Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for May 26, 2016

On May 27, 1813, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to John Adams to let Adams know of the death of a mutual friend.

On May 27, 1863, Chief Justice Roger Taney, sitting as a federal district court judge, issued a decision in Ex parte Merryman, which challenged President Abraham Lincoln’s suspension of the right of habeas corpus. Lincoln ignored the ruling.

Today is the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Pickett’s Mill in Paulding County, Georgia, where Sherman’s forces attacked Johnston’s Confederates on May 27, 1864. Among the combatants on the Union side was Ambrose Bierce, who would later write The Crime at Pickett’s Mill.

On May 27, 1864, the Federal Army, having been stopped in its advance on Atlanta two days earlier by the Battle of New Hope Church, attempted to outflank the Confederate position. Some 14,000 Federal troops were selected for the task, and General Howard was given command. After a five-hour march, Howard’s force reached the vicinity of Pickett’s Mill and prepared to attack. Waiting were 10,000 Confederate troops under the command of General Cleburne.

The Federal assault began at 5 p.m. and continued into the night. Daybreak found the Confederates still in possession of the field. The Federals had lost 1,600 men compared to the Confederate loss of 500. The Confederate victory resulted in a one-week delay of the Federal advance on Atlanta.

On May 27, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said the United States was in an unlimited national emergency and laid out conditions under which Germany’s expansionism would constitute an attack on the United States.

On May 27, 1976, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter blasted the “Stop Carter” movement in a speech in Cincinnati.

Actor Christopher Reeves was thrown from his horse in an equestrian competition in Culpepper, Virginia on May 27, 1995, becoming quadraplegic.

Two years ago today, a poll by Rasmussen showed Democrat Michelle Nunn beating both Jack Kingston and David Perdue in a General Election matchup and Democrat Jason Carter beating Gov. Deal.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has gotten their hands on a recipe for unicorn milk strategy memo for the Jim Barksdale Senate campaign.

Building on efforts from high profile mid-term gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races in 2014, Democrats are investing in ambitious field program, “helmed by a pair of veterans from battleground states” that are already at work to “identify voters, recruit volunteers, [and] rally them around base-pleasing issues and corral them into votes in November.”

Georgia will inevitably turn blue on demographic changes alone, but it is the impact of the top of the ticket on both non-white and white voters that makes the ground in 2016 fertile.

Donald Trump won Georgia in the Republican primary as a populist outsider taking on the Washington establishment on economic grounds. Many white voters, driven into a frenzy by Trump, will be anti-establishment and looking to change Washington from top-to-bottom. Or white Independent and Republican voters who don’t like Trump may not vote at all. In a recent Atlanta Constitution Journal poll, 27% of Republicans and 61% of Independents viewed Trump negatively.

Incumbent U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, once seen as a sure bet for an easy reelection, now faces an opponent that will unite the Democratic base, can spend his own resources, and is well positioned to take on Isakson’s “Gone Washington” record of bad trade deals, raising the age for Social Security eligibility, and a $12.7 trillion increase in the national debt has left him with just 42% believing he deserves reelection and 42% approval, both well under the 50% threshold long seen as a bellwether mark for incumbents.

Investment manager Jim Barksdale, winner of yesterday’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, is an anti-establishment outsider with a simple message: Our national debt is too high, wages are stagnant and government needs to start working for the people instead of special interests and their lobbyists. Jim’s message is both authentic and extremely appealing to voters across the ideological spectrum. The contrast between an outsider with a fresh voice and the longtime incumbent frames Johnny Isakson in a very bad light.

So the Democratic recipe for success looks like this: one-part David Perdue outsider appeal, one-part Bernie Sanders populism. Add a dash of demographics changes, top it with a goofy hat, and bake in the oven for five months. Okay. Got it. Good luck and let me know how that turns out.

Frankly, at this point, Johnny Isakson still looks like he might get a vote percentage equal to or exceeding his age (71) in November.

Governor Nathan Deal discussed the lawsuit Georgia joined over the Obama administration’s bathroom advice.

The governor said the Obama administration flouted local control in drafting guidance that directed public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity, saying a “one-size-fits-all solution to this is totally inappropriate.”

“We thought that this was an appropriate time to challenge that authority. Nothing has officially happened in terms of withholding funds, but the threat was made that it could happen,” said Deal, who said he consulted with Attorney General Sam Olens before the lawsuit was filed. He added: “It’s important enough for us to not allow an arbitrary overreach by the president to take away or jeopardize that constant funding.”

Sarah Fay Campbell of the Newnan Times-Herald takes a look at the Republican Primary Runoff between Mike Crane and Drew Ferguson in the Third Congressional District.

Crane, who currently serves as state senator from District 28, which includes Coweta, received 15,568 votes, for 26.92 percent. Ferguson was close behind with 15,480 votes, 26.77 percent.

Crane said he appreciates the race Ferguson and “really all the other candidates ran. For the most part it was issue driven.”

“We stuck with a positive message and we’ll continue to do so” in the runoff, Crane said.

