Potential candidate opens U.S. tour with no stops planned for Georgia
If Stacey Abrams is running for governor, she’s doing it her own way.
And if she isn’t? Then Georgia Democrats have a big problem.
Abrams launched a national tour this past week in San Antonio, where some people paid $200 to meet her and vendors sold her books. She’s scheduled to make a dozen other such stops through November, none of them in Georgia.
In San Antonio, Abrams avoided mentioning her loss to Republican Brian Kemp in Georgia’s 2018 governor’s race. She also said nothing about seeking a rematch next year.
That’s not how most candidates for governor would act, but Abrams isn’t most candidates.
High name recognition and a history as a fundraising powerhouse mean she can play the game differently. And other Democrats are doing nothing that could force her to deviate from her course. As long as Abrams is at least a potential candidate, nobody else in the party is publicly expressing an interest in being governor.
“She can wait as long as she wants to make her announcement so long as she runs,” veteran GOP strategist Chip Lake said. “Anything less would create chaos for Georgia Democrats who want to be unified in their effort to unseat an incumbent governor.”
Democratic strategist Howard Franklin mixes anxiety and expectation when he discusses whether Abrams will run.
“We’re all holding our breath collectively for the same outcome: We’re hoping and expecting that Stacey Abrams is going to run in this race,” he said.
Franklin says Abrams is positioned well for a run.
“She’s coming to the 2022 race with a number of enviable assets she didn’t have in 2018,” he said. “She won’t face any meaningful Democratic challenger. She’s a fundraising power. She’s an icon to Democrats. And she’s coalescing all that. She’s going to be formidable.”
Republicans — at least some of them — seem certain that Abrams is running.
GOP candidates for a range of offices speak of her at rallies as a specter of doom, and she shows up frequently in their social media posts.
There’s also a committee called Stop Stacey that was formed by Kemp allies and aims to live up to its name. It’s sure her national tour is a clear sign she’s running.
“Selfish Stacey is taking her misinformation campaign on the road for one simple reason: to build out a national donor network of left-wing radicals who will bankroll her next ill-advised run for public office,” said Jeremy Brand, a senior strategist with the group. “Stacey is looking out for Stacey, and that’s why we have to stop her in 2022.”
Report: Georgia surplus grows even more
Georgia’s surplus just gets bigger and bigger.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in July that state tax collections for fiscal 2021, which ended June 30, were up a record $3.2 billion.
A new report shows that once state agencies returned leftover money, that surplus grew to about $3.7 billon.
The state pushed $1.6 billion of those excess funds into its rainy day reserve, allowing it to swell to almost $4.3 billion — enough to run the state government for two months.
There’s still a $2 billion question: What should the state do with the remainder of the surplus?
With an election year coming for the governor and all 236 members of the General Assembly, the suggestion box could quickly fill to capacity.
Gov. Brian Kemp’s press secretary, Katie Byrd, highlighted some areas where money could go.
“Looking ahead to the next legislative session, the governor looks forward to working with both the House and Senate on a number of their priorities — in addition to the governor’s previous commitments from the campaign trail to raise educator pay, exempt military and first responder retirement pay from state income tax, and make it more affordable for Georgia families to send their kids to college.”
That boost in educator pay — a pledge Kemp made on the campaign trail to increase teacher salaries by $5,000, including $3,000 that’s already been handed out — comes with a price tag of about $350 million a year.
Kemp’s fellow Republicans in the Legislature are likely to make their own recommendations. Cutting taxes will probably head the list.
Democrats, the minority party, will likely propose increasing school spending and providing health care coverage to more Georgians, probably through an expansion of Medicaid.
This pile of cash was nowhere on the radar a year ago, when tight budgets became the rule in expectation that the coronavirus pandemic would hit Georgia’s economy hard.
Instead, the state saw revenue grow 13.5% in 2021 over 2020.
Some remain cautious down at the Capitol. They include Kemp’s budget director, Kelly Farr.
“This is just one-time money,” he said.
That means it might best be used for one-time expenses.
Things such as pay raises, income tax rate cuts and increased spending on medical programs don’t fit that profile.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Georgia Senate hopefuls sidestep new Trump vs. McConnell conflict
Former President Donald Trump, according to The Wall Street Journal, has set his sights on knocking Mitch McConnell out of the top Republican spot in the U.S. Senate.
But Georgia Republicans aiming to join the upper chamber of Congress don’t seem too interested in how that plays out.
None of them have backed Trump’s move, but they aren’t exactly lining up behind McConnell either.
Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black’s campaign spokesman said Black “doesn’t give a rat’s patootie who the Senate leader is, as long as it’s a Republican.”
The three other Republican contenders also scored low on the patootie scale.
Kelvin King’s campaign noted that its candidate has never met McConnell. King, it said, is interested in supporting the “strongest leader with the capability and the vision to get our country moving in the right direction again.”
Latham Saddler said he’s only interested right now in unseating Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Aides to Herschel Walker, who is running with Trump’s blessing, declined to comment on the former president’s effort to push out McConnell.
Voting eligibility complaint against Walker’s wife dismissed
The State Election Board dismissed a complaint that Julie Blanchard, the wife of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker, had voted illegally in Georgia while living in Texas.
An investigation by the secretary of state’s office found insufficient evidence to prove Blanchard was ineligible to cast an absentee ballot in Georgia from the home she and Walker share in Texas.
The board’s four members — three Republicans and a Democrat — voted unanimously to close the case.
The complaint was made days before Walker, a former University of Georgia football star, entered the Senate race last month. It’s illegal for nonresidents to vote in Georgia in most circumstances.
