The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Clermont tax breaks failed to entice most GOP hopefuls
Republican candidate for governor Clay Tippins has tried to make one of his competitors, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, the face of the Clermont Lounge — a development that isn’t likely to help the brand of either the politician or the Atlanta strip club.
To bind the two, Tippins used the lieutenant governor’s appearance in 2016 at the reopening of the Clermont Hotel — the lounge is in its basement — after it benefited from tax credits the state Legislature approved in 2015 aimed at restoring historic sites.
It seems most of the state’s other Republican politicians with hopes of upward mobility didn’t want to seen hanging out anywhere near the Clermont, even figuratively. Understanding the potentially bad optics, they either voted against the tax break in House Bill 308 or skipped the votes altogether.
Two managed to do both because each chamber held a pair of votes on the tax credits provided in HB 308. State Sen. Michael Williams, a candidate for governor, was excused from the first vote, and he voted against it the second time around. State Sen. Josh McKoon, now hoping to move behind the big desk in the Secretary of State’s Office, voted no the first time and did not vote the second time.
Hunter Hill, then a state senator and now a contender for governor, voted against HB 308, as did state Rep. Buzz Brockway, who’s running for secretary of state, and Geoff Duncan, a former state representative now making a bid for lieutenant governor.
State Sen. David Shafer, who’s running for lieutenant governor, missed both votes.
Tippins has never held public office, but a surrogate of sorts, his uncle Lindsey Tippins, a state senator, also voted against HB 308.
Rick Jeffares, a former state senator now running for lieutenant governor, appears to be the only statewide GOP candidate who voted for the bill.
■ Hill gets the “A” he was shooting for: Hunter Hill may have thought Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle got off easy. Clay Tippins used comments Hill made — that he later said were “misspoken” — about gun ownership to compare the former Army Ranger in a TV ad to Benedict Arnold.
The National Rifle Association, however, didn’t seem to mind. It gave Hill an “A” rating.
Hill caused a stir in Republican circles when he suggested that he could support raising the minimum age to buy certain guns — such as AR-15s like the one used in February in the fatal shooting of 17 at a Parkland, Fla., high school — from 18 to 21. Hill later said that he still supports an across-theboard standard minimum age of 18 to buy firearms. He also aired a television ad showing him firing a gun at a shooting range and declaring that he “won’t give an inch” on gun rights.
Tippins’ ad drew attacks from some Republican leaders, who thought the former Navy SEAL had gone too far in his television assault of a fellow military veteran.
U.S. Rep. Jody Hice called the Tippins ad a “desperate political attack.”
“Likening Hunter Hill for Governor — an honorable veteranwholedsoldierson3combat tours overseas — to ‘Benedict Arnold’ (our nation’s first traitor) is just plain wrong,” Hice wrote on Facebook.
■ Getting ahead of the curve: Democrat Stacey Abrams must have decided it would be better if she talked about her more than
$200,000 in debt before Republicans did.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed earlier this year that Abrams, who’s running for governor, has set up a payment plan with the Internal Revenue Service to wipe out a tax debt of about $54,000. She is also carrying an additional $170,000 in credit card debt and student loans.
So the former state House minority leader wrote a column for Fortune magazine.
She attributed part of the debt to the help she offered to her struggling parents, who were caring for her niece after Abrams’ youngest brother and his girlfriend became addicted to drugs. Abrams’ parents then fell ill, and she piled on more debt.
“I have made money mistakes,” Abrams wrote, “but I have never ignored my responsibilities; I will meet my obligations — however slowly but surely.”
Abrams added that her money problems are not unlike those that plague many others.
“I suspect my situation will sound familiar to others who are the first in their families to earn real money,” she wrote. “Money dictates nearly (every) step of social mobility from the very first moments of life. How much our parents make often determines whether we go to college. It affects the jobs we get offered and the ones we can afford to take. If the
goal is entrepreneurship, good luck getting access to the capital you need to build a business. Even with a wellpaid job, we often live paycheck to paycheck.”
■ Rising power: For those about to rock, you might want to salute U.S. Rep. Doug Collins. Hells bells, why? Because the Republican from Gainesville this past week got his music licensing bill through the House and on its way to the Senate.
The goal of Collins’ Music Modernization Act is to make sure songwriters get paid. A lot has changed in the music industry, but the law hasn’t kept up. Most of the legislation regarding licensing was written decades ago, long before online streaming sites such as Spotify came on the scene and changed how much of music is now consumed.
Collins and his allies think that lapse has led to music creators being grossly underpaid, a condition guitarist Angus Young might call dirty deeds done dirt cheap.
In particular, Collins’ bill would change the way online streaming sites would pay royalties to songwriters.
“The simple theme of these reforms is fairness: Songwriters deserve the opportunity to obtain fair rates for the use of their musical works, and music providers should be able to compensate creators with transparency in a way that makes sense for the 21st century,” Collins and U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., wrote in a recent op-ed in Variety.
Collins, a former pastor who is believed to be a fan of Young and the other Australian hard rockers in AC/ DC, now moves on to another project. He wants to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
He may want to heed this warning from Angus and the boys: “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock and Roll).”
Candidates, endorsements, etc.:
■ Two political action committees have combined to spend more than $1 million on ads supporting Abrams’ bid to become the nation’s first black female governor. Women Vote! is spending $715,000 on broadcast and cable spots in metro Atlanta. The other group, BlackPAC, bought as much as $300,000 worth of airtime in Macon and Savannah.
■ Former state Rep. Stacey Evans, who’s running against Abrams in the Democratic primary, is planning a series of meetings in majority black areas of South Fulton, Clayton and DeKalb counties. She will be in South Fulton on Sunday for a session hosted by former state Rep. LaDawn Jones. Others expected to participate include South Fulton Mayor Bill Edwards, state Rep. Roger Bruce and former state lawmaker Virgil Fludd.
■ Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp added to his list of endorsements in his run for governor. Former U.S. Rep. Mac Collins and state Reps. Earl Ehrhart, Tom McCall and Terry Rogers are backing the Republican.
■ Former Gov. Roy Barnes has endorsed Democrat Bobby Kaple in the 6th Congressional District primary. Kaple also has backing from former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young and state Senate Minority Leader Steve Henson.
■ The political arm of Everytown for Gun Safety is backing Democrat Lucy McBath in the 6th Congressional District, and it plans to spend more than $200,000 in digital ads and mailers ahead of the May 22 Democratic primary. McBath has been a national spokeswoman for Everytown for years following the fatal shooting of her 17-year-old son in a Florida parking lot in a dispute over loud music.
■ McBath also picked up an endorsement from Emily’s List, a political action committee that backs Democratic women who support abortion rights. The PAC is also backing Carolyn Bourdeaux in the 7th Congressional District.
■ State House Speaker David Ralston contributed $1,500 to Brockway’s campaign for secretary of state.