ATLANTA – Georgia House Democrats have chosen state Rep. James Beverly of Macon as minority leader.
When the General Assembly convenes in January, Beverly will succeed Rep. Bob Trammell, D-Luthersville, who lost his reelection bid last week.
Beverly previously served as minority caucus chairman, a role that now will be filled by Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain.
During a House Democratic Caucus meeting Tuesday, Democrats also elected Rep. David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, to serve as minority whip. Rep. Debra Bazemore, D-South Fulton, will work with Wilkerson as chief deputy whip.
Rep. Erica Thomas, D-Austell, will work with Mitchell as caucus vice chair.
Democrats chose Rep. Mary Robichaux, D-Roswell, to serve as caucus treasurer, and Rep. Park Cannon, D-Atlanta, as secretary.
House Democrats scored a net gain of two seats in the legislature’s lower chamber in last week’s elections, well below the 16 seats Democrats needed to seize control from Republicans, who have held a majority in the House since 2005.
ATLANTA – A Georgia nonprofit is about to launch a fundraising campaign for a planned GRAMMY Museum in downtown Atlanta that would help train Georgia college students for careers in the music industry.
Georgia Music Accord, which is co-chaired by Atlanta-based musician Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and entertainment lawyer Joel Katz, is looking for a mix of private donations, corporate sponsorships and government funding to build the museum near existing downtown tourist attractions.
“We think this is something that’s going to have a tremendous economic impact in Georgia,” Brad Olecki, CEO of Georgia Music Accord, told members of a state Senate study committee Tuesday.
The Senate Study Committee on Music Workforce Development has been meeting this fall to look for ways to leverage Georgia’s rich musical heritage into building a thriving music industry in the Peach State modeled after the success of the film industry here.
Olecki said by highlighting Georgia’s musical heritage from James Brown to the Allman Brothers Band to R.E.M., the museum would raise awareness of the state’s huge contributions to American music.
“Most people in Georgia don’t understand how impactful the music industry is,” he said. “We don’t promote it enough ourselves.”
Besides the museum’s potential impact on tourism, the project also would include education and workforce development components.
Olecki said the museum plans to create an education curriculum for elementary and secondary students to stimulate interest in music careers, both for performers and non-performers.
“It’s not just about putting instruments in kids’ hands,” he said. “It’s about teaching these young people there is a job for them out in the music world without being able to play a single note.”
The museum would contribute to workforce development in Georgia by enhancing the offerings of the state’s colleges and universities, including plans to build a “scoring stage” that could be used for mixing music in films, TV production and video games.
“This way, scoring post-production won’t leave the state,” he said. “We need to keep these jobs and people here.”
Keith Perissi, director of the Joel A. Katz Music and Entertainment Business Program at Kennesaw State University, said 60% of the program’s graduates stay in Georgia to launch their careers. The program is affiliated with the GRAMMY Museum.
“It’s a wonderful pipeline … to our colleges and universities,” Perissi said.
An agreement between the Los Angeles-based GRAMMY Museum Foundation and Georgia Music Accord follows a $500,000 feasibility study underwritten by the state and Fulton County.
ATLANTA – Georgia House Republicans renominated Speaker David Ralston Monday to another two-year term as the chamber’s leader and reelected their entire leadership team.
Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, has served as speaker since 2010. Voters in House District 7 in Northwest Georgia reelected Ralston last week with nearly 84% of the vote over his Democratic opponent.
The House Republican Caucus also renominated Rep. Jan Jones, R-Milton, to serve as speaker pro tempore.
Both Ralston and Jones are virtually assured keeping their jobs when the full General Assembly meets in January because Republicans held onto their House majority last week, although they suffered a net loss of two seats.
Meanwhile, the caucus reelected Rep. Jon Burns, R-Newington, to continue as House majority leader. Rep. Trey Kelley, R-Cedartown, will remain majority whip.
Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, will return as caucus chairman, with Rep. Micah Gravley, R-Douglasville, back as caucus vice chairman.
Rep. Bruce Williamson, R-Monroe, will continue serving as caucus secretary and treasurer.
The 2021 General Assembly session will begin on Jan. 11.
President-elect Joe Biden campaigned at Warm Springs, Ga., last month. (Biden campaign video)
ATLANTA – The last time a non-incumbent Democrat won a statewide race in Georgia was 1998 when Roy Barnes was elected governor.
President-elect Joe Biden was closing in Saturday on ending that 22-year record of futility. Hours after Biden clinched the presidency by carrying his birth state of Pennsylvania, the Democratic challenger was leading President Donald Trump in the Peach State by a razor-thin margin of 7,248 votes, still too close to call.
