Earlier this week, we ventured that this 2018 election season might be the most litigated on record, pointing to the spate of federal lawsuits over voter registration and the dismissal of absentee ballots in Gwinnett County.
Picking up language generated out of Washington, the state GOP has accused a “legal mob” for targeting Brian Kemp’s practices as secretary of state and a “media mob” for hysterical coverage of said actions.
Fortunately, all will be over as soon as the voting mob has its say. And before you know it, it will be January and a law-making mob will again be gathering in the state Capitol.
But in the meantime, the legal tide is still coming in.
Josh McLaurin, the Democrat in the hunt for the open state House District 51 seat, has filed a lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court against the Georgia Republican party alleging libel. Stacey Evans, the former Democratic candidate for governor, is the attorney who handled the paperwork.
The seat in question is Sandy Springs-based. The incumbent, state Rep. Wendell Willard, isn’t seeking re-election. The Republican in the race to replace him is Alex Kaufman. From the lawsuit:
As an extreme measure to keep HD 51 in Republican hands, the State GOP sent multiple pieces of mail to thousands of voters in HD 51 claiming that Mr. McLaurin was subject to "ongoing criminal investigations" when he was not.
The truth was that allies of McLaurin's opponent, Mr. Kaufman, and the state GOP worked with attorneys to file administrative complaints with Georgia state agencies alleging that Mr. McLaurin had violated certain Georgia statutes. Then, the state GOP attempted to claim that these administrative filings constituted a criminal investigation.
It was false even to label the agencies' automatic processing of these complaints as "investigations" of any sort, much less to say that the complaints triggered any "criminal investigations."
The GOP's actions were specifically intended to injure Mr. McLaurin as a means of electing his Republican opponent, Alex Kaufman.
Often, legal action is simply another means of generating one’s campaign message. In particular, lawsuits involving political speech are extremely hard to carry off, simply because the First Amendment bar is so high. Nonetheless, McLaurin argues that Republicans have met it:
The state GOP published its false and defamatory statements about Mr. McLaurin with actual malice. As a result of its conduct as herein described, the State GOP crossed the threshold from speech protected by the First Amendment to enter the arena of actionable defamation for which it must be held legally accountable.
Then we have the case of Sarah Riggs Amico, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor and an executive in her family-owned business, Jack Cooper Holdings Corp.
In April, 10 current and former employees at the firm’s Indiana office filed a lawsuit claiming a supervisor discriminated against black employees and that another supervisor sexually harassed staffers. Republicans have pointed to the legal action in attacks on Amico, referring to it as a “sexual assault lawsuit” – a phrasing no doubt aimed at muddying sentiments generated by the recent Brett Kavanaugh hearing.
On Monday, the company's lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to both Brian Kemp and Geoff Duncan, the GOP candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively. A taste:
Not only is the "sexual assault lawsuit" statement patently false and intentionally misleading and hurtful, there are not even any claims asserted against Jack Cooper in the lawsuit grounded on any alleged gender discrimination or sexual harassment. Instead, the allegation of sexual harassment was made against one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit and is what led Jack Cooper to terminate the employment of that plaintiff.
The reply from the Kemp campaign was penned by Ed Lindsey, a former state lawmaker. One paragraph:
Ms. Sarah Riggs Amico has made her leadership position as executive chairperson in the Jack Cooper Holding Corp. and its affiliates…a central part of her campaign. This lawsuit and the surrounding controversy raises serious and legitimate public interest questions about her conduct in the management of the company.
You don’t often hear lawyers chortle in their arguments, but we sense a guffaw here:
Furthermore, your letter… raises serious concerns under Georgia's campaign finance law as it clearly appears to be part of a concerted effort by the company to promote Ms. Amico's political campaign, and, therefore, your legal fees should be reported under Georgia law as an in-kind contribution by the company.
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On Tuesday night in Statesboro, Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams delivered a somewhat muddled statement about the need for job diversity in rural Georgia. "I want to create a lot of different jobs," she said. "Because people shouldn't have to go into agriculture or hospitality in Georgia to make a living in Georgia."
The Republican Governors Association is spreading the video. And a press release from the Asian American Hotel Owners Association pronounced itself extremely hurt by Abram's language. The quote from Kapil Patel, the Georgia regional director:
"These hard-working Georgians play a key role in our state's travel and tourism industry which had a $63.1 billion economic impact in 2017."
If the phrase "hardworking Georgians" isn't a give-away – this is Republican Brian Kemp's favorite catch-phrase – there's another hint of partisan motives. The AAHOA's president and CEO is Chip Rogers, a Republican and the former state Senate majority leader.
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The New York Times has a piece this morning on the role Stone Mountain is playing in Georgia's race for governor. It breaks no new ground.
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Social media went wild on Wednesday night over a video on Secretary of State Brian Kemp's website that instructs voters on how to cast an early ballot. It features several kids portraying adults. The only minority in the minute-long PSA also happens to be the kid who fails to bring proper photo ID and is required to cast a provisional ballot. Check it out here.
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For the second time in less than two weeks, U.S. Rep. Karen Handel has raised questions about whether her Democratic opponent Lucy McBath has been dodging taxes. The Roswell Republican's Twitter focus this time was the homestead exemption McBath received in Douglas County for two years after she married her husband, who was already claiming an exemption in Cobb County. That's a no-no under Georgia code, which allows married couples only one exemption.
Local records show the McBaths did seek separate exemptions in Douglas and Cobb during the 2009 and 2010 tax years.
Homestead exemptions are automatically renewed once a person secures one, and it’s up to taxpayers to self report when there are any changes to their living situation.
We spoke Wednesday with Carla Jackson, Cobb’s tax commissioner, who said it’s not uncommon for homeowners to forget to file such changes with the county. When the authorities determine a person is in violation, she said, the county typically removes the exemption and bills them for taxes owed from the prior years. The maximum exposure is seven years, which means McBath falls outside that window.
The Democrat's campaign declined to comment. It dismissed Handel's earlier tax attack, which focused on McBath's husband's Tennessee ties, as "baseless" but did not address the Republican's specific allegations.
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