On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving to be observed on November 26, 1863 and on the fourth Thursday in November every succeeding year.

This announcement harkened back to when George Washington was in his first term as the first president in 1789 and the young American nation had only a few years earlier emerged from the American Revolution. At that time, George Washington called for an official celebratory “day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” While Congress overwhelmingly agreed to Washington’s suggestion, the holiday did not yet become an annual event.

Thomas Jefferson, the third president, felt that public demonstrations of piety to a higher power, like that celebrated at Thanksgiving, were inappropriate in a nation based in part on the separation of church and state. Subsequent presidents agreed with him. In fact, no official Thanksgiving proclamation was issued by any president between 1815 and the day Lincoln took the opportunity to thank the Union Army and God for a shift in the country’s fortunes on this day in 1863.

On October 5, 1864, the Battle of Allatoona Pass was fought in Bartow County, Georgia.

Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, opened on October 4, 1870.

On October 4, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson sent a telegram to the Georgia Democratic Party Convention delegates in appreciation for their support of his admininstration.

On October 3, 1922, Rebecca Latimer Felton was appointed to the United States Senate from Georgia following the death of Senator Tom Watson. After initially being rebuffed by the Senate, Felton was sworn-in on late in November, becoming the first woman to serve in the United States Senate.

The Savannah River Bridge opened on October 4, 1925.

The first televised Presidential address from the White House was broadcast on October 5, 1947.

Beverly Hills, 90210 debuted on October 4, 1990.

It’s okay to binge watch the entire series this weekend.

The Georgia Supreme Court outlawed use of the electric chair as “cruel and unusual punishment” on October 5, 2001.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Former Dalton Mayor and unsuccessful candidate for Governor David Pennington will take his ball and go home endorse Libertarian Andrew Hunt for Governor.

Polls routinely give Hunt between three and seven points of support, which could be enough to deprive Deal and Democrat Jason Carter of a majority and force the governor’s race into a December runoff. Both major party campaigns are quietly confident that Hunt’s support will wane as attention focuses on the race.

National media are portraying Libertarian Amanda Swafford, the only candidate for Senate with experience serving in elected office, as a possible spoiler who could send the Senate election into a runoff.

Georgia’s runoff election [for Senate] would be held Jan. 6—a day after the new Congress convenes. Polling shows libertarian Amanda Swafford capturing a small percentage of the vote—but an amount that could prevent Republican nominee David Perdue or Democratic nominee Michelle Nunn from reaching 50%.

If those races go to runoffs, the uncertainty would shadow Congress when it returns on Nov. 12 for a postelection lame-duck session to handle unfinished legislative business. Already, senior Senate aides say that their ability to plan for the lame-duck session has been frozen until after the election.

“If you have two outstanding races, everything slows to a crawl,” a senior Senate Democratic aide said.

The two parties’ willingness to compromise could be affected by their expectations of controlling the chamber in January as they address must-pass legislative items, such as a bill extending funding for the government after a stopgap measure expires on Dec. 11.

Senate Democrats, who now control the chamber, have been expected to advance legislation to extend funding through the rest of the 2015 fiscal year. But Republicans, if they expect to take the majority, might push for a shorter extension so they could have more say in spending priorities early next year.

Here’s the interesting thing: it’s not just Libertarian voters who hold the power to send the Senate and Gubernatorial races into a runoff – it’s also Republican voters who fail to fill out their entire ballot.

Let’s look back to the 2008 General Election in which Republican John McCain carried 52.2% of the vote against Democrat Barack Obama with 47.0%.

Candidate	Votes Cast	Percentage
McCain	2048759	52.2%
Obama	1844123	47.0%
Others	31604	0.8%
Total	3924486

The next item on the ballot was the Senate race: here, Senator Chambliss carried only 49.8% of the vote and Democrat Jim Martin, with 46.8% joined him in the runoff election.

Senate	Votes Cast	Percentage
Chambliss	1867097	49.8%
Martin	1757393	46.8%
Others	127995	3.4%
Total	3752485

What’s notable to me is the amount of voter dropoff between the Presidential and Senate elections. Republican Saxby Chambliss took 91.1% of the votes cast for GOP Presidential candidate McCain, while Martin took 95.3% of votes cast for Democratic candidate Obama.

That 4.2% net loss in downballot voting for the Republican translates to roughly 85,307 voters who clicked next to John McCain but did not vote at all in the Senate race. If Republicans had simply voted for the Senate candidate at the same rate Democrats did, Chambliss would have escaped a runoff election.

This year, the State School Superintendent’s race lacks a Libertarian candidate, and will thus be decided in the General Election. During the Republican Primary Runoff, 85,206 Republican voters voted in the Senate race but did not cast a ballot in the State School Superintendent’s race.

If the top of the ticket races for Governor and Senate are close enough this year to go into a runoff, those 85,000 odd Republicans who do not bother to vote all the way down the ticket could cost us the State School Superintendent’s race and elect a Democrat.

Here’s why that’s important: the Georgia Department of Education spends more than 50% of the tax dollars you pay to the state. Having a Democratic candidates freely spending your money without accountability means Georgia will continue to underperform in education. Combined with the constant Democratic drumbeat for more dollars for education rather than doing a better job of spending the money we already spend will cause upward pressure on the state budget and on taxes.

On October 2, 1789, President George Washington signed a resolution transmitting the (then-twelve) amendments constituting the Bill of Rights to the states that had ratified the Constitution. Click here for the letter from Washington to Governor Charles Pinckney of South Caroling that accompanied the amendments.

On October 2, 1835, Texans and Mexicans met in the first military battle of the Texas Revolution, the Battle of Gonzales.

In 1831, Mexican authorities gave the settlers of Gonzales a small cannon to help protect them from frequent Comanche raids. Over the next four years, the political situation in Mexico deteriorated, and in 1835 several states revolted. As the unrest spread, Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, the commander of all Mexican troops in Texas, felt it unwise to leave the residents of Gonzales a weapon and requested the return of the cannon.

When the initial request was refused, Ugartechea sent 100 dragoons to retrieve the cannon. The soldiers neared Gonzales on September 29, but the colonists used a variety of excuses to keep them from the town, while secretly sending messengers to request assistance from nearby communities. Within two days, up to 140 Texians gathered in Gonzales, all determined not to give up the cannon. On October 1, settlers voted to initiate a fight. Mexican soldiers opened fire as Texians approached their camp in the early hours of October 2. After several hours of desultory firing, the Mexican soldiers withdrew.

On October 2, 1879, Wallace Stevens was born. Stevens would become a renowned poet and insurance industry lawyer. My favorite poem of his is “Connoisseur of Chaos.”