But even if Biden ends up carrying Georgia, the 2020 election results leave Republicans poised to remain a strong force in a state that was reliably red for a generation.
Biden’s successful bid for the White House helped Georgia Democrats force runoffs against incumbent Republicans in two U.S. Senate races and a third runoff for a seat on the state Public Service Commission.
Democrats also retained a congressional seat in Atlanta’s northern suburbs held by Republicans for decades until 2018 and flipped another suburban seat vacated by a GOP incumbent.
But Biden’s coattails in Georgia weren’t long enough for Democrats to make much headway in the General Assembly. While many state House and Senate races were close, Democrats only scored a net gain of two House seats and one seat in the Senate, far short of what they needed to take control of either chamber.
“Republicans actually had a very good day on Tuesday,” said Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University. “Republicans have to look at the overall picture and feel fairly good.”
Swint said down-ballot Republican candidates in Georgia generally proved more popular than Trump because of the president’s character shortcomings.
“The Republican Party’s messaging policy-wise and platform was widely embraced by voters,” Swint said. “It just didn’t translate to the top of the ticket, most likely because of [Trump’s] personal appeal, or lack thereof.”
“Some share of Republican voters just couldn’t vote for Donald Trump,” added Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia. “Once they voted for Joe Biden, they voted for Republicans for Congress and the state legislature.”
While the Biden-Trump contest lifted the Democrats’ statewide ticket, 2020 was only the next step in a trend that has been building in Georgia.
Democrats were outvoted in Georgia by 200,000 votes in 2016. Two years later, Democrat Stacey Abrams lost the governor’s race to Republican Brian Kemp by 55,000 votes.
“Over two election cycles, the 200,000-vote margin Republicans have enjoyed has evaporated,” Bullock said. “It’s another step in what may be another realignment in Georgia to the Democratic Party.”
That realignment has been coming during the last decade with demographic changes in the makeup of Georgia’s electorate.
“This is a different state,” Democrat Jon Ossoff told supporters Friday during his first post-election news conference after forcing Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue into a Jan. 5 runoff. “Georgia has become younger and more diverse every day in the last decade.
“[With] the work that’s been done over the last 10 years, work done by people like Stacey Abrams … we’re now seeing change has come to Georgia.”
A dramatic example of the demographic changes occurred in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, covering portions of Gwinnett and Forsyth counties, where Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux narrowly won an open seat long in Republican hands. Based on the findings of one poll, Asian Americans voted 62% to 36% for Bourdeaux.
“The story of [the district] is a story about first-time Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters and who is mobilizing them,” said Stephanie Cho, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta. “Grassroots community-based organizing matters and it works. More and more AAPIs are excited to be part of the process. This is the future of Georgia.”
The good news for Republicans is they continue to hold a narrow 8-6 advantage in Georgia’s congressional delegation. Also, the underperformance of Democrats in legislative races leaves the GOP in charge of reapportionment and redistricting, the redrawing of congressional and legislative districts that takes place every 10 years following the U.S. Census to adjust for population shifts.
The General Assembly will hold a special session next summer to make those changes.
“They’ll be in the driver’s seat,” Swint said. “They’ll have an opportunity to draw things the way they would like to see them.”
But Bullock said the demographic changes in Georgia that favor Democrats, particularly in Atlanta’s northern suburbs, will limit what Republicans can do with new district maps. GOP leaders may decide to sacrifice some of their incumbents in Atlanta’s inner suburbs in order to draw stronger Republican districts in the outer suburbs and exurban areas, he said.
“My assumption is they’ll look around the north side of metro Atlanta and say, ‘We can’t save these folks,’ ” Bullock said. “Democrats may come out with some gains, even though they don’t control redistricting.”
ATLANTA – Georgia tax collections rose by 1.8% in October, building on a positive first quarter for the state as businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic continued to reopen.
While the monthly revenue report for September showed a decline in tax revenues, the first quarter of fiscal 2021 overall reflected a 6.3% increase over July, August and September of last year.
The state brought in $2.02 billion in taxes last month, an increase of $35.2 million over October 2019.
On the other hand, individual income taxes declined 1.2% last month, driven in part by a 6.8% drop in tax return payments.
The reduced individual income tax collections were more than offset by a 6.3% increase in gross sales tax revenues.
Corporate income taxes fell by 28.8% in October. Contributing to the decline were a 67.6% increase in corporate tax refunds issued by the Georgia Department of Revenue and a 48% decline in tax payments to the state.
With more Georgia drivers taking to the highways with the increased reopening of offices, shops and restaurants, the state’s gasoline tax collections increased by $2.6 million over October 2019, or 1.7%.
