Legislative Coup or Hurricane Relief?
Today legislators return to the Gold Dome to make decisions in a rare special legislative session. I have reason to be concerned that the pre-announced special session was a strategic Republican back up plan in case Stacey Abrams won the election last Tuesday. Here is why…
In 2016, North Carolina Republicans used the same strategy after a Democrat beat out the incumbent Republican Governor. The majority Republican House and Senate convened a special session immediately after the November 2016 election. The publicly announced purpose of the special session was to pass a disaster-relief bill for the victims of flooding from Hurricane Matthew and victims of wildfires that burned for two weeks in the state. From the moment the outgoing Republican governor announced the special session, the North Carolina Democrats had a hunch that the Republicans were up to something sneaky.
Hurricane Michael hit Georgia on October 11, 2018. The category 3 storm caused severe damage throughout the south west region of the State. October 23rd, twelve days after the storm, Governor Nathan Deal announced he would convene a special session of the Georgia General Assembly on November 13th, seven days after the General Election.
Former Republican State Senator Josh McKoon asked, “If this was truly about desperately needed financial help for a storm that happened Oct. 11 … why didn’t we meet the following week? If it’s not desperately needed, why not wait until Jan. 14.”[i] As odd as it is for me to agree with Josh McKoon, he is right. The timing of the session makes me suspicious as well.
It is possible that Governor Deal was attempting to balance expediency with consideration for the incumbent legislators who were actively campaigning when the hurricane hit. A pre-election special session would take time away from the campaign trail. However, Governor Deal had another far more expeditious and reasonable solution available to him. Georgia law allows a small committee of legislators to act quickly without reconvening the whole legislature to provide funding in emergencies. The AJC reported, “What most legislators know …. is that there is a Fiscal Affairs Committee made up of lawmakers that can move money around in the state’s $26.2 billion budget to cover things such as the cost of emergency cleanups.”
According to Chris Riley, Deal’s Chief of Staff, the Governor was concerned with being “aboveboard” by allowing “every member to vote instead of doing it in Fiscal Affairs where there are not questions.”[ii] I guess it is possible that Deal’s sole motive is fairness and transparency. However, if the North Carolina playbook holds up, then Republican’s need more than a committee. I suspect a special session is needed because major changes in power and authority require a quorum of legislators.
In North Carolina that is exactly what happened in 2016. After the disaster relief funding passed the entire legislative body, the special session was adjourned. At least momentarily. North Carolina Republicans immediately gaveled in a new session with a pre-planned unannounced agenda. The Republicans were prepared with several pieces of legislation that gutted the new Democrat Governor-elect’s powers.
The North Carolina Republicans removed the next Governor’s ability to make appointments to the Board of Education and the university system, drastically reduced the number of appointments a governor could make to less than 1/3 of the previous administrations’ appointments, and required that the governor’s cabinet be approved by the senate. Republicans also boldly changed the make-up of the state’s Ethics Commission, the state’s Board of Elections, and made the state Supreme Court elections partisan. The result was a powerless incoming Democrat Governor.[iii]
The blindside was brutal. Prior to the special session, the North Carolina Democratic Caucus members were suspicious that the outgoing Governor was going to try to pack the North Carolina Supreme Court with his own conservative appointees. The Democrats went in prepared to stop the appointments to the Supreme Court but quickly learned that rumor was just a distraction from the real plan.
Article V, Section II, Paragraph VII of the Georgia Constitution gives the Governor the authority to convene a special session but states that the only laws that can be enacted during the special session are “those which relate to the purposes stated in the proclamation or in any amendment thereto.” In other words, the proclamation convening the special session must list what will be discussed.