The pensive man . . . He sees the eagle float
For which the intricate Alps are a single nest.

President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke at the White House on October 2, 1909.

Thurgood Marshall was sworn-in as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court on October 2, 1967.

Betty Talmadge, then wife of Senator Herman Talmadge, hosted a fundraiser with Rosalynn Carter and Joan Mondale on October 2, 1976.

Ground was broken for The Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta on October 2, 1984.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Monday is the last day to register to vote in the November 4, 2014 General Election. Email me directly if you need information on where to register to vote.

Democrat Michelle Nunn’s campaign has run more ads in Georgia than Republican David Perdue. From the AJC:

The raw numbers from Kantar Media/CMAG go like this: From Sept. 12-25, there have been 4,945 total ads in the Senate race. Of that sum, 2,780 favored Michelle Nunn and 2,165 favored David Perdue.

In all, Democrats spent $1.7 million on TV in that span and Republicans spent $1.6 million.

In the governor’s contest there were 4,625 spots, with 2,364 favoring Democrats and 2,261 favoring Republicans. Just 1.18 percent came from outside groups on the Democratic side, while 10.84 percent came from outside Republican sources. Democrats outspent Republicans in that stretch $1.43 million to $990,000.

The analysis also reveals that there were more ads in Georgia’s 12th District in that stretch than any other U.S. House race in the country — a whopping 4,051. U.S. Rep. John Barrow and national Democrats had a considerable advantage in that race, according to the data: 2,611 spots and $800,000 spent, compared to Rick Allen and Republicans’ 1,440 spots and $460,000.

That’s not necessarily the most important points. You can run more ads, but reach fewer viewers if you’re buying spots with lower ratings. Or you can spend more to reach the exact same viewers if you’re buying non-preemptible time while the opponent buy preemptible but his spots clear.

Also interesting in the report from which the AJC’s numbers were derived, is that Georgia’s advertising is far less negative than some other states. The Wesleyan Media Project rates recent political advertising in Georgia’s Senate race as:

Positive……….24.5%
Contrast………45.7%
Negative………29.7%

By contrast, Louisiana’s Senate race has seen no positive advertising, with two-thirds consisting of contrast ads, and one-third negative.

The gubernatorial race has been much more positive,

Positive……….33.1%
Contrast………61.0%
Negative………..5.9%

The most public part of Mitt Romney’s trip to Georgia yesterday was his rally at The Varsity in support of Attorney General Sam Olens. From the Marietta Daily Journal:

“Georgia may well decide whether we have (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid running the country or whether instead we have a breath of fresh air with an agenda focused on creating jobs and shrinking the federal deficit,” Romney said. “As you know, the Senate is very much in question, and this is probably going to be the place that it all focuses, because David Perdue becoming a senator means we get new leadership in Washington in the Senate.”

After circling the restaurant to shake hands and pose for pictures, as well as lunch on a Varsity hot dog, onion rings and Frosted Orange, which he called “delicious,” Romney listed a string of other factors that would occur under a GOP-controlled Senate from both congressional chambers working to place legislation on President Obama’s desk, to a new energy policy, immigration reform, tax reform and more jobs.

“So if people want Harry Reid to stop everything going on in Washington, why, they can vote for Mrs. Nunn. But if they want to see real leadership to take us in a new direction that gets the economy going, they’re going to vote for David Perdue,” Romney said.

Romney said he came to know Perdue while he was involved in organizing the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Perdue, then an executive with Reebok, was supportive of his efforts at the time.

No to another run

Olens said he wished it was Romney who occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Romney was asked if he would run again.

“Ah, no. I’m just sad I’m not able to be there either. I’d like to be in the White House,” Romney said to cheers. “This is a slightly partisan crowd here, but I’m pleased at the reception I’ve had. I love my country. I’m concerned about the country. I think the president has been more disappointing than even I had expected, not just domestically but also internationally. What’s happening with ISIS, what’s happening in Ukraine, what’s happening across the world is in part the result of a president that just hasn’t been on the job as he needed to be.”

But the former governor of Massachusetts reiterated his decision not to run for president.

“I’m not running and I’m not planning on running. I’ve got nothing to add to that story,” he said.

An attorney general ‘above politics’

Romney praised Olens for his record on fighting sex trafficking and illegal drugs.

“Georgia is a lucky state to have an attorney general who believes in following the law, not in making the law, not in twisting the law, not in warping the law, but in following the law,” he said. “It makes a huge difference. People depend upon the rule of law, and having an attorney general who is above politics is so critical to the functioning of a state or a nation, and this is a darn good attorney general, and that’s why he’s going to get re-elected.”

Senate candidates David Perdue, the Republican, and Michelle Nunn, the Democrat, will debate in Perry on Tuesday night.

There will be an hour-long Senate debate among Republican David Perdue, Democrat Michelle Nunn and Libertarian Amanda Swafford.

Following that, there will be a debate among the candidates for Governor: Democrat Jason Carter, Republican incumbent Nathan Deal, and Libertarian Andrew Hunt.

Greg Bluestein writes that National Right to Life is spending $44,000 on direct mail in support of David Perdue’s campaign.

With Richmond County having approved a day of Sunday early voting, the two parties’ views on the move are on display.

Richmond County Democratic Party Chairman Lowell Greenbaum called it a “historic day for Augusta” when voters can go after church to cast their ballots, and expected more Georgia counties to approve one or more Sundays of voting in the coming days.

“There are people who find every excuse not to vote and we hope that – most of the big churches are downtown – so after the services, it’s a short ride to Greene Street where they can vote,” he said.

Greenbaum said the Republican Party’s effort to “suppress voting,” including delayed processing in Atlanta of voter registration forms, made the addition of Sunday voting more significant.

“This is typical of the Republican concept of voting,” he said.

Richmond County Republican Party Chairman Dave Barbee scoffed at Greenbaum’s hopes.

“It’s a partisan issue on the Democrats’ part,” Barbee said. “The last time, they had President Obama on the ticket. He had a great political machine and they don’t have that machine anymore, and they’ve got to do it on their own, and this is what they’re doing.”

Barbee likened Sunday voting to the addition of Sunday alcohol sales.

“Before, everybody bought their booze on Saturday,” he said. “All it did was give (the same people) an extra day to buy booze.”

Barbee said he did not expect Sunday voting to increase turnout.

“I think Lowell is going to be very, very surprised that the numbers are not going to be as great as they thought it was,” he said. “He’s expecting miracles on Sunday and that’s not going to happen.”

Meanwhile, in heavily-Republican Columbia County, no request for Sunday voting has surfaced.

