Cobb Republicans split with Kemp

Fighting within the Republican Party has found a new and significant battleground: Cobb County.

The Cobb GOP’s county committee, now dominated by supporters of former President Donald Trump, voted to censure Gov. Brian Kemp.

Party Chair Salleigh Grubbs told The Marietta Daily Journal that the vote was a response to the governor’s inability to halt illegal immigration.

No matter that immigration is governed by federal policy, giving a state governor nothing to do beyond serving as a megaphone on the issue. (Still, Kemp tried to beef up his megaphone bona fides on immigration this past week with a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border, where he met with three other Republican governors: Greg Abbott of Texas, Doug Ducey of Arizona and Kristi Noem of South Dakota.)

Being censured is nothing new for Kemp. One could see a great deal of Georgia by following the trail of punitive actions that Republicans have taken against the governor, all of it coming after Kemp’s refusal to illegally overturn Trump’s defeat in the state in November.

Kemp has faced censure in Appling, Chattooga, DeKalb, Jasper, Lowndes, Lumpkin, Murray, Pierce, Pickens and Whitfield counties.

Add to that the 7th Congressional District GOP.

But Cobb’s rejection has to sting a little more.

The county was long a Republican stronghold until Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Trump there in 2016. And it was there that Kemp launched his campaign for governor in 2017, trying out his own Trump impression with a “Georgia First” pitch to voters.

The Cobb vote soon met backlash.

The Cobb Young Republicans, only a few days later, blasted the county GOP over the rebuke of Kemp, saying “the decision to censure further divides the party at a critical time.”

Former Cobb County GOP Chair Jason Shepherd assailed both the process of the vote and the concept of censuring a Republican elected official, especially with an election coming.

“How does the Cobb GOP work to reelect Brian Kemp if the voters choose him to be the nominee when it has officially censured him?” he asked. “This censure can now be used as campaign fodder in the primary by Kemp’s opponents.”

Trump is probably OK with that. At his rally last month in Perry, the former president called on ex-U.S. Sen. David Perdue to challenge Kemp in next year’s GOP primary, something Perdue has so far rejected.

The former president then suggested that Stacey Abrams, Kemp’s Democratic opponent in the 2018 race and a likely contender again next year, could be a better choice for Georgia.

“Having her, I think, might be better than having your existing governor,” he said. “It might very well be better.”

Georgia Dems in U.S. House divided on spending packages

Georgia Democrats have displayed their own problems with getting along, mirroring a split within the national party over a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and a larger package funding social services and climate change programs.

Democrats say they still expect both bills to pass, with a new deadline for a vote on infrastructure set for Oct. 31, when the 30-day extension of surface transportation funding runs out.

But each of the measures has its fans among the Democrats in Georgia’s U.S. House delegation.

U.S. Reps. Hank Johnson of Lithonia and Nikema Williams of Atlanta back the strategy advanced by the liberal faction of the party’s congressional caucus to hold up the vote on the smaller infrastructure bill until the larger package wins approval.

Backing a vote now on the infrastructure measure, which has already cleared the U.S. Senate with bipartisan support, are U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop of Albany, Carolyn Bourdeaux of Suwanee and David Scott of Atlanta. Once that’s done, they say, the work on the social services legislation can be finalized.

The lone Georgia Democrat in the House who has not publicly weighed in is U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Marietta.

That’s not unusual for McBath, who appears to be a top target in the Republican plan to regain control of the House. Any stand she takes can turn into campaign fodder.

She did, however, take part in a Zoom meeting President Joe Biden held with House members from swing districts to discuss what they want and don’t want to see in the social services legislation once it takes its final form.

Audit slaps Labor Department over free lunches to employees

Starting in March 2020, at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, state Labor Department workers began receiving free lunches daily, with taxpayers picking up the tab of more than $1.1 million.

Free meals continued to be delivered to all 1,026 of the agency’s employees at 41 locations across the state through this past June, according to a state audit obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Labor Commissioner Mark Butler criticized the audit, saying he had received permission from Alex Atwood, the head of the state Department of Administrative Services, to provide the free meals.

“I fully explained to him the reasons why we were doing it — to keep our people safe, to minimize bringing the COVID-19 virus into our buildings and to require all the individuals who work here to work all through the day,” Butler said.

The meals allowed employees to stay on the job, Butler said, and that helped them process more unemployment claims during the pandemic than the office had in the past 10 years.

Butler’s agency, however, has faced criticism for how it handled the unprecedented surge in unemployment claims, a process so slow that desperate workers tacked notes on locked Department of Labor office doors begging for callbacks on their claims.

According to the audit, Butler personally called Atwood to ask about buying meals for his employees using P-cards, state-issued credit cards that allow agencies to make small purchases that don’t require a more time-consuming bidding process.

In their response to the audit, Labor Department officials claimed that call gave them permission to treat the meals as “urgent” and free from the state’s normal requisition process.

The Department of Administrative Services admitted giving guidance in March 2020, but it said the meals became “routine planned events” at labor offices across the state that exceeded the limited request.

Georgia Inspector General Scott McAfee, who called the program a waste of money, said the free meals may have violated the state constitution’s ban on using taxpayer resources for gifts.

There may also be possible federal violations, since nearly half of the money came from U.S. government grants meant to pay unemployment claims.

Credit: Cat Maplethorpe

Credit: Cat Maplethorpe

Greene challenger shows some fundraising skills

It will likely be extremely difficult to defeat Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in next year’s election, but Democrat Marcus Flowers is getting a nice fundraising boost for his efforts.

