D.A. King

Brian Kemp as quoted by 11 Alive news and delivered here today by Georgia pundit.

[Discussing HB 1105, “The Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act of 2024”:]

“This is a state of almost 11 million people,” he said. “And I think people were outraged, and I was too about the whole Laken Riley tragic murder that we saw and somebody that had broken into this country illegally and had been apprehended two different times and was still here, you know, and we didn’t even know he was here.”

Kemp said they talked to municipalities, sheriff’s offices, and others about the bill.

“I think at the end of the day; we got a good piece of legislation that will help with the issue here, to make sure when somebody gets arrested that we’re, you know, checking to make sure that they’re here legally.”

• Update: Sen.Larry Walker prevailed in the Primary Election. Tori Branum garnered 23% of the total votes cast. Sen. Shawn Still has not apologized for misrepresenting a record of service in the military. Peach State Values spent $23K to defeat Branum. Walker is rumored to be considering a run for Georgia Secretary of State in 2026. Details here.

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A Republican state Senator back tracks on veteran status, another Republican state Senator and candidate for reelection removes his name from positions on a political PAC just before a former U.S. Marine candidate for the GA Senate office is falsely smeared by the same PAC: Senate District 20.

Georgians who want some insight into some integrity-free political shenanigans involved in state legislative campaigns should consider the GOP Primary race in southern Middle Georgia’s Senate District 20.

Elected in 2015 2014, Senator Larry Walker III (R- Perry) is the incumbent and is quite willing to prove his determination to keep the job. Readers may remember Walker from March when the General Assembly passed one of his anti-enforcement, business-first, “we need more workers!” bills, SB 354. Because it dismantles the existing immigration check involved in occupational licensing for some low skilled jobs in Georgia, this writer worked unsuccessfully to see that measure vetoed.

Larry Walker has a primary opponent in Ms. Tori Branum, a U.S. Marine for eight years with an honorable discharge and who is a now single mother. Two of Branum’s kids are military veterans. A marksmanship instructor when she was on active duty in the Marines, Branum owns and operates ‘Middle Georgia Female Firearms training’ and lives in Dublin, GA.

Branum would make a terrific conservative Republican state senator. She is pro-enforcement on immigration. She says she would not have voted for SB 354.

Dedicated county GOP leaders often urge ordinary citizens to run for office. Apparently that desire does not extend to everyone in the Republican state Senate caucus. At least one Senator, Shawn Still (R – Norcross) spent considerable time on a March 5 phone call with Branum trying to convince her to drop out of the race against his pal Larry Walker.

At one point in that recorded and online-posted conversation, Still tells Branum that her campaign quest is akin to a “Kamikaze run” because Walker runs the GOP senate caucus PAC. Branum explains to Still that  “…as an American veteran, I have a right to run for office in my country.” Still quickly shot back with what sounds a lot like a direct order: “Tori, don’t, don’t ever say that to me again. I am too. I’ve served proudly, and you don’t need to throw that in my face.”

Still’s claim to past military service caught my ear because I had already read his short bio on the “about Shawn” page of his ‘shawnstill.com’ campaign website. There, Still informs voters that “he attended the University of Alabama as a swimmer and U. S. Air Force ROTC cadet. Diploma in hand and preparing to attend flight school, the end of the Cold War and the election of President Bill Clinton abruptly cancelled Shawn’s plans along with those of most other would-be second lieutenants in the USAF. As a result, he pursued a variety of civilian careers…”

Unable to imagine how the end of the Cold War in 1989-ish and the election of Bill Clinton to the presidency in 1992 could have possibly stopped Shawn Still from becoming an Air Force officer, I asked him for clarification. In his reply he backtracked and explained that he was really never in the military. He is not a veteran. His full response is posted on my blog. As I write, USMC veteran Tori Branum has not received an apology from Republican state Senator Shawn Still.

In 2018, Larry Walker, the District 20 Republican state Senator, registered the Peach State Values Inc. with the GA Secretary of State – it’s a PAC and is known to send scathing, semi-accurate mailers and Facebook ads during the election season aimed at various candidates – including fellow Republicans – for legislative office. From its inception six years ago, Walker was listed as the CEO, COO and Secretary of The Peach State Values Inc. That changed on April 30^th, 2024 when an amended annual report was filed with the SoS office that showed a transfer of those corporate positions to another Republican state Senator, Matt Brass of Newnan.

• Bonus education for Facebook users: Middle Georgia Female Firearms training – Tori Branum 

At least one of the Peach State Values PAC Facebook campaign ads went out in early May aimed at the Senate District 20 race. It was a smear directed at Tori Branum stating that she has a “criminal record.” She doesn’t. You can see a screen shot of that smear on the Dustin Inman Society website.

 Republicans who want to clean out the increasingly odiferous state Senate swamp should be asking why Walker and Brass arranged to replace Walker on the official corporate record at the Secretary of State office.

I asked them both. Walker told me to ask Brass. Brass did not reply.

It could be that it is a violation of campaign finance laws for a PAC to coordinate with a political campaign.

