Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for July 18, 2014

Adolf Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf was published on July 18, 1925.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated for a third term at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on July 18, 1940.

President Harry S. Truman signed the second Presidential Succession Act on July 18, 1947

The original succession act designated the Senate president pro tempore as the first in line to succeed the president should he and the vice president die unexpectedly while in office. If he for some reason could not take over the duties, the speaker of the house was placed next in the line of succession. In 1886, during Grover Cleveland‘s administration, Congress removed both the Senate president and the speaker of the house from the line of succession. From that time until 1947, two cabinet officials, (their order in line depended on the order in which the agencies were created) became the next in line to succeed a president should the vice president also become incapacitated or die. The decision was controversial. Many members of Congress felt that those in a position to succeed the president should be elected officials and not, as cabinet members were, political appointees, thereby giving both Republican and Democratic parties a chance at controlling the White House.

In 1945, then-Vice President Truman assumed the presidency after Franklin Roosevelt died of a stroke during his fourth term. As president, Truman advanced the view that the speaker of the house, as an elected official, should be next in line to be president after the vice president. On July 18, 1947, he signed an act that resurrected the original 1792 law, but placed the speaker ahead of the Senate president pro tempore in the hierarchy.

On July 18, 1988, the Democratic National Convention opened at the Omni in Atlanta. That night, actor Rob Lowe would shoot a videotape in a hotel with two hairdressers, one 22 and one 16. Several weeks later, the era of the celebrity sex tape began.

On July 18, 2000, United States Senator Paul Coverdell died of a cerebral hemorrhage. I remember where I was when I heard the news.

The greatest political journalist to ever put pen to paper, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, was born on July 18, 1929. That makes today “Gonzo Day.” You have been warned.

Also born today, on July 18, 1921, was John Glenn, former Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, first human to orbit the earth and Republican United States Senator from Ohio.

What Leadership Looks Like

Compare and contrast:

To be fair, President Obama’s remarks were the first ones after news of the plane’s downing, rather than a prepared speech from the Oval Office.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Today at 3 PM, I’ll be joining Bill Nigut and the usual suspects on Georgia Public Broadcasting (88.5 FM in Atlanta, click here for your local station outside Atlanta) to discuss politics. Listening to the promos, it sounds like both Jack Kingston and David Perdue will be on this afternoon as well, though I don’t know if they’ll be in studio or recorded.

Among the topics, I’m going to guess we’ll be talking about the new poll released by WSB-TV that shows Jason Carter leading Governor Nathan Deal in the General Election matchup.

The poll conducted by Landmark Communications on July 15 found Democratic challenger Jason Carter with a seven-point lead over Republican incumbent Gov. Nathan Deal.
Carter received 48.7 percent in the poll and Deal received 41.3 percent. Libertarian Andew Hunt received 4 percent of the vote in the poll. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4 percent.

The poll comes just after new developments in the ethics investigation into Deal, and it could have cost him support according to Channel 2 political analyst Bill Crane.
“This is definite cause for pause and concern for a governor who probably a year ago didn’t have any serious Democrats who were running and now obviously are in a position to knock him out of his seat,” Crane told Channel 2’s Lori Geary.
Deal has a nine-point lead in men but women support Carter by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.
“If you’ve got the largest voting block, which is women, (about) 55 percent, depending on who shows up, breaking off 15 to 20 percent, that puts everything in play. It certainly should be giving a lot of pachyderms a lot of sleepless nights,” Crane said.

This is kind of neat: an animated .gif graphic used in the WSB story to illustrate the results.

I’ve been saying for months that women, and more specifically, white women, will decide the November elections. African-American women tend to vote at the same 80+% margin as African-American voters overall for Democratic candidates, but unaffiliated white women are the largest combination of gender and race, and their votes are up for grabs in November.

Why I’m voting for Jack Kingston

Earlier this week, InsiderAdvantage, for whom I work part-time, released a new poll on the Senate race:

Kingston: 46%
Perdue: 41%
Undecided: 13%

InsiderAdvantage CEO/Fox 5 Political Analyst Matt Towery: “This survey indicates that Kingston has managed to retake momentum in the race with under a week to go. This is partly due to the fact that  the Perdue camp and the outside groups supporting him have not pursued the one issue that was damaging the Kingston effort, that being issues related to a campaign fundraiser for Kingston involving a foreign national with a criminal background and some of his employees. Perdue’s campaign and his supporters have instead emphasized their candidate’s “political outsider” position as a candidate running against the “insider” Kingston. While that theme has worked well with older voters, it has lost its magic having run long enough to pull in all of the votes in can.”

Towery continues “Kingston leads among all age groups except those age 65 and over, where Perdue has a two point edge. Among those who identify themselves as Republicans Kingston leads by a 53-36% margin. Those who say they are “independent” voters give Perdue the edge by seven percentage points.”

