Georgia Politics, Campaigns & Elections for April 18, 2013

Senator Johnny Isakson and Senator Saxby Chambliss voted against legislation that would have expanded the reach of background checks in transactions not currently covered.

During the last week, Isakson was targeted by web ads from President Obama’s Organizing for America and tv ads by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns on the left and the National Association for Gun Rights on the right.

Stuart Rothenberg: Republicans are Terrible at Politics

Stuart Rothenberg writes that the Gosnell case illustrates the shortcomings of Republican efforts to publicize conservative issues. Republicans seeking GAGOP office, activists, elected officials and political consultants should be reading this and thinking about what we can do to more effectively discuss public issues.

Regardless of whether you are pro-choice or pro-life, Republicans appear to be missing (or may have missed) an opportunity to influence public opinion on a polarizing issue.

Were Democrats in the same position, they would already have a piece of legislation drafted with the name of a victim on it, and they would be in the middle of a relentless public campaign for its passage. It’s what Democrats do best — putting a face and a story together to promote a policy position: the families of Newtown and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords for gun control, and Lilly Ledbetter for equal pay are two recent examples.

Not entirely unrelated, the Augusta Chronicle Editorial Board published an Editorial titled The forgotten massacre: Media, state, turned blind eye in Philadelphia abortion horror.

Consider: While most folks are only now learning about this case of mass infanticide, President Obama was turning his weekly radio address over to a mother from the Newtown killings.

Do you suppose he’ll do the same for any survivors of the Gosnell case? Of course not. Because the evils of abortion don’t fit his political agenda.

In fact, recall that while a state senator in Illinois, he voted against a law that would have protected the lives of babies born alive from botched abortions.

It isn’t just the media that have failed in this case. The state of Pennsylvania stopped inspecting the clinic back in 1993, for fear of putting up
“barriers” to abortion.

Funny thing, they don’t have the same policy with regard to inspecting animal shelters.

From James Magazine

The Rothenberg story above is another illustration of the issue I wrote about in James Magazine this month: the difference in style between Governor Deal’s announcement of his support for expanding eligibility for the HOPE Grant and Democratic State Rep. Stacey Evans at the same event.

Among the specific recommendations of the Republican National Committee Growth and Opportunity Report is that “our candidates, spokespeople and staff need to use language that addresses concerns that are on women’s minds,” and “Republicans need to talk about people and families, not just numbers and statistics.”

A recent press conference in which Republican Governor Nathan Deal announced his support for rolling back the required GPA for the HOPE Grant to technical students from 3.0 back to 2.0 highlights the difference in style between our Governor and a female Democratic State Representative, Stacey Evans, who supports the same legislation.

“After crunching the numbers with our budget department, I am glad to report that we will be able to lower the GPA requirement for the HOPE Grant back to 2.0 after having raised it to 3.0 two years ago. I believe that this additional benefit will help Georgia families that are trying to get ahead and will contribute to our workforce development,” said Gov. Deal.

State Representative Stacey Evans provides a lesson on how that works. “More students will have access to the HOPE Grant and in turn, access to higher education. Most of our students in technical colleges will be first in their family to graduate from college. They come from lower income families; the difference between having the Grant and not having the Grant is the difference between their ticket to the middle class or not,” she said.

Progress at Plant Vogtle

The nuclear “cradle,” a 460-ton steel bowl, was lifted into place by the world’s largest crane, built onsite for the project, and placed on the nuclear island at Vogtle 3 this week.

The cradle was the first module to be placed in the nuclear island after the placement of the nuclear concrete. Before the containment vessel bottom head is moved into place, more concrete will be poured around the cradle.

The cradle is 18 feet tall and 288 feet wide. More than 1,300 pieces of steel were used.

The concrete poured earlier this year involved the continuous flow of 7,000 cubic yards of the specially designed material.

The containment vessel bottom head, also assembled at the nuclear power plant, will set the scene for the placement of one of the unit’s most important parts – the reactor vessel.

That component, built in South Korea and weighing 300 tons, arrived at the construction site Monday, officials said.

