. Funding for the PeachCare program that along with Medicaid covers about half of Georgia’s kids. Clear answers on Obamacare subsidies that Blue Cross said it needed to keep selling individual plans in metro Atlanta.

Those are some things that Congress has not taken care of — or even, in some cases, clarified its position on — as deadlines and expirations approach at the end of September. That’s this week.

Kevin Bierschenk, the CEO of Dodge County Hospital, has no appetite to gamble on the future impact of the bill, which some estimates have said would eventually decrease Georgia’s expected funding for the poor. And in the meantime, he wants some focus brought to the funding sources that keep rural hospitals like his going.

Bierschenk says that his facility survives and employs 200 with money from an array of programs that are set to expire Saturday. It receives funding for hospitals that treat a disproportionate share of indigent patients (known technically as DSH, for Disproportionate-Share Hospital); treats patients on PeachCare (which is the Georgia iteration of CHIP); and also receives payments for smaller rural hospitals (known as Low-Volume Adjustment funding). The Low-Volume Adjustments and another fund together send about $11 million to 41 rural Georgia hospitals, according to the state’s hospital association. It may not seem like much, Bierschenk said, but the $445,000 his hospital gets from it is close to half its bottom line.

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican member of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the issue, said he has an amendment he’s been looking to attach to other legislation that Congress must pass before Oct. 1 that would ward off the cuts. But he’s been tight-lipped about what he’s been trying to attach it to. He’s being backed by Perdue, but the two have yet to be successful.

“Regardless of whether or not the Senate passes health care legislation, ensuring that Georgia’s charity hospitals continue to have the resources they need is a top priority for Senator Isakson,” said Amanda Maddox, a spokeswoman for Isakson.

The National Rural Health Association has an op-ed in The Hill.

“If you want to watch a rural community die, kill its hospital.” Those portent words appeared last week in an article describing the rural hospital closure crisis in Georgia. Those words are true not just for rural towns in Georgia, but for rural communities across the nation. And, not one proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the Graham-Cassidy proposal, does anything to address this health crisis or the other provisions in the ACA that are not working in rural America.

Any federal health care reform proposal must address the fact that insurance providers are withdrawing from rural markets. Despite record profit levels made in large part by tax-payer subsidized programs such as Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care, insurance companies are permitted to cherry pick profitable markets for participation and are currently not obliged to provide service to markets with less advantageous risk pools. In the same way that financial service institutions are required to provide services to underserved neighborhoods, profitable insurance companies should be spurred to provide services in underserved communities.

Rural Americans need accessible and affordable health insurance, and need access to their rural hospital. Rural Americans are more likely to have obesity, diabetes, cancer and traumatic injury; they are more likely to participate in high risk health behaviors including smoking, poor diet, physical inactivity, and substance abuse. Rural Americans are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured and less likely to receive employer sponsored health insurance. It’s time to listen to rural America and stop the rural hospital closure crisis and make health care affordable.

Augusta University and other Georgia hospitals continue to receive evacuated patients.

AU Medical Center got two patients from a hospital in St. Croix damaged by the massive storm and others in Georgia got 20 patients from other facilities ravaged by Maria, said AUMC Chief Operating Officer Shawn Vincent

The patients came in early Sunday morning from a facility in St. Croix where the first floor was flooding and the patients were first moved to a higher floor, said Associate Chief Medical Officer Phillip Coule.

The patients were first moved to Puerto Rico and then flown into Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta and brought to AUMC, Coule said. The National Disaster Medical System has been activated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Coule said. That will not only mobilize Disaster Medical Assistance Teams to respond to the devastated areas but also facilitate the transfer of patients from those areas, he said.