U.S. Rep. David Scott did not participate in a primary debate Monday to defend himself against a trio of Democratic challengers, who slammed the longtime congressman for his absence.
Scott, also a Democrat, is running for his 10th consecutive term representing Georgia’s 13th Congressional District, which covers parts of several suburban counties south and west of Atlanta including Clayton, Henry, Douglas and Cobb counties. He has held the reliably Democratic seat since his first election in 2002.
Democratic candidates devoted much of the debate to questioning which may be more qualified to unseat Scott. Also attending the debate were two Republican challengers who tackled economic issues.
The debate Monday was hosted by the Atlanta Press Club. It came ahead of the June 9 primary.
The Democrats
A glaring hole in Monday’s 13th District debate was Scott, who was not on hand to defend himself against attacks on his record.
His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why he did not participate in the debate.
Michael Owens, a cybersecurity consultant who formerly chaired the Cobb County Democratic Party, criticized Scott for not holding public meetings with constituents and for residing outside the district.
“I think it’s important that as an elected official you be accessible and accountable to people in your district,” said Owens, who also backed Medicare-for-all plans.
Beyond Scott, the three candidates challenged each other’s ability to work well with Republican counterparts in Congress and addressed the widening divide between moderate and progressive factions in the Democratic Party.
Jannquell Peters, an attorney and former mayor of East Point who supports raising the federal minimum wage, said Democratic leaders are not so far apart on issues like health care and insurance as many Republican opponents claim.
“I think it is going to take an awful lot of education on the part of Democrats and people interested in moving our communities forward,” Peters said.
Keisha Waites, a consultant and former state House lawmaker, said she also supports broadening health insurance coverage but stopped short of endorsing any single-payer proposals.
“I do believe fundamentally that universal health care should be an American right,” Waites said.
All three candidates agreed expanding health insurance coverage ranks among the top issues going forward this election cycle, especially as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic continues to sicken Georgians.
The Republicans
Republican candidates stuck mostly with economic issues like how to bolster small businesses, particularly amid the downturn prompted by coronavirus.
Becky Hites, a steel industry consultant, touted her track record as a longtime business owner who has worked with corporate clients and describes herself as a “Trumplican.”
“Because I have Wall Street experience, I know how to bring in business,” Hites said.
Caesar Gonzales, a mechanic and motorcycle racer who said he opposes absentee voting, stressed the need for more training in new technologies to improve job skills.
“I think we need more jobs skills training in our working environment in order to be able to better compete in this technology-driven world,” Gonzales said.
The two Republican candidates also addressed challenges in swaying voters in the traditionally Democratic district, support for gun ownership rights and opposition to easing immigration restrictions.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s coronavirus-prompted judicial emergency is about to be extended for another month.
Chief Justice Harold Melton announced Monday that he will sign an order this week extending the emergency from May 13, the current expiration date, until June 12.
All criminal and civil jury trials will continue to be suspended, and courts will be barred from summoning and impaneling new trial and grand juries.
While Georgia businesses are gradually reopening following Gov. Brian Kemp’s lifting of his shelter-in-place order late last week, Melton said the courts are different from most private establishments and public places.
“We compel people to attend court proceedings, and that requires us to be extra cautious,” he said.
Since Melton issued the first judicial emergency order in mid-March, courts have remained open to handle critical and essential court services.
Under the new extension order, courts will be urged to develop plans for restoring non-critical operations that can be conducted remotely by videoconferencing or by maintaining adherence to public health guidelines. Increasing the use of remote judicial proceedings where legally permitted is aimed at limiting the backlog once the emergency order is ended.
The state Supreme Court has set an example by starting to hold hearings via remote videoconferencing.
Melton has created a special task force to help courts conduct remote proceedings and develop plans for the safe resumption of more extensive in-court proceedings, including jury trials and grand jury proceedings.
The task force will include judges from every category of courts, civil trial lawyers, court clerks and sheriffs.
ATLANTA – Two Democrats running for the Georgia Public Service Commission focused their fire Monday on the current PSC and Georgia Power Co. rather than each other.
Daniel Blackman, a longtime environmental advocate, and John Noel, owner of an energy-efficiency contracting company, are seeking the Democratic nomination to oppose Republican Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald in PSC District 4, which includes northern Georgia and the state’s eastern border south through Augusta.
In a debate live streamed by Georgia Public Television, both accused the PSC of dragging its feet when it comes to developing renewable energy and deploying broadband service to rural Georgia.
“We’ve got a lot of coal power still hanging around and a lot of natural gas that comes from fracking sources,” Noel said. “We do not have enough solar.”
