Rev. Raphael Warnock (front) campaigns with Stacey Abrams (back) on Election Day, Nov. 3, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – The 2022 election cycle has come early.
National Republican groups are already targeting Georgia Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s seat, less than two months after he took office following a historic win in January.
On Thursday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) — a premier fundraising arm backed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — launched an ad campaign condemning Warnock’s support for the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan Congress passed this week.
Warnock, who is Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator, declined to respond to the GOP-led ad on Thursday. He has framed the latest aid package as a boon for Georgians across the state who have struggled for a year to cope with the tough economic and social troubles wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Help is on the way,” Warnock said on Twitter Thursday shortly after President Joe Biden signed the relief package. “I’ll say it again: ‘Thank God for Georgia.’ ”
Warnock also noted the federal package includes aid for Black farmers in Georgia, following up on a pledge he made to minority agriculture workers during his 2020 campaign for Senate.
The ad marks a gearing-up for Republican operatives aiming to seize back the Senate seat held by Warnock, who must seek reelection in 2022 to a full six-year term.
Warnock ousted Republican former Sen. Kelly Loeffler in January to serve out the remaining two years of retired Sen. Johnny Isakson’s six-year term. Isakson stepped down at the end of 2019 as he battled cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
Electoral wins on Jan. 5, 2020 by Warnock and his Democratic co-campaigner, Sen. Jon Ossoff, flipped both of Georgia’s Senate seats to the Democrats for the first time in nearly two decades.
Their upset wins also handed Democrats control of both chambers in Congress and the White House, paving the way for another round of COVID-19 relief pushed by the Biden administration to gain final passage.
Biden, a Democrat who defeated former Republican President Donald Trump by 11,779 votes in Georgia during the 2020 general election, is scheduled to visit Atlanta next Friday (March 19) for a so-called “Help Is Here” tour to promote the newly enacted COVID-19 relief package he signed shortly after it passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Before I took office, I promised you that help was on the way,” Biden said on Twitter after the signing. “Today, I signed the American Rescue Plan into law, and can officially say: help is here.”
Republican lawmakers say the bill is bloated with a Democratic wish-list of financial relief benefiting undocumented persons, an abortion-rights agenda and aid to state governments run by Democratic governors.
“The people of Georgia did not expect the Democrats to respond to COVID by shipping billions of dollars to illegal immigrants, violent criminals and [New York] Governor [Andrew] Cuomo,” said the NRSC’s chairman, GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida. “Sadly, that’s exactly what Senator Warnock did.”
Democratic backers of the plan point out $300 billion will be sent directly to city and county governments, including public schools, marking a new payment round that skirts state oversight, unlike previous packages passed since March of 2020.
They highlight Georgia’s share of the new relief funds will hand the state more than $8 billion in COVID-19 aid, of which a large chunk would go straight to struggling city and county governments and give them more flexibility to shore up their pandemic-struck budgets.
“With the final passage of the American Rescue Plan in the House of Representatives today, Georgians are one step closer to getting the help they need to overcome the unprecedented public health and economic crises we face,” said Scott Hogan, executive director of the Democratic Party of Georgia.
“Georgia’s Democratic congressional delegation has been at the forefront of the fight to deliver big, bold relief to Americans, and with this bill’s passage, Democrats are fulfilling the promises made to Georgians to send direct payments, aid small businesses, ramp up vaccinations, and help schools reopen.”
The national criticism of Warnock’s vote in favor of the COVID-19 relief comes as Georgia’s top Republican leadership also slammed the aid plan’s details, even as they eye bids to shore up state political power in 2022.
Gov. Brian Kemp, who is seeking re-election in 2022, has called Georgia’s share of the latest relief round too paltry compared to the money pots for New York and California.
House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, has also savaged the relief package, on grounds that it would restrict state and local governments from cutting taxes and backfilling funding gaps with federal dollars.
Meanwhile, the field is wide open in 2022 for Georgia Republican candidates to challenge Warnock, the senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Already, his opponent in the last election, Loeffler, has announced plans to run a grassroots group meant to motivate conservative Georgians, akin to successful Democratic mobilization efforts overseen by former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who will likely wage a second campaign fight for governor against Kemp in 2022.
Former Sen. David Perdue, who lost to Ossoff in the Jan. 5 runoff, toyed with the idea of running for his old seat but declared last month he would not do so.
The federal “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021” gained final passage in Congress on Wednesday by a vote of 220-211, with all but one Democrat supporting it and all of the Republicans voting “no.”
The relief plan includes $1,400 economic stimulus checks for Americans earning up to $75,000 a year and couples earning up to $150,000 annually, an extension of $300-per-week in unemployment benefits, aid to state and local governments, funds to help schools reopen safely and an expanded federal child tax credit.
It also provides new funding for small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program and additional funding to administer COVID-19 vaccines and expand testing and contact tracing.
