Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for January 16, 2015

On January 16, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, prohibiting alcoholic beverages, when Nebraska became the 36th of the 48 states then in the Union to ratify the Amendment.

At 4:30 PM on January 16, 1991, the Persian Gulf War began as air attacks against Iraq launched from US and British aircraft carriers, beginning Operation Desert Storm.

On January 16, 1997, a bomb exploded in a Sandy Springs abortion clinic, later determined to be the work of Eric Rudolph, who also bombed Centennial Olympic Park in 1996, a lesbian bar in Atlanta in February 1997, and a Birmingham abortion clinic in 1998.

Georgia Politics

Senator David Perdue will hold a Ceremonial Swearing-In this Saturday at the Federal Courthouse in Macon, beginning at 1 PM.

Gwinnett County continues to host an ongoing debate over changes in the Advanced Placement United States History curriculum.

Some residents have complained at several Gwinnett County school board meetings in recent months that the revised Advanced Placement U.S. History course for 11th-graders excludes key moments such as D-Day and the Battle of Bunker Hill and important figures like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. They say it does contain “anti-American” statements such as, “The decision to drop the atomic bomb (during World War II) raised questions about American values.”

The complaints are the latest manifestation of a debate that began last summer when the College Board unveiled some changes to the A.P. U.S. History course framework. The A.P. course is an elective designed by the College Board, which also administers the SAT college-entrance exam.

The Republican National Committee passed a resolution in August asking the College Board to delay the framework for a year, branding it “a radically revisionist view of American history that emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s history while omitting or minimizing positive aspects.”

“Don’t mess with our history and don’t mess with our kids’ views of America, its greatness and its heroes,” one Gwinnett resident, Judy Craft, said in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Gwinnett Daily Post ran an article about Governor Deal’s proposal for an “Opportunity School District” that could take over consistently failing schools.

In Deal’s speech, he said roughly 23 percent of schools have received a D or an F for the past three consecutive years. In the last school year, more than 19,000 high school students have dropped out.

“When the system fails, our children have little chance of succeeding,” Deal said. “… A child that does not graduate from high school is that much less prepared for the workforce, that much less prepared for college and that much more prepared for a life behind bars.”

House Minority Leader Rep. Stacey Abrams has questioned how a recovery district would be managed, and in a media symposium last week with reporters asked why schools are failing, and if it’s a funding or structural issue.

Gwinnett is also home to the highest number of illegal aliens, according to an estimate from a Washington, DC think tank.

The Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank, estimates that Gwinnett has 71,000 “unauthorized” residents, 29,000 more than the next county — DeKalb. Of the total in Gwinnett, 30,000 of the residents are believed to be eligible for relief from the Obama Administration’s controversial executive actions on deportation policy, which are being challenged by Republican opposition.

Citing U.S. Census information and university research as its sources, the report lists Mexico as the birthplace for 34,000 of the immigrants in the county, more than any other country by a wide margin. The second most common homeland is Guatemala, with 6,000 residents hailing from there; Korea is next, with 5,000.

State Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville) continues his rise to influence as a relatively new member of the General Assembly. He has introduced House Bill 71, bipartisan legislation co-sponsored by Rich Golick (R-Smyrna), who Chairs the Judiciary Non-Civil Committee, and Mary Margaret Oliver, (Decatur), one of the chamber’s most-influential Democrats. The bill would require notice to victims and prosecutors before an offender is paroled and require written decisions on death penalty appeals, as well as other transparency enhancements.

Rep. Tanner has also introduced House Bill 56, which would restrict the use of no-knock warrants. Notable among the bill’s sponsor are former Gwinnett County Assistant District Attorney Chuck Efstration (R-Lawrenceville), former Georgia State Patrol Major Bill Hitchens (R-Rincon), Chairman Golick, and Democratic State Rep. Carolyn Hugley (Columbus). Tanner is himself a former Dawson County Sheriff’s Deputy. From AccessNorthGa.com:

“I wanted people who understood the process, who had actually been involved in the process to be involved in maybe tightening that process down in a way that didn’t hamper good law enforcement officers from being able to continue to do their jobs,” said Tanner.

