Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer at the Georgia secretary of state’s office, was ‘swatted’ this week. (Secretary of State video)
ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is calling on the General Assembly to pass legislation increasing penalties for transmitting false alarms amid an outbreak of “swatting” incidents.
False reports of criminal activity that send police to the homes or offices of targeted victims have cropped up across the country in recent weeks. In Georgia, victims have included three Republican state senators, a Democratic state senator, GOP Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome.
The alarming trend struck home in Raffensperger’s office this week when Gabriel Sterling, the secretary of state’s chief operating officer, joined the list of swatting victims.
“It is deeply troubling to see a rise in swatting and other physical threats,” Raffensperger said. “We expect heightened tensions as we head into a major presidential election. (But) we expect American citizens to engage in the democratic process – not resort to cowardly acts of intimidation.”
Raffensperger introduced legislation in 2016 while serving as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives to increase the penalty for transmitting a false public alarm from one year in prison to 10. He is urging lawmakers to reconsider the measure.
State Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Buford, announced last week that he plans to introduce a bill strengthening penalties for false reporting and misuse of police forces.
The General Assembly will convene the 2024 legislative session under the Gold Dome on Monday.
ATLANTA – State Sen. Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton, is running for the U.S. House seat in Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District being vacated by Rep. Drew Ferguson.
Dugan was elected to the General Assembly in 2012. His 30th Senate District includes portions of Carroll, Douglas, Haralson and Paulding counties.
Dugan became then-Gov. Nathan Deal’s floor leader before he was elected Senate majority leader by his Senate colleagues in 2018.
But he lost a bid for Senate president pro tempore at the beginning of last year’s legislative session. Last month, he was the only Republican in the Senate to vote against the new Senate redistricting map drawn by the GOP majority, objecting to changes to his district.
“It is time to get back to a government that works for the people, and I would be honored to be the voice that represents Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District,” Dugan said in a statement.
Ferguson, R-West Point, announced last month he would be leaving Congress after four terms to spend more time with his family.
Dugan spent 20 years in the Army, serving as a ranger and master paratrooper. He retired from the military as a lieutenant colonel in 2008 and currently works as a construction contractor.
The race for the heavily Republican 3rd District seat is expected to draw a large number of GOP candidates. The qualifying period for candidates will take place in March.
Dugan is leaving the state Senate this week to devote his efforts to the congressional campaign. Gov. Brian Kemp has set a special election for Feb. 13 to fill the seat.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp named a new executive counsel Thursday, part of a series of staffing changes in the governor’s office.
Kristyn Long will become the Kemp administration’s lawyer at the end this month, succeeding David Dove, who is leaving state government to join the prestigious Atlanta law firm Troutman Pepper as a partner. Long has been serving as the state’s chief operating officer.
“Kristyn Long has been essential to our state’s successful response to the unprecedented challenges of the past few years,” Kemp said.
Before taking on her current role, Long previously served as deputy chief operating officer and deputy executive counsel. Prior to joining the Kemp administration in 2020, she worked in private practice, focusing on civil litigation, probate litigation, and estate planning.
Filling Long’s role as chief operating officer will be Russell Crutchfield, who has been serving as chief of staff and associate vice president at the University of West Georgia since 2016. Before that, Crutchfield held several leadership position with state agencies, including the departments of Community Health, Public Health, and Labor.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded a nearly $6.6 million contract in an ambitious plan to replace the cables on the Talmadge Bridge in Savannah and potentially raise it to accommodate larger cargo ships.
The contract went to Kiewit Infrastructure South Co. of Peachtree City, which will work with project designer Parsons Transportation Group to provide recommendations throughout the pre-construction phase of the work.
It’s the DOT’s first Construction Management/General Contractor (CM/GC) contract, a nontraditional model that accelerates the delivery of much-needed transportation improvements by getting the contractor involved as the project is being designed.
“Our first CM/GC procurement was successful, with three finalist teams and a competitive process leading to an extremely strong team selected for this first-of-its-kind project,” said Andrew Hoenig, the DOT’s construction program manager for projects built through public-private partnerships.
The State Transportation Board approved using the CM/GC procurement method last year, then brought on Parsons Transportation Group in August.
Preconstruction services will begin during the first quarter of this year, with construction of the $150 million to $175 million project set to start early in 2025.
In addition to structural improvements to the cable-stayed bridge across the Savannah River, the contractor will explore shortening the cables to provide additional vertical clearance for ships moving into and out of the Port of Savannah’s terminals directly upstream.
While some bridge projects across the nation have involved replacing cables, combining the cable work with raising the bridge would be a first, Hoenig told board members in November. The project is expected to take two-and-a-half to three years to complete.
ATLANTA – A federal judge has ruled in favor of a Texas-based conservative group in a lawsuit over its effort to lodge more than 364,000 challenges to Georgia voters’ eligibility.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, the same jurist who upheld state’s new congressional and legislative district maps last week, declared Tuesday that True the Vote’s actions did not constitute illegal voter intimidation as alleged by Fair Fight Action, the voting rights group founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams.
True the Vote filed challenges in December 2020 ahead of two runoff elections that vaulted Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock into the U.S. Senate, claiming the affected voters appeared to be ineligible to vote because of changes in residency. Local elections offices rejected most of the challenges.
Jones found that the groups’ actions did not rise to the level of violating the Voting Rights Act.
“This decision is monumental,” said Jake Evans, lead attorney for True the Vote in the case. “It vindicates True the Vote in totality and establishes that eligibility challenges under Section 230 (of the federal law) are a proper method to ensure voter rolls are accurate.”
But other portions of Jones’ ruling criticized the organization’s process for challenging voters.
“As the federal court weighed the evidence presented about True the Vote’s tactics in the 2021 runoff elections, it did not hold back its criticisms of the Texas group’s methods,” said Cianti Stewart-Reid, Fair Fight’s executive director. “To the contrary, the 145-page opinion expressly states the court ‘in no way is condoning (True the Vote’s) actions in facilitating a mass number of seemingly frivolous challenges.’ “
A sweeping overhaul of state election law the General Assembly passed in 2021 after the Senate runoffs and after the lawsuit was filed allows individuals to file an unlimited number of voter eligibility challenges.