“Two people came in that were hot over the issue,” Board of Elections Director Nancy Gay said. “They said they hope we do not do it.”

The Georgia General Assembly’s Joint Study Committee on Critical Transportation Infrastructure Funding heard from coastal Georgians on funding the state’s transportation needs.

In a four-hour meeting at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center, the 16-member Joint Study Committee on Critical Transportation Infrastructure Funding heard from coastal business owners and government officials, as well as representatives of the railroad and trucking industries.

“We’re trying to put together a funding plan for the Georgia Department of Transportation for the next 20 or 30 years that will be sustainable and move the state forward,” said co-chair Rep. Jay Roberts, a Republican from Ocilla.

Georgia’s excise tax is 7.5 cents a gallon. The state also collects a 3 percent tax on sales of motor fuel that is classified as a motor use fuel tax and a 1 percent tax that goes to the state’s general fund. An 18.4 cent per gallon federal excise tax also applies.

Georgia ranks right in the middle of states for its gas tax rate, coming in 23rd highest at 27.49 cents per gallon in a June analysis by the D.C.-based nonprofit Tax Foundation.

The fuel tax doesn’t go as far as it used to, a problem facing all the states, said Paula Hammond, a former secretary of transportation for the state of Washington. The federal government used to pay more than 90 percent of the cost of interstate highways.

Chatham County has pulled out of discussion with Savannah on the merger of the two police departments, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Chatham County Commission Chairman Al Scott today sent Savannah City Manager Stephanie Cutter an official letter stating the county’s desire to end the Savannah-Chatham police merger agreement.

On Friday, the commission voted unanimously to have Scott send the letter to begin the 18-month process of ending the merger.

In the meantime, Scott, as well as the commissioners, said they want to continue to negotiate with the city to try to reach a new agreement before the 9-year-old department is dissolved.

If a new agreement is not reached, Scott said, the commission’s options would include re-establishing the county department, having the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office take over or contracting with the city for police services.

I read that as saying that the letter is a negotiating tool, not necessarily the end of discussions.

Original Communist (O.C.) Karl Marx published Das Kapital on October 1, 1867.

Voters in the state of Washington adopted the state constitution on October 1, 1889.

The first World Series of baseball opened on October 1, 1903.

On October 1, 1908, Ford introduced the Model T.

Former President Jimmy Carter was born on October 1, 1924 at Wise Sanitarium in Plains, Georgia, the first American President to be born in a hospital.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Warm Springs, Georgia for the 21st time beginning on October 1, 1931.

In a Special Election October 1, 1940, Florence Gibbs became the first woman elected to Congress from Georgia, completing her late husband’s term and serving through January 3, 1941, but no standing for a full term of her own.

Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong proclaimed the Communist People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949.

The Carter Center in Atlanta was dedicated on October 1, 1986.

Mikhail Gorbachev named himself Chairman of the USSR’s Supreme Soviet on October 1, 1988.

President George H.W. Bush condemned Iraq’s takeover of Kuwait in a speech to the United Nations on October 1, 1990.

Georgia Politics in Brief

On October 8, the State of Georgia and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will sign an agreement to begin the deepening of the Savannah River channel.

The signing will allow the Corps to accept bids for the first contracts to be awarded under the $706 million project. The Corps’ Savannah District will announce two of those contracts this week.

Deal said the signing next week means the physical dredging of the Savannah River channel can finally begin.

“This expansion project is vitally important for economic development and job creation on a local and national level,” the governor said. “After years of regulatory purgatory, we will soon start moving dirt. I’m grateful to all involved for working tirelessly to see this project through to fruition.

“Next Wednesday will certainly be a great day for Georgia.”

And a day that has been a long time coming. Initially approved by Congress in 1999, the project’s 15-year path to a 47-foot river channel has been anything but smooth.

That’s timely news, as Toyota announced it will use the Port of Savannah to export automobile built in the United States to Australia and New Zealand.

“When researching a location for exports to Oceania, Toyota’s experience in Brunswick made a GPA facility an appealing option,” Akahoshi said. “The challenge was in bringing together the service profile — vessel schedules, processing, survey requirements and direct rail service.”

Toyota’s collaboration with GPA, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines, Vehicle Services Americas and Norfolk Southern took the move from concept to reality within an abbreviated time frame, Akahoshi said.

“We had great confidence that with the GPA as a partner, the project would get done.”

The Japanese automaker will move thousands of Highlanders a year from its Princeton, Ind., plant through Ocean Terminal, which is located on the river just west of the Talmadge Bridge.

The vehicles will arrive in Savannah by Norfolk Southern rail, where they will be staged at Ocean Terminal prior to export. The GPA recently completed paving an additional five acres at Ocean Terminal, bringing the total parking area for roll-on/roll-off cargo to 40 acres on the terminal.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is in Atlanta today, and can be seen at 1:30 at The Varsity supporting Attorney General Sam Olens in the upstairs breezeway. Before that, Romney will be at a closed fundraiser for Republican Senate candidate David Perdue. Some supporters (and detractors) of Romney are taking his busy political schedule as a sign he may be considering a run for President again in 2016.

Libertarian Amanda Swafford, the only candidate for U.S. Senate in Georgia who has ever been elected or held public office, gets her close-up in a Time magazine profile of “the Woman Who Could Keep Control of the Senate Up for Grabs”.

There is a nightmare scenario that keeps most politicos working on both sides of the aisle up at night: after the midterm elections, and even through the anticipated Dec. 6 run off in Louisiana, control of the Senate likely won’t be decided until Jan. 6, the date a run-off in Georgia will take place, if any one candidate fails to muster 50% of the vote. It is this scenario that Libertarian candidate Amanda Swafford, who regularly pulls 5% in most polls, relishes.

“In that situation, if we did force a runoff,” Swafford tells TIME, “I’d say that’s a clear mandate from people of Georgia for a small government and less involvement in people’s lives.”

As of the end of June, Swafford had raised $7,683 for her senatorial bid. The single 37-year-old has kept her day job as a paralegal as she has mounted her campaign. “It makes for a lot of late nights and early mornings,” she says, “but I believe electing someone to the Senate like me, who knows what it’s like to work a job, have a boss, and make ends meet on a regular budget, would bring a valuable perspective to the Senate.”

Swafford is pro-choice and for the legalization of marijuana. And, like most Libertarians, she’s deeply suspicious of President Obama’s engagement abroad, particularly in Syria and Iraq. “Last year, the President wanted to bomb Syria for their chemical weapons, now he’s asking for their help to defeat another enemy,” she says. (Obama hasn’t actually asked Syrian strongman Bashar Assad for help in defeating ISIS.)