This past weekend, I toured Georgia Power’s Plant Branch with a Republican group that included State Rep. Bruce Williamson. Plant Branch is slated to be closed in April 2015, decimating the tax base for Putnam County, and the local economy while 229 local jobs will end. While the employees will be allowed to transfer to other jobs and no one will be laid off, it’s unlikely that the large number of high-paying jobs will be replaced in this community any time soon.

Port of Savannah

The Savannah River Maritime Commission in South Carolina is moving toward resolution of a lawsuit over permitting of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, which will dredge part of the river to allow deeper-water access to the Port of Savannah.

Government agencies and environmental groups in Georgia and South Carolina OK’d a tentative settlement Wednesday to allow the Savannah harbor deepening project to move forward while also advancing plans to develop a shared Jasper Ocean Terminal in South Carolina.

The agreement must be approved by all the parties involved in litigation that had sought to stop the Georgia Ports Authority’s $652 million harbor dredging project.

The first step came Wednesday morning, when South Carolina’s Savannah River Maritime Commission approved the proposed settlement agreement.

The Georgia Ports Authority, along with the Southern Environmental Law Center, approved the proposal Wednesday afternoon.

As part of the $43.5 million agreement, GPA will pay $33.5 million for additional mitigation measures, while the Georgia Department of Transportation will transfer 2,000 acres in Jasper County, S.C., to the maritime commission. The land is valued at $10 million.

Juvenile Justice

A recent story about legislation that would have shielded information about issues in the juvenile justice system discussed the reasons stated for seeking to keep some information under wraps.

But agency officials say the legislation is needed to protect the anonymity of youth who are willing to be confidential informants inside the state’s juvenile facilities. They say information that’s made public could put them in danger if other offenders find out they gave key information to investigators.

“Even with the witness names redacted for the public on the outside, it’s not hard for other juveniles on the inside to figure out who among the witnesses made statements to connect them to illegal acts and prosecutions,” the agency said in a statement.

The Senate unanimously approved Senate Bill 69 on Feb. 20. It remains in a House committee and could be taken up next year.

The Augusta Chronicle, writing about the trial of a 16-year old resident of a Youth Detention Center illustrates the kind of information that would be shielded under the legislation.

The Richmond County grand jury returned the indictment Monday against Daryl Wayne Gordon, who was a resident at the detention facility for juveniles where another teen was killed a year earlier.

According to the indictment, on Dec. 2 Gordon allegedly lured another teenager to an area out of sight of guards, choked the teen unconscious and then kicked and stomped the victim in the head.

According to the indictment, the victim suffered “substantial” head injuries and for a time he was on life support.

After the Dec. 2 incident, the Department of Juvenile Justice issued press releases describing the incident as a fight between two boys, one of whom suffered “minor injuries” and “cuts and bruises” and was hospitalized for a short time.

In late 2011, 11 employees of the Youth Development Center were fired, including the then director, after the Nov. 7 beating death of a teen resident, Jade Holder, and a Dec. 4 sexual assault.

Michael Everidge, 17, was charged with murder in the beating death of Holder, 19. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 17 years in prison followed by three years on probation.

According to a scathing investigative report released after The Augusta Chronicle filed Open Record requests, the door to Holder’s room was intentionally left open to allow the teens to fight.

Gwinnett County Corruption Alleged Again

A civil lawsuit alleges that a Gwinnett County Commissioner tried to shake down a property owner who was seeking a state contract.

The owner of a Gwinnett County property who lost a bid to house the local office of the Division of Family and Child Services says in a lawsuit that County Commissioner John Heard demanded $240,000 a year to help Hand Properties land the lease.

Heard told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Fred Hand’s claims are a “lie,” but the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI have interviewed Hand, according to documents filed with the lawsuit. Heard said neither agency has talked to him. The GBI referred questions to the federal authorities, and an FBI spokesman said the bureau could not comment

Meanwhile, a state leasing specialist was fired after the lawsuit revealed he provided details of Hand’s bid to a competitor who temporarily won the lease. That award was revoked and the State Properties Commission has decided to start over while DFCS remains without a new home in Gwinnett.

Heard told the AJC that he was “infuriated” when he heard the allegation. He believes that the accusation was made because he is an easy target, given the history of corruption in recent years involving Gwinnett County commissioners. “Nobody’s going to believe a county commissioner,” he said.