ATLANTA – A federal court began hearing legal challenges Tuesday to congressional and legislative redistricting maps the General Assembly’s Republican majorities drew two years ago based on the 2020 Census.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU’s Georgia chapter sued the state early last year, claiming the maps violate the federal Voting Rights Act by denying Black Georgians an equal opportunity to participate in the political process by electing candidates of their choice.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones dismissed the cases in March 2022 but only because the May primaries were approaching and he considered it too close to change the maps before voters went to the polls.
In July of this year, the same judge rejected a bid by the state for a summary judgement dismissing the suits and ruled the cases may move forward.
Georgia’s Black population during the last decade increased by 13%, according to the census, while the state’s white population declined by 1%. The two suits argue Republican state lawmakers failed to draw district boundaries that reflect those demographic changes.
According to the plaintiffs, the General Assembly should have drawn three new state Senate and five new state House districts that would have provided Black voters an equal opportunity to elect their preferred candidates. Instead, the GOP lost only two seats in the House and one in the Senate in last year’s elections.
Georgia Republicans added one seat to their majority in the state’s congressional delegation last year by redrawing the district of U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, in Atlanta’s northern suburbs into heavily Republican Forsyth, Dawson, and Cherokee counties. As a result, McBath ran and won in an adjacent district then served by fellow Democratic Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux of Lawrenceville.
“When districts are drawn to minimize the voices of Black voters in Georgia, it damages our democracy,” said Rahul Garabadu, senior voting rights staff attorney for the ACLU of Georgia. “We look forward to presenting our case at trial.”
Republicans countered that they followed the law in redrawing the maps after the 2020 Census.
“Georgia’s maps are fair and adhere to traditional principles of redistricting,” GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said last year when the lawsuits first came up in federal court. “I look forward to defending them.”
Voting rights advocates also are challenging redistricting maps drawn by Republican lawmakers in other states. On Tuesday, a three-judge federal court panel in Alabama indicated they will have a special master draw a new congressional map for that state after twice rejecting maps drawn by Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature.
In Georgia, a ruling against the state could force the General Assembly into a special session this fall to redraw the congressional and legislative maps.
ATLANTA – President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has released a $25 million, 16-week ad campaign that will air during pro football’s season opener in prime time this week.
The 30-second ads, which will air in Georgia and five other swing states, will tout Biden’s economic agenda, including getting inflation down to 3% and unemployment to its lowest level in decades.
“There’s more to do, but President Biden is getting results that matter,” the narrator says at the end of the ad.
Specifically, the ad lists actions by the Biden administration to improve the flow of goods through supply chains, fight corporate greed, lower the costs of medicine, cut utility bills, and make the U.S. energy independent.
The ads will run in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Las Vegas, and Raleigh, N.C., as well as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC.
The defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs will host the Detroit Lions on Thursday night in the opening game of the NFL season.
ATLANTA – President Joe Biden has announced his intent to nominate former state Rep. Calvin Smyre to represent the United States at the 78th Session of the United Nations later this month.
The Columbus Democrat served in the Georgia legislature for 48 years, including a stint as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He left the Gold Dome last year after Biden nominated him U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, an appointment that was later changed to ambassador to the Bahamas. The U.S. Senate has yet to confirm the nomination.
“This momentous announcement is a testament to … Representative Smyre’s enduring commitment to diplomacy, equality, and the wellbeing of people both within Georgia and across the globe,” the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus wrote in a statement released Monday.
“The former dean of the Georgia General Assembly has served the state of Georgia and the nation for over four decades. Now, he’ll be able to take his gifts and knowledge of helping the least and left out on the international stage.”
Elected to the Georgia House in 1974 at the age of 26, Smyre held numerous leadership positions over the years. He served as the first Black chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party and the first Black governor’s floor leader in the General Assembly.
Smyre chaired the powerful House Rules Committee before Republicans took control of the chamber in 2004.
His legislative record is highlighted by the critical role he played in replacing Georgia’s segregation-era state flag featuring the Confederate battle standard and by his sponsorship of legislation making Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a state holiday.
More recently, Smyre was a key player in the passage of a hate crimes law in Georgia in 2020 and the repeal of the state’s 1863 citizens arrest law after the murder of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery by three white men.
Smyre also has been active in national Democratic politics, co-chairing Bill Clinton’s Georgia presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996. He also served the Al Gore presidential campaign in 2000 as a deputy.
A banker, Smyre retired in 2014 as executive vice president of corporate affairs of Columbus-based Synovus Financial Corp. and president of Synovus Foundation.
The 78th Session of the UN General Assembly will run from Sept. 18 through Sept. 26.