In Deal’s proclamation he lists two purposes. Providing emergency funding for Hurricane Michael recovery is the first priority. The second purpose, however, reignites a hotly contested issue from the previous regular legislative session. We all remember when Lt. Governor Casey Cagle killed all chances of Amazon opening their second headquarters in Georgia. Cagle announced he would block the vote for Delta’s jet fuel tax matter because Delta announced they would cancel an NRA discount program after the Parkland High School massacre. When Deal could not get a vote on the Delta deal he waited until after session concluded to issue Executive Order 07.30.18.01 which gave Delta the a tax deal without any legislative input.
I guess it is possible that Governor Deal is calling this special session to allow members of the House and Senate to have input on the hurricane relief. However, I am suspicious that the budget amendment is a convenient reason to convene a special session and Delta issue is simply a distraction to keep the Democrats busy and the media steeped in rumors.
Unfortunately, the Georgia Constitution also has a provision that will allow last minute changes to the special session agenda. The Governor can amend his proclamation any time before the session opens at 8:00am. However, yesterday a federal judge ruled that the Georgia Secretary of State, Robyn Crittenden, could not certify the election before next Tuesday, November 20th. That makes a last minute change this morning less likely. However there is a second option. Three-fifths of the members of each house can approve an amendment to the special session agenda. That means after the Georgia legislature addresses the disaster relief efforts and Delta’s fuel taxes, they can then move on to other strategic power grabs just like their neighbor to the north.
Watch out. Although the election timeline is all over the place, if the Republican legislators begin to stretch out the original five days announced for the special session they may be up to something. If my wild, yet totally plausible, conspiracy theory is correct, the Republicans can hold off to just long enough to keep their backup plan in play in case Abrams wins the Governor’s Mansion. If they are successful, the only option for Democrats is more court intervention under the Georgia Emergency Management Act.[iv]
In this heated political climate, I hate to perpetuate the partisan divide by automatically assuming the Republicans are up to dirty tricks. It is completely possible the special session has absolutely nothing to do with Abrams and the Governor’s race. I will be a very happy progressive if Republican’s prove me wrong. However, I am a strong believer in the quote, “when people show you who they are believe them.”
The last time Deal called a special session was in 2011. During that session the Republican majority redrew district lines for the State House, the State Senate and the Georgia Congressional maps. Deal said at that time the true motive was simply to apply the recently obtained census data. Innocent enough right? However, the outcome of that special session was a major advantage for Republicans as they went into the next election and legislative session.
Fool me once ….
[i] https://politics.myajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/special-session-will-cost-000-day-but-georgia-has-other-options/xHerAVPGmWOnD4sang740K/
[ii] https://politics.myajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/special-session-will-cost-000-day-but-georgia-has-other-options/xHerAVPGmWOnD4sang740K/
[iii] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/north-carolinas-republicans-succeed-in-power-grab/510950/
[iv] § 38-3-5. The director of emergency management or any person, corporation, firm, or association, in addition to the remedies set forth in Articles 1 through 3 of this chapter, may obtain from a court of competent jurisdiction an injunction to restrain violation of the provisions of Articles 1 through 3 of this chapter. The grant of an injunction is authorized notwithstanding the availability of adequate remedies at law. GA. Code 38-3-5 Injunctions to restrain violations of chapter
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LaDawn LBJ Jones
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“In this heated political climate, I hate to perpetuate the partisan divide by automatically assuming the Republicans are up to dirty tricks.”
Yet that is exactly what you are doing. Without evidence to back it up. And your accusations against the character of your opposition ignores some vital things: the HUGE cultural and political differences between Georgia and North Carolina Republicans. North Carolina Republicans were essentially shaped by Jesse Helms, and also North Carolina is actually a swing state. For this reason politics in North Carolina are more partisan, ideological, confrontational and racial.
