A federal judge has dismissed requests from a civil rights group to require Gwinnett County and the state to send absentee ballot applications in Spanish.
In a Monday order, Judge William M. Ray II dismissed the case, brought by the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials and other groups, saying that the secretary of state’s office and the Gwinnett elections board didn’t violate the federal Voting Rights Act, as the lawsuit claimed.
“Nonetheless, this Court recognizes that Plaintiffs’ end goal of ensuring that Spanish-speaking Gwinnett voters receive bilingual absentee ballot applications is a reasonable and desirable outcome,” Ray wrote.
He said, though, that GALEO and the other groups lacked the standing to make the case. Ray said in his order that the individuals who said they weren’t sent Spanish-language ballot applications were able to get them from the county, and did vote. He added that a Spanish-language ballot application was accessible on the county website.
Jerry Gonzalez, GALEO’s executive director, said he disagreed with the judge’s analysis…. Read more here.
Note: I have no idea why the text above is so screwy…
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Beginner’s Guide to GALEO from the 2015/2016 Dustin Inman Society campaign to stop the conformation of former GALEO board member Dax Lopez for federal court here.
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Update: Dustin Inman Society board amber Everett Robinson just sent me the below letter to the AJC editor he sent in 2 weeks ago. Believe it or not, they ran part of it! Thanks Ev. Thanks, AJC!
Ev, our neighbor for 35 years and DIS board member addressing the room.
Dear AJC,
In a stunning abuse use of the term, the AJC recently referred to the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) as a “civil rights group” in a news report on their failed lawsuit against Gwinnett County involving foreign language voter ballots.
GALEO, funded by corporate-Georgia, is notorious for its long history of actively fighting against official English for government, voter ID and marching in the streets of Atlanta against immigration enforcement. GALEO has actually lobbied to convince local governments to refuse to honor ICE detainers when dangerous criminal illegal aliens are found to be in local jails and organized rallies against state laws to require public employers to use the federal E-Verify program aimed at insuring illegal labor does not take taxpayer-funded jobs.
As a proud, long-time board member of a citizen-funded group that advocates for an equal application of the law on immigration and for official English for government, this sixty-something, pro-enforcement Black conservative knows a civil rights group when he sees one.
Regarding GALEO: Being anti-official English and anti-enforcement on immigration does not a “civil rights” group make.
DIS educational poster from 2015/2016 during the Dax Lopez confirmation battle. Lopez was denied the confirmation by U.S. Senator David Perdue because of his association with the anti-enforcement GALEO Inc.
The below letter to Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan was forwarded here this morning by DIS friend Mr. Robert Trent. If I find time later, I will insert some informational links. (I found the time. Links added 1:00 PM)
I am a retired Senior Special Agent of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (USINS). I have served on metropolitan area drug, and organized crime task forces for many years and have supervised special agents assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force. In addition, I spent ten years as a uniformed border patrol agent assigned to both the northern and southern borders. My final assignment was as the Assistant Director, Enforcement Training, U.S. Immigration Officer Academy, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Glynco, GA.
Because of a heads up from my friend D.A. King at the Dustin Inman Society, I have personally researched Anavitarte and can see that he was deeply involved with a leftist group known as ‘GALEO’ that is dedicated to working against immigration enforcement both here and in Washington D.C. Anavitarte is listed on the GALEO website as a ‘Founding Friend’ – along with that all-American luminary, Jane Fonda.
A personal endorsement of a candidate who was part of the GALEO effort to fight not only immigration enforcement but also voter ID, official English legislation and lobbied directly in the Gold Dome against legislation that required the use of the E-Verify system to protect public jobs for a legal workforce is stunning in it’s lack of logic or conservative values.
The AJC reported that in 2006, Jerry Gonzalez, GALEO’s executive director actually took admitted illegal aliens into the state Capitol and then into the senate chamber in an effort to kill then pending SB529, a bill aimed at our illegal immigration crisis that became law. Anavitarte continued his association with GALEO for another three years.
D.A. King has done a stellar job over the years documenting the anti-enforcement activities of GALEO Inc. He provided his detailed research to Senator David Perdue in 2015 during the confirmation process of an Obama nominee for federal court, Dax Lopez, who was also a former GALEO board member. Senator Perdue terminated that confirmation process citing his concern with the GALEO connection.
