April is the national month set aside to recognize Autism Awareness, Sexual Assault Awareness, and National Pecan Month. We are in the middle of National Library Week. April 16th is National Healthcare Decisions Day.
George Washington, recently elected President, left his Mount Vernon home on April 16, 1789 for his inauguration in New York.
“I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity; and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express.”
On April 16, 1865, Columbus, Georgia fell to Union forces. The Battle of Columbus is widely considered to be the last battle of the Civil War. Though it is not unanimously held to be, a 1935 Act of the Georgia General Assembly declared it the war’s last battle.
Hall of Famer Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians threw his first no-hitter on April 16, 1940 against the Chicago White Sox in Comiskey Park.
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” on April 16, 1865. On April 16, 2006, a new, larger portrait of Dr. King was unveiled in the Georgia State Capitol.
This week marks the 25th Anniversary of “Say Anything.”
John Cusack, four years past playing a college freshman in The Sure Thing, plays graduating high school senior Lloyd Dobler. Ione Skye, three years after her debut in the very dark dramaRiver’s Edge, plays the brilliant and shy Diane Court. And John Mahoney, four years before he found sitcom immortality as Frasier Crane’s father Martin, plays Diane’s adoring and deeply flawed father, Jim. Writer and first-time director Cameron Crowe was best-known at the time for the screenplay for Fast Times at Ridgemont High — which is fondly remembered now as the launching pad for many respectable careers, but which Roger Ebert had called “a failure of taste, tone and nerve.”
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato writes in Politico,
“Republican oddsmakers are surely hoping the final runoff pairing consists of names other than U.S. Reps. Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey, especially the former. Both Broun and Gingrey have a tendency to make controversial statements that have proved costly for Republicans in the last couple cycles.”
Cobb and Gwinnett Counties are among the first-round targets in a new program by the Republican National Committee to recruit women at the grassroots level.
In the Obama era, Democrats usually have had two big advantages over Republicans: women and volunteers. This year, Republicans are trying to change that, seeking to amass an army of young female volunteers who can carry the GOP message and counter the “war on women” rhetoric that has been so effective for Democrats.
Fresh off a week in which Democrats made it clear that a key part of their midterm message will be equal pay, Republicans are set to begin their own efforts to woo women to the polls, focusing on counties that went blue in 2012 and could tip the balance in November.
“We know that we’re not going to win elections if we’re not reaching out to the 21-to-40-year-old groups of women, and we understand that and we’re willing to earn that,” [Republican National Committee Co-Chair Sharon] Day said at the kickoff event. “We’re willing to start the discussion. We want to be there and invite them to be part of the solution, part of the process.”
Democrats are more focused on single women, a group that they won in 2012 by 36 points, with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee planning to use a national computer model that can predict voters’ marital status. In focusing on a minimum- wage increase and equal-pay legislation, Democrats hope to appeal to working-class women and have framed their populist plan as a “women’s economic agenda.”
But Republicans, who typically outpoll Democrats among married women, are on the offensive.
In February, CNN released poll results that show most Americans believe the Republican party fails to understand issues that are important to women.
55% of Americans surveyed say the GOP doesn’t understand women. That number rises to 59% among all women and 64% among women over 50.
“That last number is intriguing, since older women are more likely to vote Republican than younger women. Yet younger women don’t have as much of a problem with the GOP on this measure,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.
The highest ranking female House Republican tells CNN her party has a messaging problem.
“When you look at our position on issues, a lot of times majority of Americans agree with our positions. But it’s the way that we talk about it that doesn’t resonate and we have to do a better job,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state. “I think it’s fair to say there have been some comments which are offensive and they’re not representative of the entire Republican Party.”
“There’s more work to be done. Republicans are good at speaking from our head about facts and figures. We also need to speak from our heart and make sure people know that we care,” added McMorris Rodgers, the House Republican Conference chair and a rising political star who last week gave the GOP response to the State of the Union.
