Which of these groups does not belong with the others: the ACLU, the tea party, Common Cause or Americans for Prosperity?
If you think they could all fit in a coalition under the Gold Dome, give yourself a peach-colored star.
This era is known for its polarization in Washington, and Georgians on the left and the right certainly have their differences about how state legislators should address certain issues. But unlike in national politics, diverse coalitions still can and do emerge on high-profile state issues.
The ACLU and Common Cause have reputations as liberal groups, particularly nationally; the tea party and Americans for Prosperity lean solidly to the right. But representatives of those four outfits, along with the libertarian Institute for Justice, are pushing legislators to change Georgia’s civil asset forfeiture laws — which allow law enforcement to confiscate private property without a criminal conviction, or in many cases even a criminal charge.
“These different organizations look through different lenses, but get to the same place regarding citizens’ rights to have a day in court … and protect their property,” says Lee McGrath, legislative counsel for the Institute for Justice.
House Bill 1 by Rep. Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, would take a first step toward reform by requiring more transparency about assets seized by law enforcement on the — unproven — premise it may have been used in the commission of a crime. Eventually, the goal is to move to the North Carolina model, in which a jury can consider seizing property only after a conviction, and only if it was “an instrument [for] or the proceeds of a crime,” McGrath says.
Today, there are only anecdotes about some of the citizens who had automobiles, cash and other assets seized without ever being charged with a crime. But based on what we do know, “asset forfeiture practices often go hand-in-hand with racial profiling and disproportionately affect minorities,” says Chad Brock, a lobbyist for the ACLU in Georgia.
(It’s worth noting Republicans, who are continually told they must improve their minority outreach, have taken the lead on this issue, along with issues such as charter schools and criminal justice reform, of particular benefit to racial minorities.)
This is but the latest example that politics can still make strange bedfellows in Atlanta. Tea partyers, the Sierra Club and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce united last month behind a four-point plan to improve transportation pitched by a new Georgia-based advocacy group, Policy BEST. The first two groups joined with the DeKalb branch of the NAACP — but against the Georgia Chamber — on the 2012 T-SPLOST vote.
Common Cause, the tea party, the League of Women Voters and Georgia Conservatives in Action previously pressed legislators to strengthen state ethics laws.
Call it a function of shorter legislative sessions that don’t allow for as much animosity-breeding familiarity as Congress experiences. Chalk it up to the relative apolitical nature of the laws in question, though that doesn’t explain why other, more controversial issues haven’t poisoned the well in Atlanta as they have in Washington.
Whatever the reason, be glad we have at least one level of government that is capable of keeping tribalism out of some of the issues that matter to Georgians.