Part of the statement Sen. Perdue released in early 2016 announcing his disapproval of the candidate for a federal judge seat: “After a thorough review of the professional and judicial record of DeKalb County Judge Dax Lopez, I have become uncomfortable with his longstanding participation in a controversial organization including his service on its board of directors.”
I urge you to read the entire statement and I urge you to reconsider your support of Jason Anavitarte for membership in the state senate where legislation will hopefully address the fact that Georgia has a serious and illegal immigration problem
Jobs and wages are going to illegal aliens in our state and American families are being damaged and sometimes permanently separated because we are not doing enough to make Georgia inhospitable to illegal aliens and the illegal employment that acts as a magnet to draw them into Georgia.
Your decision to endorse anyone with ties to GALEO shows poor judgment and has damaged my own opinion of you as Lt. Governor and President of the Senate. Anavitarte’s decision to serve on the GALEO board shows his own lack of good judgment and creates great doubt about his dedication to conservative ideals, including immigration enforcement a cause to which I have dedicated most of my life.
Jerry Gonzalez, Executive Director of the corporate-funded, anti-enforcement lobbyist group, GALEO, was quick to send out a media release praising the “historic” appointment and boasting that King had assisted the activist group as keynote speaker at a GALEO breakfast fundraiser several years ago.
“Congrats to Chief King, close friend of @GALEOorg !” was the much-repeated celebratory post on the GALEO Facebook page.
Kemp’s Insurance Commissioner appointee has no background or experience in the insurance industry.
DeKalb State Court Judge Dax Lopez. Image: Daily Signal
Perhaps unknown to most Republican voters, in addition to marching in the streets of Atlanta against enforcement of existing federal laws on immigration, GALEO and its director are well-known in the state Capitol for lobbying against state legislation aimed at reporting criminal aliens to federal authorities and establishing an official database of illegal aliens serving time in the state’s prison system.
GALEO lobbies against voter ID, official English and local jails honoring ICE detainers. Executive Director Gonzalez is known to verbally attack female legislators when he does not approve of speeches or positions on illegal immigration. In 2011, Gonzalez posted this angry explanation of being asked to leave the Georgia Capitol when he lashed out at state Senator Renee Unterman for a speech she made on the floor of the senate.
GALEO online poster opposing 2018 legislation to improve reporting of illegal aliens to federal authorities
In 2011, GALEO’s Gonzalez was escorted out of a Rome, Georgia luncheon that featured a panel discussion on immigration when he began yelling at diminutive state Rep Katie Dempsey as reported by the Rome News Tribune.
“Gov. Brian Kemp announced four new Superior Court judgeships Friday – but the list was just as notable for a potential jurist who was passed over for a promotion.
That would be DeKalb State Court Judge Dax Lopez,a Latino Jewish Republican who was seeking a superior court seat.
Lopez was blocked by U.S. Sen. David Perdue from a federal judgeship after anti-illegal immigration activists in Georgia objected to his leadership in a group that opposed local government participation in 287(g) programs.
Some of those same forces oppose his bid for the new county post.
Kemp tappedanother state court judge, Shondeana C. Morris, for the post.
A former Fulton County prosecutor and assistant Atlanta solicitor, Kemp said she “offers the ideal set of legal expertise and leadership skills for this critically important position.”
The Dustin Inman Society worked very hard to organize resistance to GALEO’s Dax Lopez (now a state court judge) being appointed to superior court by Governor Kemp. The announcement that Lopez did not get the promotion came this morning. We are grateful to all who took time to write, call, email, and tweet Gov. Brian Kemp urging him to pass over GALEO’s anti-enforcement judge for advancement. Thank you, Gov. Kemp!
Letter to the editor today in the MDJ. I don’t subscribe and cannot read it through the pay wall, so thanks to Sue for sending it along.
Marietta Daily Journal
OPINION
May 31, 2019
DEAR EDITOR:
Kevin Foley giving Sheriff Warren advice on the subversive and race-baiting GALEO Corporation is another example of the uninformed leftist writer looking up and talking down. GALEO, led by the perpetually angry and professional-victim Jerry Gonzalez, is yet another corporate-funded anti-borders group that has a widely known reputation in political circles for smearing political enemies.
