(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column of those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
The latest round in the redistricting fight in Augusta ended Friday with south Augusta resident Monique Braswell’s petition to recall District 3 Augusta Commissioner Catherine McKnight going down in flames.
The petition to recall McKnight needed 100 signatures to move forward, but only 92 of the 109 Braswell obtained were found to be valid.
The Richmond County Board of Elections voted unanimously to reject the petition. And Braswell herself tried to withdraw it before Friday’s meeting but by state law, couldn’t.
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McKnight has said repeatedly that the residents of Precinct 309 in District 3 were blaming the wrong person for the redistricting map Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law last week. That map moved the majority Black precinct from Commission District 3 into District 5 with an even larger Black majority.
One Precinct 309 resident has been quoted as saying she didn’t want to be moved into District 5 because her property values would go down.
Hmmm. Where have I heard that before? Property values, however, is not the big issue here. The big issue is that it decreases the Black voter population in District 3 and the chance for more Black representation on the Augusta Commission and Richmond County Board of Education.
Anyway, McKnight said the residents’ anger was misplaced because she was not a member of the ad hoc redistricting committee that approved an earlier map drawn by the state Reapportionment Office. That map was approved by 6 to 4 votes along racial lines by the Augusta Commission and Richmond County Board of Education.
Guess correctly which line voted for it and which line voted against it and move to the head of the class.
After the elections board meeting Friday, McKnight said there was no reason for anyone to file a petition to have her recalled unless they were trying to slander her.
“But I was completely confident it would end up being nothing,” she said. “There was no reason behind it. You cannot get mad at the commissioner when precincts are pulled out of the district, especially when they have nothing to do with it. And I had nothing to do with it.”
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“You’re Not Welcome Here”
McKnight might have made a mistake when she went to a protest staged by residents of Precinct 309 at Elderberry subdivision Feb. 23, over the map sponsored by state Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania and Sen. Lee Anderson, R-Grovetown. She quickly became the focus of the crowd’s anger and was told she was not welcome and was not allowed to speak. She drew the special ire of Braswell who accused McKnight of stabbing them in the back. And she said she’d already started on a petition to recall her.
James Germany of the Elderberry Subdivision Property Owners Association, who voiced anger and frustration about the map at the protest, would later apologize to McKnight for Braswell’s behavior.
One Protest Begets Another
And the redistricting war raged on Tuesday with another protest outside the Marble Palace with fiery rhetoric from Commissioner Alvin Mason and school board member Venus Cain, both members of the ad hoc redistricting committee whose map died in the Legislature.
Along with commissioners and community leaders at that protest was the Rev. Melvin Ivey, president of the Augusta Chapter NAACP, who said there would be a lawsuit and the map would be redrawn by a federal court judge who redrew the redistricting map of 2012.
And then Came a Bombshell Post
Tuesday night after the Marble Palace protest, Augusta Commissioner Sean Frantom, chairman of the Richmond County Ad Hoc Committee, posted this message online:
“I felt it was time to make a statement on the redistricting process of what happened – An hour before our ad hoc committee meeting (Nov. 10th) I was called by Senator Jones & Rep Howard about a new map they wanted the committee to consider. The committee declined and nobody on the committee saw the map. I didn’t see this new map put together by Jones, Howard, and Senator Burns until January. This map was put together by the redistricting office in Atlanta for them. That same map was ultimately the one that governor Kemp signed off on last week. Thank you all for your kind words as we get through this fractured time in our community. #LoveAugusta”
Mea Culpa
After Frantom’s post, Germany posted this online:
Hello All,
When I called for the press conference on this past Wednesday, it was for the sole purpose of opposing the Senate Bills 457 & 458. I had no idea that Mrs. Braswell was going to HIGHJACK the conference talking about recalling Commissioner McKnight. Please believe me, I was just as surprised as Commissioner McKnight was when Braswell made her statements. When I allowed her to speak I thought she was there to discuss the Senate Bills 457 & 458 also, I was totally blindsided. I nor anyone that lives in Elderberry sections 1 & 2 are participating in ANY recall. I have reached out in an attempt to apologize to Commissioner McKnight. The topic of my statement on last Wednesday was about the DISRESPECT that was given to our local election officials in terms of the Ad Hoc Committee, Augusta Commission, and the RCSB. Well that’s just what I unintentionally was apart of last week. Commissioner McKnight was DISRESPECTED last week, and although I was not apart of any agenda to do so, it still happened on my watch. As an adult I can acknowledge when I have wronged someone, and again even though there was no deliberate intention to do so on my part it still occurred and I apologize to the residents of 309, but more importantly I apologize to Commissioner McKnight. To say that I am being disrespected and then at the same time allow someone else to be disrespected is wrong, and I was wrong on that day. I know that Commissioner McKnight probably never wants to speak to me again, and I can respect that, but hopefully after emotions settle down she may never forget what happened that day, but I pray that she will Forgive.