The Georgia State Ethics Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission is back in business, issuing fines to Columbia County Chairman Ron Cross and dismissing a complaint against Jason Carter.

The Augusta Chronicle editors write that Georgia voters should keep Mark Butler on the job as labor commissioner.

As labor commissioner, he has pledged himself to putting as many Georgians as possible back to work, opening several avenues for job-seekers to find work as soon as possible.

And that’s why Butler deserves your vote to remain Georgia’s labor commissioner.

Butler also formed a Regional Coordinator Program and a Business Service Unit that help identify pools of work talent statewide that businesses and industries can access for job recruitment.

He might even be the only labor commissioner in the country with his own SWAT detachment. The Special Workforce Assistance Team helps jobless Georgians better market themselves to potential employers.

Butler’s newest program, christened just this year, is Customized Recruitment, which offers specialized, streamlined job-seeking assistance for newly located businesses.

For all his laudatory work in helping others find jobs in this troubled economy, Butler deserves to keep his job in Atlanta.

I concur and will vote for Mark Butler. I heard him speak about his work at the Georgia Department of Labor at the Walton County GOP recently and his expertise in the subject matter and accomplishments in office are impressive.

Residents in the city of Gordon are asking a judge to hold their Mayor in contempt for allegedly violating the court order that reinstated her to office.

Two city councilmen and a group called the Concerned Citizens of Gordon filed a lawsuit early this year seeking Mayor Mary Ann Whipple-Lue’s removal from office. They alleged malfeasance and multiple violations of the state’s Open Meetings Act.

Whipple-Lue was suspended from office twice this summer, but she was reinstated in July on the condition that she abide by specific rules.

In the motion filed Tuesday in Wilkinson County Superior Court, the group alleges the mayor violated the order that reinstated her into office. Specifically, the group points out that Whipple-Lue sent City Attorney Joseph Boone a termination letter Sept. 25 that said “the city will take the next step and secure another city attorney.”

In the letter, Whipple-Lue told the longtime city attorney that although the city charter says the city’s lawyer serves at the City Council’s pleasure, two City Council members who took office with her haven’t voted for him to continue as city attorney.

Welcome to the Machine

Bill Barrow and Christina A. Cassidy of the Associated Press have a look inside the campaign machinery of a modern first-tier Democratic candidate. Via Macon Telegraph.

DECATUR, Ga. — Behind a nondescript storefront just outside Atlanta, Delores Washington makes telephone call after call in this Democratic stronghold using a list of potential voters handed to her by a young party staffer.

The retired high school principal doesn’t ask questions about the massive data collection behind the list compiled by expensive political consultants to predict and influence behavior at the polls.

But she knows what to do. “My job is to expand and get out that base,” Washington said. “That’s how we win.”

Democratic and Republican campaign committees from Washington have invested heavily in field offices here, with paid staffers and volunteers using national party voter databases that try to replicate turnout successes of President Barack Obama’s national campaigns. Both sides are pushing their identified supporters to vote early, and each camp agrees that it will take about 1.4 million votes to win in Georgia this year.

Wyoming adopted the first state constitution to allow women to vote on September 30, 1889.

In fall of 1863, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, the second woman in the United States to graduate medical school, traveled to the Chattanooga area to treat soldiers wounded in the Battle of Chickamauga.

Despite her degree, at First Manassas she was only allowed to serve as a nurse. Eventually she became an unpaid volunteer field surgeon for the Union army and served on front line battlefields for nearly two years.

In fall of 1863, in response to the dire medical needs, she was transferred to a Union hospital in Chattanooga.  Finally, in September 1863, her relentless perseverance paid off, and she was awarded a commission as a “Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon (civilian)” with the Union Army of the Cumberland. It was technically a civilian, not a military, position, but she did receive compensation. A few months later she was appointed a civilian contract assistant surgeon for the 52nd Ohio Infantry, a Union regiment wintering in Chattanooga.

Though she had been a civilian contractor, Walker was recognized as the first-ever female U.S. Army Surgeon. In November 1865, President Andrew Johnson signed a bill awarding her the highest U.S. Armed Forces decoration for bravery, the Medal of Honor. The citation stated that she had “devoted herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded soldiers, both in the field and hospitals, to the detriment of her own health.  She had also endured hardships as a prisoner of war for four months in a Southern prison.”

Walker remains today the only woman, and one of only eight civilians, ever awarded the Medal of Honor.

President Woodrow Wilson spoke in favor of Women’s Suffrage in an address to Congress on September 30, 1918. The bill to pass the 19th Amendment would die in the Senate that year after passing the House.

On September 30, 1927, Babe Ruth hit his 60th home run of the season.

On September 30, 1976, Democrat Jimmy Carter led the Harris Poll for President over President Gerald Ford by a 50-41 margin. In November 1976, the popular vote tallied 50.08% for Carter to 48.01% for Ford, with an Independent taking nearly a point.

Voter Registration

Even if you last voted in the July 22d runoff election, it’s worth taking a moment to check your voter registration by logging in to the Secretary of State’s My Voter Page, where you can also preview the November ballot.

Click here for complete information on registering to vote.

Click here for contact information for your County Board of Elections if you have questions.

Click here to register online if you have a valid Georgia driver’s license.

Click here for an absentee ballot application.

All of this information is available on mobile devices on Apple and Android platforms. To find the app, search for “GA Votes” in the Apple app store or the Google Play store.

If you need to register to vote, the deadline is Monday.

New Campaign Ads

The Fix blog at the Washington Post has analyzed TV buying information from FCC political filings to see what kind of patterns emerge.

Republicans advertise on ‘The Big Bang Theory.’ Democrats buy ads on ‘Big Brother.’

If you have seen the “Today” show or your local news or an NFL game in recent weeks and you are unfortunate/fortunate enough to live in (or near) a Senate battleground state, what I am about to write will probably not surprise you: Those broadcasts have been the most likely to host ads from Senate candidates and party campaign committees since Aug. 1.

Among daytime shows, Dr. Phil sells the most time to Republicans, while “The View” sells more ads to Democrats. Sunday ad time is more likely sold to GOP candidates than Dems. Interestingly to me, and somewhat counterintuitive, is that advertising during “Modern Family” advertising is about 2/3 by Republicans. Someone pointed out to me that in “Modern Family,” each family unit featured on the show has a stay-at-home parent.

Among re-runs, Andy Griffith is very popular among Republicans.

The Post also profiles social media use in a fascinating article:

In the aggregate, social media users are younger, more liberal … and less politically engaged than the general populace. Facebook is the closest thing we have to a neutral and all-inclusive public forum — and that’s only because so many people are on it that the overall politics and demographics of the platform are a wash.

