Hours before the first round of polls closed in Super Tuesday states, the head of the Democratic Party of Georgia said she wouldn't endorse a candidate ahead of this state's March 24 presidential primary.
More important, state Sen. Nikema Williams of Atlanta, the chairwoman of the state party, said that as one of the state’s 15 unpledged superdelegates to the national convention in Milwaukee, she would support the winner of Georgia’s primary.
That could matter if the nomination is still in doubt come July.
“As the leader of our party, it’s my job to represent our voters,” she said. “I’m standing firmly and confidently with who Georgia Democrats decide.”
That’s a good sign for former Vice President Joe Biden, who swept the South on Super Tuesday after dominating South Carolina on Saturday. This is also a significant move on Williams’ part. Last June, she expressed extreme dissatisfaction with Biden after his debate confrontation with U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California.
"Elections are about the future and I won't go back," Williams wrote on her Facebook page then.
But on Tuesday, she predicted the race will still be raging when Georgia Democrats head to the polls in three weeks, and she challenged the candidates left standing to start building an apparatus in Georgia now.
Only U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg -- also-rans in the Super Tuesday contests -- have significant in-state operations in Georgia. Williams sees that as a “serious problem.”
“I want to see all of the presidential campaigns opening offices not just in Atlanta, but across our state,” she said. “We deserve to be listened to and we deserve to engage with the candidates in a real and authentic way.”
She’s also urging other party chairs to take the same approach as her by calling on them to “stand with the voters in their state” and vote for whichever candidate carried the state if their superdelegate decision is needed.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden took nine of 14 Super Tuesday states, including Texas – an unprecedented rebound in a presidential primary campaign. The 7 a.m. AP write-thru (the 43rd in the last 12 hours) has two important passages. There's this one:
With votes still being counted across the country, The Associated Press has allocated 453 delegates to Biden, 382 to Sanders, 50 to Warren, 44 to Bloomberg and one for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. The numbers are expected to shift as new states report their numbers and as some candidates hover around the 15% vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates.
The ultimate nominee must claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season.
But if you’re President Donald Trump, this is the one that might worry you:
In Virginia, where Democratic turnout this year surpassed 2016's numbers by more than 500,000 votes, Sanders' vote share dropped significantly. And in Tennessee, Democratic turnout was up more than 30% from 2016, but Sanders' raw vote total was only a few hundred votes greater than four years ago.
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Meanwhile, AP also reports that former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg today will reassess whether he should stay in the race after getting disappointing results in Super Tuesday primaries despite spending more than a half billion dollars on his three-month campaign. But he did win the vote in American Samoa last night.
Bloomberg also sent mixed signals, announcing the opening of two offices in rural Georgia today. Only last Friday, DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond endorsed Bloomberg. This morning, Thurmond gave us this assessment of Bloomberg’s rough night:
"What appealed to me was his commitment to November regardless of who wins the nomination. He said he will support the nominee - not just to stand up on the stage and endorse but to spend $1B up and down the ballot to help Democrats defeat Trump.
"All Democrats ought to be praising this man this morning. He's going to be Joe Biden's best friend if he wins the nomination because -- what does [Biden] struggle with most? Raising money."
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Posted earlier this morning: President Donald Trump has built sizable leads in Georgia over his top three Democratic challengers, according to a University of Georgia poll released Wednesday. The same survey indicates that the competition for the state's all-comers U.S. Senate race remains wide open.
The poll showed Trump had the widest edge over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, beating him 52 to 41%, and the smallest lead over former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, 50-42%. Trump led former Vice President Joe Biden by a 51-43% clip and held a 52-42% advantage over U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
In the race for U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s seat, the incumbent was neck-and-neck with U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, a four-term congressman who qualified to challenge her this week. Matt Lieberman, the son of former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, was the only Democrat who tallied in double-digits.
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This judicial race could be headed for the courtroom: Two former lawmakers who sought to run for a Georgia Supreme Court seat were turned away this week, raising the possibility of a lawsuit targeting state election officials who blocked them from qualifying.
Former U.S. Rep. John Barrow and ex-state Rep. Beth Beskin both weren't allowed to submit paperwork to qualify for the seat held by Justice Keith Blackwell, who last month announced plans to resign in late November. Read the details here.
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Elections officials in Athens have become the first in Georgia to reject the state's new electronic voting system. Voting there will be done by paper ballots to ensure ballot secrecy, the AJC's Mark Niesse reports.
The Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections voted 3-2 to immediately switch to paper ballots bubbled in by pen, two days after early voting began.
It's the first of Georgia's 159 counties to reject the $104 million voting system, which combines touchscreens and printed-out paper ballots. Voters statewide have been using the touchscreens since early voting for the March 24 presidential primary started Monday.