Matt Towery concludes “The next round of ads could change the race but generally speaking attack ads launched going into the weekend before an election rarely change the outcome of a contest. As we have stated numerous times, this could be a close election and polling such a contest with such low voter interest is a challenge. But as of now Kingston appears to be clinging to a lead with momentum having moved his in his direction.”

Kathy Scott writes about how meeting Jack Kingston’s son, Jim Kingston, affected her decision to vote for Jack in the Republican Primary Runoff.

You can tell a lot about a person by their children. There’s always exceptions to the rule of course, but for the most part, if you want to know the measure of a man or woman, watch how their children interact with them.

Last weekend, I was at the Atlanta Press Club debates and met David Perdue and Jack Kingston. Both men were very  approachable and their staff was nice, but Kingston had this one young man who, in my brief conversation with him, gave me some insight into Kingston. It was his son, Jim Kingston, and he talked about his dad the way young men used to discuss their parents – with respect and warmth.

What I like most about Jim is that he was brought up in the shadow of politics, and yet my one vote was clearly something to be earned, not taken for granted and it mattered to him that I knew what I would be getting in return for it.

I’ve written before that it speaks volumes about Jack Kingston’s character that he goes out of his way to take his mother with him to so many events, and he always helps her to and from her seat.

I’ve spoken with Jim Kingston a number of times, and he’s unfailingly polite, but also possesses a keen political intellect. He’s said some things about politics that professionals twice his age don’t understand.

And above all else, I know that every member of the Kingston family understands that a vote for Jack Kingston is a sacred trust from the voter to the candidate himself and everyone he surrounds himself with.

That’s why Jack Kingston has earned my support and my vote on Tuesday, July 22d for United State Senate.

Yesterday, we learned from the Washington Times that Jack Kingston earned the princely sum of $8 per hour as an extra in a Miley Cyrus movie.

Back in 2010 — yep, it’s Throwback Thursday! — Kingston filmed a role as an extra in the Nicholas Sparks-penned “The Last Song,” in which the then-squeaky-clean Cyrus (this was long before her twerking started) starred as an angsty teen sent to live with her father at an idyllic beach-side town.

The movie, which first paired Cyrus with her future fiancee Liam Hemsworth, also starred Greg Kinnear and Kelly Preston, and was filmed on Tybee Island in Georgia — which happens to be part of the congressman’s district.

Here, Kingston takes questions at a campaign stop in Columbus.

Other candidates I support

Bob Finnegan for Augusta Commission District 6 – I personally know Bob to be a good man, a hard worker, and the type of person for whom I would be pleased to vote for and pleased to have represent me if I lived in his district. I hope voters in Augusta will look at his record, his character, and his issue positions and cast their ballot for Bob Finnegan. Click here to learn more about Bob Finnegan.

I join the Marietta Daily Journal in supporting the reelection of Tim Stultz for Cobb County Board of Education. Here’s what the MDJ wrote in endorsing Tim:

Georgia Tech graduate Stultz, an engineer by profession, is an unabashed conservative who has fought to steer the system away from the excesses of Common Core.

Stultz has already proven his strengths and abilities as a board member. He was a strong supporter of hiring Chris Ragsdale as interim superintendent over the strong objections from those on the board who complained that he comes from the operations side rather than the classroom.

And Stultz promises to keep pushing for conservative approaches on both fiscal management and other measures, and is a strong supporter of charter schools as well. At this point, the board’s future direction would seem to be riding on the outcome of the Post 2 runoff and election. Will it continue down the path toward a stronger board with more accountability demanded not just of board members but of the superintendent and others in the system as well? Or does it revert back to the era in which the superintendent ran the show and the board jumped through his hoops?
A vote for Stultz is an important step to assure the board keeps going in the right direction.

Muscogee and Chatham County runoff elections

On Tuesday, some Chatham County voters will cast a ballot in the runoff election for Chatham County School Board President. GPB has interviews with both candidates:

Savannah-Chatham School Board Runoff: Chester Ellis

 

Savannah-Chatham School Board Runoff: Jolene Byrne

 

Earlier this week, the candidates participated in an online debate. Here are the Q&A from the Savannah Morning News

In Muscogee County, District 2 on the Board of Education will be up for a rematch on Tuesday.

District 2 incumbent John Wells, a businessman and the board’s senior member, faces challenger John F. Thomas, an Internal Revenue Service agent.

On May 20, Thomas received 35.27 of the vote. Wells finished just ahead of Kar-Tunes Car Stereo owner John “Bart” Steed with 27.58 percent of the vote to 26.59.

Victor Morales, training and development coordinator for Pratt & Whitney, was far behind at 10.44 percent.