ATLANTA – Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has opened up a 7-point lead over President Donald Trump in Georgia, according to a poll released Wednesday, fewer than three weeks before the Nov. 3 election.
Biden is leading the incumbent Republican president 51% to 44%, according to a telephone survey of 1,040 likely Georgia voters conducted Oct. 8-12 by Quinnipiac University. That’s well outside the poll’s margin of error of plus-or-minus 3%.
The same poll gave Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff a 6-point lead over Republican Sen. David Perdue.
In Georgia’s other Senate contest, a special election with a huge field of 21 candidates, the Quinnipiac poll showed Democrat Raphael Warnock in first place with 41% of the vote.
The two leading Republican candidates, interim Sen. Kelly Loeffler and U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, appeared to be battling for second place and a spot in a likely runoff. Collins was in second place with 22% of the vote, with Loeffler running third at 20%.
The last Quinnipiac Georgia poll, released Sept. 29, found the presidential race too close to call, with Biden holding a narrow 3-point lead, within the poll’s margin of error.
That poll was taken before the first presidential debate and before Trump was diagnosed with coronavirus.
“For Trump, 2016 is a distant memory, defeating Hillary Clinton by 5 points when the polls closed then, and now down seven to Biden with three weeks to go,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said. “Warning lights are blinking red and alarms are going off in the Peach State.”
Georgia has been a dependably Republican state in presidential elections since before the turn of the century. The last Democrat to carry the Peach State was Bill Clinton in 1992.
The last Georgia Democrat elected to the Senate was Max Cleland in 1996.
Then-Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes appointed a former governor, Zell Miller, in 2000 to complete the unexpired term of the late Sen. Paul Coverdell. However, Miller did not run for a full term in 2004.
Notably, Democrats have posted the strongest numbers in the two Quinnipiac Georgia polls. Other polls released in recent weeks have shown both the presidential contest and the Perdue-Ossoff race essentially tied, within those polls’ margins of error.
Other recent polls have shown Warnock taking a solid lead over Collins and Loeffler, although well short of the 50%-plus-1 vote margin he would need to avoid a runoff in early January.
ATLANTA – The federal government is stepping up with $1.5 billion to replenish Georgia’s depleted Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday.
The money, which will come through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, will repay funds the state has borrowed to provide unemployment benefits to Georgians who lost their jobs during the pandemic.
“COVID-19 has brought unprecedented challenges to nearly every business – large and small – and upended the lives of millions of Georgians,” Kemp said. “Through no fault of their own, thousands of people became unemployed overnight, businesses were shut down, and countless families suffered.
“Today’s announcement will save Georgia employers millions of dollars in state and federal unemployment taxes, prevent significant layoffs, and save the state millions of dollars in interest payments.”
By allocating up to $1.5 billion in coronavirus relief funds to avoid raising state and federal unemployment taxes, the average Georgia employer will save about $350 per year for each employed worker.
But the state still won’t be out of the woods. With benefit payments projected to outpace tax revenue, Georgia will have to continue to borrow federal funds to pay benefits.
After the Great Recession of 2008-2009, it took three years until tax revenue outpaced benefit payments.
Unless the state raises employers’ tax rates for unemployment insurance or provides an injection of capital through another means, Georgia would have to borrow an additional $1 billion by 2023 to keep up with benefits payments, according to state Department of Labor estimates.
“Without the transfer of funds, the state will have to increase unemployment tax rates for employers between 300% and 400% to make headway on paying off the loan,” Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said Wednesday. “This reallocation of federal funds will allow more employers across the state to focus on the growth and success of their businesses without having the additional pressure of a rising unemployment tax.”
The line outside South Cobb Regional Library in Mableton stretched around the block on the first day of early voting for the Nov. 3 elections on Oct. 12, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Georgians are mailing in absentee ballots and voting early in record numbers and are expected to break another record on Election Day, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Wednesday.
“Georgia voters are excited and setting records every hour,” Raffensperger told reporters during a news conference at the state Capitol. “And this is all during a pandemic.”
Raffensperger said 1.6 million voters have requested an absentee ballot. Nearly 500,000 of those votes have been received and accepted, he said.
Another 241,706 voters cast their ballots in person during the first two days of the early voting period this week.
The deluge of early voters resulted in hours-long waits on Monday and Tuesday for some voters.
Raffensperger said his office is adding voting equipment at the precincts experiencing the longest lines.
Besides the sheer volume of early voters, Raffensperger said voters who cast mail-in ballots then showed up at early voting locations anyway are slowing down the process.
Also, it takes time to print the paper backups accompanying the new voting machines the state began using this year, he said.
“That’s going to give voters confidence,” Raffensperger said. “They can look at their vote before they cast it.”
Raffensperger said another contributor to the long lines is the time it takes to clean and sanitize voting machines following each use.
Anheuser-Busch is donating hand sanitizers at early voting locations, while The Home Depot is providing free plastic face shields.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s Georgia chapter and the Metro Atlanta Chamber also have contributed to the effort by sending the secretary of state’s office lists of volunteers willing to serve as poll workers.