The U.S. Army combat veteran will report raising more than $1.3 million from July through September. He still has more than $1 million after drawing more than 162,000 contributions from at least 110,000 donors in all 50 states.

Flowers said he’s using the money to beef up his paid staff and volunteers in northwest Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.

While $1.3 million is a substantial haul, it’s far short of what Greene has collected: more than $4.7 million overall, with roughly $2.8 million in the bank in July. The congresswoman is a star with the far right who has drawn scorn from others for numerous incidents, including comparing mask requirements for U.S. House members in the Capitol to the treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

The 14th District could see its boundaries change somewhat during redistricting, but it still appears tilted in Greene’s favor. Then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, won about 73% of the vote there in 2020.

Still, while Greene is raising a lot of cash, she’s also collecting campaign rivals. On the Democratic side, Flowers — who also can boast endorsements from former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland and former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young — appears to be in the best position in a group that also includes Lateefah Conner, Wendy Davis and Holly McCormack.

Greene also faces two challengers from within the Republican Party: Mark Daniel Clay and Jennifer Strahan.

Libertarian Angela Pence is also running.

Ossoff calls for protection for election workers

Following death threats against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and others following November’s election, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is seeking additional protection for election workers.

The Georgia Democrat is proposing an expansion of federal laws that make it illegal to threaten harm against election workers. His bill would ban threats to election workers’ property and bar harassment of election volunteers and family members of election officials. It also would prohibit intentional damage to polling places and tabulation centers.

“Threats of violence targeting election officials and polling places are threats against our Constitution and the right to vote,” Ossoff said.

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

Proposal seeks Capitol statue honoring Supreme Court’s Thomas

A proposal to erect a statue of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on the grounds of the Georgia Capitol is gaining support among Republican legislators.

State Sen. Jason Anavitarte — who says it’s “only fitting and proper” to honor Thomas, a native of Pin Point near the Georgia coast — has picked up several co-sponsors for his proposal.

They include state Sen. Ben Watson, who represents the area near where Thomas grew up, and state Sen. Brian Strickland.

On the House side, Speaker David Ralston appears to favor the plan.

“Speaker Ralston admires and respects Justice Clarence Thomas as a Georgian who has served our nation on the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years,” Ralston’s spokesman said. “He’s open to a discussion of how to properly honor such a distinguished record of public service.”

Thomas, the court’s longest serving justice and the nation’s second Black Supreme Court justice, has been a reliable conservative vote on the court since his appointment in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush.

A Thomas statue isn’t proving as popular with Democrats, who among other things point to allegations of sexual harassment that Anita Hill made against him during his confirmation hearing.

“I’d rather them keep a Confederate monument than a statue of Clarence Thomas,” Democratic state Rep. Donna McLeod said. “That’s how much I don’t like the idea.”

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

Stamp proposed to honor Lewis

Congressional Democrats have been working to pass voting rights legislation that would be named after the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis.

Now, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is also asking that a stamp be created to honor the “American hero, civil rights icon and revered citizen of Georgia.”

“His courage serves as an extraordinary example of civic leadership and continues to inspire young Americans to serve their communities and build a better world,” Ossoff wrote in a letter to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee.

Ossoff and Lewis had a close relationship that began when a teen-age Ossoff wrote a letter to Lewis after reading his memoir, “Walking With the Wind.” Lewis responded with a letter inviting Ossoff to work for him as a volunteer intern.

Lewis backed Ossoff’s 2017 bid for a U.S. House seat in Atlanta’s northern suburbs and also was an early supporter of Ossoff’s 2020 run for the U.S. Senate. While suffering from pancreatic cancer, Lewis headlined campaign events for Ossoff.

Lewis died at age 80 in July 2020, six months before Ossoff won a U.S. Senate runoff.

Credit: Photo courtesy of WeBuyBlack.com

Credit: Photo courtesy of WeBuyBlack.com

State Senate panel examines food problems for many Georgians

Access to fresh, healthy and affordable food is a problem for more than 2 million Georgians, and a state Senate study panel continued its work this past week examining the issue.

Food deserts are both a rural and urban problem in Georgia. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service says about 22% of the state’s 10.7 million residents live either in urban parts of the state that are more than 1 mile from a grocery store or in rural areas more than 10 miles from a grocery store.

Healthy food has a direct connection to healthy living, Katie Mooney, senior manager of community benefit and population health at Grady Health System, told the panel.

“Diabetes and hypertension are directly impacted by food access and nutrition,” she said.

Kwabena Nkromo, who has studied the problem as chairman of the Georgia Food Policy Council, told the lawmakers that “a coordinated statewide structure and support and understanding of vision” are needed to make more healthy food available to Georgians in need.

He said various groups are working with that goal in mind, but “there’s isn’t a big picture.”

“So everybody’s kind of scrambling and doing things in silos,” Nkromo said.

The study panel, headed by state Sen. Harold Jones, an Augusta Democrat, will make recommendations to the state Senate later this year.

Candidates, endorsements, etc.:

— The Marietta Daily Journal reports that Cobb County School Board member Jaha Howard, a Democrat, has filed paperwork to run for state school superintendent in 2022.

— Republican Rich McCormick, a physician who lost to Carolyn Bourdeaux last year in the 7th Congressional District, says he collected $600,000 in donations from July through September. That brings his total fundraising haul to $1.1 million for a rematch in 2022.

— Former state School Superintendent John Barge filed paperwork indicating that he was running for his former job in 2022, but he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it was a “housekeeping” effort to pay a late fee and that he has no plans for a comeback attempt.