Pinterest is one of the most conservative social networking sites — something that was already established by a Harvard Institute of Politics study of young adults from earlier this year. Quantcast also found that Pinterest users were wealthier and older than the users of other major social-media platforms

Twitter, on the other hand, leans the furthest left and features far more active political creatures than Pinterest. Quantcast found that Twitter users were the one exception to the rule that social media users tend to pay attention to politics far less than most Americans. The Harvard Institute of Politics study also found that Twitter users are more likely to be Democrats.

 

State and Local News Across Georgia

The address of The Allman Brothers Band Museum at The Big House will now read Duane Allman Blvd. after Macon renamed a portion of Vineville Avenue – Macon Telegraph.

GDOT held a public meeting about their plan to add new toll lanes in Gwinnett – Gwinnett Daily Post.

“The managed lanes are a way to meet the need when you need it,” she said. “It is not the best answer, but it’s the only answer we have right now.”

As with the existing toll lanes, the toll to use the new lanes will vary with demand and congestion. The new section, Pope added, will be tolled separately from the existing section and there will be signs indicating where the new toll begins.

“When you need that reliable trip time, you can choose to pay your way in and get it,” Pope explained.

Dacula resident Wayne Rowan is adamantly opposed to the project. Rowan travels approximately 30,000 miles a year, much of it in Gwinnett, but refuses to use the existing toll lanes.

“I refuse to pay for something I’ve already paid for before,” he said. “I don’t have a Peach Pass and I’m not going to get a Peach Pass. I’ll sit in traffic. I don’t care.”

 

U.S. Department of Transportation is giving Macon the chance of another year of subsidized commercial flights under the Essential Air Service Program – Macon Telegraph.

A loggerhead turtle who had been recuperating at the Sea Turtle Center after a fire ant attack was released to the wild – Savannah Morning News.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends IUDs or hormonal implants in addition to condom use for teenage girls who have sex  – Savannah Morning News. [Editor’s Note: this will surely set off a firestorm of criticism.]

Voters in Dalton can hear from Miller Jones and Dennis Mock, candidates for Mayor, at a forum tonight at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall – Dalton Daily Citizen.

A reader of the Dalton Daily Citizen opines in a Letter to the Editor that Republican voters have an important job on November 4th:

Republican voters must not sit out the November elections. Such inaction could put two unqualified liberal Democrats into office.

Michelle Nunn, candidate for Senate, would be one more puppet vote for Barack Obama’s far-left liberal policies. She would not vote to repeal Obamacare, nor make any changes to that law. Further, as a senator, she would be just one more toady of the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bottle up any and all legislation, without bringing it to a vote, which Reid doesn’t like. She would also vote along party lines to ensure Obama crams even far more leftists onto the federal courts and non-elected boards and commissions. Their opinions and decisions are as effective as laws but have not been passed by Congress.

Virtually all of her working life has been spent with nonprofit organizations. In this capacity, she has not had to be concerned with making sales to pay employees, pay the bills and keep the doors open. A Sen. Nunn would only help Obama create even more nonprofits from profit-making businesses, leading them to bankruptcy. This would further  increase unemployment, the last thing Whitfield County needs.

For governor, an inexperienced Atlanta lawyer, with a flip-flopping voting record in a brief state Senate career, speaks like a true Democrat. Jason Carter has all sorts of solutions to problems but offers no way to pay for them. He must not know that Georgia can’t print money.

With the Legislature solidly controlled by Republicans, he would have no chance of passing his Obama-lite legislation. If his family name were different, he probably would not even be a candidate.

“Hap” Harris has been named an intermim District 7 Commissioner by the Augusta City Commission to fill the term of a member who resigned – Augusta Chronicle.  The Augusta Commission is no longer “Hap”-less, at least in name.

The Washington Post notes that five statewide Democratic candidates are African-American women and dubs them “the Georgia Five.”

The five have received endorsements from top Democratic figures in the state as well as important progressive groups, but have largely gone under the national radar.

All the challenges women face in running for office — raising money, getting support from their party and convincing voters they have the chops — are magnified for women of color. Case in point: A recent study showed that black women raise an average $235,000 less than their black male counterparts when running for office.

There isn’t much good down-ballot polling for Georgia’s races, but most polls suggest that they will be close, with an edge given to Republicans (similar to the gubernatorial and Senate races), because of the state’s overall makeup. Democrats want very badly to capitalize on the state’s changing DNA and have said that increasing the voter rolls by 3 percent with Democratic voters would mean victory.

As voters, black women will be key to any get-out-the-vote efforts, as they are crucial to the overall turnout of African Americans, who made up 28 percent of the vote in the 2010 midterm elections in Georgia.

And although black women power the black vote, making up almost 60 percent of the voters in that key demographic — and cast ballots at a higher rate than any other demographic group in 2008 and 2012 — that has hardly translated to political power.

Lobbyists

Capitol Partners Public Affairs Group, Inc. announced that Caroline Womack joined the firm as a principal. Prior to joining Capitol Partners, Womack served as government relations director at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia.

“Caroline’s strong record of effective advocacy and results in addition to her relentless work ethic are tremendous assets to our clients,” said Rusty Sewell, principal and founder of Capitol Partners. “As we look to the future and position ourselves for growth, Caroline will be an integral part of our firm and leadership team. We are proud to welcome her to Capitol Partners.”

While at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, Caroline played a key role in expanding the company’s relationship with the State of Georgia. During her tenure, she successfully guided public affairs and external communications initiatives during one of the most turbulent periods for the health care industry.

“In government relations, there is no substitute for experience and strong relationships built on integrity and trust,” said Hunter Towns, principal at Capitol Partners. “Caroline brings in-depth knowledge of the legislative landscape in Georgia as well as her affable, winning personality. She knows how to get things done, which is an invaluable quality for our clients and our firm.”

Capitol Partners Public Affairs group represents top companies and nonprofits including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, the State Bar of Georgia, Blue Bird Corporation, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, The Auto Club Group (AAA) and the Georgia Cable Association, among others.

Events Calendar

Ladies Only! Mrs. Rick W. Allen for Lunch with Special Guests

DeKalb County GOP: Take The Senate Tuesday

BBQ and Politics – Fundraiser for Rep. Sam Teasley

Nancy Jester Night in Brookhaven

Suwanee Tea Party Meeting

October 2014

GA State University CR: Meeting with Rep. Sam Teasley

Dialing with DEAL!

Buckhead YR: Happy Hour

On September 25, 1789, Congress adopted the first twelve amendments, called the Bill of Rights, to the United States Constitution. A little more than two years later, in 1791, enough states had ratified ten of the Amendments, with two not receiving sufficient support.

