Debate over a resolution entitled “A Resolution On Getting Back to the Basics of Republican Principles” at this past weekend’s Georgia Republican Convention showed some differences of opinion among the convention delegates. The first part of the resolution chides the Georgia legislature for not overriding Governor Nathan Deal’s veto of House Bill 757, the Free
This week’s Courier Herald column: A funny thing happened on the way to voting “them all out” last Tuesday. After the votes were all counted, not a single Republican incumbent congressman or state legislator was voted out of office. Only two were pushed into runoffs statewide, and even then by a handful of votes in
Being a district chairman, that automatically makes me a member of the #RINOEstablishment, so I might as well claim the title and say that I was generally happy with the results of our Georgia Republican primary. We avoided conspiracy and cupcakes in the US Senate race, and I’m glad to see three of Georgia’s most
No, I’m not going to try to run down every contested Georgia House race. It’s difficult enough to even try to pretend from Atlanta I have a true understanding of far flung races. By the time you divide Georgia into 180 equal pieces “state” politics becomes quite local. As such, this is just a preview
It’s a relatively active campaign year for Georgia’s Republican Senate caucus. If my quick scan of the Secretary of State’s website is correct, there are 29 Senate races with an uncontested GOP candidate, three open competitive races, and NINE! with incumbents facing a primary challenge. That’s not quite a quarter of the caucus facing primary
During every election cycle, there seems to be a prediction that Gwinnett County will turn Democratic, or at least a shade of purple. While long viewed as being a Republican stronghold, changes in the county’s diversity, especially with the influx of Hispanic and Asian residents, appears to point the way towards a changing political dynamic.
Today, a titan of not just Georgia but Southern politics turned 69 years young. Chairman Calvin Smyre is the longest serving member of the General Assembly and serves as Dean of the House. If you reside in the state of Georgia, then I guarantee you are indebted to his nearly half a century of service
It appears that whomever talked Aaron Barlow into returning from Chicago to his Fulton County house to run for Georgia’s State Senate told him there would be no math. Either that, or he hopes that voters in the Cherokee and Fulton County district are uninformed or don’t care that he is playing fast and loose
Last Friday Representative John Pezold (HD-133) had an interesting op-ed in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer essentially comparing the operations of the Georgia Legislature to schoolyard bullies. And while anyone who has witnessed the 40 days sessions would probably admit there is some correlation between school children and legislators, his basic premise seems a bit naïve. Which
Jennifer Yarber is the director of the Georgia Senate Press Office. Well, until tomorrow afternoon anyway. She’s found her a job in the private sector and has decided it’s time to move on. An email to the press distribution list closes with “Thank you for the kindness, cooperation and laughs over the past 4.5 years
