ATLANTA – President Donald Trump has opened up a lead on Democratic challenger Joe Biden in Georgia, according to the first poll released since last week’s Republican National Convention.
In a survey of 500 likely Georgia voters conducted by Landmark Communications for Atlanta’s WSB-TV, Trump led Biden 47.9% to 40.5%. Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen received the support of 9.3% of the respondents.
A series of earlier Georgia polls had shown Trump and Biden in a dead heat, with their support within those polls’ margin of error. The Landmark poll’s margin of error was 4.4%.
Trump held a decisive lead among older voters participating in the poll, with 56.3% of voters ages 65 and older preferring Trump to 36.5% for Biden.
Biden held a narrower lead over Trump among the youngest voters, with 42.9% of voters ages 18 to 39 supporting Biden to 36.9% for Trump.
In the middle-aged group, voters ages 40 to 64, Trump led Biden 47.7% to 42.1%.
Trump was the overwhelming favorite among white voters in Georgia, 70.8% to 21.3% for Biden. Biden drew an even larger majority of Black voters’ support, 78.1% to 6.9% for Trump.
Broken down by gender, Trump held a huge lead among Georgia men, 53.5% to 33.5% for Biden. Biden held a narrower lead among women, 46.5% to 43.1%.
The poll was conducted Aug. 29-31, two to four days following the end of the Republican convention.
ATLANTA – Georgia Power residential customers will receive an estimated $12 credit on their bills next month under a resolution the state Public Service Commission (PSC) approved unanimously Tuesday.
The credit, based on the typical customer’s monthly use of 1,000-kilowatt hours, reflects a one-time refund of $61.6 million in earnings the Atlanta-based utility realized last year above its allowable return on equity (ROE) range. A rate increase the PSC approved last December set the ROE range at between 9% and 12%.
Paired with lower fuel rates Georgia Power implemented at the beginning of the summer, the typical residential customer will see a reduction of more than $17 in October.
Georgia Power customers have received several credits this year. In June, the commission approved an $11.29 credit resulting from $51.5 million in earnings above the allowable ROE band during 2018.
The utility rolled back its fuel rates in May, saving customers $10.26 per month, part of which came from an interim reduction the utility provided to help customers weather the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
And back in February, Georgia Power passed on savings the company realized from the tax cut legislation Congress passed in late 2017, which came to about $22 a month for the typical residential customer.
The February savings came from the last installment of three reductions made possible by the federal tax cuts, which totaled $106 million.
ATLANTA – A veteran of two statewide political campaigns in Georgia has launched a political action committee to raise money for Democratic women seeking elective office.
Sarah Riggs Amico lost the 2018 race for lieutenant governor to Republican Geoff Duncan and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination this year to challenge U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga.
Now, she’s putting her experience on the campaign trail into the Our American Dreams PAC, which hopes to raise $50,000 to $100,000 this year on behalf of 21 candidates for state and local offices.
“Over the last three years, I’ve been through a little over 150 Georgia counties,” Amico said Tuesday. “One of the things you hear is how many communities feel the idea of the American Dream is slipping away.”
Amico said the burden of economic insecurity and lack of opportunity has fallen disproportionately on women and minorities, particularly during the current pandemic.
For example, more than 90% of women- and minority-owned businesses were shut out of the first round of federal loans distributed through the Paycheck Protection Program.
Amico, a businesswoman from Marietta, has an affinity for women who owns businesses. More than half of the 21 candidates her PAC is endorsing are women business owners.
Seven of the group are first-generation Americans, and three of them are naturalized citizens. Amico is married to an immigrant.
“These are voices that for too long have been left out,” she said. “One thing I’ve found is that to change the output of a system, you have to change the input.”
Of the 21 candidates the PAC has endorsed, 13 are running for seats in the Georgia House of Representatives and five are seeking election to the state Senate. The other three are running for the school board, district attorney and a county commission chairmanship.
Of the 18 running for the General Assembly, five are incumbents. A dozen are either challenging incumbent Republicans or looking to fill a vacant seat, while one of the candidates defeated a fellow Democrat in a House primary.
The list includes the following:
Regina Lewis-Ward, House District 109
Mokah Jasmine Johnson, House District 117
State Rep. Donna McLeod, D-Lawrenceville, House District 105
Sarah Beeson, Senate District 56
State Rep. CaMia Hopson, D-Albany, House District 153
Nikki Merritt, Senate District 9
Geretta Smith, Senate District 23
Dr. Michelle Au, Senate District 48
State Sen. Valencia Seay, D-Riverdale, Senate District 34
State Rep. Angelika Kausche, D-Johns Creek, House District 50
Dr. Rebecca Mitchell, House District 106
Sara Ghazal, House District 45
Former state Rep. Stacey Evans, House District 57
Zulma Lopez, House District 86
Nakita Hemingway, House District 104
Ebony Carter, House District 110
State Rep. Bee Nguyen, D-Atlanta, House District 89
State Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick, D-Lithonia, House District 93
Nicole Hendrickson, Gwinnett County Commission Chair
Audrey Gibbons, Glynn County School Board
Former state Rep. Deborah Gonzalez, district attorney, Western Judicial Circuit
Amico said she would like to expand her PAC out of state eventually but, for now, has plenty of work to do building a pipeline of women candidates in Georgia.
