First Mailer of Many

Thousands of families across District 121 have received a mailer in the last couple of weeks urging me to "Support Commonsense Policies". I would argue that I am, and I have been pretty transparent about it.

Here's what you need to know about this mailer.

Policy Claims

The mailer highlights 3 votes that I took, but frames them in a highly partisan lens, and I would say that they severely misrepresent the legislation. I had already published explainers on this website for all 3

• "Eliminating property taxes for Georgians" refers to HR 1114 / HB 1116 (particularly HR 1114). Explainer here.
  
  • Short summary: This proposal was a tax increase with no benefit on anyone who rents their home, and did not offer a way to backfill local funding that it would eliminate.
• "Supporting law enforcement officers when dangerous criminals obstruct justice" refers to HB 1076. Explainer here.
  
  • Short summary: This was a partisan political response to the Renee Good killing in Minnesota. The language was loose, the punishments were too harsh, and Georgia already has obstruction of justice laws in place.
• "Providing parents with more educational options" refers to HB 328. Explainer here.
  
  • Short summary: This bill siphons even more money away from public education and diverts it to private school scholarships. I am a strong supporter of public education and I do not believe that public dollars should fund private education, especially at the expense of public schools.

Funded By?

This mailer was not sent by my opponent, it was sent as an Independent Expenditure by "American Federation for Children, Inc.", a harmless-sounding organization that is in favor of "school choice", meaning they want public tax dollars to be spent on private education.

SourceWatch has much more information on this organization and their ties to conservative dark money groups like ALEC.

Effectiveness

As of the time of this posting, I have received 1 email to my legislative inbox that seems to be tied back to this mailer, and I have received 1 phone call on a related subject, though I am not sure it was prompted by this mailer.