School shooting draws unwanted attention to Georgia on campaign trail

Republicans and Democrats are both adjusting approach to classroom safety

The national spotlight fell on Georgia on Wednesday following a shooting at Barrow County’s Apalachee High School that killed four and injured at least nine others.

The two major party candidates for president each responded quickly. Vice President Kamala Harris opened a rally that day by addressing the shooting, calling it “senseless.”

Former President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post that “our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event.”

What comes next is uncertain.

A proposal Lt. Gov. Burt Jones unveiled a year ago, at another Barrow County school, to offer public school teachers a $10,000 annual stipend to carry guns in schools went nowhere during this year’s legislative session.

Georgia Republicans have seen great success in their efforts to ease firearms restrictions, including a 2022 law that lets Georgians carry concealed handguns without a permit. But now they’re split over what to do: Should they expand gun access, or is the proper response strengthening security initiatives and enhancing mental health services?

Democrats, who have long called for stricter firearms regulations, are also adjusting. After watching their efforts to reverse the state’s permissive gun rules founder in the Republican-led General Assembly, they’re looking for something more attainable: They’re pushing for tax incentives and other proposals to persuade Georgians to employ better storage measures to keep weapons from minors.

State Sen. Emanuel Jones, a Democrat from Decatur, is leading a study committee examining tax credits for safety devices and other initiatives. He wants something more than the “thoughts and prayers” often expressed — mostly by Republicans — in the aftermath of school shootings.

“It’s really unfortunate,” he said, “that we have to go through a mass shooting like this in our backyard where the Legislature has the power and authority to do something about it.”

Judge puts hold on Trump, barring usage of Hayes classic at campaign events

Hold on, Donald Trump, you have to change your playlist.

Facing his first verdict in an Atlanta courtroom, Trump was ordered this week by a federal judge to cease playing the song “Hold On, I’m Coming” at his campaign events.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash Jr. said in a ruling this past week that neither Trump nor his campaign can use the song without obtaining the proper license from the estate of the late Isaac Hayes, the singer, producer and songwriter who wrote the song Sam and Dave turned into an R&B classic in 1966.

No such license seems likely.

“Donald Trump is barred from ever playing the music of Isaac Hayes again,” said Isaac Hayes III, who runs his father’s estate.

So he’s also talking about “Shaft.”

Trump, though, also got something out of the ruling.

Thrash denied a request by the Hayes estate to force the Trump campaign to take down any previously recorded uses of the song. The Hayes estate says Trump has used the song more than 130 times since 2022 during events as the Republican makes another run for the White House.

Thrash’s order is a temporary measure while the estate’s copyright infringement case, filed Aug. 16, is litigated. The estate is also seeking upward of $3 million.

Meanwhile, that other Atlanta-based court case against Trump — involving his efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 election in Georgia — continues at the pace of a funeral dirge.

Budget process shifts into higher gear

Georgia’s budget process hit an important mile marker this past week, when state agencies were required to turn in their funding requests for the spending plan Gov. Brian Kemp will release in January.

It couldn’t have been easy for them this time around.

Kemp informed agencies over the summer that they could not ask for more money unless they cut something else to get it.

The exception was requests to pay for increased expenses in entitlement programs, such as Medicaid, the government-funded health insurance program for people with low incomes, and for enrollment increases in schools.

The state’s Board of Community Health last month asked the Kemp administration for an extra $347 million for Medicaid. The program’s rolls could start growing now that the Kemp administration is heavily promoting its “Pathways” program that allows more people to enroll if they have a job or meet other requirements.

Otherwise, money could be tight, partly because the Republican-controlled state Legislature lowered the income tax rate, meaning less money could be pouring into the government.

Democratic state rep’s PAC raises nearly $500,000 in pursuit of legislative gains

State Rep. Shea Roberts announced that the United for Georgia Women PAC she launched this summer has raised nearly $500,000 to boost Democratic candidates in swing legislative districts.

The stake put up by the Atlanta lawmaker’s group is sizable, although Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s political machine and organizations tied to GOP state House Speaker Jon Burns have already pledged to spend millions of dollars to secure the same legislative turf.

Roberts said her PAC’s goal is to “invest in our most winnable legislative races and protect our most vulnerable incumbents.” That’s mostly suburban territories in metro Atlanta where Democrats have a chance to cut into the GOP’s 102-78 edge in the Georgia House.