On September 25, 1864, Confederate President Jefferson Davis met with General John Bell Hood and visited troops at Palmetto, Georgia.

Ronald Reagan appointee Sandra Day O’Connor became the first female Justice of the United States on September 25, 1981. In an interview with Terry Gross, she recalled receiving the call from President Reagan:

“I was working in my office on the Arizona Court of Appeals,” she tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “I was at the court in my chambers when the telephone rang. And it was the White House calling for me, and I was told that the president was waiting to speak to me. That was quite a shock, but I accepted the phone call, and it was President Reagan, and he said, ‘Sandra?’ ‘Yes, Mr. President?’ ‘Sandra, I’d like to announce your nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow. Is that all right with you?’ Well, now, that’s kind of a shock, wouldn’t you say?”

On September 25, 2008, the last car came off the line at GM’s Doraville Plant

Given that last historical tidbit, it’s fitting that yesterday, the site of the GM Doraville Plant was bought by Egbert Perry’s Integral Group, which will lead in the redevelopment of the facility. From the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Money changed hands on Wednesday. “As of a few hours ago we officially closed. We own the GM site,” Perry told Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Now work will begin to turn the 162 acres just north of Atlanta into 20 blocks of office buildings, housing, stores and restaurants.

Now the focus turns to at least eight months of demolition and the removal of 78,000 tons of scrap metal and other salvageable materials left after the plant closed in 2008.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

If your first reaction upon hearing that 11Alive’s polling moved from Deal +1 to Carter +1 over the last two weeks, relax. It’s not really a difference. It’s well within the margin of error and a net 2 point change is meaningless. The real headline is that nobody is paying attention to the elections yet, and nothing is changing. Libertarian Andrew Hunt’s 4-point share is unchanged.Continue Reading..

James Oglethorpe was named Commissioner of Indian Affairs and Charles Wesley was named Secretary of Indian Affairs by the Georgia Trustees in London on September 24, 1735.

The Judiciary Act of 1789, which established the first federal judicial system, was adopted on September 24, 1789 with the signature of President Georgia Washington. Under the Act, the original size of the Supreme Court was five Associate Justices and a Chief Justice. Washington nominated John Jay as Chief Justice, and John Rutledge, William Cushing, John Blair, Robert Harrison, and James Wilson as Associates.

Also established on September 24, 1789 were the office of Attorney General of the United States and the United States Post Office Department.

On September 24, 1862, the Confederate Congress adopted the Seal of the Confederate States of America.

The Decatur Female Seminary opened with 60 students on September 24, 1889 and would later be chartered as Agnes Scott College.

On September 24, 1960, USS Enterprise CVN-65, was launched from Newport News Shipbuilding in Norfolk, Virginia, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Enterprise was inactivated on December 1, 2012.

The Warren Commission report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was delivered to President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 24, 1964.

On September 24, 1976, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter resumed campaigning after the first debate against President Gerald Ford.On September 24, 1979, CompuServe offered the first dial-up computer information service to consumers.

Launched as MicroNET in 1979 and sold through Radio Shack stores, the service turned out to be surprisingly popular, thanks perhaps to Radio Shack’s Tandy Model 100 computers, which were portable, rugged writing machines that dovetailed very nicely with the fledgling, 300-baud information service.

MicroNET was renamed the CompuServe Information Service in 1980. Around the same time, CompuServe began working with newspapers to offer online versions of their news stories, starting with the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch in 1980. At least 10 major newspapers were offering online editions through CompuServe by 1982, including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Examiner.

On September 24, 2009, it was announced that the College Football Hall of Fame would move to Atlanta, where it opened on August 23, 2014.

Carter steps in it

Quite possibly the worst idea the Jason Carter campaign brain trust has had was to propose using the Teachers Retirement to invest in startup firms.

The Democrat argues in his economic pivot  that he wants teacher pensions to be able to pump funds into local startups “so long as we’re making sure that we can manage the risk in ways that make sense.” He sees it as a way to boost a state-backed effort to invest in venture capital firms that…has lagged.

“The things that concern the teachers is to make sure you’re stewarding the pension appropriately. So it’s crucial to make sure that we are managing the risk in ways that works,” he said. “But we shouldn’t have those pension funds losing out on higher growths and higher returns just because of artificial caps on what it can do.”

Essentially, he wants to start strip-mining the teachers’ pension system to “invest” in risky new companies. The two problems with this are (a) teachers are apoplectic at the idea of using their retirement funds for risky investments; and (b) the government doesn’t have a very good track record of picking winning investments.Continue Reading..

John Paul Jones, at the helm of US ship Bonhomme Richard, won a naval battle off the coast of England on September 23, 1779.

After inflicting considerable damage to the Bonhomme Richard, Richard Pearson, the captain of the Serapis, asked Jones if he had struck his colors, the naval sign indicating surrender. From his disabled ship, Jones replied, “I have not yet begun to fight,” and after three more hours of furious fighting the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough surrendered to him.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark returned to St. Louis Missouri from their exploratory trip to the Pacific coast on September 23, 1806.

On September 23, 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was speaking at a dinner with the Teamsters union and addressed attacks that had been made by Republicans, including the allegation that after leaving his dog, Fala, behind in the Aleutian Islands, he sent a Navy destroyer to fetch the dog. This would become known as the “Fala speech.”

These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family don’t resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I’d left him behind on an Aleutian island and had sent a destroyer back to find him—at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars—his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself … But I think I have a right to resent, to object, to libelous statements about my dog.

The idea for the joke was given to FDR by Orson Welles. The political lesson here is that any time you get an audience laughing at your opponent, you are winning.

A statue of former Georgia Governor Eugene Talmadge on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol was unveiled on September 23, 1949, the 65th anniversary of Talmadge’s birth near Forsyth, Georgia in 1884.

On September 23, 1952, Senator Richard M. Nixon was under fire for allegedly accepting $18,000 and using it for personal expenses. To salvage his place as the Vice Presidential candidate on Eisenhower’s Republican ticket, Nixon took to the airwaves in the first nationally-televised address and delivered what came to be known as the “Checkers Speech. From The Atlantic:”

[A] 1999 poll of leading communication scholars ranked the address as the sixth most important American speech of the 20th century — close behind the soaring addresses of Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The “Checkers” speech wins this high rank for one stand-out reason: It marked the beginning of the television age in American politics. It also salvaged Nixon’s career, plucking a last-second success from the jaws of abject humiliation, and profoundly shaped Nixon’s personal and professional outlook, convincing him that television was a way to do an end-run around the press and the political “establishment.”

