Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for September 26, 2018

On September 25, 1789, Congress adopted the first twelve amendments, called the Bill of Rights, to the United States Constitution. A little more than two years later, in 1791, enough states had ratified ten of the Amendments, with two not receiving sufficient support.

On September 25, 1864, Confederate President Jefferson Davis met with General John Bell Hood and visited troops at Palmetto, Georgia.

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

Ronald Reagan appointee Sandra Day O’Connor became the first female Justice of the United States on September 25, 1981. In an interview with Terry Gross, she recalled receiving the call from President Reagan:

“I was working in my office on the Arizona Court of Appeals,” she tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “I was at the court in my chambers when the telephone rang. And it was the White House calling for me, and I was told that the president was waiting to speak to me. That was quite a shock, but I accepted the phone call, and it was President Reagan, and he said, ‘Sandra?’ ‘Yes, Mr. President?’ ‘Sandra, I’d like to announce your nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow. Is that all right with you?’ Well, now, that’s kind of a shock, wouldn’t you say?”

On September 25, 2008, the last car came off the line at GM’s Doraville Plant.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Republican Brian Kemp rallied voters in Columbus, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

“We have got to work harder than we ever have because this is a national race,” said Kemp, who has been Secretary of State for the last eight years. “Literally the socialists — the socialists believe it or not from California — billionaires, are throwing millions and millions of dollars to my opponent. Thankfully, they don’t vote here. But you all do.”

There was loud applause and people shouting, “You got my vote” and “Right on.”

“Double down on the phone calls, double down on the doors you are knocking on, double down on texting your friends in your network,” he said. “… We got to get our folks out and we got to get them out early.”

State Rep. Richard Smith, who has been a Kemp supporter throughout the primary and runoff landslide defeat of Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle in July, was impressed with the turnout on short notice.

“It shows you that there is an excitement,” Smith said. “It is 90 degrees and there are 175-200 people here. That tells you a lot. It tells me they are going to the polls.”

Kemp had a three-stop visit in Columbus on Monday. He participated in a 30-minute Facebook live interview at the Ledger-Enquirer, stopped at the Muscogee County Republican headquarters on River Road, then attended a private fundraiser at Green Island Country Club.

Former Bartow County Probate Judge Mitch Scoggins will run for House District 14, being vacated by State Rep. Christian Coomer, according to the Cartersville Daily Tribune News.

“After serving as probate judge of Bartow County for almost 28 years and working a total of 35 years with Bartow County,” Scoggins said, “I am announcing my bid for the State House of Representatives for District 14.”

“With my experience in county government, I am qualified for the job and will represent the citizens of Bartow and Floyd counties with transparency and accountability.”

Scoggins describes himself as a conservative candidate who is anti-abortion and supports the Second Amendment as well as freedom of religion.

Scoggins joins Ken Coomer, father of Christian, in the race.

The Gainesville Times looks at the changing fight against opioid misuse and overdose.

Roughly a decade ago, states surrounding Georgia with doctors overprescribing painkiller medication passed tough laws that pushed these “pill mills” into the Peach State.

“To give you an example of how bad this was, we raided a pill mill in Bartow County that had so many people coming in to get their prescriptions filled for illegitimate purposes that they had to have a security guard in the parking lot to direct traffic. They had busloads of people coming down from Kentucky to get prescriptions filled for the opioids,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan in a forum Tuesday at the University of North Georgia. Keenan and others gathered Tuesday morning for the Opioid Problems in Our Community forum hosted by the university’s criminal justice department.

GBI Medical Examiner Jonathan Eisenstat said the opioid problem has caused a strain on death investigators, who are now doing roughly 350 autopsies a year per doctor.

“If you’re doing 350 autopsies, you have much less time to do the casework, the reports, talk to the families and things are starting to get delayed. And that causes a delay in the law enforcement as well,” he said.

Hall County Superior Court Judge Jason Deal, who presides over the Drug Court in Hall and Dawson counties, shared more positive information of his “friends” and program participants, who came from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Deal said a Carl Vinson Institute of Government study showed each accountability court graduate had a $22,129 positive impact to the state in fiscal year 2017.

Valdosta City Schools has earned a $2.9 million dollar grant from the Georgia Department of Education for enhancing literacy, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

Hall County Commissioners will consider a dog-tethering ordinance at their next meeting, according to the Gainesville Times.

Lt. Colonel Allen West will deliver the keynote address at a fundraiser for Camp Amplify, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Georgia Gwinnett College President Stas Preczewski announced he will retire at the end of the current acadmic year, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Glynn County volunteers registered new voters to celebrate National Voter Registration Day, according to The Brunswick Times.

Women’s Voices of Glynn County, and other volunteers stopped students as they walked past the group’s tent and encouraged those who were not registered to vote in Glynn County to fill out the forms the volunteers had on hand.

“We’re grabbing every student that walks by and asking, ‘Are you registered to vote?’” Galland said. “And if they say yes, we say, ‘In Glynn County?’”

The nationwide campaign is held annually on the fourth Tuesday of September and aims to create awareness of voter registration opportunities and to push the importance of voting.

In Glynn County, several local groups canvassed the community in hopes of increasing the local number of registered voters.

“We have sites all over Brunswick — here at the college, at Wrap Happy, at the two high schools and at Job Corps,” said Cathy Simprini, a member of Women’s Voices of Glynn County, a local nonpartisan group.