ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., raised more than $9.8 million toward his reelection bid during the fourth quarter of last year, slightly exceeding his third-quarter total and significantly outdistancing Republican rival Herschel Walker.
Warnock’s fourth-quarter fundraising results raised total campaign war chest to $23 million.
“As Reverend Warnock continues to fight for hardworking Georgia families, the enthusiasm behind Reverend Warnock’s campaign continues to grow,” campaign manager Quentin Fulks said. “After driving another record-breaking fundraising haul, our strong network of grassroots support is fired up to send Reverend Warnock back to the Senate to fight for Georgia.”
Walker raised more than $5.4 million during the fourth quarter, the former University of Georgia football star’s campaign reported Wednesday.
His fundraising during October, November and December brought his total to nearly $10 million since he entered the race for the GOP nomination to oppose Warnock five months ago.
“Team Herschel is so grateful for our friends and supporters across Georgia and the United States who are helping our campaign,” Walker said.“As we travel all over the Peach State, we are meeting thousands of hardworking Georgians who are fed up with the direction our country is headed.”
Walker has the backing of former President Donald Trump, who urged him to run. Trump and Walker have known each other since Walker signed on to play for Trump’s New Jersey-based United States Football League team in 1983.
Walker’s fourth-quarter contributions came from 44,364 individual donors in all 50 states.
Warnock brought in donations from more than 130,000 contributors. The average donation was $43.
Walker and Warnock will file additional details of their fourth-quarter fundraising by the Jan. 31 deadline set by the Federal Election Commission.
Walker likely will lead the other candidates in May’s Republican Senate primary in the money race. The rest of the GOP field includes Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, banking executive Latham Saddler and small business owner Kelvin King.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia House Speaker David Ralston introduced bipartisan legislation Wednesday to overhaul a state mental health system ranked 48th in the nation for access to mental health and substance abuse services.
“I am tired of telling desperate and hurting families that we have no treatment options in Georgia,” Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said during a news conference announcing the bill.
“Georgia is a great state. Passing this landmark bill will also mean we’re a good state.”
House Bill 1013 incorporates the recommendations of a task force formed in 2019 that included mental health, substance abuse and criminal justice experts.
The Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission was asked to develop solutions to the funding, workforce, access and insurance issues that hamper mental health and substance abuse services in Georgia.
The statistics are alarming, particularly since the coronavirus pandemic struck Georgia in March 2020.
Georgia’s mental health crisis hotline has experienced a 24% increase in calls, texts and chats since the pandemic began, while mental health screenings have soared by 426%, Judy Fitzgerald, commissioner of the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, told members of a House committee last month.
The state also saw a 36% increase in drug overdose deaths between April 2020 and last April, Fitzgerald said.
“This bill is a giant leap forward and will fill many of the gaps we have in our mental health system,” said former Rep. Kevin Tanner, R-Dawsonville, who co-chaired the commission. “It will provide hope and support for families who have waited for too long.”
Funding will be key component of the General Assembly’s push to improve mental health and substance abuse services.
Lawmakers voted last spring to add $56 million to this year’s state budget for mental health, and more is on the way.
Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, a member of the commission and cosponsor of the 74-page bill, described it as “comprehensive” and a “deep dive” into the mental health system challenges Georgia faces.
Among other things, the measure seeks parity in pay for mental health providers compared to other health-care providers, strengthens workforce development initiatives aimed at addressing a shortage of mental-health workers and looks to help police departments forced to serve as first responders to calls involving people suffering from mental illness or substance abuse.
“We ask law enforcement to do a lot with mental-health care they’re not trained for,” Ralston said.
The legislation should enjoy a smooth path in the House. Its cosponsors include House Majority Leader Jon Burns, R-Newington, and Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker raised more than $5.4 million during the fourth quarter of last year, the Republican’s campaign reported Wednesday.
Walker’s fundraising during October, November and December brought his total to nearly $10 million since he entered the race for the GOP nomination to oppose incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., five months ago.
“Team Herschel is so grateful for our friends and supporters across Georgia and the United States who are helping our campaign,” Walker said.“As we travel all over the Peach State, we are meeting thousands of hardworking Georgians who are fed up with the direction our country is headed.”
“Georgia Republicans are clearly united behind Herschel Walker and are ready to take on Senator Warnock,” added Scott Paradise, Walker’s campaign manager.
“This race will provide Georgians with a clear choice: a senator who votes in lockstep with President Biden or a conservative leader who will fight for America. We will have the resources to make that case and plan to do so through November.”
The former University of Georgia football great has the backing of former President Donald Trump, who urged Walker to run. Trump and Walker have known each other since Walker signed on to play for Trump’s New Jersey-based United States Football League team in 1983.
Walker’s fourth-quarter contributions came from 44,364 individual donors in all 50 states.