Georgia’s six U.S. House Democrats voted in favor of the legislation. The state’s eight House Republicans opposed it.
Coronavirus has sickened hundreds of thousands people and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Georgians ages 55 and older as well as those with a variety of health issues will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines starting next Monday amid a recent boost in supplies, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday.
Vaccines could also potentially be available for all Georgia adults starting next month if the current number of shots that federal officials are sending weekly to the state continues to increase as it has in recent weeks, Kemp said at a news conference.
“Provided we continue to see increasing vaccine supply, it is our intent to open up vaccination to all adults the first part of next month,” Kemp said.
Along with adults 55-years and older, vaccines will be open starting March 15 to Georgians with health conditions including cancer, moderate-to-severe asthma, heart conditions, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, hypertension, liver disease, COPD, chronic kidney disease, cerebrovascular disease and compromised immune systems.
Kemp said he is expanding eligibility to keep pace with the increasing supply of vaccines Georgia is receiving from the federal government and to avoid seeing lagging demand among currently eligible people. Georgia is currently receiving weekly shipments of 223,000 vaccine doses.
“Adding these additional high-risk Georgians will mean that vaccination will be available to categories that have accounted for 92% of our deaths due to COVID-19 in Georgia,” Kemp said.
“As we have from the beginning, we will protect the most vulnerable to severe illness, hospitalization or death, and enable Georgians to get back to normal.”
The newly eligible Georgians add to a growing list of vaccine-eligible people including school teachers and staff, health-care workers, nursing home residents and staff, first responders, those with mental and behavioral health issues, parents of children with medical conditions and people ages 65 and older.
Nearly 2.5 million vaccines have been given so far in Georgia, including to roughly two-thirds of all people 65-years and older in the state, according to Kemp’s office. Vaccination rates have climbed as the state receives more doses of the Pfizer, Moderna and recently approved Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
Kemp, who said he will get the vaccine soon, urged teachers and others who are already eligible for vaccines to sign up for appointments now with demand about to spike from the newly eligible group of Georgians starting next week.
“This is your opportunity, these days ahead, to get in the queue and get your vaccines,” Kemp said. “This is going to move rapidly, especially in certain parts of the state, and what we want is for people to get vaccinated.”
Georgians can pre-register for a vaccine appointment at myvaccinegeorgia.com even if they do not yet qualify under the governor’s eligibility criteria. They will be notified once they qualify and scheduled for an appointment.
The governor also said his administration is aiming to quickly expand eligibility further to Georgians who have been hit hard by the pandemic including restaurant, agriculture and grocery workers. How soon those groups will be able to get the vaccine depends on supplies holding steady.
“We want to move that population as quickly as we can and try to protect them and keep our economy going,” Kemp said. “All of this helps get us back to normal.”
Georgia has been ratcheting up to distribute vaccines since the first Pfizer and Moderna doses started arriving in mid-December, particularly through moves to open several mass vaccination sites in different regions throughout the state.
So far, state officials have opened four mass vaccination sites in metro Atlanta, Macon, Albany and Habersham County, and are set to open another five sites next week in Savannah, Columbus, Waycross and Bartow and Washington counties.
The vaccine ramp-up comes as COVID-19 positive case rates and hospitalizations continue falling after a surging outbreak that swept over the Georgia around the winter holiday season. Hospitals have seen a fall in COVID-19 patients from around 5,700 during the winter to 1,500 currently, Kemp said. Deaths traced to the virus are also starting to decline, he added.
“Every metric in the COVID-19 pandemic is headed in the right direction,” Kemp said.
More than 830,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Tuesday afternoon, with nearly 197,000 more reported positive antigen tests indicating likely positive results. The virus has killed 15,647 Georgians.
Low-income children in Georgia are set to soon have an easier path to collecting Medicaid benefits under legislation that passed out of the General Assembly on Wednesday.
Sponsored by state Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, the bill would create an “express lane” for families eligible for food stamps to be automatically enrolled in Georgia’s Medicaid program, rather than having to fill out separate paperwork.
Pending approval from the federal government, the automatic enrollment would allow an estimated 60,000 Medicaid-eligible children who receive food stamps to also join the joint state-federal health program, according to the nonprofit advocacy group Georgians for a Healthy Future.
The bill passed the state Senate unanimously on Wednesday after advancing out of the Georgia House of Representatives last month, also by unanimous vote. It now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, who carried Cooper’s bill in the Senate, said the express-lane format would help cut out cumbersome paperwork and bring more children with medical issues into the Medicaid fold.
“It reduces duplicative services, it reduces bureaucracy and actually gives services to children in need,” Watson said from the Senate floor. “It’s good from a hospital perspective … and it’s good from a government perspective as well.”
Passage of Cooper’s bill comes amid a spike in Medicaid enrollment among low-income Georgians during the COVID-19 pandemic, as enrollment in the state grew by about 338,000 between March of last year and December.
