Georgia Politics

Congratulations to Cassandra Kirk, whom Gov. Deal appointed Chief Magistrate of Fulton County. Deal also appointed Alison T. Burleson and Brenda Holbert Trammell to the bench, filling vacancies on Superior Court for the Ocmulgee Circuit, which comprises Baldwin, Greene, Hancock, Jasper, Jones, Morgan, Putman, and Wilkinson Counties.

The Judicial Nominating Commission has received 70 nominations for one State Court judgeship and one Superior Court judgeship in DeKalb County. Notable nominees include State Rep. Mike Jacobs, Brookhaven Mayor Max Davis, 2010 State Court candidate Akintunde Akinyele, Griffin B. Bell, III, grandson of the late Attorney General, and State Senator Ronald Ramsey, Sr.

State Rep. Christian Coomer will serve again as Administration Floor Leader for Gov. Deal.

Just as we were pressing send, we received an email announcing the full slate of Floor Leaders for Governor Deal.

Reps. Robert Dickey (R-Musella) and Terry Rogers (R-Clarkesville) will join Reps. Chad Nimmer (R-Blackshear) and Christian Coomer (R-Cartersville) on his House floor leader team.

Sens. Butch Miller (R-Gainesville), Mike Dugan (R-Carrollton) and Sen.-elect John F. Kennedy (R-Macon) will team up with Sen. Bill Jackson (R-Appling) to carry the governor’s bills in the Senate.

Congratulations on the trust shown in those appointments.

Reminder: there’s still an election for House District 50 in Johns Creek, North Fulton County; voting will be January 6th. Voters who normally cast their ballots at Taylor Road Middle School should be receiving mailed notifications that they will vote at Chattahoochee High School due to renovations at the Middle School.

On the same day, voters in House District 120 (Greene, Oglethorpe, Putnam, Taliaferro and Wilkes Counties) will also choose a new State Representative.

It doesn’t take a political scientist to tell you that campaiging during the holiday period is no fun, but in case you need it, Dr. Charles Bullock spoke to WABE about it.

“We know even that even if this were a much calmer time, most any other time of the year, there would still be low turnout for a special election, so this simply compounds the challenge to get through to those few voters who will actually go to the polls and cast a ballot.”

So how can candidates reach those voters?

“A phone call is better than a mailer, we know evidence of that, and if you could have someone, a volunteer, go and knock on their door that would also be more effective than doing a mailer.”

Bullock says the key is to find a way to target voters who will actually show up at the polls.

Basically, you could use that advice to win just about any election up to and including a Special Election for the Georgia General Assembly. It gets more difficult as the number of likely voters increases, but fundamentals are fundamentals.

Medicinal cannabis oil trials at Georgia Regent University will begin soon, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Children with uncontrollable seizures could begin receiving a marijuana oil-derived drug as early as today at Georgia Regents University, and others could start enrolling in a 50-patient trial, a senior GRU official said Monday.

But the state will still need to have a way of growing, processing and producing the oil on its own to meet the needs of all of the children and other patients, said a chief legislative proponent for the oil.

The oil is very low in tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive ingredient that produces a high.

The study is the result of nearly eight months of work beginning in early April after the legislature tried and failed to pass a narrow bill that would have allowed the marijuana-derived oil to be used for children with intractable seizures and a few other conditions. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal pushed for and formed a partnership with GRU and the manufacturer, GW Pharmaceuticals of London, to bring about the trial, Diamond said.

2015 GAGOP Convention Cycle Dates announced

The State GOP has issued the Call for the 2015 Convention cycle. We will send all the details in a future email but wanted to get you the dates so you can mark your calendars now.

Precinct Mass Meetings – February 7, 2015
(Counties over 80,000)
Locations TBA

County Convention – March 14, 2015
Location TBA

District Conventions – April 18, 2015
Locations TBA

State Convention – May 15-16, 2015
Classic Center
300 North Thomas Street
Athens, GA 30601

How you know a political hit piece is garbage

Yesterday, the AJC wrote about a story going around that says Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is about to be indicted by the Federales – here’s how we knew it was trash.

1. It was written by someone we’ve never heard of and published on a website we’ve never heard of.

2. As the AJC mentioned, Gov. Deal’s lawyer, Randy Evans denied everything in very specific terms I know Randy and don’t believe he would like about this and his statement is about as definitive as a lawyer ever gets.

3. The ficititious story claimed that events in 2008 and 2009 are part of the supposed investigation; noncapital federal crimes have a five-year Statute of Limitations

4. The websites that published the piece has both taken it down.