U.S. Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta, has asked to testify against President Barack Obama's judicial nominees for Georgia, another twist in a public dispute that pits Georgia's Democratic members of Congress and civil rights community against the first black president's White House.
Scott wrote a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on Friday to request an appearance at a yet-to-be scheduled hearing on a slate of six Georgia nominees.
Democrats have complained of being shut out of negotiations between White House officials and Georgia’s Republican senators, who have the power to block committee consideration for home-state judicial nominees by “blue slip” custom enforced by Leahy. Democrats are upset that only one of the six nominees is a minority, that Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs voted to keep the 1956 version state flag – with its Confederate battle emblem -- when he was in the state Senate and that attorney Mark Cohen defended the state’s voter ID law (even though he did so on behalf of then Attorney General Thurbert Baker, a Democrat).
Wrote Scott:
"If confirmed, the federal bench in Georgia will not reflect the current demographics of the state for at least another generation. There will soon be only one active African-American district court judge in Georgia. In addition, the views of some of these nominees reflect the regressive politics of the past. I want to share some very important and critical background information with the Committee before these nominations are considered.
"It is an abomination that these nominees for lifetime appointment were drafted in secret, not vetted by any legal groups among the President's supporters, and announced on a holiday weekend. We must not allow lifetime appointed judges to be rammed through the hearing process without sufficient input from the people who will be affected by their future judicial actions."
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Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed formally shifts into his second term at noon today, in a ceremony at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center. One of the main points likely to show up in his acceptance speech, according to our AJC colleague Katie Leslie, is a focus on curbing recidivism rates among criminals.
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Gov. Nathan Deal and leading lawmakers have been telling anyone who will listen the legislative session that starts next Monday will be one of the quickest ever. They've now provided proof that they might not be bluffing.
The big newsmaker events -- we're talking speeches, policy pronouncements and budget releases -- usually trickle out over the span of a few days or even weeks. But mark next Wednesday on your calendar as a condensed, singularly important day.
At 7:30 that morning, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, House Speaker David Ralston and the governor will unveil their priorities for the new session at the megawatt Eggs & Issues breakfast hosted by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
Deal will then give his annual State of the State speech before noon on the House floor. Shortly after 1, the governor will head around the corner to discuss and defend his spending plan before the House and Senate budget-writing committee. Usually, the budget hearings take place at least a week later.
What's more, the preliminary schedule we saw suggests that the budget committee's hearings will wrap up after about five hours -- instead of the usual three or four days.
The fact that so many big events are falling on the same day -- plus the earliest-ever May 20 primaries -- could mean that, for once, the session could actually end as quickly as the politicians promise it will.
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Here's something else that could put a charge through lawmakers as they return to Atlanta.
State Superintendent John Barge, who is challenging Deal in the GOP primary, gave us a copy of a three-page, open letter he's sending to legislators and the governor. In the strongest of terms, he blasts politicians for slashing $7.6 billion in state education funding since 2003 and calls any improvements in testing and graduation rates since then "miraculous."
But he focuses particularly on the impact the cuts have had on rural areas, calling the situation there "dire." Barge said he saw holes in walls, malfunctioning water fountains and threadbare carpet during visits to rural schools. Some, he said, had even turned off hall lights to cut utility spending. Writes Barge:
"Quite frankly, I think the rest of the state should understand that our rural, agrarian communities are producing the food we eat and the fiber that is turned into the clothes we wear. We cannot afford to do without them.
"I call on every state leader, every lawmaker, who has beaten his chest and said 'it shouldn't matter what your zip code is in Georgia, every child deserves a quality education,' to visit our rural schools, talk to people in the communities, and see the need."
He urges legislators to "insist that the governor begin restoring funds cut from our local school districts" to end teacher furloughs and shortened school calendars. (Our colleague James Salzer reports how Deal plans to give teachers pay raises in this Sunday piece.)
Yet the most interesting part of Barge's dispatch is his suggestion that "if it is the state leadership's secret plan to slowly choke the life out of public education by reducing funding, the plan may very well be succeeding." Writes Barge:
"You can slowly cut the flow of funds so that teachers lose their jobs, class sizes grow larger, and programs are cut to the point that student achievement no longer increases, but begins to decrease. Then, you can shout that our public school systems are failing and they must be privatized, but you will be doing this state and our society a tremendous disservice."
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Over at Georgia Public Broadcasting, Orlando Montoya reports that former state Sen. George Hooks, a Democrat from Americus, will be returning to the state Capitol this session as a history lobbyist:
He's now on the payroll of three groups promoting Georgia history. The Georgia Historical Society, the Georgia Humanities Council and the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation have hired Hooks.
All three groups have specific goals for the one-time dean of the State Senate. The main goal is state funding.
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We're picking up word that longtime TV journalist Paul Yates, who recently retired from WAGA-TV, will become part of a beefed-up GPB presence at the Capitol this year.
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The Marietta Daily Journal reports that the wife of a Cherokee County teacher is now leading statewide effort against changes to the state employee health insurance plans that took effect Wednesday:
The group, "Teachers Rally Against Georgia Insurance Changes," or TRAGIC, was created Thursday morning by Canton resident Ashley Cline, whose husband is a teacher in Cherokee County.
"I had no idea this would take off like a train," Cline said Friday. "It's spreading across the state. It started in mostly Cherokee, then we got some people from Cobb, I saw some from Bartow, we had a woman post last night from south (Georgia), in Valdosta."
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Given that we're likely to see some of the money here, we recommend this piece from the Washington Post:
The political network spearheaded by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch has expanded into a far-reaching operation of unrivaled complexity, built around a maze of groups that cloaks its donors, according to an analysis of new tax returns and other documents.
The filings show that the network of politically active nonprofit groups backed by the Kochs and fellow donors in the 2012 elections financially outpaced other independent groups on the right and, on its own, matched the long-established national coalition of labor unions that serves as one of the biggest sources of support for Democrats.
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On Sunday, Michelle Nunn announced that she'll report raising $1.6 million in the last three months for her Democratic bid for the U.S. Senate. On Monday morning, former state senator Steen Miles, one of Nunn's primary rivals, sent out a note that included this:
" We have a candidate with no record. No experience. Passed out awards while others earned them; Wants to go fight a war. Against moving forward to give everyone affordable health care; No comment on an increase in the minimum wage. No comment on children, veterans and seniors losing vital supplemental food assistance and no comment on the unemployed losing benefits.
Is this who the Democratic Party wants to carry the ball this fall? If Ms. Nunn really wants to earn the spot, she should stop avoiding rank-and-file Democrats and the other candidates. Come to the Oconee County Democrat's Forum, Friday, Jan. 10 at 7PM and let's play ball."
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