The Georgia Capitol building in Atlanta (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – While high-profile races in Georgia remained uncertain on the morning after Election Day, voters have overwhelmingly approved two constitutional amendments and one statute on this year’s statewide ballot.
A constitutional change requiring that state fees and taxes collected for a specific purpose are spent as intended passed with 81.4% of the vote.
A second constitutional amendment prohibiting the state and local governments from using the legal doctrine of “sovereign immunity” to avoid citizen lawsuits won approval from 74.3% of the voters.
Georgia voters also authorized a tax exemption for property owned by charitable organizations for the purpose of building or repairing single-family homes. House Bill 344 was endorsed with 73% of the vote.
The General Assembly put Amendment 1 on the ballot in honor of the late state Rep. Jay Powell, R-Camilla, a longtime leader of the effort to ensure that fees collected for Georgia’s Hazardous Waste and Solid Waste Trust funds are spent cleaning up hazardous waste sites and tire dumps.
Georgia governors and legislatures have a history of redirecting the revenue those dedicated fees collect into the general fund during tight economic times.
The sovereign immunity amendment stems from a 2014 Georgia Supreme Court decision that essentially granted the state blanket immunity from citizen lawsuits in a case brought by the Center for a Sustainable Coast. The group had filed suit alleging the state Department of Natural Resources was illegally allowing alterations to private property in fragile coastal wetland areas protected by state law.
To discourage the filing of frivolous lawsuits, the amendment prohibits plaintiffs from recovering monetary damages or attorney fees.
Supporters pushed House Bill 244 as a way to help grow the stock of affordable housing in Georgia, particularly in small cities and rural communities.
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. David Perdue appeared on his way Tuesday night to winning a second term representing Georgia on Capitol Hill.
Perdue, a Republican, was leading Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff 54% to 44% late on Election Night with 2,071 of Georgia’s 2,656 precincts reporting, according to unofficial results. Libertarian Shane Hazel had received only 2% of the vote.
With few Georgia voters splitting their tickets, the Perdue-Ossoff contest was mirroring closely the presidential results in the Peach State. GOP President Donald Trump was well ahead of Democratic challenger Joe Biden in Georgia late Tuesday night, 54% to 45%.
Perdue, 70, was elected to the Senate in 2014 after a 40-year career in business that included serving as CEO of Reebok and Dollar General.
He spent his first term in the Senate as one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies, supporting the president’s tax cut legislation in 2017, Trump’s get-tough trade policy with China, and, more recently, the president’s much-criticized handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
Ossoff, 33, an investigative journalist who runs a documentary production firm, entered elective politics three years ago, losing a special election for a congressional seat in Atlanta’s northern suburbs. This year marked his first run at statewide office.
In what turned into a brutal campaign during the final weeks, Perdue portrayed Ossoff as backing the national Democrats’ “radical socialist” agenda including a government takeover of health care, defunding the police and abolishing ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
The senator also accused Ossoff of harboring ties to a Chinese company, charges an Ossoff campaign spokesman later said pertained to a Hong Kong media company that bought one of Ossoff’s films.
For his part, Ossoff has slammed Perdue for following Trump’s lead in downplaying the threat posed by coronavirus during the pandemic’s early days.
The challenger even called Perdue a “crook” during a televised debate last month, referring to purchases of stock in a company that produces PPE (personal protective equipment) after some senators received a private briefing in January about the looming threat of COVID-19.
Perdue noted he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee.
ATLANTA – Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath appeared headed toward winning reelection Tuesday night over Republican challenger Karen Handel in a suburban Atlanta congressional district once represented by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
McBath, who won the seat two years ago by turning Handel out of office, was leading Handel 55% to 45% late Tuesday night, according to unofficial results.
If those numbers hold up, it would be the second win in a row for the Democrats in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, once reliably Republican turf stretching from East Cobb County through North Fulton and North DeKalb counties.
When Gingrich resigned from Congress in 1999 after more than 20 years in office, Cobb County real estate executive and former Georgia House Minority Leader Johnny Isakson won the seat, keeping it in Republican hands.
Then, when Isakson left the House to run for the U.S. Senate, GOP state Sen. Tom Price stepped up to again retain the seat for the Republicans.
McBath, 60, entered politics as an advocate for gun restrictions after her son, Jordan, was murdered in 2012. Two years ago, she was elected to Congress over then-Rep. Handel by a narrow margin.
Handel, 58, came into this year’s campaign with the longer political track record. After serving as chairman of the Fulton County Commission during the early 2000s, she was elected Georgia secretary of state in 2006.
Handel unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor in 2010, a contest eventually won by Nathan Deal. Seven years later, she became the first Republican woman from Georgia elected to Congress when she won a special election to complete the unexpired term of Price, who had left Congress early in 2017 to serve as President Donald Trump’s first secretary of health and human services.
Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in an off-year special election that became the most expensive House race in U.S. history. Her loss to McBath in 2018 set the stage for this year’s rematch.
During the campaign, McBath attacked Handel for supporting Trump’s agenda, including backing the president’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and its protection of insurance coverage of Americans with pre-existing conditions.
Handel portrayed McBath as a one-issue activist who supports the agenda of street protesters who have called for defunding the police.
The two also clashed over the abortion issue, with Handel defending her anti-abortion views and McBath taking a pro-abortion rights stance.
ATLANTA – Two Republican incumbents appeared well on their way to winning reelection to the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) Tuesday night.
Commissioners Lauren “Bubba” McDonald and Jason Shaw were leading Democratic challengers Daniel Blackman and Robert Bryant, respectively, late on Election Night.
Each of the two Republicans had amassed nearly 55% of the statewide vote with 1,863 of Georgia’s 2,656 precincts reporting, according to unofficial results.
If the numbers remain unchanged, McDonald would win another six-year term representing PSC District 4, which covers all of North Georgia and the state’s border with South Carolina down to Augusta. The former member of the General Assembly has served on the commission since 1998.
Shaw, also a former state lawmaker, was appointed to the commission last year to represent PSC District 1, which covers all of South Georgia.
During the campaign, the two Democrats criticized the Republican incumbents for giving Georgia Power the green light to finish the nuclear expansion at Plant Vogtle despite huge cost overruns and lengthy delays.
The challengers also took the incumbents to task for lifting a moratorium on electrical service disconnections in July. The commission imposed the moratorium back in March as businesses shut down by the coronavirus pandemic began laying off employees.
The incumbents defended the Plant Vogtle project as critical to maintaining nuclear power as a component of a diverse energy-generation portfolio in Georgia, particularly as Georgia Power reduces its reliance on coal.
Victories by both McDonald and Shaw would leave the five-member PSC fully in Republican hands.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Lottery set a record for profits during the first quarter, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday.
The lottery brought in almost $383.4 million during July, August and September, the most profitable quarter in the program’s history. That brought the total the lottery has transferred to education to about $22.7 billion.
“The Georgia Lottery continues to produce strong results for Georgia’s HOPE and Pre-K programs,” Kemp said. “Students and families throughout the Peach State benefit greatly from the Lottery’s continued success, and we appreciate their hard work to support education in Georgia.”
The Georgia Lottery’s record first quarter follows a record fiscal 2020 that generated more than $1.23 billion for HOPE and Pre-K.
“Our record first quarter provides a strong foundation to build upon for the remainder of the fiscal year,” said Gretchen Corbin, the lottery’s president and CEO.
More than 1.9 million Georgia students have received HOPE during its 27-year history, and more than 1.6 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.
