On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving to be observed on November 26, 1863 and on the fourth Thursday in November every succeeding year.
This announcement harkened back to when George Washington was in his first term as the first president in 1789 and the young American nation had only a few years earlier emerged from the American Revolution. At that time, George Washington called for an official celebratory “day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” While Congress overwhelmingly agreed to Washington’s suggestion, the holiday did not yet become an annual event.
Thomas Jefferson, the third president, felt that public demonstrations of piety to a higher power, like that celebrated at Thanksgiving, were inappropriate in a nation based in part on the separation of church and state. Subsequent presidents agreed with him. In fact, no official Thanksgiving proclamation was issued by any president between 1815 and the day Lincoln took the opportunity to thank the Union Army and God for a shift in the country’s fortunes on this day in 1863.
On October 5, 1864, the Battle of Allatoona Pass was fought in Bartow County, Georgia.
Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, opened on October 4, 1870.
On October 4, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson sent a telegram to the Georgia Democratic Party Convention delegates in appreciation for their support of his admininstration.
On October 3, 1922, Rebecca Latimer Felton was appointed to the United States Senate from Georgia following the death of Senator Tom Watson. After initially being rebuffed by the Senate, Felton was sworn-in on late in November, becoming the first woman to serve in the United States Senate.
The Savannah River Bridge opened on October 4, 1925.
The first televised Presidential address from the White House was broadcast on October 5, 1947.
Beverly Hills, 90210 debuted on October 4, 1990.
It’s okay to binge watch the entire series this weekend.
The Georgia Supreme Court outlawed use of the electric chair as “cruel and unusual punishment” on October 5, 2001.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Former Dalton Mayor and unsuccessful candidate for Governor David Pennington will take his ball and go home endorse Libertarian Andrew Hunt for Governor.
Polls routinely give Hunt between three and seven points of support, which could be enough to deprive Deal and Democrat Jason Carter of a majority and force the governor’s race into a December runoff. Both major party campaigns are quietly confident that Hunt’s support will wane as attention focuses on the race.
National media are portraying Libertarian Amanda Swafford, the only candidate for Senate with experience serving in elected office, as a possible spoiler who could send the Senate election into a runoff.
Georgia’s runoff election [for Senate] would be held Jan. 6—a day after the new Congress convenes. Polling shows libertarian Amanda Swafford capturing a small percentage of the vote—but an amount that could prevent Republican nominee David Perdue or Democratic nominee Michelle Nunn from reaching 50%.
If those races go to runoffs, the uncertainty would shadow Congress when it returns on Nov. 12 for a postelection lame-duck session to handle unfinished legislative business. Already, senior Senate aides say that their ability to plan for the lame-duck session has been frozen until after the election.
“If you have two outstanding races, everything slows to a crawl,” a senior Senate Democratic aide said.
The two parties’ willingness to compromise could be affected by their expectations of controlling the chamber in January as they address must-pass legislative items, such as a bill extending funding for the government after a stopgap measure expires on Dec. 11.
Senate Democrats, who now control the chamber, have been expected to advance legislation to extend funding through the rest of the 2015 fiscal year. But Republicans, if they expect to take the majority, might push for a shorter extension so they could have more say in spending priorities early next year.
Here’s the interesting thing: it’s not just Libertarian voters who hold the power to send the Senate and Gubernatorial races into a runoff – it’s also Republican voters who fail to fill out their entire ballot.
Let’s look back to the 2008 General Election in which Republican John McCain carried 52.2% of the vote against Democrat Barack Obama with 47.0%.
Candidate Votes Cast Percentage McCain 2048759 52.2% Obama 1844123 47.0% Others 31604 0.8% Total 3924486
The next item on the ballot was the Senate race: here, Senator Chambliss carried only 49.8% of the vote and Democrat Jim Martin, with 46.8% joined him in the runoff election.
Senate Votes Cast Percentage Chambliss 1867097 49.8% Martin 1757393 46.8% Others 127995 3.4% Total 3752485
What’s notable to me is the amount of voter dropoff between the Presidential and Senate elections. Republican Saxby Chambliss took 91.1% of the votes cast for GOP Presidential candidate McCain, while Martin took 95.3% of votes cast for Democratic candidate Obama.
That 4.2% net loss in downballot voting for the Republican translates to roughly 85,307 voters who clicked next to John McCain but did not vote at all in the Senate race. If Republicans had simply voted for the Senate candidate at the same rate Democrats did, Chambliss would have escaped a runoff election.
This year, the State School Superintendent’s race lacks a Libertarian candidate, and will thus be decided in the General Election. During the Republican Primary Runoff, 85,206 Republican voters voted in the Senate race but did not cast a ballot in the State School Superintendent’s race.
If the top of the ticket races for Governor and Senate are close enough this year to go into a runoff, those 85,000 odd Republicans who do not bother to vote all the way down the ticket could cost us the State School Superintendent’s race and elect a Democrat.
Here’s why that’s important: the Georgia Department of Education spends more than 50% of the tax dollars you pay to the state. Having a Democratic candidates freely spending your money without accountability means Georgia will continue to underperform in education. Combined with the constant Democratic drumbeat for more dollars for education rather than doing a better job of spending the money we already spend will cause upward pressure on the state budget and on taxes.
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