X account now more clearly linked to one State Election Board member

What seemed to be a new X account for Georgia’s State Election Board now appears to be controlled by just one member: Republican Janice Johnston.

The account is labeled “Dr. Jan-Election Advocate,” and the bio states: “Physician, Mother, Grandmother, and Election advocate.”

Johnston is part of the three-member majority that recently passed a number of rules changes, drawing objections from some over the proximity to the election. The Democratic Party filed suit to try to block those rules.

One post on the account states, “Thank you for all the interest and responses.”

About those responses: Comments have been restricted to only accounts mentioned in a post.

Georgia public officials have made similar efforts to limit Facebook comments in recent years, only to face protests from First Amendment advocates and discipline from federal courts.

McKoon rebukes GOP district chairwoman over antisemitic remarks

It took days, but Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon rebuked antisemitic comments that the watchdog group Media Matters said Kandiss Taylor, the chair of the Republican Party’s 1st Congressional District, made complaining that Jewish people are “controlling everything” and alleging that unnamed politicians “pander to the Jews.”

McKoon said in a statement Friday that Taylor affirmed antisemitic comments made by Stew Peters during an appearance on his radio show.

“Kandiss Taylor does not speak for the Georgia Republican Party,” McKoon and Chuck Berk, co-chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Atlanta, said in the statement. “The Georgia Republican Party firmly rejects the antisemitic comments and age-old canards expressed by Peters. Obviously, these comments do not represent the values of the Georgia Republican Party.”

Taylor’s comments had already drawn condemnation from Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and other top Republicans.

Taylor said she regrets not making it “explicitly clear that I do not buy into antisemitic conspiracy theories.”

Conservative True the Vote helps Dem gain second chance to win election

A Democrat got help from an unlikely source in winning a do-over for a South Georgia school board election: the conservative group True the Vote.

Tift County Superior Court Judge Howard McClain ordered a new election on Nov. 5 after candidate Ambrose King Jr., with a hand from True the Vote, proved that residents of an apartment complex had been assigned to the wrong school board district.

During the original Democratic primary election in May, King appeared to lose to incumbent Marilyn Burks, 156-154.

King, who is currently a science and special education teacher at Chamblee High School near Atlanta, said he learned that a cousin who lives in the apartment complex was unable to vote for him. King said he had campaigned in the complex based on maps that showed it was within his school board district’s lines.

The Tift County election board acknowledged the mistake and didn’t object to the judge’s order, according to court documents.

The case marked a bit of a change for True the Vote, which is known for supporting Republican efforts to challenge the eligibility of voters nationwide. Voting rights groups say those challenges could disqualify legitimate voters.

While it’s based in Texas, the group has devoted a lot of energy to Georgia. In January, it defeated a lawsuit alleging that the 250,000 voter challenges it filed in the state in 2020 amounted to voter intimidation.

True the Vote also promoted allegations of illegal ballot-stuffing of Georgia drop boxes in the election conspiracy movie “2000 Mules,” but the organization failed to provide evidence to back up the claim in response to a subpoena from the State Election Board. The board dismissed cases accusing voters of illegally returning ballots in 2022.

In King’s case, True the Vote contributed $15,000 to the election challenge and researched problems with Tift County’s school district maps, King said.

While King is a Democrat, some conservatives could find him an appealing candidate. He said he wants to “keep the schools conservative” by regulating books in elementary school libraries and preventing transgender people from participating in women’s sports.

Because no Republican is running, the winner of the second showdown between Burks and King will take office.

Political expedience

•Georgia is different: The AdImpact tracking firm shows that Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies have reserved more than twice as much airtime as former President Donald Trump and his supporters in the post-Labor Day phase of the presidential campaign. In Georgia, however, the imbalance is nil. Both campaigns have secured about $39 million in airtime, so far, for the final nine weeks of the race.

•No apologies: Libertarian presidential nominee Chase Oliver, a Georgia native who grew up in the Atlanta area, said he often faces questions about the impact he could have on this year’s election. “One that I get all the time is, ‘Don’t you know you’re going to hurt Trump?’ Or, ‘Don’t you know you’re going to hurt Harris?’ ” Oliver told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “My immediate answer is, I hope I hurt both of them in the election totals, right? Like, I’m running against them both.”