Blackman said the commission is not doing enough to work with the state’s electric membership corporations (EMCs) to promote broadband in rural Georgia. Inadequate internet service in rural areas has become even more of a problem as the coronavirus pandemic keeps people at home, he said.
“We need to help educate communities … and give communities input into a lot of this process,” he said.
Both candidates have run unsuccessfully for the PSC in recent years. Noel, who represented an Atlanta district in the Georgia House of Representatives in the early 2000s, has moved to Augusta so he can seek the District 4 seat. Under a unique provision in state law, PSC candidates are elected statewide but must live in the district they wish to represent.
“It’s important for the city of Augusta to have a statewide elected official. They haven’t had one in decades,” Noel said. “It’s an antique and dumb system, but I’m living by the rules.”
Noel is taking a different approach toward by running for the PSC in combination with fellow Democrat Robert Bryant of Savannah, who is seeking the District 1 seat covering all of South Georgia. Currently, all five seats on the commission are held by Republicans.
“We believe that running as a tandem is stronger,” Noel said. “When we win, we’ll have two seats of the five.”
With a background in the environmental justice movement, Blackman said the rate increases the PSC approved for Georgia Power and Atlanta Gas Light last December are being disproportionately felt by low-income customers.
“Seniors on fixed incomes are struggling to pay bills,” he said.
Blackman said the commission also needs to do more to help low-income families and renters invest in clean energy.
“They can’t afford to install rooftop solar,” he said.
Both candidates also complained about the basic service fees the PSC lets the utilities charge regardless of how much electricity or gas a customer consumes.
Blackman and Noel will face off for the Democratic nomination to challenge McDonald in a June 9 primary.
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., took some hits Sunday evening from six Democrats vying for their party’s nomination to challenge the GOP incumbent’s bid for a second term in the June 9 primary.
But much of the debate aired statewide on public television was taken up by candidates attacking each other’s records and whether their experience makes them qualified to sit in Congress.
Investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Jon Ossoff, who lost a bid for the U.S. House to Republican former U.S. Rep. Karen Handel in a special election in 2017, came under fire for lacking government experience.
But Ossoff said the kind of work he does uncovering political corruption is well suited for the Senate.
“At a moment when political corruption is destroying our democracy, when drug prices are through the roof because of the power of the drug industry, when the environment is being destroyed because of the power of polluting industries … an anti-corruption fighter is exactly what we need in the U.S. Senate,” he said.
Teresa Tomlinson, a former two-term mayor of Columbus, was questioned about aspects of her record in office, including overseeing a prison work camp that paid inmates just $3 a day.
She said she inherited a state-run prison labor program when she took office and acted to overhaul it.
“We completely reformed our budget … to remove our reliance on the work camp,” Tomlinson said. “It became more of a job training/rehabilitation center.”
Marietta businesswoman Sarah Riggs Amico, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2018, defended her car-hauling company’s decision to file for bankruptcy protection last year as a job-saving measure.
“We were caught in the middle of a pension crisis that the U.S. Senate has failed to address,” she said. “In restructuring, we gave up our family’s equity … to save 3,000 jobs without a single person taking a pay cut or a wage cut.”
The Democrats agreed on a number of issues, including the need for reforming America’s gun laws in a way that still protects the constitutional right to bear arms.
“I’m a firm supporter of the Second Amendment,” said James Knox, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran. “But I don’t believe you need to have a 50-round magazine. If you need 100 rounds, you need to get better at your sport.”
“We’re not, as Democrats, trying to take away guns,” added Marckeith DeJesus, a health-care professional. “We’re trying to keep guns out of the hands of those who are mentally unstable.”
The candidates also criticized the coronavirus relief packages huge bipartisan majorities in Congress have passed in recent weeks for steering too much of the aid to large businesses and not enough to workers.
“Democrats allowed it to go through without care or concern for the people at the bottom … working-class people,” said Maya Dillard Smith, a civil and human rights lawyer and former Georgia director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Democratic candidates also were unified in criticizing as premature the reopening of Georgia’s economy while the COVID-19 pandemic continues raging.
“We went back against CDC guidelines,” Tomlinson said. “It would be so much better if we had a plan to first get public safety straight. … That allows us to have economic prosperity.”
Most of the candidates endorsed the Green New Deal, a legislative package that aims to address climate change with job-creating clean energy investments. Amico called the issue a top-five priority of her campaign.
Much of the criticism of Perdue from the Democrats focused on his close ties to President Donald Trump. The incumbent also was accused of being overly dependent on campaign contributions from corporate political action committees.
Republican candidates sought to distinguish themselves in the crowded race for the 9th Congressional District in Georgia during a debate Sunday ahead of the June 9 primary election.
