Category: Battleground State Report

Two Georgia Legislators Will Influence How Reapportionment Affects Peach State Residents

Chris Butler

Members of the Georgia General Assembly are preparing to discuss reapportionment, which involves redrawing district lines for the U.S. House of Representatives following the 2020 Census. Members of the Georgia House Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Committee as well as members of the Georgia Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee will hold a joint virtual town hall hearing next week. The hearing will take place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 15 on the Georgia General Assembly’s website.

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Vernon Jones Returns to Georgia, Describes Arizona Ballot Audit, How Joe Biden’s Policies Enable Drug Cartels

Chris Butler

Georgia gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones just returned from Arizona where he observed an audit of ballots from the November 2020 presidential election and also witnessed up-close what he said was a calamity at the U.S.-Mexico border. Jones talked to The Georgia Star News Thursday. He said a firm overseeing the audit has done a thorough and professional job that leaves little room to allow mistakes. Jones did not name the firm.

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Nashville Mayor John Cooper Wants More Revenue Sources to Fund Affordable Housing

Chris Butler

Nashville Mayor John Cooper released a report Wednesday that not only calls for more affordable housing within the city but also calls for new sources of revenue to fund it. The report specifically calls on Metro Nashville officials to pursue additional revenue streams. Metro planners also suggest generating more affordable housing by using land already publicly-owned and underutilized. The report said city officials could expand Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) to support Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). This method, the report went on to say, would fund long-term housing by partnering with nonprofit and private developers. Metro planners also suggested creating “mixed use, mixed income communities.”

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Georgia GOP Establishment Leaders Continue to Mishandle Fulton County Chairmanship Race, Members Say

Chris Butler

A supporter of Susan Opraseuth’s said Tuesday the candidate does not have a database of 330 delegates she needs as she campaigns to replace Fulton County Republican Party incumbent chair Trey Kelly — but she’s supposed to. Party members said this election pits Kelly, an establishment Republican, against Opraseuth, who strongly supports former U.S. President Donald Trump.

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Georgia Board of Education Formally Opposes Critical Race Theory

Chris Butler
Classroom of students.

Members of the Georgia Board of Education voted Thursday to formally oppose teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the state’s K-12 classrooms. Board members, according to their resolution, described beliefs such as CRT as “concepts that impute fault, blame, a tendency to oppress others, or the need to feel guilt or anguish to persons solely because of their race or sex.”

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Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Prioritizes Gender Neutral Restrooms

Chris Butler
Keisha Lance Bottoms

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will soon sign an administrative order directing the city’s Department of Enterprise Assets Management (DEAM) to designate all single-occupancy restrooms within city facilities as gender neutral. This, according to the order that Bottoms will sign later this month. The Georgia Star News obtained a copy on Friday from Atlanta Director of LGBTQ Affairs Malik Brown.

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David Ralston Might Run for Georgia U.S. Senate Seat

Chris Butler

Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) might run for the U.S. Senate next year, although he said he hasn’t decided for certain. Ralston appeared on Georgia Public Broadcasting late last week and praised U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Ralston also said the country’s current direction troubles him. If he does serve in the U.S. Senate then he said his tenure as Georgia Speaker of the House will help guide him.

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Vernon Jones Tells Brian Kemp to Investigate Mysterious Fulton County Warehouse Break-In

Chris Butler

The apparent break-in at the Fulton County warehouse where officials were storing ballots for a pending audit has prompted Georgia gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones to demand an official investigation. “This report, if true, is deeply concerning and needs to be independently investigated at once. I am calling on Governor Kemp to immediately order an investigation into this matter by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,” Jones told supporters Monday in an emailed statement.

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Jody Hice Outlines How Joe Biden Makes Federal Government Less Efficient After COVID-19

Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA-10) told constituents in an email Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated several longstanding problems and created more than a few new ones within the federal government. “The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), for example, has a tremendous backlog of millions of income tax returns waiting to be processed, leading to lengthy delays in refunds and stimulus checks to many Americans. Another case is the State Department, which is taking 10 to 12 weeks to process even a simple passport application. Perhaps the worst example is the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), a little known but critical agency responsible for the military service records needed for veterans to receive care from the VA. As of April, the backlog for veterans’ records is roughly 500,000 and may take up to two years to clear. Unreal!” Hice wrote.

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New Method Allows Loudoun County, Virginia Students to Make False Hate Reports, Parents Warn

Chris Butler

Administrators within the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) are calling on students to report — anonymously — any acts of bias, discrimination, harassment, or intimidation motivated by prejudice. LCPS spokesman Wayde Byard told The Virginia Star Wednesday that students may use what they call the Share, Speak Up, Speak Out: Bias Reporting Form to report instances of prejudice or bias.

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Certain Details Emerge About Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan’s Book with Simon and Schuster

Chris Butler

Booksellers are scheduled to release a book later this year that Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan wrote about reforming the Republican Party, but details about how much money Duncan will make were unavailable Wednesday. Members of Duncan’s staff as well as publishers at the New York-based Simon and Schuster did not return The Georgia Star News’ emailed requests for comment before Wednesday’s stated deadline.

