ATLANTA – A new poll shows President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden running even in Georgia with Election Day just two weeks away, as are Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue and Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff.
The same poll of 759 likely Georgia voters released by The New York Times and Siena College shows GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler has opened up a lead over Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Collins behind Democrat Raphael Warnock in the fight for second place and a spot in an expected runoff for Georgia’s other Senate race.
The survey, conducted by telephone Oct 13 through Oct. 19, has Trump and Biden tied at 45%, the same result as in a previous New York Times/Siena poll released on Sept. 24.
“Georgians seem locked in and equally divided when it comes to their choice for president,” said Don Levy, director of the Siena College Research Institute. “Democrats remain committed to Biden, Republicans remain committed to Trump and independents are tilting a little in Biden’s direction.”
The demographic divides between the two candidates also have remained about the same in Georgia. Men support Trump by 12 points, while women back Biden by 10 points.
Biden is the overwhelming favorite of Black voters, with the support of 81%. Trump has the support of 65% of white voters.
Whites without a college degree back Trump 76% to 18%, but the president’s support among whites with a college degree is a much narrower 52% to 40%.
The poll also showed Perdue and Ossoff deadlocked at 43%, with Libertarian Shane Hazel at 5%. Last month’s survey had Perdue up by 3%.
Meanwhile, Democrat Warnock, the pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, is the leader in the special election to complete the unexpired term of retired Sen. Johnny Isakson.
The Siena poll showed Warnock with 32%, followed by Loeffler with 23% and Collins with 17%. None of the other candidates in the crowded field broke single digits.
Loeffler, appointed to the Senate by Gov. Brian Kemp late last year, and Collins, a veteran congressman and former member of the General Assembly, have been waging brutal campaigns to win the right to take on Warnock, the Democratic frontrunner, in a second round in early January. With about 20 candidates on the special election ballot, it’s highly likely no one will amass the 50%-plus-one vote margin on Nov. 3 needed to avoid a runoff.
The poll’s margin of error was plus-or-minus 4.1%.
ATLANTA – A former health-care executive in Gwinnett County has been sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison for delaying the shipment of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus pandemic.
Christopher Dobbins, 41, of Duluth pleaded guilty in July to hacking his former employer, the medical device packing company Stradis Healthcare, and sabotaging their electronic shipping records, causing more than $200,000 in damage.
“As businesses worked to get PPE into the hands of those most in need of it, Dobbins chose to hack his former employer and maliciously interrupt that process,” said Byung J. “BJay” Pak, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. “His actions caused delays in the delivery of desperately needed equipment in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.”
Before being fired last March, Dobbins had administrator access to the computer systems containing the company’s shipping information, Pak said.
Three days after receiving his final paycheck, Dobbins used a fake user account that he had previously created to log into the company’s computer systems. He then conducted a computer intrusion that disrupted and delayed the medical device packaging company’s shipments of PPEs.
While logged in through the fake user account, Dobbins created a second fake user account and then used that second account to edit 115,581 records and delete approximately 2,371 records. The edits and deletions disrupted the company’s shipping processes, causing delays in the delivery of much-needed PPEs to health-care providers.
Besides the prison sentence, Dobbins also was ordered to pay $221,200 in restitution.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of Georgia’s Coronavirus Fraud Task Force, formed by state and federal prosecutors to protect Georgians from criminal fraud arising from the pandemic.
Georgia public school officials have released a plan calling for the number of year-end tests required for the state’s K-12 students to be drastically reduced and replaced with assessments and coursework tailored more to individual students.
Called “A Roadmap to Reimagining K-12 Education,” the eight-page plan outlines broad steps officials want to take to shrink the importance of standardized tests, give local school districts flexibility over evaluating student and teacher performance and free up money for technology and internet access.
Specifically, the plan proposes lobbying for changes to federal law that would allow schools to adopt “grade-band testing” in which students take year-end tests only in the 3rd, 5th, and 8th grades, as well only once in high school. That would round out to less than a dozen tests overall, according to the plan.
The staggered testing schedule would create “off years” in which students would be graded based on separate metrics that are not the typical high-stakes tests. Teachers would have more time to focus on making sure students learn the material, rather than worry about preparing for tests.
“We cannot return to the status quo of over-testing and hyper-accountability,” said State School Superintendent Richard Woods. “We must reimagine what our education system can and must become.”
The plan’s release follows a push by Woods to scrap year-end tests entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic, a move that federal education officials denied last month and which the state Board of Education balked at implementing on their own earlier this month.