Republican women questioned in the poll say the GOP understands their problems and concerns, but the survey indicates independent women don’t agree. Fifty-nine percent of independent women said they weren’t pleased with the GOP’s track record on such issues.
According to the survey, the Democratic Party does not face the same concerns: 63% of all Americans and 62% of American women say that the Democrats understand women.
Dante Chinni of the Wall Street Journal delves deeper into the numbers and what they could mean for Georgia this November.
Women 18 to 49 years old still report that they have positive feelings for Mr. Obama by 10 percentage points – 46% positive versus 36% negative. Younger and older men and women older than 50, all report negative feelings toward the president.
And women 18-to-49 still say they would favor a Democrat-controlled congress this fall by a large margin, 52% Democrat-controlled to 36% Republican-controlled. Women older than 50 favor Democrats, but by less – 50% to 41%. Meanwhile, men over and under 50 say they would favor Republican control.
If the goal is to drive up turnout among women, particularly women younger than 50, and turn that polling advantage into a vote advantage, what’s the prognosis for the Democrats? Could women be the buffer some analysts suggest they could?
There are two states where women 18 to 49 make up more than 30% of the voting-age population: North Carolina, where the seat is currently held by Democrat Kay Hagan, and Georgia, where Republican Saxby Chambliss is retiring. Both those races are listed as toss-ups by the Cook Political Report. That would seem to offer Democrats some hope in those states, all other things being equal.
Add in the fact that women tend to have better turnout numbers than men, in presidential and non-presidential elections years, and the Democrats appeals to women could pay dividends in those races if they stay close.
The real numbers are worth noting as well if the races end up being very close. There are about 30,000 more women than men in the 18- to 49-year-old age range in Georgia.
One way to learn about communicating with women is to watch a successful woman in politics communicate and consider how she addresses issues differently than a male counterpart. Here’s an example of that from almost exactly one year ago today.
A recent press conference in which Republican Governor Nathan Deal announced his support for rolling back the required GPA for the HOPE Grant to technical students from 3.0 back to 2.0 highlights the difference in style between our Governor and a female Democratic State Representative, Stacey Evans, who supports the same legislation.
“After crunching the numbers with our budget department, I am glad to report that we will be able to lower the GPA requirement for the HOPE Grant back to 2.0 after having raised it to 3.0 two years ago. I believe that this additional benefit will help Georgia families that are trying to get ahead and will contribute to our workforce development,” said Gov. Deal.
To combat the perception of a media-created and sensationalized but fictitious “Republican War on Women” it will help if we consider how we can better connect with all Georgians when discussing conservative policy.
State Representative Stacey Evans provides a lesson on how that works. “More students will have access to the HOPE Grant and in turn, access to higher education. Most of our students in technical colleges will be first in their family to graduate from college. They come from lower income families; the difference between having the Grant and not having the Grant is the difference between their ticket to the middle class or not,” she said.
Rep. Evans successfully connects the HOPE Grant to the dreams and aspirations of many Georgians. Except for mentioning the GPA requirement, Evans’s speech eschews number recitation to focus on the benefits to individuals, while Gov. Deal also discusses lottery proceeds, trends in budget numbers, the cost of the Grant, numbers of students whose eligibility and enrollment in the technical school system.
But communication style is not the only difference driving the gender gap. Issue preference also plays a major role. Back to Dante Chinni from the WSJ, this time from a February 2014 column:
Which issues should be a national priority by gender from Wall Street Journal/NBC poll in January 2014
| Female | Male | |
|---|---|---|
| Increase minimum wage | 60% | 41% |
| Affordable college tuition | 57% | 40% |
| Withdraw troops from Afghanistan | 62% | 52% |
| Keep and fix Obamacare | 59% | 49% |
| More intelligence oversight | 44% | 54% |
Is it any wonder that increasing the minimum wage is the top issue being pushed by Democrats today?
AV Club
On Saturday, Senate Candidates Karen Handel and Jack Kingston spoke to the DeKalb County Republican Party in a format that allowed questions from the audience. Here are audio clips of some of their answers.
