Programming Notes

1. Layla Zon is a Republican. Layla Zon is a Republican. Layla Zon is a Republican. Layla Zon is a Republican. Layla Zon is a Republican….

I wrote that on a whiteboard 1000 times this weekend, as about 73 of y’all emailed to correct my error. She is the elected Republican District Attorney for the Alcovy Judicial Circuit, comprising Walton and Newton Counties. She was the special prosecutor in the Victor Hill case.

2. GaPundit is looking for a couple people who can help post items in our events calendar. First preference to committed Republican activists. We have a budget for this. Email me if you’re interested.

Governor Deal to China

Governor Nathan Deal will lead a trade mission to China this week, seeking business opportunities with the state’s second-largest trading partner. Georgia leads the nation in exports to China in carpets, poultry, aircraft and wood products.

An article in the AJC discusses how Georgia’s strategy toward commerce with China has changed over the years.

Georgia’s still waiting. So as Gov. Nathan Deal kicks off a 12-day journey to Asia on Monday, the state plans a new — and perhaps novel — strategy to grab a bigger share of China’s export market and lure investment. His journey holds both the promise of a surge of jobs and spending that could directly benefit Georgians, and the risk of another trade mission that produces high hopes and scant results.

The delegation will open a new office in the emerging port city of Qingdao, a place where no other U.S. state houses an office. The latest trade delegation also features a large contingent of agricultural leaders who hope to carve out new markets and reassure existing clients of their products’ quality.

“China is becoming very fertile ground for Georgia agriculture products to be sold,” said Deal. “I still have high hopes for China.”

“They’re going to need resources. They need poultry, they need food, they need kaolin,” said Penelope Prime, a Georgia State University professor and director of the China Research Center. “Where else do we go (for customers)? Brazil? Their economy is slowing more. China’s a big place and if its economy is growing at only 5 percent it’s still a huge opportunity.”

Words about Water Wars

The Marietta Daily Journal Editorial Board commends Gov. Deal’s decision to continue fighting over water flows sent south to Florida.

“We’re talking about water that falls on Georgia’s soil and flows through the state of Georgia. There’s a reason for us to be protective. We will not roll over. If Florida wants to fight, we’ll fight,” Deal told the Atlanta newspaper. “We think we have plenty of ammunition and that we have shown good faith on our side and the efforts we have made to negotiate a settlement hopefully have been impressive to the court.”

Deal added that he hopes the governors of the states involved — not Congress and not the courts — will be the ones who hash out a final water-use deal.

“I’m always one of those that likes to avoid litigation,” he said.

We’re confident that Deal will stand his ground and protect Georgia’s interest. Florida’s governor can bluster all he likes about how the rain that falls on Georgia and fills its streams belongs to Florida; but that’s about as logical as Deal trying to argue that the waters of Apalachicola Bay — and its harvest of oysters — belong to Georgia.

The AJC reports that Florida’s lack of management of oyster fisheries is also partly to blame for problems in the Apalachicola oyster fields.

A writer for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer opines that Georgia needs to figure out what we want from Florida and use that as leverage in the water dispute. Sorry, but jean shorts just won’t sell well in Atlanta.

Georgia General Assembly Geek Caucus

State Rep. Mike Dudgeon (R-Johns Creek) developed a website last session to track changes in bills made in committee and the website is being touted as bringing efficiency to the legislative process by allowing members to track legislation without relying on different printed versions and avoiding some of the delays inherent.

Dudgeon’s fellow Georgia Tech grad, Buzz Brockway (R-Gwinnett) is running for State House Majority Caucus Chair, a slot that has opened up as Rep. Donna Sheldon runs for Congress.

Georgia Chamber honors Senator Saxby Chambliss

Today the Georgia Chamber of Commerce will honor United States Senator Saxby Chambliss at its annual Congressional Luncheon at the Macon Marriott Centreplex in Macon, beginning at 11:00 AM.

Friends, Romans, lend me your windshields

Windshield flyers are becoming a hot location for political speech, as the Georgia Campaign for Liberty this weekend flyered cars in the parking lot at the Rome/Floyd County Republican party event featuring the GOP candidates for US Senate in 2014. The target this week was Congressman Phil Gingrey’s voting history on surveillance issues.

After an argument in the parking lot touched off by the flyers and another person’s attempt to remove them, police were called.

This follows by a week the flyering of windshields at Grilling with the Governor by Georgia Gun Owners upset with what they consider inadequate movement on expanding carry rights.

The flyers didn’t stop Gingrey from coming in first in the Rome/Floyd GOP straw poll:

Phil Gingrey 34.4
Karen Handel 26.7
Paul Broun 18.3
Jack Kingston 13.7
David Perdue 5.3
Derrick Grayson 1.5
Eugene Yu 0

The AJC’s Political Insider, in a story by Greg Bluestein, has short synopses of the speeches by candidates.