Click here for the full text of the “Checkers Speech.”

On September 23, 1976, President Gerald Ford and former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter met in their first televised debate.

The last game played in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium took place on September 23, 1996.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Latest Polling

Rasmussen has released polls on the Gubernatorial and Senatorial races. In the Gubernatorial race:

Nathan Deal………………45%
Jason Carter………………44%
Some other candidate…..3%
Undecided…………………..8%

And in the race for United States Senate:

David Perdue………………46%
Michelle Nunn…………….41%
Some other candidate……4%
Undecided……………………9%

It is a fundamental flaw and a sign of laziness in a poll of Georgia elections to not include the name of the third party candidates.

The Washington Post column on politics called The Fix wrote yesterday that Republicans are a slight favorite to gain control of the Senate, and specifically,

For those wondering about Kentucky and Georgia — Democrats’ other two pickup opportunities — both seem to be fading from sight.  All three models show Republicans with a strong chance of holding both seats. In Kentucky, the probabilities range from 85 percent to 99 percent; in Georgia it ranges from a 77 percent chance of a Republican victory to a 95 percent one.

Forget the “War on Women,” it’s a “War for Women’s Votes”

Yesterday saw duelling press events at the Georgia State Capitol. From Greg Bluestein, writing for the AJC:

We’ll start with Perdue’s presser, which focused on two EEOC complaints that Nunn’s camp unintentionally exposed in the infamous series of memos that leaked this summer. State Rep. Lynne Riley and other GOPers wrote a letter demanding that Nunn release the complaints, which haven’t been made public yet.

“The only way for Georgians to know the truth is for you to voluntarily release this information,” said the letter. “Why haven’t you done so already?”

They then marched over to Nunn’s event to deliver that letter to the Democrat’s campaign manager, a stoic Jeff DiSantis, as a few dozen Nunn supporters chanted “go blue” and “equal pay.” As you can see in the above video, they were briefly held up by state troopers.

Once the Republican gaggle was out of earshot, the Democrats proceeded to pummel Perdue over whether he’d back the stalled-out Paycheck Fairness Act. That bill aims to narrow the persistent pay discrepancy between women and men.

“All we want to do is go to work and be treated as equals, leave behind gender-based discrimination,” said Orrock, an Atlanta Democrat.

Here’s why the Democrats are talking about Paycheck Fairness, from polling earlier this year:

Republican voters divide on gender lines, with a majority of Republican women supporting the plan (54%) and more than a third (36%) of Republican men supporting it. Independent women are also strong supporters, 61% favor the plan as well as 49% of Independent men.

A strong majority (60%) of voters are also likely to use a candidate’s support for policies that have a direct impact on working families as a vote-determinant. This includes 84% of Democratic women, 57% of Independent women and 53% of Republican women.

Polls of the Georgia Senate race consistently show a gender gap, with Republican David Perdue leading among men and Democrat Michelle Nunn leading among women.

The distinction was sharpened in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released Sunday. Democrat Jason Carter led Republican Gov. Nathan Deal by 10 points with female voters, and women gave Michelle Nunn a three-point advantage over Republican David Perdue in the Senate contest. Other recent polls have portrayed an even wider gap between male and female voters.

Susan Carroll, a Rutgers University political scientist who has studied the gap, said ultimately many women end up voting on the “kitchen table” issues such as the economy and education.

“Men are much more likely to be in favor of cutting back on government than women are,” Carroll said. “Women, even if they want to cut back, care more about protecting the safety net. Over time, that’s factored pretty seriously into the gender gap.”

Rural Georgia in play?

Rural issues in the Senate election are also getting significant attention. Rural health care has become a Rorschach test for the candidates’ views on Obamacare.

In an updated election guide, produced by Healthcare Georgia Foundation, the two candidates answer a new question about rural health care.

In her response, Nunn, a Democrat, calls for expansion of the Medicaid program in the state as outlined by the Affordable Care Act.

Expansion “would enable over 600,000 low-income Georgians to sign up for Medicaid and allow rural hospitals to receive payments for services to people who were previously uninsured,” Nunn said. “By not expanding Medicaid, Georgia will lose $33.7 billion in federal funding from 2013 to 2022, while our tax dollars are spent in other states.”

Perdue, rather than implement more of the ACA, would go in the opposite direction. The Republican candidate supports a plan by U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to repeal the ACA and embrace free-market solutions to the problems of health care.

He blasts the ACA, often known as Obamacare, for ending government payments to hospitals that treat a large share of low-income patients, and for “driving insurance companies out of many underserved areas, and causing health care premiums to spike on the remaining plans.”

Democrats see rural voters as a group where they can make headway.

While Kentucky’s electorate is more rural than Georgia on a percentage basis, the Peach State has many more rural voters based on population. Democratic nominee Michelle Nunn is trying to run as a centrist in the mold of her father, Sam, whose long career in the Senate ran from 1972 to 1996.

While Democrats point to the growing numbers of African-American and Latino voters as a sign of the state’s purple-trending demographics, the fact is that a significant infusion of rural voters in central and south Georgia will have to cast a ballot for Nunn if she is to defeat businessman David Perdue for the seat held by outgoing Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Keith McCants of tiny Oglethorpe, Ga. is perhaps his state’s most knowledgeable expert on rural politics, and he has a lot to say about what Nunn needs to do to be competitive over the final weeks in the rural counties.

McCants, who runs the respected Peanut Politics blog, said Nunn has two tasks in wooing rural voters. First, she must motivate “Obamacrats,” the rural black voters in the 1st, 2nd and 8th Congressional Districts who don’t come out to midterm elections like they do when Obama’s name is on the ballot. Second, McCants says Nunn needs independents and voters 55 and older to break her way. “Everyone assumes if you’re white and rural, you’re a Republican,” he laments.

As for Nunn’s field operation, McCants notes places like Tifton and Waycross have no organizers while “Perdue has a ground game [in the rural counties] and its going strong.”

On September 22, 1862, Republican President Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which stated,

“. . . on the first day of January [1863] . . . all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

On September 20, 1863, the Confederate Army of the Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg repelled Union forces under General William Rosencrans at the Battle of Chickamauga. After Gettysburg, Chickamauga is generally considered the second-bloodiest battle of the Civil War, with 18,500 Confederate casualties and 16,100 Union dead.

On September 21, 1863, the federal Army of the Cumberland retreated to Chattanooga after its defeat at Chickamauga.

President Rutherford B. Hayes visited Atlanta on September 22, 1877.

White vigilantes seeking to assault African-Americans after reports of four white women being assaulted led to the Atlanta Race Riots on September 22-24, 1906, which would claim the lives of at least 25 African-Americans and one white person.