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Georgia Election Official Gabriel Sterling Complains ‘Trump Supporter-ish Kind of People’ Behind Fulton County Vote Audit

Chris Butler

One of Georgia’s top election officials said “Trump supporter-ish kind of people” prompted the audit of Fulton County’s absentee ballots, and he also suggested those individuals are biased and cannot inspect ballots in an honest manner. That man, Gabriel Sterling, is Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s chief operating officer.

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State Sen. Burt Jones Says Fulton County Election Audit May Require Georgia Bureau of Investigation Involvement

Chris Butler
Georgia State Senator Burt Jones

If an audit of absentee ballots that Fulton County officials tallied during the 2020 presidential election produces any irregularities then the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) must step in, said one state legislator. State Sen. Burt Jones (R-Jackson) told The Georgia Star News Monday that if the audit proves any irregularities than that means one or more people committed fraud in last year’s election.

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Brian Kemp Warns Georgia About Critical Race Theory, but Vernon Jones Says He Has a Plan to Get Rid of It Altogether

Chris Butler

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp this week submitted a letter to members of the state board of education and warned about the dangers of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools. But Vernon Jones — Kemp’s declared Republican opponent for next year’s gubernatorial race — also denounced CRT and said, if elected, he’ll do more than just warn about it.

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Geoff Duncan’s Former Chief of Staff Says Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor Never Should Have Assumed Office

Chris Butler

The former chief strategist for Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said his former boss was the wrong fit for the job and that Duncan’s personal and professional shortcomings likely doomed his reelection prospects. That man, Chip Lake, told The Georgia Star News Wednesday he worked on Duncan’s political campaign for a year and a half. During the lieutenant governor’s first year in office Lake served as Duncan’s chief of staff. Lake said he regrets working for Duncan.

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Georgia GOP Activist Says Grassroots Won the Battle Against Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan

Chris Butler

Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan declaring this week that he won’t seek a second term prompted conservative activist Debbie Dooley and her friends to celebrate and, she said, to convey a message of “good riddance.” Republican Jeanne Seaver, who hopes to replace Duncan next year, said the outgoing politician couldn’t even declare his future plans without taking a cheap shot at supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

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Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr Tells Joe Biden to Support Energy Infrastructure

Chris Butler

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and 18 other state attorneys general on Tuesday called on U.S. President Joe Biden to support additional energy infrastructure – including the Keystone XL pipeline. This, following the Colonial pipeline shutdown that caused price spikes and fuel shortages at gas stations across the southern and eastern parts of the nation.

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Greater Georgia Launches Voter Registration Effort for June 15 Special Election to Replace State Rep. Bert Reeves

Chris Butler
Kelly Loeffler speaks at a Greater Georgia event

Members of the group Greater Georgia announced this week they have launched a voter registration and mobilization effort in Marietta ahead of the scheduled June 15 election for the open State House District 34 seat. Greater Georgia members told followers in an emailed newsletter this week they are deploying staff members, volunteers, and organizers to register conservative-leaning voters ahead of the deadline. They said they also want to get out the vote via door-to-door canvassing, phone-banking, texting, and handwritten mail.

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Atlanta Republican Fed up with GOP Establishment Says ‘The Old Guard is Cornered’

Chris Butler

One Atlanta conservative unsettled by the behavior of the Fulton County Republican leadership at their party’s convention last month said too many members of the old GOP establishment resist change — and put the party in peril. Rob Cunningham told The Georgia Star News this week that “the call to get engaged [among the grassroots] is being heeded.”

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Witness Says Fulton County GOP Officials Behaved Dishonorably at Recent Convention

Chris Butler

Witnesses who attended April’s Fulton County GOP convention — already unhappy with how the convention played out — have complained of additional shenanigans that establishment members pulled to preserve their power and keep grassroots Trump supporters at bay. Fulton County GOP members held their convention April 17 at The Metropolitan Club in Alpharetta.

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Chatham County GOP Members Accuse Georgia Republican Party of Overreach in Local Party Elections

Chris Butler

State-level officials within the Georgia Republican Party recently used — or, depending upon whom you ask, abused — their authority to select members of the Chatham County Executive Board. Chatham County GOP members had an unsuccessful convention last month in Savannah. Witnesses described a rift between pro-Trumpers and the party establishment that provoked a shouting match that ended business prematurely before anyone could elect Executive Board members.

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Barry Loudermilk Says Major League Baseball’s Sudden Decision to Move All-Star Game Has Left Atlanta Business Owners Bewildered

Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA-11) said this month that many Atlanta business owners realized controversy surrounded Georgia’s voter integrity law Senate Bill 202, but Major League Baseball’s ultimate reaction to it still astonished them. MLB officials pulled their scheduled All-Star Game out of Atlanta.

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Georgia U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson Insists Packing U.S. Supreme Court Will Attract More Public Support

Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA-04) said members of the public should prepare for several Congressional hearings where he and other elected officials will make their case for increasing the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices. Johnson chairs the U.S. House of Representatives’ Courts and Intellectual Property Subcommittee. Staff at the Decatur-based website Decaturish.cominterviewed Johnson this week in a question-and-answer-style format. The congressman said expanding the number of seats on the U.S. Supreme Court “will…gather support as we make the case for reform in the justice system.”

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