The bill also comes as Georgia’s partial Medicaid-expansion plan has been thrown into doubt after President Joe Biden’s administration moved last month to roll back work requirements for Medicaid eligibility put in place under former President Donald Trump.
Georgia’s partial-Medicaid expansion plan, set to take effect in July, requires eligible adults to work, attend school or volunteer at least 80 hours each month. Critics say the work requirement would leave in the lurch many Georgians who would otherwise qualify for benefits.
The plan would cover adults earning up to 100% of the federal poverty line, adding an estimated 50,000 more beneficiaries, according to state figures. Currently, Georgia Medicaid covers adults with incomes about 35% of the federal poverty line, as well as children in households making up to 138% of the poverty line and low-income senior, blind and disabled adults.
Democratic state lawmakers have long pushed for full Medicaid expansion in Georgia, which would cover adults up to 138% of the poverty line and could add 500,000 more recipients to the program. Republican lawmakers have blocked their attempts, arguing the cost-sharing arrangement between the state and federal governments would still be too expensive for Georgia.
The Georgia Senate convened to vote on several major bills on voting and elections on March 8, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
The Georgia Senate has struck down a measure aimed at hiking salaries for members of the General Assembly as well as several other top state officials.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Valencia Seay, D-Riverdale, proposed raising salaries for Georgia elected officials including the lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state school superintendent, and the commissioners of agriculture, insurance and labor.
Backers argued the salary increases for state lawmakers would open the General Assembly’s membership to average-earning Georgians and not just more wealthy and retired politicians.
Opponents shot down the measure on Monday’s annual Crossover Day in the General Assembly as less of a priority for lawmakers compared with impactful elections and criminal-justice bills still winding their way through the current legislative session.
The measure failed by a 20-33 vote with most Republican senators and one Democratic senator voting against it.
Under the bill, salaries would have been increased for most statewide positions. The secretary of state’s salary would have risen from about $123,000 to $147,000, and the attorney general’s income would have gone from about $139,000 to $164,000.
The lieutenant governor also would have gotten a salary bump, climbing from about $92,000 to $135,000, according to the bill.
The salary for the speaker of Georgia’s House of Representatives, who is among the state’s most powerful elected officials, would have increased from $99,000 a year to $135,000.
State lawmakers in both chambers, meanwhile, would have earned a salary raise from roughly $17,000 a year to $29,908, marking a cushion aimed at giving more Georgians a chance to seek office and support themselves without financial stress.
A separate but largely identical measure in the House of Representatives sponsored by Rep. Wes Cantrell, R-Woodstock, was scheduled for a vote Monday but did not receive consideration, likely signaling it is dead for the year.
That measure’s chances to advance in the legislature plummeted after the Senate’s vote to scuttle Seay’s bill, despite the pay raises being endorsed by House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge.
Legislation to extend the statute of limitations for Georgians who were sexually abused as children to sue their abusers years later as adults has cleared the state House of Representatives.
House lawmakers passed the bill unanimously late on Monday’s annual Crossover Day deadline and sent it on to the Georgia Senate.
Sponsored by Rep. Heath Clark, R-Warner Robins, the bill would extend the deadline for victims to bring lawsuits against their childhood abusers from age 23 to 38, an increase from current law but pared back from an earlier version of the bill that set 52 as the cut-off age.
A previous stab by Clark at the bill stalled in the Senate last year as the General Assembly paused the legislative session due to COVID-19.
Speaking from the House floor on Monday, Clark said his bill aims to bring justice for Georgians sexually abused as children and to hold accountable both their abusers and the organizations that turned a blind eye.
“These organizations were breaking the law of Georgia by not reporting the events that were happening under their care,” Clark said. “So we are going after the criminals.”
The bill would let victims sue their alleged abusers up to a year after realizing that past abuse has led to present-day trauma, effective July 1. Research shows adults often tend to recognize the impacts of childhood sex abuse decades after it happened.
Controversially, the bill would also give victims a four-year window to sue public and private organizations like the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America for harboring predators on staff who abused them as children.
Under the bill, victims would have to prove with “clear and convincing” evidence – a high legal hurdle – that those organizations both knew about the abuse and let it happen under their watch.
Lawsuits could only be brought if the abuse happened since July 1, 1983, marking another pull-back from earlier versions of the bill that made abuse that occurred since 1973 subject to litigation.
Trial attorneys have warned opening the lawsuit window for victims decades after their abuse could open a floodgate of litigation in Georgia, noting hundreds of suits were filed in New York shortly after that state passed a similar statute-of-limitations extension in 2019.
Representatives from the Boy Scouts and Catholic Church, which have both been rocked by child sex-abuse scandals in recent years, also previously opposed the bill on grounds that litigation could expose their organizations to huge legal fees.