Karen Handel and Jack Kingston: Advice for aspiring politicos
Kingston and Handel on Common Core
Handel and Kingston on Religious Liberty
Kingston and Handel on Abortion
The best quote from this weekend comes in the opening lines of the “Advice” clip.
Across Georgia and the nation
Michelle Nunn reports raising more than $2.4 million from more than 20,000 donors in the first quarter of 2014. It’s that second number that really stands out to me. It suggests a broad-based and successful small-donor fundraising program. The advantage to having a large number of small donors is that they can become an evergreen source of funds, as email and online fundraising have lowered the cost and timeline for collecting such donations. But once a large donor maxes out, there’s no more there.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Jeremy Redmon writes that Bob Barr is leading the way in the Eleventh District race for Congress.
Barr has emerged as the man to beat in the six-way race. He is well known in the Atlanta-area district for helping lead impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton and for his unsuccessful campaign for president in 2008 as a Libertarian. He also raised the most campaign money of any candidate last quarter, hauling in $121,681.
But the former federal prosecutor is facing some seasoned candidates. Among them: Lindsey, a state Capitol insider; Loudermilk, a tea party-friendly candidate; and Tricia Pridemore, an entrepreneur and close ally to Republican Gov. Nathan Deal. Completing the field are Allan Levene and Larry Mrozinski. Political observers expect the race will go into extra innings after the May 20 Republican primary.
The emails about the Republican race for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District came in a flurry last month, landing in reporters’ in-boxes within hours of each other. Each featured former Congressman Bob Barr, a fiery partisan seeking a political comeback.
First, former state Sen. Barry Loudermilk’s campaign issued a press release, saying his internal polling showed he was in a dead heat with Barr. Less than five hours later, state Rep. Ed Lindsey’s aides issued an announcement, saying his polling showed him in second place behind Barr.
Barr has emerged as the man to beat in the six-way race. He is well known in the Atlanta-area district for helping lead impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton and for his unsuccessful campaign for president in 2008 as a Libertarian. He also raised the most campaign money of any candidate last quarter, hauling in $121,681.
But the former federal prosecutor is facing some seasoned candidates. Among them: Lindsey, a state Capitol insider; Loudermilk, a tea party-friendly candidate; and Tricia Pridemore, an entrepreneur and close ally to Republican Gov. Nathan Deal. Completing the field are Allan Levene and Larry Mrozinski. Political observers expect the race will go into extra innings after the May 20 Republican primary.
“I haven’t talked to anybody who doesn’t think it is heading to a runoff between the top two vote-getters,” said Scott Johnson, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party’s 11th District. “Obviously, there may be some candidates who are stronger than others, but I wouldn’t count any out.”
In coastal Georgia, Jesse Petrea has a money advantage over Martin Sullivan in the Republican Primary for State House District 166.
Martin Sullivan raised thousands more dollars in early 2014 than his opponent in the upcoming Republican primary for the Georgia House of Representatives District 166 seat, but he remains far behind Jesse Petrea in both total funds raised and cash on hand as the election nears.
Sullivan reported raising $10,351 in the first quarter of 2014; Petrea reported $7,450 raised.
District 166, which spans most of the islands in eastern Chatham County and the easternmost portions of Bryan County, is the only contested election among Chatham seats in the May 20 primary. Sullivan and Petrea, both political newcomers, are vying for the seat being vacated by state Rep. Ben Watson, who is running unopposed for the state’s 1st District senate seat.
Overall, campaign contribution disclosure reports released in early April, show Petrea has raised a total of $87,601 and currently has more than $51,000 in his coffers.
Sullivan, meanwhile, has raised $31,858 and has about $24,000 on hand.
SCOTUSblog.com, a leading source of information from the United States Supreme Court and timely scholarly discourse, and relied upon by Court employees, lost its permanent press credentials. The United States Senate Press Gallery, whose credentials are recognized by the Court, still has a bias toward traditional media that are “chiefly supported by subscriptions or advertising.”. The same traditional media that provide coverage of such vital civic affairs as the Hooters Savannah Swimsuit Contest.