When The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first contacted Blanchard after questions about her eligibility surfaced, she responded: “If we’re residents in both places, is that legally wrong? If you have multiple homes, you can’t vote where you have a home?”
Blanchard followed that up the next day by saying she considers herself a resident of Georgia, where she has a driver’s license, owns a car and does business.
The investigation cited those same things in its finding, but it didn’t address whether Blanchard meets requirements in state law for voters to reside where their “habitation is fixed.”
Blanchard owns a home with Walker in Westlake, Texas, and she also owns property near Buckhead in Fulton County.
She hasn’t disclosed which was her primary residence. Voters who move to another state with the intention of making it their residence lose their eligibility to vote in Georgia.
Election records show that Blanchard used her Georgia address to return an absentee ballot in the 2020 presidential election, which she mailed in October from the couple’s residence in Texas. Blanchard has been registered to vote in Georgia since 2019, and she’s not registered to vote in Texas.
Judge pauses lawsuit seeking inspection of ballots
A Henry County judge placed a 20-day hold on a lawsuit seeking to inspect about 147,000 absentee ballots cast in Fulton County in an effort to unearth fraud.
Superior Court Judge Brian Amero has asked investigators from the secretary of state’s office and the GBI to provide an update on what they have found out about allegations that counterfeit ballots had been cast in Fulton during November’s presidential election.
State election officials have said there’s no indication of fraud after three ballot counts and multiple investigations. Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican incumbent Donald Trump in Georgia’s presidential election by about 12,000 votes.
The lawsuit is based on sworn statements by two Republican election auditors who alleged they saw “pristine” ballots with perfectly filled-in ovals during an audit in November. Two other Republican ballot counters claimed some absentee ballots lacked creases from folding ballots into envelopes.
The secretary of state’s office has said that investigators reviewed those ballot batches but found no signs of counterfeits or irregularities.
Absentee ballots might not have creases or appear to be filled in perfectly for a number of reasons.
Election officials must duplicate ballots if they can’t be scanned, either because they were damaged in the mail or when opened by poll workers. Ballots printed by military and overseas voters, and then mailed back to Georgia, also need to be duplicated to be read by scanners.
High court brings end to election challenge
Democrat Shea Roberts defeated Republican state Rep. Deborah Silcox in November, but it wasn’t until this past week that the Georgia Supreme Court brought a true end to the contest.
The high court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the results of the close state House contest in Fulton County.
Roberts defeated Silcox by 377 votes, or about 1.1 percentage points.
Five days after the tally was certified, Warren Schmitz, a Sandy Springs resident and House District 52 constituent, filed a lawsuit against the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections alleging that it allowed illegal voters to cast ballots.
But Schmitz apparently didn’t tell everybody who needed to know about his lawsuit — specifically Roberts.
In a unanimous opinion, Justice Charlie Bethel wrote that a lower court was correct in dismissing Schmitz’s suit because state law requires the person filing a lawsuit to overturn an election to notify the candidates. Roberts had not been served by the time of the March hearing — or by the time the judge issued his ruling in April.
Roberts, an Atlanta attorney, said she was relieved.
“It was dismissed because of service, and I think that is telling in and of itself because they knew where to find me for 40 days early this year,” she said, referring to being at the state Capitol during the legislative session.
Ray Smith III, an attorney for Schmitz, said his client may ask the court to reconsider its decision.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Biden to pick Smyre for ambassadorship
The White House said this past week that President Joe Biden will nominate state Rep. Calvin Smyre to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic.
Smyre, the longest-serving legislator in Georgia, was among the president’s earliest allies in the South.
The Columbus Democrat is known as somebody who works across party lines to hash out agreements.
He played a prominent role in a number of significant moves down at the state Capitol.
Smyre was a key negotiator when then-Gov. Roy Barnes decided it was time to remove the Confederate emblem from Georgia’s flag. Last year, he helped broker an agreement on a bipartisan hate-crimes bill that had stalled for nearly two decades.
Candidates, endorsements, etc.:
— Former Cobb County Democratic Chair Michael Owens announced that he is running for Georgia secretary of state. Both the Democratic and Republican primaries will feature crowded fields. The other Democrats running are former Fulton County Commission Chair John Eaves, former Milledgeville Mayor Floyd Griffin and state Rep. Bee Nguyen. On the Republican side, incumbent Brad Raffensperger faces competition from former Alpharetta Mayor David Belle Isle, U.S. Rep. Jody Hice and former Treutlen County Probate Judge T.J. Hudson.
— Gov. Brian Kemp’s bid for reelection has drawn endorsements from all five members of the state Public Service Commission: Tim Echols, Fitz Johnson, Bubba McDonald, Tricia Pridemore and Jason Shaw. Each is a Republican, include Johnson, whom Kemp recently named to the energy regulating panel.
— Gary Black added another big batch of endorsements for his U.S. Senate campaign. Fifty-five state legislators, 44 from the House and 11 from the Senate, signed on as supporters. They include House Majority Leader Jon Burns, Majority Whip Matt Hatchett and the top two budget leaders under the Gold Dome, House Appropriations Chairman Terry England and Senate Appropriations Chairman Blake Tillery. Black’s earlier endorsements include nods from former Gov. Nathan Deal, former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins and dozens of county sheriffs.
— NARAL Pro-Choice America, one of the nation’s most prominent abortion rights groups, is backing state Sen. Jen Jordan over Charlie Bailey in the Democratic primary for Georgia attorney general.
— Democrat Wade Herring picked up several endorsements in his bid to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter in the 1st Congressional District. Herring’s backers include former Savannah Mayor Otis Johnson, state Rep. Derek Mallow, former Savannah City Manager Pat Monahan, former Hinesville Mayor Jim Thomas and state Rep. Al Williams.
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