“Together, we will have a successful election, keeping all of our options open,” Raffensperger said.
While some of the longest early voting lines have been in Fulton County, early voters at State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta were having to wait 20 minutes at most, Raffensperger said.
Voters in many North Fulton precincts were waiting much longer.
“In other parts of Fulton County, you don’t have as many machines because the building won’t hold them,” Raffensperger said.
Raffensperger urged Georgians who have asked for an absentee ballot to use it rather than show up to vote in person at an early voting location.
Early voting in Georgia leading up to the Nov. 3 election runs through Oct. 30.
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia (USG) delivered an economic impact of $18.5 billion to the Peach State during fiscal 2019 while generating 157,770 jobs, system Chancellor Steve Wrigley reported this week.
That represents a 4.5% increase over the previous fiscal year.
“USG and our 26 institutions play a critically important role in local economies all across Georgia,” Wrigley said. “At the same time … USG remains committed to improving on the state’s investment in higher education and carrying out our ultimate mission to prepare students for life and work with a college degree.”
The annual economic impact study conducted by the University of Georgia also revealed every dollar spent by the system’s colleges and universities generates an additional 47 cents for the surrounding region’s economy.
Of the jobs generated by USG during fiscal 2019, 33% are on campus, while the remaining 67% are located within institutions’ home communities. On average, each on-campus job led to the creation of two additional off-campus jobs as a result of spending by the institution.
The 2019 study also showed $12.6 billion of the $18.5 billion in economic impact came from direct spending by institutions, while $5.9 billion came from additional spending within their local communities.
The annual study is conducted by Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at UGA’s Terry College of Business.
This year, Humphreys and Alexandra Hill of the Selig Center also conducted a companion study titled “Lifetime Earnings for University System of Georgia Class of 2019.” The center’s research shows lifetime earnings increase substantially with each step up in postsecondary educational attainment, a finding that holds true for both Georgia and the nation as a whole.
On average, each Class of 2019 university system graduate is predicted to earn $888,563 more over the course of their career as a result of their degree from a USG institution.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) is holding the line on electric rates by aggressively pursuing renewable and nuclear power while de-emphasizing coal, two Republican commissioners seeking reelection said Tuesday
But their Democratic challengers said the PSC is letting Georgia Power Co. keep too much of the profits from its operations while passing on too much of the financial burden to customers.
District One Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald and District Four Commissioner Jason Shaw took on Democrats Daniel Blackman and Robert Bryant in separate online debates sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club. Also on the virtual platform Tuesday were Libertarian candidates Nathan Wilson and Elizabeth Melton.
McDonald, who has served on the PSC since 1998, said he has led the way during the last decade as the commission has approved plans to retire coal-fired power plants and boost the state’s commitment to solar, nuclear and wind energy.
“In 2013, Georgia Power did not have a single watt of solar power,” he said. “We put in 525 megawatts. … We’ll have 2 gigawatts of solar power by the end of next year.”
But McDonald said the Green New Deal being floated by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party would tilt the scales toward renewable energy too far because Americans can’t afford the massive price tag.
Blackman, who is opposing McDonald, differed with the incumbent.
“Let’s be honest: What we’ve been doing has not been working,” said Blackman, who has served as an advisor to the Congressional Black Caucus and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on environmental justice issues.
The incumbents and their challengers also disagreed over the PSC’s decision last March to suspend disconnections of service to electric customers having trouble paying their bills due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bryant, who is challenging Shaw’s reelection bid, criticized the commission for lifting the moratorium on disconnections in July.
The Democrat from Savannah also argued the PSC should not let Georgia Power pass on to ratepayers either the costs of cleaning up coal ash ponds around the state or the cost overruns at the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion, which have nearly doubled the project’s budget from the $14 billion the commission approved in 2009.
“Every time Vogtle is prolonged or delayed, Georgia ratepayers pay an additional $1 billion,” Bryant said. “That’s just not how we should be treating Georgians.”
Shaw, appointed to the PSC last year and now seeking his first full term, said the commission’s job is to strike a balance between protecting ratepayers and making sure Georgia utilities have the resources to provide safe reliable service.
“We’ve taken advantage of low-cost natural gas,” he said. “Consumers are paying the same [for electricity] as back in 2011.”
Melton, the Libertarian challenging Shaw, said there are free-market solutions to the lack of broadband connectivity in rural Georgia. She pointed to a project that has equipped a rural county in Kentucky with some of the fastest internet connections in the nation.
“They were able to do this voluntarily, on their own, using existing institutions,” Melton said.
Nathan Wilson, the Libertarian taking on McDonald, suggested letting businesses rent portions of their properties to be used for installation of solar panels as a way to boost solar power in Georgia.
While members of the PSC are elected statewide, they live in and represents districts. District 1 covers all of South Georgia, while District 4 includes North Georgia and the state’s border with South Carolina down to Augusta.
