The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coronavirus casts pall on Georgia politics
Back-slapping, hand-shaking, crowd-gathering style suddenly worrisome.
With hundreds packed into the same tight space for a rally for U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, the question was bound to come up: Should candidates even hold such crammed events amid concerns about the coronavirus?
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, on hand to endorse the Georgia senator, downplayed the concern. But it underscored how coronavirus, which has sickened more than a dozen people in Georgia and triggered other widespread changes, is also shadowing the state’s politics.
Over the past week, Gov. Brian Kemp has held near-daily press conferences to urge calm and fend off questions about canceling events, while saying he still keeps up a steady regimen of hugs and handshakes.
House Speaker David Ralston took steps to limit visitors to the crowded chamber, suspending the student page program and other special guest groups, and encouraged the public to watch Capitol happenings online instead of visiting in person.
U.S. Rep. Doug Collins “self-quarantined” after discovering he interacted with someone with coronavirus at a conservative conference two weeks ago.
And there have been more subtle changes at the Statehouse, where lawmakers, lobbyists and staffers jumbled under the Gold Dome are starting to swap back-slapping and glad-handing for a more arm’s-length approach. The elbow tap has fast become a preferred means of greeting.
“People in politics aren’t any different than those working retail or in restaurants,” said John Simpson, a lobbyist. “We can’t do our jobs without meeting people face to face. So that is naturally going to put folks on edge and cause people to be hypervigilant.”
Some Capitol denizens saw a silver lining. Several female lobbyists said the hypervigilance gave them a much-needed reprieve from awkward hugs from male lawmakers. Others said the threat of illness could have given lawmakers a new impetus to speed up their work over a tense 40-day session.
“It’s surreal. It’s like a bad episode of ’24,” said Jay Morgan, a longtime lobbyist, referring to the race-against-the-clock TV thriller.
“The clock is ticking here, too,” he said. “Maybe it’s one of the reasons they’ve accelerated the pace here so we can get out and all self-quarantine.”
Hugs and handshakes
The governor said he hasn’t abandoned the personal touch during meetings with visiting groups.
“I spent an hour taking pictures with different individuals today, and I shook a lot of hands and gave a lot of hugs. But I was also washing up afterward,” he said. “I’m not changing my daily routines now.”
That echoes President Donald Trump, who during a visit to Atlanta last week said he’s “not at all” changing his personal behavior.
“I walk in, and the doctors have their hands out: ‘Hello, sir. How are you?’” Trump said during a tour of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “If you don’t shake hands, they’re not going to like you too much.”
Pictures of one particular handshake of his circulated on social media Monday after Collins, a close Trump ally and U.S. Senate candidate, disclosed he would isolate himself for a few days after he discovered he was exposed to someone at the Conservative
Political Action Conference who tested positive for the virus.
The four-term congressman from Gainesville stood next to Kemp on the receiving line at Dobbins Air Reserve Base on Friday and gave Trump a hearty welcome.
Other state leaders took measures to show they were not caught off guard. Ralston urged the public “in the strongest possible terms” to watch the livestreams of the House instead of visiting the Capitol. Left unmentioned was the fact that subcommittee meetings and other key panels are untelevised.
“We’re not being alarmist, but we are being cautious,” he said.
As for whether to hold political rallies, Georgia experts are grappling with which gatherings merit closing. Kemp has said it’s too soon to cancel major events.
Some epidemiologists take a harder line. Professor Marc Lipsitch, a leading voice on the issue at Harvard, has urged people not to hold public gatherings even when case numbers appear low, as they could foster the spread of the disease.
At Loeffler’s event, several of the roughly 400 attendees predicted such gatherings might be put on hold within a few weeks. Haley was not one of them.