Their opinions ranged from lauding President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic to attacking each other’s background and voting records in the General Assembly. Many of the Republican candidates also highlighted their strong support for gun rights.
Meanwhile, a handful of Democratic contenders for the seat in the staunchly Republican district also weighed in with their views Sunday, diving into policy preferences on changes to health insurance and increasing the federal minimum wage.
The heavily Republican 9th District, which covers northeastern Georgia from Gainesville to Athens, is up in the air following the decision by current seat holder U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, a Republican, to run for U.S. Senate.
The Republicans
Hosted by the Atlanta Press Club, the debate Sunday drew eight of the nine Republican candidates. They largely alternated between praising and attacking each other during Sunday’s debate, while often calling for restrictions on businesses prompted by coronavirus to end.
State lawmakers running for the seat also sought to differentiate themselves from each other and the crowded pack.
State Rep. Matt Gurtler, who is known at the Georgia Capitol for voting against bills more often than other lawmakers, defended his approach as a limiting influence on the scope of government.
“It’s the natural proclivity of government to grow unless people and good conservatives stand up and draw a line in the sand and say enough’s enough,” said Gurtler, R-Tiger.
Gurtler then pressed his Georgia House colleague and competitor in the 9th District, Rep. Kevin Tanner, over legislation Tanner filed in the General Assembly to raise money for public transit in rural areas via levies on ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft.
Tanner, R-Dawsonville, batted back the criticism with a jab at Gurtler, stating that “there are some anarchists who believe there is no role for any government.”
“This is not government spending,” Tanner said. “It’s an investment.”
Tanner then singled out former U.S. Rep. Paul Broun over the conviction of his former chief of staff on obstruction charges in 2018 stemming from an ethics investigation into campaign finance issues.
Broun, who was never charged with any wrongdoing, accused Tanner of taking a cheap shot. Separately, Broun also called for Georgians to use “common sense” when returning to work amid coronavirus.
“I believe that people should do what’s necessary to keep themselves from getting coronavirus, the flu or anything else for that matter,” Broun said.
State Sen. John Wilkinson, R-Toccoa, highlighted his support for farmers who have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. He defended a bill pending in the General Assembly that aims to boost lawsuit protections for Georgia farmers but which critics have called too generous for large, nuisance-prone agricultural operations.
“I think the coronavirus outbreak has shown us the importance of Georgia-grown products,” Wilkinson said.
Beyond coronavirus, Ethan Underwood, an attorney and former Forsyth County GOP chair, highlighted his views on health care centered on easing rules for employer-provided insurance plans and restrictions on purchasing out-of-state insurance options.
“What we need to do is de-couple our health-care system from employers,” Underwood said.
The issue of gun rights also figured prominently in the debate, with several candidates weighing in to show their support for firearm protections. Kellie Weeks, a gun store owner, appeared in the virtual debate in front of a rack of weapons hanging on a wall behind her.
Asked about her experience in the pandemic, Weeks said her customers have been experiencing long delays in background checks when seeking to purchase guns lately.
“I would definitely put that in place that you cannot do that again,” Weeks said. “That’s some bad policy right there.”
Andrew Clyde, who on Sunday referred to the ongoing pandemic as the “Chinese coronavirus pandemic,” said he would push to undo federal background-check requirements and waiting periods under the 1993 Brady Act.
“It turns a constitutional right into a privilege granted by a corrupt department of the government,” said Clyde, a U.S. Navy veteran who also owns a gun store.
Michael Boggus, a crane operator, said he wants permitting requirements loosened for gun owners to allow them to more easily travel across state lines with their firearms.
“We shouldn’t be allowed to be told where we can and can’t go with our firearms,” Boggus said.
The Democrats
Georgia’s Democratic Party fielded far fewer candidates for the traditionally Republican-voting 9th District. The three Democratic hopefuls for the district seat touched on issues including health care, immigration reform and the challenges of overcoming strong local support for Republicans.
Some of the candidates diverged on their proposals for changing health insurance plans. Devin Pandy, an actor and U.S. Army veteran, said he supports universal health care but favors allowing people to keep their private insurance plans if they want.
“I believe that those things should go hand-in-hand so that everyone has a choice for the health care that suits them and their families,” Pandy said.
The candidates also highlighted economic issues in Hall County, which hosts the state’s important poultry industry and a growing Latino community. Dan Wilson, a retired reverend, said giving immigrant residents a clearer path to lawful residency would help strengthen the local economy.
“We can increase legal immigration and take care of some of the economic stresses that are being caused,” Wilson said.
Brooke Siskin, a small business owner, said she would push for raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour to ease financial burdens for struggling workers and incentivize productivity.
“We need to have a $15 minimum wage,” Siskin said. “Our cost of living has skyrocketed.”