Many of the plan’s goals would likely require approval from the federal government and state lawmakers, such as a proposal to make the Teacher of the Year an ex-officio member of the state education board.
Approval from state lawmakers would likely also be needed to implement funding proposals such as boosting money for transportation and allowing local sales-tax revenues to be used for purchasing electronic devices for online learning.
But other ideas could potentially be accomplished by school officials without need for oversight approval, such as a proposal to have every student graduate with advanced-placement, dual-enrollment or career credits.
The plan follows up on legislation passed and signed into law this year that eliminated five year-end tests for Georgia students and largely aligns with Gov. Brian Kemp’s push to de-emphasize high-stakes standardized testing.
“Building on a moment that showed the best of who we are as Georgians, and on the work of the past several years, now is the time to cast a clear vision of what our education system can be – and how our children’s futures can unfold,” Woods said.
ATLANTA – Georgia and 10 other states joined the Justice Department Tuesday in filing a lawsuit aimed at preventing Google from unlawfully maintaining monopolies through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices.
The suit accuses the tech giant of entering into a series of exclusionary agreements to lock up the primary avenues through which users access internet search engines.
“On behalf of Georgians, our office joined this lawsuit to address Google’s potential anticompetitive conduct in order to maintain a fair and free market for consumers, advertisers and all companies now reliant on the internet economy,” state Attorney General Chris Carr said.
The suit alleges that Google’s anticompetitive practices have had harmful effects on competition and consumers by preventing any meaningful search competitor from gaining vital distribution. Restricting competition has reduced the quality of internet searches, offering less choice and innovation, the plaintiffs claim.
The suit also complains that restricting competition allows Google to charge advertisers higher rates than it could in a competitive market.
In response, Google called the lawsuit “deeply flawed” but made no other statement.
There’s a history of legal challenges to Big Tech. In 2001, the Justice Department working with a coalition of states filed suit against Microsoft and won a decision declaring federal antitrust laws forbid anticompetitive agreements by high-tech monopolies. The suit against Google claims it is using similar agreements to maintain and extend its dominance.
Congress also has been involved in efforts to rein in Google and other huge tech companies. Tech CEOs representing Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook were called a U.S. House committee during the summer.
Earlier this month, the House antitrust subcommittee released a lengthy report following a yearlong investigation concluding there is substantial evidence the tech giants’ market power has reduced consumer choice by hampering competition.
States participating in the lawsuit against Google besides Georgia include Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina and Texas.
U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler (left), U.S. Rep. Doug Collins (center) and Rev. Raphael Warnock (right) are competing in the Nov. 3 special election.
Candidates vying for U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s seat from Georgia squared off for the first time in a debate Monday that touched on the coronavirus response, criminal justice reforms and concerns that not all challengers are getting a fair shake in the crowded free-for-all race.
Sixteen candidates including Loeffler took the stage in two separate debates hosted back-to-back by the Atlanta Press Club, marking a split format that several candidates said did not give them a real shot at taking on the incumbent senator.
Loeffler, an Atlanta businesswoman and Republican who was appointed to replace retired U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson in January, continued her war of words with GOP rival U.S. Rep. Doug Collins in the marquee debate.
Their clash surfaced many of the talking points they have employed in the campaign for months heading toward next month’s election, in which both Republicans have sought to cast their opponent as less conservative and more aligned with left-leaning causes and policies.
The two Republicans also stepped up attacks during the debate against the race’s Democratic frontrunner, Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, who is poised for a runoff in January against either Loeffler or Collins.
And candidates from a range of parties pecked at the three leading candidates during both debates, as well as the Republican and Democratic parties and local media outlets, which they claimed have shut them out of the political process by devoting less press coverage to their candidacies.
The special election, which by law must host all candidates on the same ballot to fill the remaining two years of Isakson’s Senate term, is set for Nov. 3. If none of the roughly 20 candidates in the ballot win more than 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held in January between the top two finishers.
The issues
Echoing the overall tone of this Senate race, much of the back-and-forth featured in Monday’s frontrunners’ debate centered on Collins and Loeffler, who each punched the other on their records in office, their personal backgrounds and which candidate is a bigger supporter of President Donald Trump.
Collins, a U.S. Air Force Reserve chaplain who has served four terms in Congress as well as a stint in the General Assembly, posed his experience as a contrast to the appointed Loeffler and argued certain attacks she has made on him reveal misunderstandings with how the legislative process works.
In particular, Collins raised the issue of Loeffler’s use of wealth in the campaign, to which she has devoted $20 million so far of her own money as a former executive in the company run by her billionaire husband, Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeffrey Sprecher.
