Gov. Brian Kemp has revived a committee designed to prepare Georgians for the U.S. Census by tapping dozens of leaders to serve on a panel that will help craft the state’s approach to the once-in-a-decade headcount of the nation’s population.
The Complete Count Committee includes the heads of the state Democratic and Republican parties, elected officials and civic leaders, and the director of a nonprofit launched by Stacey Abrams to ensure hard-to-count populations are tallied.
The stakes are high. The data collected in 2020 will determine each state’s share of representatives in Congress and nearly $900 billion in federal funding. The nationwide count will also trigger the redrawing of the state’s political maps.
The state committee was created by Gov. Nathan Deal in 2017 and Kemp’s administration kept many of the members. It will be chaired by Rusty Haygood of the Department of Community Affairs and Anna Miller of the governor’s budget office.
The group is dotted with political leaders from both parties, including state Rep. Calvin Smyre, a Democrat who is the longest-serving member in the Legislature, and state Rep. Jodi Lott, a Republican who is one of Kemp’s strongest allies.
The committee also includes Jeanine Abrams McLean, the sister of Stacey Abrams and the program director of Fair Count, which focuses on minorities, non-English speakers, renters and others who are more likely to be skipped in the count.
The Kemp administration said two of the committee’s members – Democratic strategist Tharon Johnson and Lori Geary, a media consultant and former Channel 2 Action News anchor - will serve as co-executive directors of a state marketing campaign for the 2020 census called “Every. One. Counts.”
Here are the members of Kemp’s Complete Count Committee:
Kerry Armstrong, Atlanta Regional Commission
Patty Bentley, State Representative, District 139
Frank Berry, Department of Community Health
Matt Brass, State Senator, District 28
Candice Broce, Office of the Governor
Otis Brumby, Georgia Press Association
Margaret Ciccarelli, Professional Association of Georgia Educators
Robyn Crittenden, Department of Human Services
Delores Crowell, DeKalb County Government
Derek Dabrowiak, Technical College System of Georgia
Hardie Davis, City of Augusta
Eddie DeLoach, City of Savannah
Matt Dubnik, State Representative, District 29
Judy Fitzgerald, Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities
John Gayle, City of Valdosta
Lori Geary, Lexicon Strategies
Mike Giles, Georgia Poultry Federation
Frank Ginn, State Senator, District 47
Larry Hanson, Georgia Municipal Association
Jeanine Abrams McLean, Fair Count
Laura Meadows, Carl Vinson Institute of Government
Rusty Haygood, Department of Community Affairs
Andy Herod, Athens-Clarke County Unified Government
Skip Henderson, City of Columbus
Bob Houghton, Georgia Association of Broadcasters
Dorothy Hubbard, City of Albany
Amy Jacobs, Department of Early Care and Learning
Tharon Johnson, Paramount Consulting Group, LLC
John King, Department of Insurance and Fire Safety
Dominic LaRiccia, State Representative, District 169
Gerald Long, Georgia Farm Bureau
Jodi Lott, State Representative, District 122
Brian Marlowe, Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce
Santiago Marquez, Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Tony Marshall, Georgia Health Care Association
Nealie McCormick, Council on American Indian Concerns; City of Pelham
Pat Merritt, Georgia EMC
Anna Miller, Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget
Susan Miller, Department of Community Affairs
Jerald Mitchell, Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.
Tyrone Oliver, Department of Juvenile Justice
Lamar Paris, Union County Commissioner
Sunny Patel, Office of the Governor
Billy Pittard, Association of County Commissioners of Georgia
Allen Poole, Governor’s Office of Highway Safety
Condace Pressley, Cox Media Group
Bert Reeves, State Representative, District 34
Robert Reichert, City of Macon
Edward Reynolds, City of Bainbridge
Johnna Robinson, Georgia Power
Mike Roby, Department of Veterans Service
Terry Rogers, State Representative, District 10
Jay Sanders, Department of Corrections
David Shafer, Chair, Georgia Republican Party
Gregg Simon, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce
Freddie Powell Sims, State Senator, District 12
Calvin Smyre, State Representative, District 135
Keith Stone, Office of the Georgia Secretary of State
Brian Strickland, State Senator, District 17
Tiffany Taylor, Department of Education
Blake Tillery, State Senator, District 19
Felita Williams, University System of Georgia
Nikema Williams, Chair, Democratic Party of Georgia
Matthew Wilson, State Representative, District 80
June Wood, Henry County Board of Commissioners
Mike Worley, Georgia Wildlife Federation
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