Maybe Foley was among the past crowds that GALEO has led in marches in the streets of Atlanta protesting any immigration enforcement. GALEO particularly hates 287(g) because it detects and reports illegal aliens already captured for other crimes.
Foley’s advice to the sheriff to “engage” rather than “condemn” illustrates that Foley writes from a jerking knee and not any basis in knowledge or experience.
Gonzalez, the boss face of GALEO since its creation in 2003, has accused Warren of bias and prejudice for simply carrying out his sworn duty to protect all Cobb residents. Gonzalez has also falsely smeared pro-immigration enforcement legislators for legislation that would reduce the effects of the illegal aliens GALEO is dependent on to keep the corporate donations flowing. Gonzalez was thrown out of a Rome, Georgia, event by police several years ago for chasing and verbally attacking the diminutive state Rep Katie Dempsey. There is a long history of GALEO radicalism including lobbying against official English, voter ID, and E-Verify — while transporting illegal aliens to the state Capitol.
GALEO lobbied against jails honoring ICE detainers for criminal illegals.
In short, GALEO is a typical subversive and radical but innocuously named anti-borders activist corporation. While that may be right up Foley’s alley, he should at least have the facts before he offers advice to Sheriff Warren.
State Court Judge Dax Lopez served as a board member for eleven years while Jerry Gonzalez led GALEO in the above described activities. He was as silent as mouse, except when he personally wrote Gov. Deal to veto a bill against illegal aliens driving with no license.
In 2016, Dax Lopez was denied a federal court seat because of the courage of Georgia’s Sen. David Perdue, who investigated the facts brought to him by D.A. King on GALEO directly from the GALEO website, much of which has now been deleted. A long list of very respected legislators and other officials including Sheriff Warren wrote to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee advising against Dax Lopez.
This is @SamAguilarATL who now is State Director for FWD.us in Georgia. He is a former GALEO staffer.
2015 Late in the legislative session. At night, on the 4th floor of the GA Capitol. This bizarre character, Sam Aguilar, walked up and introduced himself with an odd smirk. As I shook his hand he informed me he worked for GALEO, which is one of the many corporate-funded anti-enforcement immigration lobby groups in GA. Warning, if you shake hands with this nutball, have a towel handy, his hands are miserably sweaty. After I walked away, I noticed he was following me, so I reversed direction to be sure. Sure enough, he was right on my tail. He stayed about 4 feet behind me for about 10 minutes around the building, with people everywhere, including when I went into the men’s room.
I finally told a Capitol Police officer what was up and handed my phone to a friend to record Stalker Boy Sam Aguilar. What you see here is the last minute of me, then age 63, being stalked by a paid GALEO anti-borders, millenial activist – in public. The Capitol Police officer was just about to get involved and Stalker Boy decided to slow down his tail. But he still had the weird smirk. I suppose in lefty-land this is considered revenge for my pro-enforcement work to make GA. inhospitable to the crime of illegal immigration. To be clear. Stalker Boy Sam Aguilar is a very strange egg.
SPLC joins corporate-funded anti-enforcement group, GALEO, in advocacy against passage of public safety legislation in Georgia
We happily predict SB452 goes to the governor’s desk. *UPDATED: Despite the fact that it had the votes to pass, SB 452 died on the last day of session when Republican Speaker David Ralston refused to allow a vote. He did however keep the House in session past midnight to get a bill passed on which his son was lobbyist. Here.
On a rainy Saturday a contractor (he is an American) is working across the hall to remove and replace our 1984 toilet — which reminded me of Morris Dees, Heidi Beirich and the SPLC….
Monday’s email (March 12, 2018) brought us two frantic emails from anti-enforcement advocacy groups urging us to act to kill legislation pending in the Georgia legislature. One of the groups, GALEO, is well known here for it’s anti-borders advocacy since 2003 and is financed by corporate Georgia (see Cox Enterprises (parent company of the AJC newspaper), Coca-Cola, Georgia Power, State Farm Insurance Co., Southwest Airlines, Telemundo, Univision et al). Run by a perpetually-angry ethnic hustler named Jerry Gonzalez, GALEO is notably radical enough that one of it’s former board member’s nomination for a federal judgeship died in the U.S. Senate because of the association. At DIS, we are proud of our work in stopping Dax Lopez from becoming a federal judge – and going to the state Supreme Court.
