Capitol Recap: Talk about distracted driving turns to Big Brother

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said the bill faced an “uphill battle” in the state Senate. He should know, since he’s the president of the chamber and has the ability to stop the bill in its tracks.

Supporters of the bill, sponsored by state Rep. John Carson, R-Marietta, say it could help reduce the rising number of highway fatalities in Georgia. But its opponents see the measure as a form of government intrusion, putting Big Brother behind the steering wheel.

Cagle said at the forum that sometimes lawmakers have a “sense of wanting to go a little bit too far in one direction” when it comes to public safety.

The other four picked up on that cue.

Businessman Clay Tippins said the “last thing I want to do is insert government” deeper into motorists’ daily commutes, and former state Sen. Hunter Hill reminded the audience that he had taken a pledge to pursue more limited state government.

State Sen. Michael Williams of Cumming said drivers need to take "personal responsibility" for their actions.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp said proposals like Carsons will soon be widely accepted, calling it the “seat belt issue of the 21st century.” But he also injected a note of caution “about us continuing to mandate things on law enforcement and not giving them the resources to be able to fundamentally do their job.”

Education group gives Abrams an "A": Over in the Democratic lanes of the governor's race, former state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams now has a large group of teachers cheering her efforts.

The political arm of the Georgia Association of Educators voted unanimously this past week to back Abrams. It represents a big score in her contest with former state Rep. Stacey Evans for the party's nomination.

A big factor in the group’s decision was Abrams’ vote against the Opportunity School District initiative, a plan that Gov. Nathan Deal backed and Evans supported to allow the state to take over struggling schools. Voters rejected it in a 2016 referendum.

The GAE also likes Abrams’ education plan, including her pledge to fully fund the state’s formula for k-12 schools.

“GAE believes we need a leader in the governor’s office that truly understands that vision and does not just give lip service for political gain,” said Sid Chapman, the GAE’s president and a Democratic candidate for state school superintendent. “Our children do not deserve lip service.”

Evans also has a group of teachers in its corner, the Georgia Federation of Teachers, but it’s a smaller organization than the GAE.

The two hopefuls share a lot of things in common when it comes to education. They both have unveiled plans for universal pre-kindergarten. They also have called for significantly increasing the funding for k-12 education and making tech school programs tuition-free.

But Abrams has attacked Evans for her initial support of a student scholarship organization measure that she later voted against. Abrams has used that to paint Evans as a supporter of vouchers. Evans says Abrams’ claim “is a lie.”

They've got money coming: Abrams took an unusual tact when she opted to spend much of her campaign cash early in the race, instead of holding out until just before the May 22 primary.

So far, she has spent about 80 percent of the money she’s raised in her effort to become the nation’s first black female governor.

The PowerPAC Georgia committee says it will spend $2.5 million to bolster Abrams' effort, hiring 250 organizers to turn out an additional 80,000 rural black voters. Don't be fooled by the name. Information that PowerPAC Georgia gave to the state ethics committee includes a San Francisco address.

Cagle is also getting help in his bid to move up one slot on the state flowchart.

An outside group, Citizens for Georgia's Future, has pledged $1.2 million for a new barrage of ads supporting Cagle's campaign. The group is set up as a 501(c)4, meaning it does not have to disclose its donors.

The seven leading candidates for governor have combined to raise or loan themselves more than $20 million in their pursuit of the Governor's Mansion.

A little shoulda, coulda: Lucy McBath drew cheers from several leading Democrats when the gun control advocate decided to run in Georgia's 6th Congressional District race.

It, however, was not a consensus.

State Rep. Scott Holcomb, D-Atlanta, took to Twitter to make the case that McBath should have stuck to her original plan, to run against state Rep. Sam Teasley of Marietta. Teasley was considered vulnerable as a Republican in a district whose voters backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. McBath also had socked away more than $100,000 for the contest, a good sum for a state legislative race.

“My 2 cents: she likely would have won her bid for State House,” Holcomb wrote in a tweet. “This is a much more challenging road.”

Holcomb added that even if successful in her bid for the U.S. House, McBath would then face “considerable obstacles to overcoming Congressional gridlock and enacting legislative change.”

McBath cited that gridlock over gun legislation following the shootings at a Parkland, Fla., high school as one of the reasons she shifted her focus from the Gold Dome to Washington.

She now joins businessman Kevin Abel and former newscaster Bobby Kaple in the contest for the Democratic nomination. The winner will face U.S. Rep. Karen Handel, R-Roswell, who entered Congress after beating Democrat Jon Ossoff in a June special election that was the most expensive U.S. House campaign ever.

Try some palmetto salve:Who knew Georgia politicians could turn to South Carolina to make themselves feel better?

The Georgians thought they had it bad when the Trump administration decided that the project to deepen the Port of Savannah would get only about half of the $100 million the state’s congressional delegation sought this year.

That’s nothing, South Carolina officials would tell them because all the Palmetto State got for its own dredging project in Charleston was — wait for it — nothing.

And that’s with friends in high places. A former South Carolina congressman is running the White House budget office.

While the news was bad, it gave U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., new purpose in his life.

He told The Charleston Post & Courier that his “No. 1 priority for 2018 is to change the formula” for funding these types of infrastructure projects.

South Carolina has put $300 million into its $529 million dredging project.

Meanwhile, roughly 100 miles south, Georgia has thrown $266 million at its $973 million project to deepen the Savannah River from 42 feet to 47 feet to accommodate larger container ships.

The feds are supposed to cover the largest share of the costs, although the most they’ve spent in any single year was about $43 million.

In South Carolina, that would be something.

Candidates, endorsements, etc.:

— As the only Republican candidate in the governor's race who hasn't held office before, businessman Clay Tippins has been considered an outsider. He now has an experienced hand backing him. Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, also a onetime chairman of the Republican National Committee, will headline a March 27 fundraiser for Tippins.

— If he gets through the primary, House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, will also have a race in November. Entrepreneur Rick Day qualified as a Democrat to run in the 7th House District. Margaret Williamson announced in January that she was running the speaker in the May 22 primary.

Capitol Recap

Here's a look at some of the news that broke this past week at Georgia's General Assembly, with a side of other political news. Find more by subscribing to Politically Georgia.