Peach State Politics (Feb. 12, 2021)
GA GOP proposes election overhauls, Warnock under investigation, GOP targets McBath & Bourdeaux, Atlanta DA probes Trump and more
Welcome!
Welcome to my first Peach State Politics weekly newsletter! With so much going on, Georgia politics can be difficult to keep track of. So this newsletter will be a weekly rundown of the biggest political stories in Georgia each week. I hope you enjoy it!
Georgia GOP proposes election overhauls
After an election season that began with Georgia going Democratic for President for the first time in 28 years and ended with voters sending two Democrats to the U.S. Senate, Republicans in the General Assembly are moving forward with changes to the state’s election laws. Among other things, GOP lawmakers are seeking to get rid of absentee ballot drop boxes, end automatic voter registration and move the deadline to request an absentee ballot to 10 days before the general election. State Republican leaders have also endorsed a proposal to require submission of a photo identification when requesting an absentee ballot. The State Republican Party is going even further, seeking to strip the Secretary of State of his power to oversee Georgia’s elections. Georgia Public Broadcasting breaks down these new proposals here.
Warnock under investigation
Georgia election officials announced on Wednesday that they will move forward with an investigation into a voting rights group that once chaired by Sen. Raphael Warnock. The board is accusing the New Georgia Project, which was founded by Stacey Abrams, of failing to deliver voter registration applications on time. The case has been referred to the office of Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who will now investigate the matter and determine whether Warnock and anyone associated with the organization should face charges and/or fines. The Ebenezer Baptist Church pastor, who defeated GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a blockbuster runoff election last month, stepped down as chair of the organization in January 2020, when he launched his campaign for U.S. Senate. He will have to face voters once again in 2022 for a full six-year term. (AJC)
Warnock, Ossoff, Schumer outline COVID-19 relief plan
Speaking of Sen. Warnock, he and fellow Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff joined Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at a press conference on Thursday morning to outline their plan to deliver COVID-19 relief to struggling families.
The two Georgia Democrats said that their relief plan would add an incentive for Georgia and other states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. A family of four than earns $75,000 per year would receive a total of $8,200 in direct relief. The plan would also send direct grants to Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) and debt relief for Black farmers.
“The people of Georgia sent Senator Ossoff and I to the Senate with a mandate to address the devastation of this public health and economic crisis — for our state, and the country,” said Warnock. “Getting this once-in-a-century pandemic under control starts with securing as much relief as possible to as many Georgians as possible—and I’m going to keep pushing until it’s done.”
Click here to watch the press conference in its entirety. More details of the relief plan can be found here.
Georgia takes center stage at impeachment trial
House impeachment managers used Trump’s repeated attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results as evidence in the former President’s second impeachment trial. Manager Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania played a piece of Trump’s phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the defeated President pressured the Georgia Republican to “find 11,780 votes” so that he could win the state. She also presented election manager Gabriel Sterling’s dire warning about Trump’s post-election rhetoric. “Someone’s going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed,” Sterling warned last year. Dean and her fellow managers argued that Trump resorted to frantic and violent means to contest the election results after he exhausted all legal avenues. President Trump’s defense team will begin countering the prosecution’s arguments on Friday.
Atlanta DA probes Trump
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced this week that her office will be investigating former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Willis sent a letter to state officials asking them to preserve all records pertaining to the presidential election, and said that she will investigate any potential violations of state law. You can read the letter here.
GOP targets McBath, Bourdeaux
Fresh off a surprisingly strong election cycle, House Republicans are already plotting their path back to the majority in 2022, and it runs right through Georgia. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the committee that is tasked with electing Republicans to the House of Representatives, has placed Democratic Reps. Lucy McBath and Carolyn Bourdeaux on their list of targets in 2022.
McBath represents Georgia’s 6th district, which comprises of Atlanta’s northern suburbs. The gun control activist defeated Republican Rep. Karen Handel in an upset in 2018. Handel ran for the seat again in 2020, but lost to McBath in a rematch by about 9 percentage points.
Bourdeaux represents the neighboring 7th district, which is anchored in diversifying Gwinnett County. She came extremely close to flipping the seat in 2018, and Republican Rep. Rob Woodall retired following the surprisingly close race. Bourdeaux, a college professor, successfully competed for the seat again 2020, and was the only non-incumbent Democrat to win in a competitive district last November.
National Republicans may not be the only ones targeting McBath and Bourdeuax: Despite suffering major losses in the recent presidential and U.S. Senate contests, Georgia Republicans still maintain full control over the redistricting process, so the two Democratic Congresswomen will have to wait and see how Republicans divvy up the state’s congressional boundaries before they can even think about the 2022 midterms.
State leaders announce bonus for state employees
State Republican leaders announced this week that they will add a $1,000 bonus for state employees in the amended budget for the 2021 fiscal year. Gov. Brian Kemp joined Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, House Speaker David Ralston and other Republican leaders in announcing that the one-time bonus will be given to state employees who make less than $80,000 per year. “Our frontline state employees have worked incredibly hard during the darkest days of this pandemic to serve our citizens,” said Speaker Ralston, a Republican from Blue Ridge. “I’m proud to join Gov. Kemp and Lt. Governor Duncan to support this $1,000 bonus to public health employees, state troopers, and DFCS staffers among many others.” (AllOnGeorgia)
More Capitol riot arrests made
Two more Georgians were arrested this week in connection with the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6. 18-year-old Bruno Cua of Milton is facing several charges, including assault on a federal officer, civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding. 23-year-old Benjamin Torre of Dawsonville admitted to climbing into the Capitol through a broken window, though he claims that he didn’t do any damage. Their arrests bring the total number of Georgians apprehended in connection with the Capitol riot to 8. (WXIA)
Metro Atlanta coroner accused of failing to transport bodies, disrespecting grieving families
A new metro Atlanta coroner who has only been on the job for over a month is now finding herself on defense. Newton County coroner Dorothea Bailey-Butts is facing a long list of disturbing allegations, including asking a hotel employee to help her transport a body, interfering with crime scenes, administering CPR to someone who was breathing and cutting off the clothes of a teenaged suicide victim in front of the family. Bailey-Butts has denied all of the accusations and has said that she has received no training since taking office. County officials are now debating whether or not she should be removed from office. (WSB-TV)
Special election for DeKalb-based House seat advances to runoff
Finally, a runoff election is now in the calendar to fill a vacant House seat in DeKalb County. Democratic State Rep. Pam Stephenson of Lithonia resigned a few weeks before election day last year, and a special election to fill her seat was set for February 2021. Because no Republican filed to run in 2020, only Democrats could compete in the February contest. A total six candidates ran to succeed Stephenson. Because no candidate received a majority of the 3,000 votes that were cast, the top two finishers will face each other in a runoff on March 9. The AJC has more coverage here.