ATLANTA – Another poll shows President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden running neck and neck in Georgia.
A survey of 782 Georgia voters conducted Aug. 24-25 by Public Policy Polling, a North-Carolina based Democratic polling firm, found Biden holding a slim lead over Trump, 47% to 46%. However, that was well within the poll’s margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5%.
Biden’s strong showing was largely due to his support among self-identified independent voters. He held a 26-point advantage among that group, 56% to 30%.
Other Georgia polls in recent weeks have shown similar results.
Broken down by age, Trump is dominating among older Georgia voters, while Biden leads among younger voters. Trump leads Biden 56% to 41% among voters over 65, while Biden is ahead among voters under the age of 45, 49% to 40%.
Biden holds a narrower lead of 46% to 40% among voters between 46 and 65.
With the coronavirus pandemic making many Georgians reluctant to stand in a voting line on Election Day, only 27% of voters surveyed said they plan to vote in person on Nov. 3. A small plurality of voters showed a preference for early voting over voting by mail, 35% to 30%.
The poll found a strong correlation between how voters plan to cast their ballot and their preferred candidate. Trump was the choice of 75% of voters who plan to vote on Election Day, while Biden scored 72% support among those planning to vote by mail.
Early voters were more evenly divided, with 53% supporting Trump and 46% favoring Biden.
Black voters are much more likely to vote by mail, according to the poll. While 45% of Black voters expressed a preference for mailing in their ballots, only 18% of white voters said they plan to vote by mail.
The poll was commissioned by Fair Fight, the voting rights group founded by Stacey Abrams after she lost the 2018 gubernatorial election to Brian Kemp.
Rashelle Beasley, director of the Albany Convention & Visitors Bureau, models I Love ABY tourism promotion merchandise
ATLANTA – When Georgia’s economy ground to a virtual standstill after Gov. Brian Kemp issued a stay-at-home order to discourage the spread of coronavirus, the hospitality industry was hit the hardest by far.
Hotel room occupancy across the state plummeted by 62%. More than 187,000 leisure and hospitality jobs went away in March and April, and the state lost more than $3 billion in travel spending from mid-April through mid-May.
The damage was even more severe in Savannah, where hotel occupancy in the city’s historic district sank to just 9% in April. Savannah was forced to cancel its world-renowned St. Patrick’s Day celebration and the annual Savannah Music Festival.
In Chatham County, 91% of the unemployment claims filed during the pandemic’s early days came from hospitality workers, said Joe Marinelli, president of Visit Savannah, which runs the city’s tourist information center.
“It was a big blow early on,” Marinelli told members of the Georgia Board of Economic Development last Wednesday.
But gradually, there have been signs of business starting to pick up, spurred by the proactive efforts of state and local tourism promotion agencies to get visitors back.
In fact, the months of June and July saw year-over-year visitation records in Helen, a former logging community in the North Georgia mountains that resurrected itself decades ago to look like a Bavarian village.
“Since the governor partially lifted the stay-at-home order, it’s just been phenomenal,” said Jerry Brown, executive director of the Alpine Helen/White County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Helen is the type of day trip being promoted by the state Department of Economic Development’s Tourism Division, which launched a four-week test last month of Explore Your Georgia, a digital program that encourages Georgians to visit in-state destinations.
Mark Jaronski, the state agency’s deputy commissioner overseeing tourism, said Georgians are now traveling 200 miles to 300 miles despite the pandemic. The goal of the new program is to promote in-state attractions as an alternative to traveling out of state.
The agency is targeting a different market – tourists coming into Georgia from out of state – through various welcome centers located along interstate highways just inside the state’s borders with Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama.
Jaronski said the state has reopened seven of nine welcome centers that were closed early in the pandemic. The centers’ employees point visitors without set itineraries toward the various attractions Georgia has to offer, he said.
“Our managers and specialists do a great job referring them to our business partners across the state,” Jaronski said.
Some tourism promotion agencies have gotten creative with their initiatives. With a nod to the iconic “I Love New York” and “Virginia is for Lovers” campaigns, the Albany Convention and Visitors Bureau has launched “I Love ABY,” complete with a line of merchandise available online.
“We wanted to come up with something that would keep our social media going and promote Albany,” said Rashelle Beasley, the agency’s director. “It morphed into more. … We turned it into an online store.”
Beasley said the agency also is running a contest inviting people to post photos of Albany-area attractions. Each week’s winner is awarded a $25 gift certificate to a local restaurant.
Marinelli said Visit Savannah changed its social media strategy early in the pandemic from promoting specific events and attractions to “aspirational” messaging meant to remind visitors of how much there would be to do in Savannah once the traveling restrictions were eased.
“When people in June started traveling again, those images of Savannah were things they remembered,” he said.
But there are limits to what can be done to boost tourism during a pandemic.
Marinelli said weekend visitation has picked up in Savannah in recent weeks, particularly with the opening of the Plant Riverside District, an entertainment area along the river in the western end of the historic district with high-end shops and restaurants.
But weekday business and convention travel to Savannah remains non-existent, Marinelli said.
“Although we are seeing some uptick, our industry has taken a hit,” he said. “We’re going to have a long, slow uphill climb back.”