“She doesn’t want people to know about her past,” Collins said. “That’s the reason she’s spending money.”
Loeffler, who has long touted her rural roots growing up on a family farm in Illinois, has batted back criticism of her wealth and sought to cast herself as a largely self-funded candidate like Trump who is spending her money for the cause of public service.
“Doug Collins doesn’t know me,” Loeffler said Monday. “I don’t need advice from a failed career politician who has built his campaign on lies about someone who is a true conservative.”
The spat continued into Loeffler and Collins’ records and past political activities, with Loeffler accusing Collins of voting often with Democratic favorite Stacey Abrams while in the state legislature and Collins pressing Loeffler to delist Chinese companies from the New York Stock Exchange, which is owned by her husband’s company.
Meanwhile, Warnock fended off an attack from Loeffler over past comments he made criticizing police officers from the pulpit, which were featured on a Fox News segment that both Republican candidates have highlighted.
Warnock, who hails from Savannah, stressed he does not support calls from many Democratic leaders and groups to defund police agencies and noted he believes “it’s possible to appreciate the work that law enforcement members do and at the same time hold them accountable.”
“I do think it’s lamentable that the senator would use her power to politicize an issue where people are literally dying on the streets,” Warnock said Monday.
Warnock also raised the recent controversial endorsement of Loeffler by Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican in line to win the 14th Congressional District seat who has made past comments echoing views expressed in the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Loeffler, who has embraced the firebrand Greene, said she does not “know anything about QAnon” but denounces all hate crimes. Collins outright condemned QAnon, while simultaneously challenging Warnock to disavow the so-called Antifa movement on the left.
“I condemn violence no matter where it shows up,” Warnock said.
On the issue of the COVID-19 pandemic, Loeffler reiterated her stance that China played a direct role in allowing the virus to spread to the U.S. and should be punished, both for that health crisis as well as for cavalier trade practices that Trump has also made a hallmark of his administration.
“I will not be an apologist or a shill for China,” Loeffler said. “China brought this disease to our country.”
Collins backed the president’s often-criticized response to the pandemic, noting Trump was quick to close travel between China and the U.S. He urged Georgia businesses and schools to continue reopening with social distancing and sanitization practices.
“Georgia is living proof that you can actually get the economy going and get our state going at the same time and actually make sure the virus is kept in check,” Collins said.
And Warnock stuck with a solidly Democratic position that Trump and state leaders have botched the pandemic response by not enforcing rules like mask-wearing more strictly.
“I wish that the folks who are serving in Washington would pay attention to the science instead of politicizing something as basic and obvious as wearing a mask,” Warnock said.
‘It hurts our republic’
Meanwhile, several candidates criticized the debate process and party leadership on both sides for putting too much emphasis on Loeffler, Collins and Warnock in the race.
Most notably, educator and health-care consultant Matt Lieberman urged Georgians to not “vote for one of these three stooges,” arguing he represented the best chance for voters to pick a candidate who would not be beholden to major party figures and agendas.
“The establishment Republican and establishment Democratic candidates in this race are like party drones,” said Lieberman, the son of former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. “What’s the good for us in Georgia to have a senator who’s just going to be about agreeing with Donald Trump or [U.S. Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell or [U.S. Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer or anyone like that?”
Former U.S. Attorney Ed Tarver, who like Lieberman has faced calls to drop out of the race and make way for Warnock, touted his experience as a lawyer, U.S. Army veteran and former state senator to argue why he should keep campaigning.
“I think we’ve gotten a chance to see why many believe that our government in Washington is as polarized as many have ever seen, why many think it’s broken and divided and that people have forgotten about the simple commitment to represent Georgians and not represent political parties,” Tarver said.
Others like Libertarian candidate Brian Slowinski also took jabs at party leadership and media outlets that they feel have shut them out of the process with little news coverage and the split debate format, in which candidates who have not polled higher than 3% shared a different stage from those who have polled higher.
“I also want to talk about candidate suppression as well,” Slowinski said. “It hurts our republic when not everybody is being covered.”
The 10 candidates who shared the second-tier stage expressed similar points while articulating a variety of policy proposals ranging from universal basic income and the Green New Deal to terms limits in Congress and a flat fair tax.
They included Al Bartell, Alan Buckley, John Fortuin, Derrick Grayson, Annette Davis Jackson, Deborah Jackson, Tamara Johnson-Shealey, Valencia Stovall, Kandiss Taylor and Richard Dien Winfield.