In Georgia, meanwhile, Republicans had little presence in this state beyond occasionally electing a Senator and some Republican congressmen until 2003. (I do not know if you recall Roy Barnes and the Democratic legislature at the time coming up with the gerrymander to end all gerrymanders – multimember districts only in the Atlanta area and single member districts everywhere else – to let the Democrats retain control of the state legislature.) That means that most of the Republicans in this state are – like Sonny Perdue – former Democrats and with a few exceptions the politics is less partisan and racial. The bomb throwers who tried to take over the state GOP like Mitch Skandalakis, Bob Irvin, Earl Ehrhart, Matt Glavin and Casey Cagle (the guy who wanted to build a freeway through Auburn Avenue you know, just because) and the folks who kept coming up with ideas to steal Hartsfield, sue Spelman and Morehouse, shut down Albany State, Fort Valley State and Savannah State and other nonsense never took control of the state GOP.
Instead, the state GOP has been led by Perdue, who helped Atlanta resolve the sewer crisis and Clayton County resolve the accreditation crisis, including passing a special law allowing kids who graduated high school from Clayton County gain an exemption that allowed them to be accepted to the state’s colleges as normal. And after that Nathan Deal, who helped Atlanta through its school board crisis, DeKalb through its school board/accreditation crisis, helped keep the city from losing the Falcons after it lost the Thrashers and Braves, worked behind the scenes to secure MARTA expansion, and helped locate/relocate a ton of large businesses downtown (some from his own base in the suburbs). The Deal-Reed partnership was a huge reason why Atlanta wasn’t hammered nearly as badly during the great recession and would have been a model for urban/suburban GOP/Democrat black/white political partnership nationwide were certain interests collegial enough to actually acknowledge that it exists.
And please, don’t pretend as all of this stuff was logical or natural. First off, it IS NOT how Republicans treat their cities and urban politicians in a lot of other states, including North Carolina. Second, it IS NOT what a lot of the Georgia Republican base voters wanted. A lot of them wanted Perdue, Deal and the legislature to do their best to hammer Atlanta economically and politically, to turn it into “the next Detroit” and thereby “prove” that black urban Democrats were incapable of self-governance. Had some of the GOPers that I listed above actually obtained control of the state party, that is exactly what would have happened. Instead by virtue of Perdue and Deal gaining control of the state party instead, Atlanta was actually treated far better by the state than it ever was when Democrats like Zell Miller, Joe Frank Harris, Tom Murphy etc. ruled it like an iron fist. And that context – which you are omitting – is exactly why your column is outrageous.
Another thing: Stacey Abrams has lost. She is not going to come up with 20,000 votes to force a runoff. Everyone knows this but Abrams and her supporters. If there was any chance of Abrams forcing a runoff, Kemp would not have resigned and created his transition team. At some point Abrams and her supporters are going to have to face reality, whether it is later today when all the counties certify their results or a week from today when those results are made official. So any idea that the GOP is going to engage in dirty tricks in the potential event of an Abrams governorship is based on the idea that anyone in the GOP thinks that Abrams could actually be governor. No one does. And pretty much no Democrats do either. They just aren’t going to say it publicly.
Another thing there is going to be a runoff remember? Why would the GOP do anything that would alienate independent voters and enrage liberal voters to increase their turnout by doing a power grab and dirty tricks? By acting in the way that you are claiming that they are going to, the GOP would only ensure Kemp’s defeat. So even if the GOP were planning on doing dastardly evil dirty tricks, they would wait until AFTER Kemp actually loses the runoff first! Especially since runoffs generally favor GOP candidates. Studies have consistently proven that runoff voters are older, whiter and more conservative. Also, the very short amount of time between the runoff and the general election (3 weeks, and during the Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping season) inhibits the get out the vote organizing that Democrats rely on. It is an inherent built in advantage that is precisely why progressives and civil rights leaders have sought to end runoffs in favor of ranked ballots in this state at least since Andrew Young lost the runoff to Zell Miller and also nationwide. (It was what Bill Clinton DOJ appointee Lani Guinier proposed and why the GOP freaked out and targeted her nomination … they wanted to retain their advantage in runoff elections in states with large black populations like Georgia and feared that Guinier would use the DOJ to force them to abandon it. Sadly Clinton backed down as I regard runoffs to be a waste of money, vulnerable to the sorts of abuses that we saw in the infamous Mississippi Thad Cochran runoff a few years back, and support ranked choice voting.)