Both emails urged us to take action to stop passage of SB452, a bill aimed at identifying illegal aliens in Georgia law enforcement custody and sharing that information. According to the left-tilted Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, which also opposes the bill, SB452 is bad for “immigrants” — and Georgia. We disagree and are actively working for passage and have helped amend the bill to quantify the number of foreigners and, separately, the number of illegal aliens in the state corrections system.
The bill has already passed the Georgia Senate and is set to be heard in the House Public Safety Committee Monday.
“The legislation requires local police departments and jails across Georgia to take a series of steps once an unauthorized immigrant comes into their custody. That includes notifying local prosecutors, requiring sentencing courts to review immigration papers and, most importantly, handing over that Georgian’s address and other personal information to ICE. The legislation envisions a seamless process that takes custody of any undocumented resident who comes into contact with Georgia’s court system, even for minor violations like a parking ticket, and hands them over to federal immigration agents.
A local NPR station hates SB452 too. Rep Jesse Petrea is set to shepherd the bill through the House process. Petrea is a hero from last year here. We happily predict this one goes to the governor’s desk.
With any mention of immigration enforcement and protecting Americans from illegal alien criminals (note: Heidi hates the term “crimigrants”), it is easy to understand why the Marxist hate mongers at the SPLC are up in arms against the bill, but as far as we can remember, this is the first time since we started our pro-enforcement effort here in 2003 that we have seen them send out an alert against specific legislation. It makes me want to take a shower, but we have been on their email list – as well as GALEO’s – for fifteen years. When pro-enforcement groups advocate for passage of such bills or enforcement of immigration laws, the crazies call it “hate.”
Here is the message from GALEO and below is the we-hate-imigration-enforcement, kill-the-bill goop from the SPLC:
We need your help to ensure public safety organizations protect all Georgians. Tell your Representatives to say NO to SB 452.
Nearly 1 in 5 Georgians are part of the immigrant community. This legislation would make it mandatory for local police officers to enforce immigration laws.
As a result, police would be unable to focus their time on ensuring that our communities are safe, and immigrant victims and witnesses of crime will be scared to report crimes to police officers.
Here are more facts about the bill:
SB 452 will make our communities less safe.
SB 452 will go against our values and split up families by taking immigrant parents away from their children who are U.S. citizens.
SB 452 will hurt business in Georgia by making the state look unfriendly to immigrants. We want to show companies that Georgia is open for economic development, not that we are making our police act as immigration agents.
Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and Loganville city council member Rey Martinez
It has long been my suspicion that at least some of the Georgia politicians who are involved with or become board members of the rabidly anti-enforcement GALEO don’t fully understand the level of ‘crazy’ at that corporate-funded mob run by Jerry Gonzalez when they sign up.
Example: Rey Martinez, a Loganville city council member and Chairman of the Public Safety Committee there was a member of the GALEO board of Directors when Georgia Governor Nathan Deal appointed him to the state’s Board of Commissioners of the Commission on Equal Opportunity in 2015. He is apparently no longer part of the GALEO family.
But Martinez is now an active and very visible Donald Trump supporter and has spoken out for Trump on Atlanta radio and at a recent Middle Georgia Trump rally that featured vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence and various Republican pols.
The Macon Telegraph covered the August 29 Trump rally at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter and reported on Martinez’s remarks supporting Trump/Pence ticket:
Rey Martinez, a Hispanic city councilman in Loganville, urged Hispanics to consider whether their lives have improved in the last eight years.
“We have been lied to and bamboozled,” he said. “We don’t need to keep going down the same path.”
I wonder if I am the only one who is curious about the seeming metamorphosis involved in being on the GALEO board of directors a year before being on the stage supporting Donald Trump, who is usually supportive of the immigration enforcement that GALEO fights on all fronts?
Or what military veteran Martinez would have to say if asked if he was aware of GALEO’s public safety “accomplishments” over the years before he joined and while he was on their board. Or if he has chatted with Jerry Gonzalez about their differences on a presidential candidate?