Campaign finance is not this writer’s area of expertise, but the complaint I will file against Walker and Brass for coordinating and strategizing to smear Tori Branum and promote Walkers reelection with their PAC will cite OCGA 21-5-3(15) that I found on page 2, here.

According to Ballotpedia the annual state legislative base salary is $23,341.72  plus a per diem of $247 during the legislative session.

There is more to this story of the merciless attacks from the Larry Walker camp on Tori Branum. Space does not allow me to expand but readers and voters should be asking what drives Larry Walker and his Senate pals to so dishonestly attack an honest, pro-enforcement fellow Republican challenger.

We don’t think it’s the state salary that comes with the office.

Senator Brass,

The below media request was sent to Senator Larry Walker on May 14, 2024 at 9:48 AM. Walker replied at 2:49 PM. That reply is pasted below my request.

Senator Walker,

Update: 9:45 May 13: Senator Still was kind enough to reply about 5:15 PM today. That response is pasted on the bottom. He now says he is not a veteran.

I will have more to say about this matter in the coming days. This installment should be regarded as “Part one.”

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The below media request was sent to Senator Still via email to his official Senate address, his Senate assistant’s address and via text message at 11:43AM today.

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Senator Still,

The below was transcribed by Rev.com from Gov. Kemp’s presentation to the Athens-Clarke County “Pancakes and Policy” event on  Feb 26, 2024.  Video here.

GA Gov Brian Kemp:

“…Michael and appreciate you taking a second tour of duty, um, as chamber president this year, and I certainly want to thank David as the rest of the team for having Marty and I this morning. Uh, I’m glad to be a member of the Athens Clark County Chamber of Commerce, appreciate what you guys are doing every day to plug for small businesses in this community and a lot of other great pieces of the fabric of the Athens, Georgia community.

Uh, like Michael said, our hearts are breaking this morning for the family of Laken Riley. I had the honor of speaking to her parents over the weekend and though they are bearing the pain that no parent should ever endure in having to plan for burying their child, they’re thankful for our prayers and our ongoing justice to see Lee- Laken’s killer brought to justice.

Marty and I will continue to keep their family, their friends and the university community in our thoughts and prayers. This community, all of Georgia, and the entire country have been rocked by this inexcusable and avoidable murder. Laken’s life should not have ended so soon and we need to demand justice for what happened to her. She deserves justice, her family deserves justice, and we need justice on a national level to prevent this type of thing from happening again.

Laken’s death is a direct result of failed policies on the federal level and an unwillingness by this White House to secure the southern border. We need to demand better from this administration, and that’s something that I’ve been doing since I’ve taken office, along with other governors across the country. And we’ve renewed that call multiple times, including again this weekend when I sent a letter to the president demanding more information on the illegal immigrants in our country, where they are and if they’ve broken any of our laws. Because of the president’s failures, we don’t know all that we should, but we do know this, more than eight and a half million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since President Biden took office.

In November of last year alone, over 1700 pounds of Fentanyl were seized at the southern border. Nearly 16,000 pounds of meth. 169 people on the terror watch list were encountered at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, setting an all-time record. Those drugs, weapons and dangerous criminals that aren’t stopped at the border head to other states, just like ours. In fact, there was a 55% increase in cases involving Fentanyl seizures here in Georgia by the GBI between 2022 and 2023. And that doesn’t even include all the seizures by local law enforcement.

It is an understatement to say that this is a major crisis, and because of the White House’s failures, every state, as I’ve said repeatedly, is now a border state, and Laken Riley’s murder’s just the latest proof of that. Just yesterday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that her killer was in the country illegally, that he had been arrested in 2022 and was paroled and released back onto our streets. He was then arrested again last year in New York for trying to hurt a child, and other charges. That is a failure of our system on multiple levels and at multiple times, and it has res- resulted in a young woman’s death. That is inexcusable. And in the absence of any real effort by the Biden Administration to step up and address this crisis, as they continue to ignore the calls for meaningful policy change that governors like me have made for well over two years, I have committed further resources to help and secure the southern border and keeping our citizens safe.

We already have the longest continuous presence of state guardsmen stationed on the border of any state, going back to when I first took office. Earlier this month, following my fifth trip to the southern border, I announced that we would send more troops to Texas in building, to help in building a command center on the border of, with Mexico. And we’re already putting more and more resources into public safety, including to pay for state law enforcement to retain and attract talented men and women who will keep our streets safe.

I want to thank the General Assembly, I know, uh, a bunch of the local delegation is here this morning, for giving final passage to the Peace Officer Loan Repayment legislation we introduced last year. All of these measures and more are designed with the same goal, to keep Georgians like you safe, to keep Georgians’ neighborhoods safe, to keep our schools safe, and to keep our businesses safe, because everyone should feel secure in their local community. And as we further strengthen the places we call home, we will continue to build on great opportunities here in our state, and I know that’s what you all at the Chamber are doing every single day and we appreciate so much your partnership with us. Those efforts have brought 177 projects, over 20,300 new jobs and $13.4 billion in investment to just this region of Georgia since I first took office.