by Dave Williams | Nov 2, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Vice President Kamala Harris delivered the closing arguments in her presidential campaign in Georgia Saturday afternoon, likely her last appearance in the Peach State since replacing incumbent President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket.
“We have three days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetimes,” Harris told an enthusiastic crowd of supporters in the parking lot of the Atlanta Civic Center. “We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump. … It is time for a new generation of leadership in America.”
Harris has headlined a series of rallies in the swing state of Georgia in recent weeks. Georgia is one of seven battleground states where what has been a tight race against the Republican former president likely will be decided.
On Saturday, Harris focused on a combination of themes she has used throughout the campaign, warning that Trump poses a threat to American democracy while countering with what she wants to do if elected president.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe the people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said. “He wants to put them in jail. I will give them a seat at the table.”
Harris said her top priority as president would be to bring down the cost of living by cutting taxes for 100 million middle-class Americans, imposing the first-ever federal ban on price gouging, extending Medicare to cover the costs of home health care, and lowering the costs of child care.
On the other hand, she said, Trump is advocating tax cuts for the wealthy, to be paid for with a national sales tax in the form of a 20% tariff on all goods imported into the U.S.
“My plan will strengthen the economy,” Harris said. “His plan will weaken it.”
Harris attacked Trump for nominating three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court he knew would vote to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, which has led to restrictive laws on abortion in Georgia and every other Southern state except Virginia. She said Trump would go further if elected to a second term in the White House by pushing for a national abortion ban, a charge he has denied.
Just as Trump often doesn’t mention the abortion issue at his rallies, Harris didn’t talk about illegal immigration on Saturday. Trump has promised to secure the U.S. border with Mexico and deport millions who came to this country illegally.
“Her policies have … allowed millions of illegal immigrants to cross our wide-open border and dangerous drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities,” the Trump campaign wrote in a statement issued Saturday. “That’s why Georgians are ready to elect President Trump on Tuesday to fix our problems and fire Kamala Harris.”
Trump is scheduled to return to Georgia Sunday for a rally in Macon, probably his last stop in the Peach State before Election Day.
by Dave Williams | Nov 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – As the 2024 presidential election heads into its final days, all signs in Georgia continue to point to a tight race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Recent history in the Peach State and early voting trends offer encouragement as well as cause for concern to both sides.
Republican Trump carried Georgia in 2016 by more than 200,000 votes over Democrat Hillary Clinton on his way to the White House, cementing Georgia’s longstanding reputation as a part of Red State America. But since then, Democrat Joe Biden won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes over Trump in 2020 by a razor-thin margin of fewer than 12,000 votes.
Georgia also has two Democratic U.S. senators, with the elections of Jon Ossoff in a January 2021 runoff and Raphael Warnock both in the 2021 runoff and again in 2022.
Those statewide victories by Democrats were made possible by demographic changes, said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia. The state’s growing ethnic diversity has helped Democrats, since minority groups including Blacks, Latinos, and Asian Americans tend to vote mostly for Democrats.
There’s also been increasing geographic diversity, with new residents moving in from other parts of the country with large concentrations of Democratic voters, Bullock said.
“They’re coming from New England, California, Chicago,” he said. “The people moving to Georgia are less likely to be Republican than the people who are here.”
Despite those trends, Georgia remains a Republican state, said Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University. He pointed to GOP Gov. Brian Kemp’s solid reelection victory over Democrat Stacey Abrams two years ago, wins by every other statewide Republican elected official on the same 2022 ballot, and the comfortable majorities Republicans hold in the Georgia House and Senate.
“We’re competitive,” Swint said. “A Democrat can win statewide, but the trending still benefits Republicans.”
The record early voting turnout in Georgia shows unprecedented enthusiasm for voting this year. More than half of the state’s active voters already had cast their ballots through Thursday, the next-to-last day of the early voting period, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office.
Such a large turnout isn’t surprising considering Georgia’s status as one of seven swing states in the presidential race means voters have been bombarded relentlessly by Trump and Harris campaign ads.
The constant ads and frequent rallies headlining the two candidates have combined to gin up emotion in this year’s contest, as has the feeling voters have expressed that the stakes in the 2024 race are particularly high.
“A lot of people feel strongly about their candidate or dislike the other,” said state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, who chairs the Senate’s Democratic Caucus.
But those turnout numbers don’t indicate a clear-cut advantage for either side. As of Thursday, seven of the top eight counties for early voting in terms of percentages were heavily Republican counties in Atlanta exurbs or rural Georgia.
On the other hand, women accounted for nearly 56% of the early or absentee voters in Georgia, also as of Thursday. With Democrat Harris making abortion rights a key issue in her campaign, a strong turnout among women is expected to help the vice president.
Bullock said Harris’ popularity among older voters also should help her in Georgia. The strongest early voting and absentee turnout in the state has come from voters ages 50 through 69, according to data from the secretary of state’s office.
Republican political operative Brian Robinson said Kemp’s endorsement of Trump should help boost the latter’s support. The endorsement wasn’t a given since Kemp refused to join Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Trump harshly criticized Kemp and backed an unsuccessful GOP primary challenge to the incumbent governor in 2022. In recent weeks, however, Trump has praised Kemp, particularly the governor’s handling of recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene ravaged southeastern Georgia in late September.
“Brian Kemp provides a permission structure for Republicans who have doubts about our nominee,” Robinson said.
Election officials are optimistic Georgians will know the results sooner than they did four years ago.
