Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025
Good morning. This week we’re reporting on the founder of Bryan County gunmaker Daniel Defense testifying on behalf of a bill, examining how safe federal funding is for a much-delayed Chatham County project and looking at what the Georgia State Supreme Court Chief Justice’s resignation means for appointments and politics.
Questions, comments or story ideas? You can reach us at staff@thecurrentga.org. Let’s dive in.
NEWS: PUBLIC SAFETY, GOVERNING
Daniel Defense founder speaks in favor of ‘de-banking’ ban
Marvin “Marty” Daniel, the founder of Bryan County riflemaker Daniel Defense, testified alongside a Vidalia senator last week in support of a “de-banking” ban bill.
Sponsored by Republican Sen. Blake Tillery, Senate Bill 57 advanced out of the judiciary committee on Feb. 20 and takes aim at banks that discriminate against a customer’s “social credit score” or exercising of constitutional rights. Tillery’s chief and only example was that of Daniel.
The Daniel Defense founder, who stepped down as CEO two years ago but remains chairman of its board, testified how two banks dropped business with the manufacturer in recent years with little explanation. It cost his company $1 million, he said, in fees.
Daniel and his company came under widespread criticism after a teenager in Uvalde, Tex., used a Daniel Defense rifle to kill 19 elementary school students and two teachers in May 2022. His company is the subject of multiple lawsuits over its marketing tactics to sell semi-automatic rifles to young men, including the Uvalde shooter.
The company made $120 million in AR-15 profits in 2021 alone, according to a U.S. Congressional committee report.
MORE CONTEXT: One potential conflict with the bill intended to help Daniel and others: the Bryan County businessman’s political history.
In the last decade, Daniel and his company have donated to the campaigns of multiple key Republicans who could shepherd this bill to passage, according to campaign finance records. Those include:
- Bill co-sponsor, Sen. Billy Hickman (R-Statesboro) who received $1,000 from Daniel in December 2023.
- House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington) who has received $4,500 from Daniel and Daniel Defense since 2015. If it passes the senate, Burns influences whether the bill receives a vote in the house.
- Gov. Brian Kemp has received $50,000 since 2018, half of which came from Daniel personally and the other half from his company. Kemp would decide whether to sign or veto the bill if it reaches his desk.
Several other Coastal Georgia state lawmakers, all Republicans, who could vote on this bill, have also received funds from Daniel and his company, including Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah), Sen. Ben Watson (R-Savannah), Rep. Bill Hitchens (R-Rincon) and Rep. Jesse Petrea (R-Savannah).
NEWS: PUBLIC SAFETY, GOVERNING
‘Under no circumstance’
Earlier this week, The Current reported how Chatham County officials allowed four companies to bid on the much-delayed $89 million emergency operations facility contract, despite rule violations by some of those companies that sank the bidding process last fall.
The delayed building process and rule violations may not be the only worries for the “Multi-Agency Public Safety Facility” (MAPSF). The Current asked Chatham County Commission Chairman Chester Ellis if recent efforts by the Trump administration to claw back unspent federal money, despite being allocated by a different branch of government, worried him for the project. More than $1 million of the MAPSF project is funded by grants secured by U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Democrats of Georgia.
“The money is in the county’s treasury. It belongs to us, and we don’t have to return it under no circumstance,” Ellis maintained.
EXPLAINER: COURTS
Surprise resignation raises questions
The biggest news this week in Georgia’s judicial system came from Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Boggs, who announced he will resign just three months after his six-year term began. Voters re-elected him last spring.
While his reputation and experience in the courts is unquestioned, his surprise announcement on Tuesday raised many. In a letter to the governor, Boggs wrote that it was time “to begin the next chapter of my life,” now that his wife retired from teaching plus “increasing family and personal obligations” at home in South Georgia. The chief justice is from Waycross.
To resign at the start of his term allows Gov. Brian Kemp to hand-pick a new justice to the court, without immediately holding an election like the one Boggs won in May 2024.
One political science professor interviewed by The Georgia Recorder pointed to how Boggs’ decision could also create a cascade of appointments for the governor, should he elevate a lower court judge whose vacancy would require another appointment.
Boggs’ decision also brings to mind the fate of Effingham County State Court Judge Steve Yekel, who tried to resign in order to activate a loophole in state law to let Kemp appoint a judge and skip the election results. Yekel committed suicide after Kemp denied the late request in December 2024.
Given our mission at The Current to help readers understand the news, we’re resurfacing an article from earlier this year about Yekel’s last-minute effort and the appointments allowed under Georgia law.
Bryan Co. gunmaker Daniel Defense founder testifies alongside Georgia senator in favor of ‘de-banking’ ban
Georgia state senators voted to advance a bill that would expose banking institutions to lawsuits if they deny services to existing customers because of the way they exercised their constitutional rights, highlighting how Bryan County gunmaker Daniel Defense was impacted after public outcry.
After violations sank process to build $89 million Chatham emergency ops center, same companies approved to bid again
Backchannel communications by companies bidding for a $89 million Chatham emergency operations contract caused Chairman Chester Ellis to shut down all bids and restart the process to build the much-delayed facility. The same companies are set to bid again to build the project.
Top Georgia Democrats flay Kemp’s signature health care program
Disclosures show that the project had cost the state’s taxpayers more than $86 million as of the end of 2024, three-quarters of which went to consultants.
Georgia Senate committee passes bill to protect residents from data center costs
Legislation prohibiting Georgia Power from passing on costs of providing electricity to data centers to residential and small business customers has cleared the Senate Regulated Industries Committee, with the bill now awaiting a floor vote.
Conservationists challenge project at St. Simons’ Coast Guard Beach
Environmental advocates are opposing a project that plans to use state funds to add amenities to St. Simons’ Coast Guard Beach, citing concerns about the destruction of maritime forests and the leveling of sand dunes.
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