With a panel that included two legislators, one of them the House Minority Leader, a high-powered lobbyist and an ACLU lawyer, the Red Clay Dems – a young professionals Democrat group – hosted a discussion about what happened during the recent legislative session. Prominent Atlanta Democrat and former mayoral candidate Cathy Woolard was the moderator of the event and the discussion ranged from particular bills to the outlook for next year.
House Minority Leader Bob Trammell (D-132 Luthersville) started out the evening by discussing how different this year’s session felt to him. “There was a palpable difference this year. You could feel the ground moving,” he said, referring to worries from Republicans about losing seats next year. “Next year, there will be more women. More Democrats. More diversity,” he said.
“In a nutshell, what a damn exciting time to be in the legislature.”
Rep. Bee Nguyen (D-89 Atlanta) was coming off of her first session as a freshman legislator, having been elected to fill Stacey Abrams seat. She was effusive in her praise of Trammell and his support for the caucus. She recalled when Trammell asked her if she was having fun. “No, I’m not having fun,” she responded – exhibiting frustration with her GOP counterparts. She recalled fighting GOP efforts on immigration enforcement and English-only bills, frequently sponsored by Sen. Josh McKoon. Nguyen corrected herself to “former Senator McKoon” and this got a hearty round of applause from the audience.
Chris Bruce, policy counsel for the ACLU in Georgia, talked about the sheer volume and difficulty of keeping track of the goings on at the legislature – he was following 132 bills on Crossover Day this year. Criminal justice reform is one of their focal points and an area where they have been able to find some allies in the Georgia legislature. There were concerns about SB 452 and how it might’ve overridden some Atlanta efforts at criminal justice reform but that bill ultimately got postponed.
Clearly there are a number of policy disagreements between the Democrats and Republicans at the Capitol but one of the biggest looming possibilities the past several years has been the RFRA legislation. This topic came up several times during the evening.
Howard Franklin, a lobbyist whose clients include NCR, Sprint and some other big name corporations, discussed how the politics of Georgia impacts an issue like RFRA. In Franklin’s view, this year was the first time the GOP was worried about “some of the silliness” that can come from some of the caucus’ more outspoken members. Franklin pointed to some of the “culture war stuff” – including RFRA – and how it is advanced by a small group. This small group then forces the hand of the Republican leadership to go along or they will withhold votes on other bills.
Woolard asked for some previews of what might happen in the next year. She mentioned seeing the names “Cagle, Shafer, and McKoon” in her head and being extremely worried. “If these 3 win, we’re in big trouble,” said Woolard.
Despite that statewide worry, most of the panelists agreed that the next year and years ahead will be good for Georgia Democrats. They will almost certainly pick up seats in the next election. Trammell is hoping that it can at least be 10 or so seats.
“74 or 75 Democrats in the House would mean any vote really has to run through us. We can partner with the Liberty Caucus to stop certain bills or partner with more business-minded Republicans to stop other things,” said Trammell.
November should be very interesting.