For one thing, there won’t be nearly as many absentee ballots to count. Many voted absentee in 2020 – at the height of the COVID pandemic – because they were wary of going out into crowds. Also, legislation the General Assembly passed in 2021 limited the number of absentee ballot drop boxes.
Another factor is that record-setting early voting in Georgia this year means there won’t be as many Election Day ballots to count after the polls close.
“At the county level, they’re in a better position to count votes than four years ago,” Swint said. “Hopefully, we’ll know by Wednesday morning, but I’m not holding my breath.”
by Dave Williams | Nov 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Help is on the way for Georgia farmers and timber producers who suffered losses from Hurricane Helene.
The Georgia State Financing and Reinvestment Commission (GSFIC) voted Friday to redirect $100 million from a state capital projects fund to provide financial support for farmers affected by the massive storm and debris cleanup for owners of damaged timberland.
“As Georgia’s No.-1 industry continues on the road to recovery from Hurricane Helene, I’m thankful our partners on all levels, including the GSFIC board, are working with us to provide relief to those who put food on our tables and provide the materials that build our communities,” Kemp said following Friday’s vote.
“This measure is the latest we’ve taken to help them rebuild their livelihoods, but it will not be the last. We’ll continue to work with stakeholders on all levels to direct resources and support to the hardworking Georgians devastated by this storm.”
Helene cut a wide swath of destruction through southeast Georgia in late September before heading into the Carolinas. The storm left 34 dead in Georgia and caused catastrophic damage to homes, businesses, crops, and timberland.
A preliminary report from the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences estimates agricultural damages from Hurricane Helene will cost the state’s economy at least $6.46 billion, representing the sum of direct crop losses, losses to businesses that support agriculture and forestry, losses to workers in those related industries, and estimated recovery and restoration costs that agricultural businesses will face.
The $6.46 billion impact is more than double the estimated losses caused by Hurricane Michael in 2018, the most devastating storm in recent history at that time.
Of the $100 million approved by the GSFIC board, $75 million will provide disaster relief loans to those in the agriculture industry, while $25 million will go to those in the timber industry to support cleanup efforts and debris removal on timberland as well as the enhancement of fire control measures.
The board of the Georgia Development Authority, which will oversee the disaster relief package, will meet on Monday in Macon to plan disbursement of the money.
by Dave Williams | Nov 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The economy has replaced crime as the issue of top concern to metro Atlanta residents, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) reported Friday.
According to the ARC’s annual public opinion survey, 32% of respondents rated the economy as the biggest problem facing the Atlanta region. Crime, which was the top concern in last year’s poll, was rated second this year at 20%. Human services followed at 12%.
“The Metro Atlanta Speaks survey is an invaluable tool that helps guide our efforts to build a better region for all metro Atlanta residents,” said Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who also serves as chairman of the ARC. “This year’s survey shows the people remain concerned about the economy and other pocketbook issues like housing costs.”
Among the highlights of this year’s poll, 64% of respondents said they could not afford to move to another house or apartment in their current neighborhood.
More than nine in 10 respondents said improving public transit is “very important” or “somewhat important” to the region’s future. More than half said climate change will be a “major global threat” in the next decade.
In answer to a new question this year, 42% of the survey’s respondents said they think artificial intelligence will have a “mostly negative” impact on society, while 30% said it will be “more balanced” and 22% said it will be “mostly positive.”
In another new question, 39% of respondents said they feel their financial situation is about the same as it was a year ago, while 31% said they are worse off and 28% said they are better off.
The hybrid phone and online poll questioned 4,081 adults across the 11-county Atlanta region, with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 1.5%. It was conducted by Kennesaw State University’s A.L. Burruss Institute of Public Service and Research.
by Dave Williams | Oct 31, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Supreme Court issued two rulings Thursday that upheld the arrests of two Democratic state lawmakers for protesting inside the state Capitol and declared constitutional a state tax levied on adult entertainment establishments.
In the first case, state Rep. Park Cannon of Atlanta and then-state Sen. Nikema Williams of Atlanta – now a member of Congress – were arrested several years ago in separate incidents.
The two neither intended to disrupt the General Assembly nor actually caused any disruptions, Atlanta civil rights lawyer Gerald Weber told the state Supreme Court during oral arguments last May. The lawmakers also argued the state law at issue in the two cases violates the Georgia Constitution’s free-speech protections.
But in Thursday’s unanimous ruling, Justice John Ellington upheld the law.
“These provisions do not prohibit a substantial amount of protected speech relative to their plainly legitimate sweep of prohibiting conduct likely to prevent or disrupt legislative business,” Ellington wrote.
However, six other justices wrote in a concurring opinion that the law is far from perfect.
“(T)he state should not confuse this limited victory with a clean bill of health for the statute,” Presiding Justice Nels S.D. Peterson wrote. “The statute is seriously flawed. Those charged with its enforcement should take care to avoid those flaws, and the General Assembly should seriously consider revising it.”
In the second case, the Georgia Association of Club Executives argued the state’s 1% tax on strip clubs aimed at raising money to combat child sex trafficking unfairly punishes owners of businesses that aren’t responsible for those crimes because minors aren’t allowed in the clubs either as dancers or customers.
Peterson wrote the majority opinion in the decision upholding the law.
“Georgia local governments have often imposed total bans on adult entertainment establishments offering the combination of nude dancing and serving alcohol,” he wrote. “In this case, the state stopped short of a total ban, imposing a 1% tax on gross revenue on adult entertainment establishments that choose to offer the combination of nude dancing and serving alcohol.
“This tax is significantly less burdensome than similar taxes upheld by other courts. And it can be avoided entirely by not serving alcohol or not performing substantially nude.”