“This race is about restoring America to Constitutional government and when you do that, everything else works out. You want to have prosperity and economic growth. You don’t do it by picking winners and losers. You do it be creating a marketplace everyone can compete in and you do that by broad-bases, lower tax rates instead of special tax breaks to one industry or the other.”

“We are excited to be in the runoff,” said Ferguson. “We started with very low name ID and some doubts as to whether or not we would be able to be competitive and we worked and we worked, and that’s a testament to our campaign team and the folks around us.

Ferguson said he feels “we’ve got a group of voters out there who really are excited about the future. As tough as things may appear in America, I think they see the opportunities. I think they’ve seen what we have been able to do in West Georgia. They’re hungry for success. They want to know what the formula is.”

Runoffs used to be 21 days after an election. Now the runoff is a full two months away.

As for the Democratic Primary in the 3d District, I’d frankly forgotten there was one.

Grantville resident Angela Pendley has narrowly won the Democrat nomination for the U.S. Congress District 3 race.

The Democratic race was about as close as it could be: Newnan pastor Tamarkus Cook trailed Pendley by a mere 56 votes, out of a total 12,930 votes.

The vote margin was close enough for a recount, and Cook is requesting one.

State Representative-Elect J. Collins, after a twelve-day campaign, has a great idea: fix the election code to eliminate absurdities like twelve-day campaigns.

J. Collins said Wednesday he’ll work to change state law that led to a confusing Georgia House of Representatives District 68 contest that allowed just one day of candidate qualifying and, as one candidate put it, “disenfranchised” some early voters.

The seat became vacant when former state Rep. Dusty Hightower, R-Carrollton, was appointed by Gov. Deal as a Superior Court judge. Hightower, at the time, was the only candidate on the ballot for District 68, and early voting had already begun. Those early voters were not allowed, by law, to vote again after the three new candidates qualified.

“If the numbers hold at this time, I would like to congratulate J. Collins for winning the District 68 House race,” said [candidate Tim] Bearden. “However, I do wish the citizens of District 68 in Carroll and Douglas counties had more time than just 10 days so that they could actually hear the platforms of the candidates, all three of us, for the very important issues that are going to be discussed in this upcoming session of the General Assembly. Everything from religious liberty to campus carry, transportation and infrastructure, I just wish the voters and the candidates, all of us, had more than just 12 days to get that out to the citizens.”

Bearden said he is standing behind his statement of ensuring what happened to the “disenfranchised” voters of District 68 does not happen again to any other citizens across the nation.

Collins agrees the issue needs to be addressed.

“I certainly didn’t like the one day qualifying and few days to campaign,” he said. “But by having to play by those rules, I will try to do something at the state level to get it changed so that no one has to go through it again.”

Speaking of goofy voting, Sandy Springs will see a Special Runoff Election for City Council District 3.

With 1,907 ballots counted, none of the five candidates vying for the City Council seat received a majority of the total votes plus one.

In accordance with state law, voters will choose between the candidates receiving the two highest numbers of votes: Chris Burnett and Joe Houseman.

The runoff election will take place on Tuesday, June 21, 2016 between the hours of 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. at the Hammond Park, Round Program Building, located at 6005 Glenridge Drive.  Advance voting will take place June 13-17, 2016 between 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. at the Hammond Park, Round Program Building.

Columbus and Muscogee County will hold at least two runoff elections in July.

Muscogee County is to have at least two runoffs, in school board Districts 1 and 7, on July 26. Early voting for the runoff will begin July 5.

At least one disqualified candidate for sheriff has mentioned possibly mounting an independent bid in November. The deadline for independent candidates to file their paperwork will be July 12.

The Augusta Chronicle looks at the runoff election for Senate District 24 near Augusta.

[Lee] Anderson has been a member of the Columbia County School Board and County Commission before election to the Georgia House of Representatives. In 2012, he won a crowded primary to earn the right to face Democratic Congressman John Barrow, only to lose in the general election that year.

“I think it’s just people know that I have the experience to be a good senator and be a good servant and not a politician,” he said.

Grzybowski has been unsuccessful in his quest for office, losing in 2015 in his try for a seat on the Columbia County Commission.

But that defeat may have helped him in this race, according to Edge, who narrowly lost a spot in the runoff to Grzybowski.

“He had established name ID from when he ran last year,” Edge said.

Color me surprised by this one: Mark Newton beat Wright McLeod in House District 123.

In a closely-watched Tuesday race, physician and businessman Mark Newton eked out a win with 51.8 percent of votes over attorney Wright McLeod for the state House District 123 seat.

Polling was very close in McLeod’s hometown of Augusta, where he garnered 89 fewer votes than Newton.

Newton polled better in Columbia County…. In all, Newton received 456 more votes than McLeod in Columbia County.

Overall totals were Newton with 3,930 votes to McLeod’s 3,385. Candidate Lori Greenhill garnered 269 votes.

McLeod said he expected to win and was unsure whether his work as an attorney for area homeowners’ associations, a sign-stealing incident involving one sign citation or some other factor cost him support.

“We’re still trying to determine what occurred and what we could have done differently,” he said. “All I can say is hats off to the guy that won.”

Read more here: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/latest-news/article80020592.html#storylink=cpy