Show intro: “3, 2, 1, 0. All engine running. Lift off, we have a lift off. Erick Erickson: I guess it depends, if you’re [Jude Alison 00:00:15].
Welcome, it’s Erick here on [inaudible 00:00:17] News, 95.5 AM 750 WSB, the full number 404 872 0750 1 800 WSB Talk. Wow, breaking news – Lynn Westmoreland, congressman out of Peachtree City is going to retire from congress, already getting phone calls, a ton of phone calls from people asking me if I’ve got a pick in there – I might know someone who would be very good for that job. I’m reaching out to him to see if he’s interested. Might get a quick endorsement for me out of this, for a candidate in that race.
I want to get into that and the implications of it, and Lynn Westmoreland’s history, and rumors are he wants to lay ground for governor’s race or something. There’s a headline in the AJC today – Sam Olens may have unintentionally, or intentionally taken himself out of the race for governor with his statement on Syrian refugees. Couldn’t be helped, he’s following the law.
(Begin Lopez endorsement) I want to begin somewhere else, though, and this may make some of you a little angry with me, but I want to lay out my thinking on this for you, because there’s an issue happening right now in the US Senate that affects Georgia directly. You see, there’s a state court judge in DeKalb County, his name is Dax Lopez, and he has been nominated by the president to be a federal judge, and the problem for Dax Lopez that you need to know, for the US district court in the northern district of Georgia, is that … Well, he supports immigration reform, and before he entered in to being a judge, his political positions, he was very aggressively for immigration reform. People are upset, conservative activists are upset about Dax Lopez, because he’s for immigration reform.
Folks, I am told rather privately, although I can say publicly, that the democrats and the republicans are structuring deals for this year, and what they will do, and one of the issues is going to be judges to be approved, and one of the judgeships that the president is very concerned about is the northern district of Georgia. There have been a number of hurdles getting a judge along the way for the seat, and the president wants the seat filled.
Here’s what I’m telling you: If you’re not going with Dax Lopez to be a judge, there’s going to be a vote. It’s going to come to the floor, and all of the democrats, and a handful of republicans are going to vote for someone to fill that seat, and you’re not going to get a better nominee than Dax Lopez. That’s a fact. Dax Lopez, of all the judicial picks by the president nationwide, he’s probably the most free market. Most willing to understand that business needs to be able to do business. He’s going to be the best pick you could hope for from the president of the United States, for Georgia. He is the least liberal nominee I think the president has probably put on the bench nationwide at a district court position. Members of the Conservative Federalist Society have come out in favor of him, a number of republicans have come out in favor of him – I’m just telling you, you don’t go with Dax Lopez, there’s a deal being cut in congress on judicial votes, and if you’re not going with him, you’re going to get some wackadoo liberal, and there are going to be enough republicans to vote for that person.
Either go with Dax Lopez, or we’re going to get a judge on the bench who’s far worse for business, far worse for freedom, far worse for individual liberty than he is – And he’s not bad on any of those issues, including individual liberty. He’s not. DeKalb County state court judge, a lot of my republican friends up there, conservatives all of them, a lot of them Ted Cruz supporters, even – All like him, think he’s a good guy, think he would be a great judge. It is the immigration issue that is the hurdle, guess what? He’s not going to have a role to play in that issueon the federal bench in the northern district of Georgia, he’s just not. I would say, Johnny Isakson, David Perdue, go on and let him go to the floor and vote for him, get him on the bench. I think it’s the right thing to do. I think that he would be far better than anyone else we would get down the line, and I hope that Perdue and Isakson will take that into consideration that a fire-breathing conservative like me thinks that this is the best pick we’re going to get, and he would be good pick for a republican, frankly, as well – And that’s the truth, no spin, so go for it.
Now, let’s step out and check traffic before we get onto the-
Thank you, sir. Sorry, the call screening program has locked out, and apparently if I push this little button on Windows 7 it requires that the computer starts talking to me, I had no idea if you guys heard that. All right, someone else is going to have to control alt delete because I’m locked out of the computer for call screening, but the phone number’s 40487207501800 WSB Talk. I see a text coming through from a buddy of mine to repeat what I said at the very end.