Walker will file additional details of his fourth-quarter fundraising by the Jan. 31 deadline set by the Federal Election Commission.
He likely will lead the other candidates in May’s Republican Senate primary in the money race. The rest of the GOP field includes Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, banking executive Latham Saddler and small business owner Kelvin King.
Warnock has yet to release his fourth-quarter fundraising results but reported $17.2 million cash on hand through the third quarter.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Legislation aimed at encouraging more Georgians to become organ donors cleared a state Senate committee unanimously Tuesday.
The Senate Insurance and Labor Committee approved the Giving the Gift of Life Act following a presentation by Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, who donated one of his kidneys to his 25-year-old son, Will, last year.
“We sit here today 100% in good health,” the elder Albers, with his son at his side, told committee members. “Our calling now is to help encourage people to become organ donors.”
Albers’ bill would increase an existing income tax credit the state offers living organ donors from $10,000 to $25,000 and create a new tax credit to help employers offset the cost of paying workers who donate an organ while they are recovering from the surgery for up to six weeks.
It also would prohibit life insurance companies from denying coverage to living organ donors.
“We do not want to discourage anyone from donating,” Albers said.
Dr. Christina Klein, a kidney transplant specialist at Piedmont Transplant Institute, said patients sometimes wait up to eight years to receive a new kidney. Many of her patients have died while on the waiting list, she said.
“Financial disincentives make it impossible for some people in our country to donate an organ,” Klein said.
Albers said his bill would save tax dollars as well as lives.
He said the projected $1.7 million annual cost of implementing the legislation would be offset quickly by the savings to be achieved by helping patients avoid chronic dialysis treatments.
Eighteen states already have legislation similar to Albers’ bill on their books.
Senate Bill 330 moves next to the Senate Rules Committee to schedule a vote of the full Senate.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Critical-race theory and “Big Tech” will be top targets of Georgia Senate Republicans as the 2022 General Assembly session unfolds, Senate GOP leaders announced Tuesday.
The annual Senate Republican priorities list also will include cracking down on violent demonstrators.
“Despite unprecedented challenges and distractions over the past two years, I believe our Senate Republican Caucus has stayed focused on getting results and has embodied our belief in the caucus being, ‘real people solving real problems’,” said Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton. “This session, I am encouraged by the common goals that have been previewed by members of both chambers.”
While Senate Republicans will join their GOP colleagues in the Georgia House of Representatives in backing legislation to ease gun restrictions and increase funding for mental health services, Senate Republicans also will push a four-part agenda of their own. The caucus has chosen one Republican senator to spearhead each of the items.
Shaming white students in Georgia by making them feel guilty over America’s racist past won’t be tolerated if Senate Republicans get their way. One Senate GOP priority will be to ban the teaching of “critical race theory” in Georgia schools.
“We must stop divisive concepts from being taught in Georgia colleges and universities and seeping down into our k-12 schools – concepts that an overwhelming majority of Georgians outright reject,” said Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia. “We must ensure that no student is taught to feel guilty or ‘less than’ because of how they were born. Scapegoating and stereotyping are not acceptable teaching methods. Period.”
The Georgia Board of Education voted last year to oppose the teaching of critical race theory, which emphasizes the existence of systemic racism in the United States. While critical race theory isn’t taught in Georgia, it has been a hot-button political issue, with Gov. Brian Kemp and Republican legislative leaders making a top priority of banning it from Georgia schools.
Meanwhile, the banning of former President Donald Trump from social media platforms for disseminating false information about the results of the 2020 presidential election has Republicans in Georgia and elsewhere going after Big Tech.
State Senate Republicans pledged Tuesday to target “shadow banning,” the practice of banning a user’s social media content without their knowledge.
“For too long, Big Tech companies have gone unchecked, trampling on our basic rights as Americans by censoring our freedom of speech, while exploiting our private data to line their own pockets,” said Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming.
The Senate GOP platform also includes legislation requiring “opt-out” choices for consumers who wish to keep their personal information private.
Senate Republicans also hope to resurrect public safety legislation that didn’t make it through the legislature last year.
The measure was brought in response to the wave of violent protests in Atlanta and other cities in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis by a white police officer.
It would have made it a felony for groups of seven people or more to cause property damage or violence and hold city and county governments liable in civil court for interfering in a police agency’s protest enforcement.
“Many sympathetic local officials stood by and watched as angry mobs ran rampant in Georgia communities, destroyed private property, and looted Georgia businesses,” said Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula. “Allowing this unacceptable behavior led to increased crime and a more dangerous environment for frontline law enforcement.”
Robertson is spearheading this year’s push in the Senate to stiffen criminal penalties for riotous conduct and hamper law enforcement.
Finally, Senate Republicans are vowing to support $1.2 million in new funding to help Georgia’s technical college system expand apprenticeship opportunities.
