Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Good morning! We start today with the Republican primary runoff for the state House seat representing Camden County and a sliver of Glynn. We then look at the rising political stakes for union organizing in Georgia and the ire caused by a Coastal Georgia congressman’s comment about the Okefenokee. Finally, there’s some news for your radar. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com
‘Real jeopardy’
Incumbent state Rep. Steven Sainz of Woodbine came within a mere 20 votes of winning the Republican nomination outright in last month’s primary for the District 180 seat in the Georgia General Assembly, pulling in 49.69% of the vote to 27.04% for challenger Glenn Cook. That margin suggests Sainz should win easily next week.
Not so fast, says former Republican state Rep. Scot Turner.
Turner warns that when it comes to runoffs, anything can and will happen.
“Recent history has shown us that a candidate can get a little as 18% of the vote in a primary election, make a runoff, and win,” he wrote last month in the Peach Pundit.
Voter turnout was poor in last month primary in District 180, which covers all of Camden County and sliver of southern Glynn County. In Camden, it was 15.71%; in the Glynn precincts that are encompassed by the district, it was 11.5%.
If tradition holds, turnout for the runoff will be even lower, which means, Turner says, that Sainz, who is seeking a fourth, two-year term in Atlanta, is in “real jeopardy.”
To save the taxpayer from footing the bill for another election and spare voters a protracted runoff campaign, Turner endorses instant runoffs — a.k.a., ranked-choice voting. He urges his fellow Republicans to push back on what he calls the “misinformation and disinformation propaganda campaign against instant runoffs” and embrace the idea.
Fighting unions
Georgia presidential politics could be heating up this summer at two unusual places: Delta Airlines, where 80,000 flight attendants and crew staff are discussing unionizing, and Blue Bird Corp., the Macon-based manufacturer of school buses where workers have voted to unionize and where owners are profiting from tens of millions of dollars of Biden administration subsidies for green industrial technology.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has tried to block unions from gaining a larger foothold in the state — and forestall the growth of a traditional base of support for the Democratic Party — by signing a law that prevents companies that voluntarily recognize unions from accessing state tax credits for mega-projects, like the Hyundai plant adjacent to Chatham County.
Only 5.4% of Georgia workers were represented by unions in 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, down from 5.8% the year before. That’s lower than all but six other states. The bill would not affect these workplaces, only new businesses moving to the state.
To the surprise of many longtime political watchers in Georgia, two of the state’s most venerable companies have become barometers for labor organizing — and potential votes for Joe Biden.
In the case of Blue Bird, unionized workers have ratified a three-year contract that provides a minimum of 12% salary increase, as well as robust retirement plans. At the same time, executives at the plant are set to benefit from the more than $1.9 billion in federal funds allotted so far to local school districts to buy Blue Bird’s electric school buses — the kind of job-creating, business- and climate-friendly policy that Biden surrogates are expected to campaign on through November in the swing state. (Read more about the effects of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act in Georgia here).
The next big union push in Georgia, meanwhile, could be Delta’s flight crews, a move that a key Biden surrogate Sen. Raphael Warnock told Delta’s CEO that he supports. Biden will need votes of professional women — including the traditional women-dominated field of flight attendants — to recapture Georgia this fall. Union organizers, with their deep ties to communities, could be a key tool to getting that base to turn out.
‘Enough with the darned ol’ Okefenokee!’
1st District U.S. Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter seems to have really gotten Dick Yarbrough’s goat.
Yarbrough isn’t some run-of-the-mill, octogenarian grouch: His website says he’s Georgia’s most widely syndicated local columnist, reaching some 600,000 households and more than 1.3 million readers each week throughout Coastal Georgia and the rest of the state.
And in a column last week, he chastised the five-term congressman — and aspiring U.S. senator — for his comments in mid-May at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries.
Some background: As The Current’s Mary Landers reported, during his questioning of the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Martha Williams, Carter scolded her for the federal government’s involvement in proposed mining near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. He cited a 2022 letter from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and a “frequently-asked-questions” leaflet distributed by her agency. The leaflet, he said, was “propaganda.”
What appears to have really annoyed Yarbrough was not these alleged examples of what Carter called federal “overreach” and infringement on “state’s rights.” Rather, it was his declaration during his questioning of Williams that he wasn’t entering an opinion “one way or the other” on the proposed mining:
“What I am trying to figure out is why? Why did you take the time to show up at the subcommittee hearing and announce that you didn’t have an opinion one way or the other on Twin Pines Minerals drilling on the edge of our Okefenokee? Were you responding to pressure from angry citizens across our state who are saying, ‘Enough with that darned ol’ Okefenokee! We want paint! We want toothpaste! We want chewing gum! Drill, baby drill!’ If so, you and I must be talking to a different crowd of angry citizens. I’ve been at this column-writing business for 26 years and I don’t recall this many Georgians being this mad.”
7 things for your radar
- ‘A bridge too far’? Reps. Anne Allen Westbrook (D-Savannah) and Jesse Petrea (R-Savannah) have something to say about the mysterious campaign aimed at stopping the estimated $2 billion modification or replacement of the Talmadge Bridge.
- Jackson appointment: Speaker of the House Jon Burns (R-Newington) has named State Rep. Edna Jackson (D-Savannah) to the House Study Committee on Disaster Mitigation and Resilience.
- Royals in Savannah! Savannah Mayor Van Johnson today will receive His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty Queen Maxima of the Kingdom of the Netherlands for an official visit. A photo session in city council chambers will be followed by “roundtable discussion” among the royals, Johnson and city staff to “examine economic ties, history and further collaboration,” the city said in a statement.
- Property taxes: The Savannah-Chatham County school board is to hold a meeting tomorrow at 11 a.m. and another at 6 p.m. — as well as a third meeting at 6 p.m. on June 20 — to discuss the millage rate. Expected to speak during the open-comment period are those citizens urging a roll back of the millage rate to prevent an increase in property taxes.
- Aghast: Appling County parents are dismayed over what they call a racist social media post on the page of First District Republican Committee chair Kandiss Taylor. The post, taken down after controversy erupted, shows far-right media personality Stew Peters holding a gun and a noose under the caption, “Nuremberg County Line.” Taylor’s comment: “This is real America. People forget.”
- A lot on their plate: The Southern Baptist Convention today opens its two-day annual convention in Indianapolis. Sexual abuse, women pastors and a virtual speech by Donald Trump are on the agenda. Southern Baptists are the largest religious group in Georgia.
- Forcing the issue: Democrats in the U.S. Senate are expected to a bring to the floor on Thursday a bill that would ensure nationwide access to in vitro fertilization, a measure that would also make the treatment more accessible through insurance as well as for military members and veterans.
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