Yeah, if a republican president nominated Dax Lopez based on his record, based on his background, based on where he is and the people who are supporting him in the Federalist Society, the Chamber of Commerce and what not, he would be a logical person for a republican to pick as well, and republicans would be falling all over themselves to praise him and get him on the bench, and they would. I don’t have a problem with the guy. He’s the best pick we could possibly have here in the northern district of Georgia. The northern district covers … It’s kind of weird, they’re diagonal, the districts. There’s the southern district, the middle district and the northern district. The middle district actually covers Athens, Macon, Albany. The southern district, Brunswick, Valdosta, Waycross, Savannah. The northern district, Atlanta up to Gainesville, that area, and he would be a good pick.
I know they’re cutting a deal, I know they are. I have a credible source telling me they’re mapping out, Harry [inaudible 00:06:50] this year, one of the issues is judges, and if they don’t get Dax Lopez they’re going to get someone else, and that someone else is going to be far worse, so let’s get a move on with him.”
Greg Williams’ post below has now become a topic on the AJC’s widely-read Political Insider blog. GALEO’s executive director and major-league, race-baiting hate monger, Jerry Gonzalez, has been allowed to create a distraction conversation on the battle over Lopez’s nomination to federal court with a whole-cloth-lie Twitter post accusing me (DAK) of having done an an “anti-sementic post.” It is clear that the Lopez advancement to committee hearing is in trouble and this is what happens when hater liberals like Angry Jerry start losing.
We hope you read William’s post carefully and decide for yourself if writing that he “respects other’s right of religious determination” while professing his own faith is “anti-sementic.” I don’t. We hope you will give consideration to the same on granting Greg’s request for a forum on which to express his objections to Dax Lopez becoming a federal judge.
For the record, I didn’t have any idea and have never given any thought to Lopez’s religious beliefs until I read Galloway’s September 2015 profile of Lopez in which he wrote “Wait — didn’t I mention that Dax Lopez is both Latino and Jewish?”
This was long after our on-going campaign to find a suitable, pro-enforcement federal judge nominee began and was covered, but, does Lopez’s ethnicity and his religion somehow qualify him for federal judge?
On today’s Daily Jolt, Galloway wags a finger at Williams – and from his wording, perhaps everyone who opposes Lopez for federal judge – with “Some opponents of Dax Lopez’ nomination to a U.S. District judgeship are straying close to a line that ought not be crossed.” Presumably because of Greg Williams’ remarks on my website.
The Political Insider goes on to inflame what for most people is a non-event with “All of this to say that opponents of his nomination to the federal bench have heretofore focused on Lopez’ association with the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. Now they are drifting into an area that threatens to strip them of all credibility.”
Would that be Williams even obliquely referring to Lopez’s faith? Like Galloway did?
In the very educated opinion of this pro-enforcement American, Jerry Gonzalez is an unhinged slime-ball looking for traction on a way to direct the discussion away from Obama’s nomination of Dax Lopez for federal judge with the usual goop. We are surprised anybody went for it. Welcome to the inside of 21st century “politics.”
Posting this update and typing “Hate-group” Jerry-Gonzalez’s name has taken me 30 minutes that I will never get back, and has created the feeling that I need another shower…
Not because I feel the need to indulge anyone concerned, but to illustrate the vile absurdity of the smear from Jerry Gonzalez, I post the e-mail sent from here to Williams when I figured out what Angry Jerry was reaching for in his Twitter smear last night.
HEADS UP
Greg,
It took me awhile to figure out what this crazy POS meant, but I am now assuming he means your OPED on the DIS site from the other day.
My grandfather was Jewish. I am a Christian. I have no concern about anyone’s religion. I only send this to you as a heads up. It never occurred to me that they would try this with your OPED…
These people will stop at nothing and will smear anyone who gets in their way.
dak
***
We are happy to post the below commentary from the well-known Georgia Young Republican and radio personality, Greg Williams. The added educational links are all ours.
The Obama Judicial appointment legacy includes two lifetime appointments of left leaning Supreme Court Justices ( Kagan and Sotomayor ). On the Attorney General specturm, former AG Eric ( Fast & Furious ) Holder and his AG successor Loretta “We gonna track your use of the 1st Amendment” Lynch have shown a propensity for biased and selective prosecutions focused on political vendettas while simultaneously stonewalling GOP efforts to investigate the Executive Branch and its myriad scandals. Based on this sordid Judicial history, it confounds me why anyone would knowingly contribute to the Obama legacy through support of his Federal Judge appointments.
