Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for May 27, 2015

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 Saturday, May 31, 2014, the battle will be reenacted at Pickett’s Mill Historic Battlefield Site.

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.

Here are some photos of the battlefield and links to additional material.

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.

One year ago, 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

Ohio Governor John Kasich spoke yesterday to the Fulton County Republican Party. I attended and had planned to attend the Walton GOP Barbecue last night, but my 15-year old dog was injured and had to be taken to the animal hospital. She’s recovering well, but with her age, I thought she should be taken care of immediately.

I’ve been a follower of Gov. Kasich for a number of years, having (mis)spent part of my youth in the Buckeye State. Generally speaking, when it comes to the Presidential race, I think a Governor brings a lot of experience that makes them better candidates and ultimately, better Presidents.

Here are my three takeaways from Kasich’s speech.

First, he’s not yet in fulltime Presidential campaign mode. His speech wasn’t scripted to the extent that we saw from the GOP candidates at the Convention. It was good, but it didn’t bear the hallmarks of a much-rehearsed stump speech. As a Governor and long-time Congressman, he’s good on the stump, but this wasn’t the processed product of a slew of political consultants.

Second, he’s genuinely funny. Not just prepared laugh lines, but impromptu riffs on things like his daughter’s first campaign trail trip outside Ohio. It was like he had an 80s sitcom laugh track.

Third, if you ask him a tough question, he doesn’t flinch. Sixth District Chair Michael Fitzgerald asked about Kasich’s expansion of Medicaid, and whether it’s a sustainable model. Obviously, expanding Medicaid goes counter to the policy preferences of Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and most conservatives here. Kasich’s response, in part:

Here’s how it works, we are bringing back $14 billion the first two, three, four years. The federal government just sends our money back, it’s our money, and then the next year the [state] match is like 10%. On my normal Medicaid program, the [state] match is like, don’t hold me to the numbers, 40%, so it’s absolutely affordable.

And what we’re doing with it, we are reducing some of our prison population. Think about this, if I don’t treat the mentally ill, they come out and guess where they end up? Back in. If I don’t treat the drug-addicted, guess where they end up. Back in. At $22,500 a year. Now, if I don’t provide some kind of healthcare for the working poor, where do we see them? The emergency room. Are they healthier or sicker? We are now seeing emergency room visits decline.

And I understand that there are people that are concerned about this, but look, I was the Chairman of the Budget Committee when we balanced the federal budget. I took Ohio from an $8 billion hole to a $2 billion surplus. If the federal government fools around and changes the formula, I told the people of the state we’ll get out of it, because I’m not going to hamstring us…. I’m not going to let my budget get put into the hole, or even on the precipice of going into the hole.

Yesterday, Kasich made a lot of ground with the hundred or so people at the Fulton GOP lunch, and probably did so at the Walton GOP. People I talked to ranged from, “I liked what I heard and I’m going to look at his record,” to gushing fanboys.

I’ve posted audio from the speech online here, for your listening enjoyment.

Leading up to the 2000 Presidential Election, Kasich formed an exploratory committee but had dropped out by this point, exiting the race due to lagging fundraising and before the Iowa straw poll. I don’t know why he failed to catch on then. As a Governor and as a former Congressman, he has a stronger resume than any of the other candidates. What I thought might be a failure of charisma was proven wrong yesterday.

Should John Kasich make the decision to run for President, his first three challenges are fundraising, fundraising, and fundraising. His next challenge is to break the top ten among announced or likely candidates in order to be included in the August 6th GOP Presidential Debate in Cleveland.

One presence at the luncheon that I haven’t seen elsewhere is Libby Kingston, whose husband Jack served with Kasich in Congress. Now that I think of it, Kasich sounds a good bit like Jack Kingston.

If Kasich can make a real run of it, he’s a formidable candidate, but the biggest political impact is that he potentially puts Ohio in play. No Republican has ever won the presidency without carrying Ohio.

Bruce Thompson might be Batman

Senator Bruce Thompson’s initials are BAT, which should have clued me in that he might actually be Batman. But this past weekend, he was seen in action, apparently helping his local police stop a bad guy.

Even before this, he was on my list of top ten Georgia politicians to not get into a physical confrontation with. His background as a scholarship wrestler in college and an Army tank commander make him one of the legislators least likely to be a pushover.

Bibb County Board of Education getting nasty?

Last week, two members of the Bibb County Board of Education got confrontational in a meeting, according to the Macon Telegraph.

Tom Hudson and Lester Miller had a heated discussion over what Hudson called “very low minority participation” when it comes to awarding service contracts to businesses.

Miller is chairman of a review committee created to look at reworking board policy to include more minority businesses.

“We do have inadequate representation, but we’ve done everything we can do,” Miller said, adding that he has reached out to local minority business owners but they haven’t shown up to meetings or responded.

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink,” he said.

“I’m sick and tired of awarding contracts not representative of the school district’s population,” Hudson said, adding that just 1 percent of service contracts are awarded to minority businesses.

Responding to Miller’s complaints, Hudson told The Telegraph it was “a bunch of bull.” He said he doesn’t like to conduct school board business over email and that Miller was making excuses.

That “you can lead a horse to water” remark sparked outrage among some in the community.

Controversy is brewing over what some call a small number of minority vendors getting contracts with the Bibb County School District.

This time, that controversy comes with a twist: a flier asking minority business owners to demand an apology from one of the board members, among other things.

The flier from the Concerned Clergy of Middle Georgia asks minority business owners to demand a retraction and apology from Bibb County School Board Member Lester Miller for what they call insulting statements he made at Thursday night’s school board meeting and to the Macon Telegraph.

It says that “minority business owners are not horses.”

The flier also calls for Miller to be replaced as chair of the review committee designed to increase minority participation.