Election integrity advocates say the bright, 21.5-inch touchscreens display voters' choices for people within 30 feet to see.
The board cited a provision of the Georgia Constitution that requires a secret ballot and state laws that allow for paper ballots when use of voting equipment is "impossible or impracticable."
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Gov. Brian Kemp has taken an assertive response to the coronavirus that includes a proactive media blitz. In addition to Tuesday interviews with the AJC, he also spoke with GPB, WSB, Fox 5 and the Georgia News Network.
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The spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. and SuperTuesday have overshadowed what otherwise would be a dominant narrative in Georgia. From the AJC's Mark Niesse:
Just two days before the 2018 election for governor, Republican Brian Kemp opened an explosive investigation, accusing the Democratic Party of Georgia of trying to hack voter registration systems.
Kemp was Georgia's secretary of state at the time, overseeing his own heated election for governor against Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Sixteen months later, the attorney general's office released a report Tuesday finding no evidence of a hack and closing the investigation Kemp had launched.
In his report, Attorney General Chris Carr gave Kemp, who won the governor’s race by 1.5 percentage points three days after trumpeting the investigation, some breathing space.
Carr wrote that “the evidence properly gave rise to concerns that were appropriately addressed to law enforcement.”
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How do you mute a potential backlash of women voters in November? If you're a GOP member of the state House, you back a bill that would grant three weeks of paid parental leave to nearly 250,000 state employees, extending the popular benefit to k-12 teachers, University System of Georgia staffers and other new parents for the first time in the state's history.
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State Rep. Erick Allen of Smyrna was one of two Democratic lawmakers who took the lead when it was learned that a local plant that sterilized medical equipment was leaking ethylene oxide, a known carcinogen.
In January, he introduced House Bill 774 to provide for all unpermitted releases of ethylene oxide to be reported to the state Environmental Protection Division within 24 hours and mandating that the information be posted publicly to the EPD website.
Late last month, two GOP floor leaders for Gov. Brian Kemp -- one in the Senate and one in the House -- introduced SB 426 and HB 927. The measures are nearly identical to Allen's measure.
Hijacking the work of a lawmaker in an opposing party is nothing new. But Allen notes that both GOP bills omit the requirement to publish the news of leaks on the EPD website. Democratic amendments restore the omission are being blocked in both chambers. Allen sent us the statement he made before a Senate committee on Tuesday:
"I urge you to not let the Legislature be the reason that our health and safety become a partisan, political football.
"Transparency is the bedrock of public trust and by fighting full transparency this only weakens the public trust further and creates an unease in communities around this issue.We should want to provide information to the public without the unnecessary burden of an Open Record Request. What we do then is give the perception that there is something to hide.
"The original bill has full transparency and broad support from cities and counties, including a resolution of support from the city of Covington.
"By having this information available to the public it will not only better inform the public but save EPD resources and time from responding to open records request."
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In endorsement news, Democratic Senate candidate Teresa Tomlinson picked up the support of Cathy Woolard, the former Atlanta City Council president. She's also the politician who helped make Atlanta's Beltline a reality. She's the latest in a string of city officials to back the former mayor of Columbus' bid to challenge Sen. David Perdue.
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The government's response to the spreading coronavirus has become the main topic of discussion in the halls of the U.S. Capitol, and both of Georgia's U.S. senators said Tuesday they are satisfied with how the White House is handling things.
Your Washington Insider spoke to both U.S. Sen. David Perdue and his Georgia colleague, Kelly Loeffler, after they attended a lunchtime briefing with Vice President Mike Pence who is leading the coronavirus task force. Loeffler also attended a committee hearing on the public health crisis and chatted with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the coronavirus and other issues.
“The government has reacted quickly and appropriately and we’re working on additional funding to start addressing all the countermeasures that we need to undertake,” Loeffler said. “So, whether its testing, vaccinations or treatment, all of that work is going on.”
Congressional leaders are negotiating an emergency funding package to help public health officials pay for coronavirus testing and treatment. A vote could come by the end of the week.
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A surprise birthday party was held Tuesday for U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who turned 80 last month.
The Atlanta Democrat's public appearances have slowed as he is treated for advanced pancreatic cancer, so he was not around on his Feb. 21 birthday. But he has started to step out in public again.
Lewis met marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., on Sunday to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the voting rights march he led there.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris were among the members spotted at Tuesday's surprise birthday party. U.S. Rep. Mark Takano of California posted video on his Twitter account showing Lewis entering a room to cheers.
“Eighty years old; I cannot believe it,” Lewis said. “I don’t know what happened to the time. Good to see each and every one of you. Thank you for your prayers, calls and — more than lucky — I feel honored and blessed to be in your presence and to be still here.”