ATLANTA – In 2017, the General Assembly passed legislation allowing craft breweries in Georgia for the first time to sell their product directly to consumers in limited quantities.
While the bill has helped spark a huge growth spurt in the industry, craft brewers say they are still hampered by a system that favors beer wholesalers.
“Senate Bill 85 was a great step forward,” said Joseph Cortes, executive director of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild. “[But] it left a lot of restrictions in place for our small brewers. … They’re still limited in what they can do within their four walls.”
Cortes’ group is gearing up to push for passage next year of legislation that was introduced in the state Senate this year but failed to reach the Senate floor for a vote.
Senate Bill 163, which remains alive for consideration in 2024, would repeal a provision in the 2017 law that limits craft brewers to selling no more than 288 ounces of beer per day – equivalent to one case – for off-premises consumption.
“That’s an artificially low barrier,” Cortes said. “Every other surrounding state except South Carolina has no limit or a larger limit.”
Instead, the bill would let craft brewers sell up to 3,000 cases of beer per year directly to retailers within a 100-mile radius of the brewery without going through a wholesale distributor.
While the bill hit a dead end in the Senate Regulated Industries Committee this year, there’s support for it among the chamber’s Republican majority, said Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, the measure’s chief sponsor.
“We are free-enterprise capitalist people,” he said. “That’s what this is.”
But the bill is sure to draw opposition from the wholesalers lobby, which helped sink it this year.
Martin Smith, executive director of the Georgia Beer Wholesalers Association, pointed to the rapid growth of the craft beer industry in the Peach State during the last decade as evidence craft brewers are doing fine under the current law.
From just 10 breweries statewide as recently as 2011, the number of breweries in Georgia has mushroomed to more than 150, including such high-profile brands as Sweetwater and Creature Comforts, Smith said.
“Georgia is already one of the nation’s top places to brew beer,” he said.
But Cortes said the existing law unfairly ties craft breweries to wholesalers in a way that drives up prices.
“The current system dictates that if a brewery wants to get a product to market, they have to enter an agreement with a wholesaler,” he said. “It’s nearly impossible to terminate that agreement or switch to another distributor.”
Cortes cited limits on craft breweries’ ability to self-distribute as a factor in forcing four or five breweries to go out of business.
“Openings are still outpacing closings,” he said. “But we’ve seen an alarming rate of closings in the last year. … They all cite issues with being able to get their products out to consumers in their communities.”
Hufstetler said the state of North Carolina allows breweries to self-distribute with no limits, and wholesalers have not suffered any adverse impacts.
“I haven’t seen any distributors go out of business because of it,” he said.
But Smith said giving craft breweries free rein would disrupt the “three-tier” system of beer producers, distributors, and retailers that has existed since the end of Prohibition.
“What the brewers are asking for would take away from a structure that’s there for healthy growth,” he said.
Hufstetler’s bill also would let craft brewers and brewpubs donate beer to charitable events, a right that only wholesalers enjoy under current law.
Cortes said he’s optimistic the bill will make it through the General Assembly next year, despite the wholesalers’ opposition.
ATLANTA – A Texas man has pleaded guilty to posting a message online threatening several Georgia public officials following the 2020 election.
Chad Christopher Stark, 55, of Leander, Texas, faces up to two years in prison on one count of sending a threat using a telecommunications device.
According to court records, around Jan. 5, 2021, the day before the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Stark posted a message to Craigslist entitled “Georgia Patriots it’s time to kill [Official A] the Chinese agent – $10,000.”
The message included the following: “It’s time to invoke our Second Amendment right it’s time to put a bullet in the treasonous Chinese [Official A]. Then we will work our way down to [Official B] the local and federal corrupt judges.
“It’s our duty as American Patriots to put an end to the lives of these traitors and take back our country by force. … If we want our country back we have to exterminate these people.”
The message went on to threaten a woman identified in the court records as “Official C.”
The threats were aimed at both Georgia elected officials and elections workers, Ryan Buchanan, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said Thursday.
“All across this country our fellow citizens and neighbors, including many retirees, choose to serve as elections officials, poll workers, and in other capacities to help ensure free and fair elections in the United States,” Buchanan said. “They serve out of a patriotic duty and appreciation for our nation and deserve to do so without fear of retaliation or threats of violence.”
“Today’s guilty plea plainly shows that anyone who threatens election officials online will be investigated by the FBI and held accountable for their words,” added Luis Quesada, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “We must take calls for violence seriously, whatever their form, especially when they have the potential to result in physical harm and undermine the integrity of U.S. elections.”
The investigation of Stark arose from the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, announced by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in June 2021 and launched by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
A sentencing date for Stark has not yet been set. A federal judge will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