On September 22, 1918, the City of Atlanta gasoline administator prohibited non-emergency Sunday driving to conserve fuel for the war effort.

On September 20, 1976, Playboy magazine released an interview with Jimmy Carter, then a candidate for President.

Bert Lance resigned as Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Jimmy Carter on September 21, 1977. After a jury acquitted him on ten federal charges in 1980, Lance served as Chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia from 1982 to 1985.

General Colin Powell was confirmed by the Senate Armed Services Committee as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 21. 1989. Powell served as National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan before being appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President George H.W. Bush; in 2000, Powell was nominated by President George W. Bush as Secretary of State, the first African-American to hold that post.

On September 20, 1992, Atlanta Braves David Justice, Brian Hunter, Ron Gant, and Mark Lemke hit home runs in the 6th inning of a 16-1 victory over the Houston Astros.

Friends debuted on NBC on September 22, 1994.

On September 21, 2011, R.E.M. announced on their website that they were quitting as a band.

Michelle Nunn, Deceptive Democrat Dinged on Truthiness

Michelle Nunn, whose makeover from nonprofit maven to Senate candidate is the most drastic we’ve ever seen, apparently went so far as to alter the story of her life, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Politifact.Continue Reading..

The United States government took out its first loan on September 18, 1789, the proceeds of which were used to pay the salaries of the President, and First Congress. On the same day, future President Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to E. Rutledge in which he requested that a shipment of olive trees be sent via Baltimore.

President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the United States Capitol on September 18, 1793.

We know from that newspaper article, and from Masonic ritual, that Washington placed an inscribed silver plate under the cornerstone at the southeast corner of this building. However, we do not know whether that meant the southeast corner of the Senate wing, the first section of the building to be completed, or the southeast corner of the whole building as intended, which would locate it over on the House side. Two centuries later, the Architect of the Capitol is still searching for that cornerstone. Metal detectors have failed to locate the silver plate.

President Millard Fillmore signed the Fugitive Slave Act on September 18, 1850, requiring that slaves be returned to their owners even if they were in a free state.

General Robert E. Lee retreated from Antietam Creek on September 18, 1862, following the bloodiest day of fighting in the Civil War.

On September 18, 1973, Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter filed a report claiming that he saw an Unidentified Flying Object in the sky above Leary, Georgia in 1969.

Carter was preparing to give a speech at a Lions Club meeting. At about 7:15 p.m (EST), one of the guests called his attention to a strange object that was visible about 30 degrees above the horizon to the west of where he was standing. Carter described the object as being bright white and as being about as bright as the moon. It was said to have appeared to have closed in on where he was standing but to have stopped beyond a stand of pine trees some distance from him. The object is then said to have changed color, first to blue, then to red, then back to white, before appearing to recede into the distance. Carter felt that the object was self-luminous, but not a solid in nature. Carter’s report indicates that it was witnessed by about ten or twelve other people, and was in view for ten to twelve minutes before it passed out of sight.

Click here to view a copy of the report, allegedly on file at the Carter Center.

The Georgia General Assembly approved a new state Constitution on September 18, 1981, which was placed on the 1982 ballot and after approval by voters, went into effect in 1983.

On September 18, 1990, Atlanta was announced as the location for the 1996 Summer Olympic games.

Ted Turner announced on September 18, 1997 his intent to donate $1 billion to the United Nations.Continue Reading..

Forty-one delegates signed the United States Constitution, including Abraham Baldwin and William Few representing Georgia, at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787 before adjourning sine die.

On September 17, 1796, George Washington began working on the final draft of his farewell address as the first President of the United States of America.

The Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee met the Army of the Potomac under General George McClellan at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862.

The Battle of Antietam actually consisted of three battles. Beginning at dawn on September 17, Union General Joseph Hooker’s men stormed Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s troops around the Dunker Church, the West Woods, and David Miller’s cornfield. The Federals made repeated attacks, but furious Rebel counterattacks kept the Yankees in check. By early afternoon, the fighting moved south to the middle of the battlefield. Union troops under General Edwin Sumner inflicted devastating casualties on the Confederates along a sunken road that became known as “Bloody Lane,” before the Southerners retreated. McClellan refused to apply reserves to exploit the opening in the Confederate center because he believed Lee’s force to be much larger than it actually was. In the late afternoon, Union General Ambrose Burnside attacked General James Longstreet’s troops across a stone bridge that came to bear Burnside’s name. The Yankees crossed the creek, but a Confederate counterattack brought any further advance to a halt.

The fighting ended by early evening, and the two armies remained in place throughout the following day. After dark on September 18, Lee began pulling his troops out of their defenses for a retreat to Virginia. The losses for the one-day battle were staggering. Union casualties included 2,108 dead, 9,540 wounded, and 753 missing, while Confederate casualties numbered 1,546 dead, 7,752 wounded, and 1,108 missing.

On September 17, 1932, the Georgia Division of the Roosevelt Business and Professional League was created to work with the Georgia Democratic Party to support FDR’s Presidential campaign in the Peach State.

Jimmy Carter received the first ever endorsement of a national ticket by the National Education Association in his bid for President on September 17, 1976.

National Politics

The Hill has posted a brief interview with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who won the Georgia Republican Primary for President in 2008 with nearly 34% of the vote.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) is taking the necessary steps to run for president again in 2016, vowing he wouldn’t make the same mistakes he made last time, if he pulls the trigger.

Huckabee says he will make a decision early next year about another presidential run but noted he’s in a “different place than I was eight years ago,” due to a lucrative career as a Fox News and radio show host.

One thing he feels does make him uniquely qualified for the office, he said, is his 11 years as governor of Arkansas, where he said worked with a heavily Democratic legislature to get things done.

“I know how to govern,” he said. “It’s about developing relationships, building camaraderie, building trust,” Huckabee said. “I don’t think you’ll find a Republican who got 49 percent of the African-American vote, as I did, in my reelection as governor. That had high Hispanic support. Those are things I think could be valuable to the party.”

“I would love to talk about what we’re for, to bring a sense of hope and optimism to people, as opposed to just tell ‘em how bad everything is,” he said.

It’s the only way to win, he said.

“I don’t think you can make people fearful enough and mad enough to get elected.”

That last part is the most important in my mind. Republicans must develop ways of speaking about our policies that connect with the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of the voters if we wish to actually win an govern. In Georgia, part of the challenge for David Perdue in his campaign for Senate is to speak to the voters about why his experience in business will benefit them in their lives, and why business doing better is not just good for us, but a necessary precondition for making our hopes, dreams, and aspirations come true.Continue Reading..