“I question the strategy and logic from anyone with a vested interest in Georgia of approving an Obama appointed Federal Judge with a lifetime term during Obama’s last year. President Obama has demonstrated his lack of respect for the Constution and activist zeal with several missives, recently conveying legal status to 5 million illegal aliens, an Executive Order successfully challenged in Court. This specific Obama Judicial nominee, Judge Dax Lopez, has a palpable lack of experience on the bench and dubious activist alliances.
Of secondary concern, Judge Lopez experienced an undoubtedly transforming religious epiphany during his conversion to Judaism…I can’t claim any expertise in that arena as I’ve never questioned the role of the Lord Jesus Christ in my life but I do respect the right of others in their personal religious self-determination. Dax Lopez has already exhibited a propensity to reinvent oneself via religious convesion and I believe the populace is owed more data before assessing qualifications and competence. While there are nuanced questions about his role advocating for activist organizations, I will leave that for others to debate.
If Dax is truly qualified for federal judgeship, then I’m sure the next POTUS will articulate and explain the nomination and assuage the current negative sentiment against this lifetime appointment.”
Republican Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan has endorsed a candidate for state senate who is a former board member of a leftist organization that lobbies against immigration enforcement, voter ID, ICE holds and official English for government.
State Senate District 31 hopeful Jason Anavitarte served on the board of directors of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) from 2006 to 2009. During that time, GALEO lobbied against passage of the nationally noted SB529, the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act which established a requirement that public employers and their contractors sort out newly hired blackmarket labor with use of the federal employment verification system now known as E-Verify.
The legislation also required state use of the federal 287(g) program that allows local law enforcement to screen jail inmates for immigration status and report illegal alien prisoners to ICE for deportation proceedings. The bill, now law, that GALEO vehemently opposed also requires that local and county governments verify the legal status of people applying for local, state and federal public benefits.
GALEO Executive Director and former Democrat fundraiser, Jerry Gonzalez, drew much attention during the lobbying frenzy against the 2006 state immigration enforcement measure when he escorted self-described illegal aliens into the gold-domed state Capitol telling legislators they should regard the illegal aliens as “constituents.” Gonzalez described the illegals as merely “immigrants.” The staged and pre-announced GALEO transporting and encouragement of the illegals made a memorable note for pro-enforcement groups and news in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
A February Twitter post from Lt. Governor Duncan describes Anavitarte as a “proven conservative…”
Photo: @GeoffDuncanGA Twitter feed
The endorsement from Duncan has raised eyebrows in conservative quarters of the state’s Republican Party not only because GALEO is well known for its corporate-funded opposition to immigration enforcement, but because candidate Anavitarte, now running as a Republican,filed to run for state House in 2006 as a Democrat.
The Lt. Governor also serves as president of the state senate.
Jason Anavitarte. Photo: Rome-News Tribune
Perhaps the most jarring surprise for pro-enforcement voters in Duncan’s endorsement is the fact that in 2016, U.S. Senator David Perdue terminated the Judiciary Committee’s confirmation process of another former GALEO board member and State Court Judge, Dax Lopez, who was nominated for a federal judgeship by former President Barack Obama. Perdue made it clear that his office investigated the nominee’s ties to the controversial GALEO and ended the chances of confirmation because of that relationship.
“After a thorough review of the professional and judicial record of DeKalb County Judge Dax Lopez, I have become uncomfortable with his longstanding participation in a controversial organization including his service on its board of directors” Perdue wrote in his statement on the matter.
The obvious – and many say troubling – difference in judgment between Georgia’s Republican Lt. Governor and its senior U.S. Senator is not going un-noticed by grassroots GOP voters.
According to the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders.
Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, snared a primary endorsement from President Donald Trump in 2018 due in large part to Kemp’s tough talk and campaign promises on illegal immigration. Kemp has not mentioned immigration since the November, 2018 election.
Ballotpedia lists four Republican candidates for Georgia’s senate District 31.