The United States Supreme Court is considering a petition by T-Mobile South in a lawsuit against the City of Roswell that arises from Roswell’s denial of a cell-tower permit.
Next week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, a case that raises the question of truthiness in politics. From RollCall.com:
The dispute started during one of the hottest House races in the country in 2010 — a rematch in a swing district covering western Cincinnati and the adjacent suburbs between freshman Democrat Steve Driehaus and the Republican he’d ousted two years before, Steve Chabot.
A group organized to elect candidates opposed to abortion, the Susan B. Anthony List, sought to rent space on a billboard declaring “Shame on Steve Driehaus! Driehaus voted FOR taxpayer-funded abortion,” but the sign’s owner called off the deal after the congressman filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission alleging the message violated the false statements law.
SBA List said it was on solid ground because the congressman had voted to enact the health care overhaul, which anti-abortion groups interpret as permitting tax dollars to be spent on the procedure. Even after President Barack Obama signed an executive order saying that insurance plans sold on the new health exchanges could not spend any of their federal subsidies on the vast majority of abortions, exceptions remained in cases of rape, incest or when the pregnant woman’s life was in danger.
Driehaus, who cultivated a socially conservative record, said in his legal brief that the “defamatory meaning” of the billboard was clear: to falsely portray him as “a hypocrite who abandoned his principles and his constituents.”
The Georgia Board of Regents voted to approve tuition increases at all state colleges and universities.
[T]he Board of Regents kept the rate of tuition increases at 2.5 percent for 27 campuses, students at the system’s four research universities will see costs increase more. The increase ranges from about $32 at state colleges to about $85 at Georgia College and State University per semester.
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Georgia Tech’s tuition will increase by 9 percent, bringing the per semester cost to about $4,500. Students at the University of Georgia will pay 7 percent more each semester, adding $281 to their tuition. At Georgia Regents University in Augusta and Georgia State University in Atlanta, students will pay 4 percent more, about $150 per semester.
The board also approved various student fees, including a $3 sustainability fee at Georgia State and a $100 wellness center fee at Bainbridge State College.
Gwinnett County school teachers and other employees may be headed toward their first pay raise in six years due to $60 million in additional funding from the state.
Like other metro counties, Gwinnett’s property tax revenue fell dramatically after the Great Recession of 2008. To compensate, Gwinnett enacted furlough days to save money. There are no plans for furlough days during the next school year, officials said.
Board Chairman Daniel Seckinger cited the raises and the plan to fund a school resource officer in every middle and high school for the first time as among the most important elements of the budget.
“The big takeaway is the lion’s share of the budget is directed toward instruction,” Seckinger said, noting about 70 percent of the budget will go toward student learning.
Gwinnett’s enrollment is projected to grow by 3,233 students when the school year starts in August.
Transportation funding in Georgia is likely to receive attention in the next General Assembly, as United States Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx announced the Highway Trust Fund is running out of money.
If that happens, the government will have to slow down or even halt payments to states, which rely on federal aid for most major highway projects. Uncertainty over whether there will be enough funds in the coming months is already causing officials in states like Arkansas, California and Colorado to consider delaying planned projects.
Foxx’s warnings this week echo ones by President Barack Obama, who cautioned in February that unless Congress finished a bill by summer’s end then “we could see construction projects stop in their tracks.” But there is little interest among politicians in an election year to consider raising gasoline taxes.
Many transportation insiders, including Foxx’s predecessor, Ray LaHood, predict Congress will wind up doing what it has done repeatedly over the past five years — dip into the general treasury for enough money for to keep programs going a few weeks or a few months, at which point the exercise will have to be repeated all over again.
Savannah-based Gulfstream announced a 60-plane deal with a Chinese leasing company, one of the company’s largest single orders ever.
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