Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for August 24, 2016

Georgia History

General Charles Lee of the Continental Army told Congress that Georgia’s value to the young nation required more forces to defend against the British on August 24, 1776.

On August 24, 1931, the Georgia General Assembly adopted a joint resolution appointing a committee to work with the Governor in planning a bicentennial celebration to be held in 1933.

On August 24, 1945, the United States Postal Service held a first day of issue ceremony in Warm Springs, Georgia for the release of a stamp bearing the images of Franklin D. Roosevelt and The Little White House.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Yesterday, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce held its annual Congressional Luncheon in Macon. The Keynote was delivered by political analysts Charlie Cook and Stuart Rothenberg.

“It goes without saying, this is the strangest presidential election ever,” said political analyst Charlie Cook, editor and publisher of The Cook Political Report.

Cook and fellow political analyst Stu Rothenberg, founder of the Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report, were pretty much in agreement about the upcoming presidential election and the race to the White House by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

“We’ve got two of the most widely disliked nominees in American political history,” Cook said. “Just think about how many people are going to be voting for someone they dislike. … Each one has such high negatives. … So I don’t think either one of them are capable of winning by a big margin. There are just too many people who hate them. So we are left in a weird place.”

“I think we will see Clinton win … by close to 3.8 or 3.9 percentage points,” he said.

If the Republicans had nominated “someone fairly innocuous” like John Kasich, Cook said, Clinton could be beat.

Rothenberg said that Republicans are likely to retain control of the House, but the Senate may be up for grabs.

From the AJC Political Insider:

[Senator David] Perdue, who won that election two years ago running as an anti-D.C. “outsider,” referred to Isakson as “our Howard Baker” – a reference to the late Republican senator from Tennessee who brokered deal after deal in Washington in the 1970s and 1980s.

“Since when did compromise become a dirty word?” Georgia’s junior senator asked. “Weren’t any of y’all ever married?”

Cook said that Clinton’s dismal favorability rating, in other circumstances, would have augured well for the GOP – except that Trump’s poll numbers are worse:

“In short, if Republicans nominated a potted plant, they’d probably win. Even with the structural advantages against the Republican party that we have right now.

“If Republicans had just nominated someone who was fairly innocuous, I mean like, say [Ohio Gov.] John Kasich. Kasich would have beaten Hillary Clinton like a rented mule.”

The AJC’s Greg Bluestein notes that Bill Clinton will be in Atlanta today, hoovering up campaign cash for Hillary.

Meanwhile, Republican nominee for Vice President, Indiana Governor Mike Pence will be in Atlanta next Monday, collecting campaign checks, and has fielded and all-star host team:

State House District 80 candidate Meagan Hanson will host former GOP Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina for a Georgia fundraiser on September 22d.

This afternoon, a bi-partisan group will kick off its campaign to pass Constitutional Amendment 2, the Safe Harbor Amendment to fund restorative services for children who have been victimized in sex trafficking.

A bipartisan group of current and former elected officials will lead an effort to urge voters to approve a constitutional amendment in November that would fund services for children who are victims of human trafficking.

Republican Attorney General Sam Olens, Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, and former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, a Democrat, will hold a news conference at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Center for Civil and Human Rights to formally kick off the campaign.

Bob Rodgers, president and CEO of Street Grace, and Dorsey Jones, a survivor of child trafficking and a victim’s advocate, will also speak.

Show Me the Signs!

The New York Post noted something that I’ve also seen in my own area: metro areas seem to have no Trump signs, while they may proliferate in rural areas.

If you drive anywhere in Pennsylvania, from the turnpike to the old US routes to the dirt roads connecting small towns like Hooversville with “bigger” small towns like Somerset, you might conclude that Donald Trump is ahead in this state by double digits.

Large signs, small signs, homemade signs, signs that wrap around barns, signs that go from one end of a fence to another dot the landscape with such frequency that, if you were playing the old-fashioned road-trip game of counting cows, you would hit 100 in just one small town like this one.

It’s as if people here have not turned on the television to hear pundits drone on and on about how badly Trump is losing in Pennsylvania.

It’s not just visual: In interview after interview in all corners of the state, I’ve found that Trump’s support across the ideological spectrum remains strong. Democrats, Republicans, independents, people who have not voted in presidential elections for years — they have not wavered in their support.

Two components of these voters’ answers and profiles remain consistent: They are middle-class and they do not live in a big city. They are suburban to rural and are not poor — an element I found fascinating, until a Gallup survey last week confirmed that what I’ve gathered in interviews is more than just freakishly anecdotal.

In my area, I can’t find any Trump signs. But I’d like to see yours. Post your Trump signs to the GaPundit Facebook page, or Tweet them with the hashtag #GATrump and we’ll feature what we find. Or just email me.

If you’re interested in picking up your own Trump sign, or ordering a number for your County, contact my friend, Mark Williams.