Tanner said the main component of the bill requires each law enforcement agency to have a written policy for using no-knock warrants.

“It would require within that policy that the law enforcement agency would have a supervisor designated to make sure that the affidavit was reviewed…and signed off on prior to being submitted to a judge,” said Tanner.

Additionally, the bill would restrict the execution of no-knock warrants between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., unless authorized by a judge.

Tanner said that he believes the overwhelming majority of no-knock warrants are executed without any problem, but tracking the number of warrants issued and having a written policy in place will benefit not only the public, but also protect law enforcement, should something go awry.

The Georgia House Democratic Caucus rolled out their agenda this week. From the AJC:

The caucus’ agenda of 26 bills includes measures to fully fund HOPE grants for technical college students, a limit on credit checks for employment, and new tax credits to encourage employers to hire people with criminal records.

State Senator Chuck Hufstetler (R-Rome) said the legislature may consider expanding Medicare this session.

 “I think there’s a number of Republican [legislators] who are looking for a solution,’’ said Sen. Chuck Hufstetler (R-Rome), after speaking on a legislative panel at an event sponsored by the consumer group Georgians for a Healthy Future.

The conventional wisdom has held that Medicaid expansion would not be a topic of discussion in the Republican-dominated Legislature, which convened this week. The issue barely came up in the 2014 elections.

Another state senator and panel member, Dr. Dean Burke (R-Bainbridge), told the Atlanta audience Thursday that the chances of expansion occurring in Georgia have increased.

He said, “I would say the chances [were] zero” after the end of the 2014 legislative session. He put the chance now at a 5 on a 1-to-10 scale.”

Still, another Republican on the Georgia panel, state Rep. Bruce Broadrick (R-Dalton), said he was concerned about creating a system ‘’that’s so dependent on federal dollars.”

And last week, House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) seemed to pour cold water on further talk of expansion. He told reporters, “I haven’t heard any widespread regret in Georgia on our decision not to expand Medicaid.”

State Rep. Mike Dudgeon (R-Forsyth County) is a member of what I call the “Geek Caucus.” I call them this not because they’re nerds, though some are, but because of their interest in technology and government. Dudgeon has introduced House Bill 57, which would allow some forms of financing for consumers who wish to install solar panels. Michael Caputo from Georgia Public Broadcasting spoke to Dudgeon about the bill.

Caputo – Describe how this bill might make it easier for homeowners to get panels.

Dudgeon – What the law will do is make it crystal clear that any kind of financing that you would like to do that the market offers, to put in the solar technology would be legal. And very specifically the most popular type of financing is where the agreement between the financier and the installer is based on the power output of your house. Because when you put in solar you expect to save money on your regular power bill. By factoring that into the lease payments, it makes the customer and the financier on the same page that you’re going to save that kind of energy.

Hopefully, if the law passes and gets signed by the Governor, that we will see like we see in other states once its become comfortable with the financing, that we’ll see it take off. (It’s) no different if there was no access for mortgages for houses, you’d see a lot less people living in their own house. That financing is key in order to let people adopt the technology.

Speaking of solar, one of Georgia’s most-outspoken proponents of solar has donned jean shorts and taken to Florida to evangelize for a petition drive.

Debbie Dooley has gone South. The co-founder of the Atlanta Tea Party is launching a new effort to get a ballot initiative in Florida to allow businesses and property owners to generate and sell solar energy — making an end run around utility companies.

The coalition of conservatives and liberals mirrors Dooley’s “Green Tea Coalition” in Georgia. Here’s the top of an Associated Press report:

Tea partiers, Libertarians, conservative Christians, Florida’s largest retail association, and clean energy advocates announced Wednesday that they are joining a petition drive aimed at expanding the use of solar energy in Florida.

The group will try to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the 2016 ballot that would allow private companies not regulated as utilities to sell up to two megawatts of solar energy to customers. The solar facilities would have to be on the same or adjacent property as the customer’s.