Respectfully,
James Germany
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A Different Interpretation
State Sen. Harold Jones, D-Augusta, said some people are reading too much into his and Rep. Wayne Howard’s call to Frantom about the new map.
“We said we’re sending this so you can look at it,” Jones said. “They said they didn’t want to look at it. I hadn’t seen it when I sent it. Of course, I looked at it later. This is not a conspiratorial thing.”
Jones said they’re trying to pass the map off as an African American creation so when it is challenged in federal court, it will appear that they approved of it.
“I don’t support it,” Jones said.
Once the draft approved by the ad hoc committee was codified in HB 1120 and HB 1121 by Howard, Burns requested his own draft that was codified into HB 457 and HB 458, Jones said.
“I was not in favor and opposed that,” he said. “I asked Sen. Burns during the Senate floor debate, ‘Is it not true that I told you that map did not pass constitutional muster and should not be passed?’”
“Yes, Senator, you told me that was the case,” Burns replied.
Qualifying as Usual
Although qualifying opens Monday for commission and other nonpartisan seats and no lawsuit challenging the map Kemp signed appeared to have been filed late Friday, one could be filed even after the election, according to Jones.
“The Supreme Court and a Georgia United States District Court have refused to stay the qualifying period for congressional races although the cases will move forward,” Jones stated in a text. “The same rationale will apply to local races as far as qualifying is concerned. So a case is still eligible to be brought even if it is brought after the election. As you can’t operate under unconstitutional lines.”
By the Book
Mayor Hardie Davis’ response to the Georgia Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission’s amended complaint that accuses him of raising and spending dark money through his self-proclaimed defunct mayoral campaign fund raises more questions than answers, according to a story in Friday’s edition of the Augusta Press by Scott Hudson, senior reporter.
Davis’ response, filed by his attorney Ed Tarver, listed minor amounts of money paid out to subscriptions as errors that “occurred during the AutoPay Process.”
Davis has been stuck on the same chapter in his “Politics 101” book for more than a year. Every time another crisis in character is exposed, he turns to Chapter 5, “Blame Somebody Else.”’
And this time, he tried to blame volunteers filling out campaign finance reports without any knowledge of what they were supposed to be doing, according to Hudson.
“We use volunteers, and those finance documents can be difficult to sort through. People make mistakes; it happens all the time,” Tarver said.
And that tells you about all you’ll get out of the “I see nothing. I know nothing,” response to the ethics complaint except one unusual thing during the interview with Tarver.
He asked Hudson why The Augusta Press didn’t contact Davis directly to ask questions.
Have you ever heard of a lawyer asking a news reporter why he didn’t question his client?
Rename Riverwalk to “Watch Where You Walk!”
While in Augusta on Friday, I thought I’d stop by Riverwalk to do a follow-up on the missing and damaged bricks I took pictures of that were included as part of last week’s column. I wanted to see if anything had been replaced or repaired. But nothing had changed except that someone had spray painted around some of the damaged brick and granite work. And the damage on Riverwalk is a hundred times worse than I had realized last week. I took dozens of pictures, some of which will accompany this column. And if you don’t get the full picture, go see for yourself your 1 cent sales tax not at work.
Sylvia Cooper is a columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