Savannah marks 50 years of desegregation

Savannah is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the beginning of desegregating local schools in 1963.

The summer of 1963 was a watershed time for civil rights in America.

In June, Alabama Gov. George Wallace tried to block two black students from entering the state’s flagship university. Medgar Evers, field secretary of the Mississippi NAACP, was gunned down in the driveway of his Jackson, Miss., home.

In August, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led a coalition of civil rights groups and more than 250,000 people in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

In Savannah, black demonstrators were arrested for trying to get served at such landmark establishments as Morrison’s Cafeteria, Anton’s Restaurant and the downtown Krystal.

Otis Johnson, a 21-year-old Savannah State College freshman, left the Thunderbolt school in June to travel across town to desegregate all-white Armstrong Junior College.

In 1989, a mail bomb killed one of the survivors of 1963’s desegregation of Savannah schools. At the time of his murder, Robbie Robinson served as an Alderman in the City of Savannah. Walter Leroy Moody of Rex, Georgia was thought guilty of the bombing and was convicted of 70 counts in federal court, including the murder of a federal appellate judge. At the time of his murder, Robbie Robinson served as an Alderman in the City of Savannah.

That year also saw the March on Washington, which would lead eventually to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act in 1965, and the realignment of Southern politics as African-Americans entered the voting booth.

In the 1960 election, Richard Nixon sought black support and hoped for an endorsement from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with whom he was on friendly terms. He frequently called attention to the fact that John F. Kennedy’s running mate, Senator Johnson, was from a state of the old Confederacy and had fought civil rights legislation in Congress.

As president, Kennedy dragged his feet on civil rights, which is what led to the March on Washington. To his credit, Johnson switched sides as president and used his considerable legislative skill to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Republican support was critical to passage of the Civil Rights Act. In the House of Representatives, it would have failed without the strong support of Republicans, who provided 138 of the 290 votes for passage. In the Senate as well, Republicans votes were necessary to enact the Civil Rights Act.

Senator Barry Goldwater, Republican of Arizona, however, was among the “no” votes.

Nevertheless, Goldwater’s vote had deep political consequences. The Republican share of the black vote fell from a third in 1960 to just 6 percent in 1964, from which it has never recovered. It also got him the votes of white Southerners who hadn’t voted Republican ever in their family history. As a consequence, Goldwater carried Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina—the only states he carried other than his home state.

This set in motion a political reversal in the South, which is now solidly Republican. Many liberals believe this is because Republicans pandered to southern racists. This is not correct. Republicans simply capitalized on the political opportunity that presented itself.

In the long run, the really profound development wasn’t that Republicans took over the South, but that the South took over the Republican Party. I will have more to say about this next week.

Read that last sentence again and give it some thought. The turbulence within the party during the 1980s rise of the Moral Majority, which appears to have resufaced as the “Liberty movement” asserts itself against the social conservatism that dominates the state party. I think the article oversimplifies the interplay between race and partisanship that led to the world in which we now live, but it’s a good starting place for an understanding of modern Georgia politics.

Inter-party dissent in Alabama

In April, the Alabama Republican Party heralded Stephanie Petelos, Chair of the College Republican Federation of Alabama as a “Rising Republican Star.” Since then, controversy arose over statements by Petelos that some in the party say contradict the 2012 platform adopted by the Republican National Convention.

A proposed amendment to the bylaws of the Alabama Republican Party would remove from the Party’s steering committee any member who publicly supports a position contrary to the most recent GOP platform, which was adopted during the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Party insiders say the proposed amendment was written as a direct result of comments made by current Alabama College Republicans Chairwoman Stephanie Petelos around the time the Supreme Court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.

“We just [love] freedom and fun. That’s all. Don’t hate.” Petelos posted on her Facebook page after the Court’s decision was announced. She also encouraged her Facebook friends to “like” a page for a pro-gay marriage group called “Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry.” Petelos said she joined the group because she believes “all people deserve to be treated equally under the law.” She has since left the group on her own accord.

Some Party leaders reacted strongly to Petelos’ statements, moving to have her removed from the Party’s steering committee, a position she holds as a result of being elected chair of the Alabama College Republicans.

A verbal agreement was reached between Party leaders and Petelos in which she agreed to not speak publicly in support of gay marriage in her official capacity as College Republicans chair. In return, the Party leaders said they would drop the issue. But the ALGOP bylaws committee went a step further and proposed a written agreement that instructed Petelos to never speak publicly against any part of the Party’s platform. She declined to sign it.

Georgia Supreme Court

Last week, Justice Harris Hines was sworn in as Presiding Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. Former Governor and US Senator Zell Miller swore-in Hines and Chief Judge Hugh Thompson in the State House Chamber.