So even if there is somehow a runoff, the GOP leaders would be 80% certain that they would win it … so long as they don’t give ammo to the other side, which is exactly what their acting in the manner that you are accusing them of is doing. And again, allow me to restate, your accusations are completely without evidence which is bad enough. It is also the complete opposite of how the GOP has acted since taking over state government in 2003. People who have lived elsewhere, especially in the deep south and other red states, can state that the Georgia GOP is far more moderate and bipartisan than they are in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, Missisippi etc. The folks who gripe about how awful the Georgia GOP is are simply those who wish for national (global even) one party rule, and ignore that Republicans are actually an electoral majority in this state. Such folks need to move to another red state and see what life is like under a state GOP that actually does throw its weight around a lot more. Part of me actually hopes that Kemp governs like the GOPers in those states do so folks can better appreciate how moderate Perdue and Deal chose to govern, and how they restrained a ton of crazy laws and partisan and racial warfare. Maybe a GOP that actually does do nonsense like that is what folks who write columns like this deserve.
Let me see if I got this right:
Basically, we don’t want to be like North Carolina.
But isn’t the way to not become North Carolina is to be vigilant that we don’t do those North Carolina kind of things?
Some GOP radicals were close to taking over the state government but didn’t.
But even though they were actually the mainstream you should trust us. Everything is OK.
Abrams has lost.
Abrams has not lost. She may not win, but let’s just finish counting the stinkin’ votes, OK? At this moment Kemp is only 1/4 of 1% above 50%. What’s the rush? The insistence on shutting down the vote counting is the kind of thing that raises suspicion.
The GOP wouldn’t risk alienating independent voters even though a runoff favors the GOP anyway?
If there was ever a time they might risk alienating independent voters, it would follow that a runoff is exactly when they would do it.
…precisely why progressives and civil rights leaders have sought to end runoffs in favor of ranked ballots in this state .
I wasn’t aware that ranked choice voting had a partisan slant. Except, I guess, one party generally prefers all votes to count, and the other party generally tries everything they can to restrict vote counting. Having a governor that might be picked (in a runoff) by, what, 10% of the population?, should be distasteful to everyone.
N.C. was shaped by Jesse Helms (presumably meaning it is more conservative?).
…but it is a purple state?
Georgia is more bipartisan than Wisconsin?
Republicans are actually an electoral majority in this state.
For now! But this is so obviously changing, which is exactly why we should be vigilant about those in power rigging the game to stay in power.
I don’t think you have done anything to assuage anxiety that the GOP wouldn’t try to pull some ‘dirty tricks’. A dubious special session, potential loss of power on the horizon, continued efforts to not count all the votes, not sure where Kemp actually stands on the political spectrum… there is good reason to be apprehensive. Don’t take it personally. I have acquaintances who had to do a provisional ballot because they couldn’t be found on the voter roll. So a lot of us are feeling pretty prickly about all this right now.
“In this heated political climate, I hate to perpetuate the partisan divide by automatically assuming the Republicans are up to dirty tricks.”
“Yet that is exactly what you are doing.”
Kemp did lead off two days before the election with a statement the SoS was investigating the DPG for hacking the voter database when that wasn’t true, implying the FBI and/or Homeland Security would be doing so too. Then there was this from the Kemp campaign yesterday: “They don’t want to win this election. They are trying to steal it.”
New rules, and Kemp is a Trumper. No more knives where guns are legal.
I really enjoy the footnoting.
Governor Deal specifically said he would not allow this to happen. I believe him. Deal has a legacy to protect and this would blow the last eight years right out of the water.
https://politics.myajc.com/blog/politics/deal-special-session-won-aim-strip-gov-powers/7CtNsf75lllwxqzOqKDJEK/