Tuesday, June 13, 2023
‘Passionate’ Coastal Georgians
Coastal Georgia’s footprint at the state GOP convention last weekend in Columbus was large, The Current’s Craig Nelson reports. Like elephants, the regional delegates left big footprints behind.
There was the Chatham County delegation, led by the GOP county chair, Brittany Brown, wondering whether their seats in the cavernous convention hall, far from the podium, were retribution for past turmoil.
There was Deborah Broderick of Wilmington Island, explaining after a seminar on election integrity why she’s so passionate about fixing what she and many Chatham County Republicans say is Georgia’s deeply flawed election system.
There was Chatham County’s Sarah Lain-Moneymaker determined to get a hearing for her resolution banning LGBTQ people from joining the Republican Party after failing at the county GOP convention in Savannah and the 1st District GOP convention in Kingsland.
And there was Coastal Georgia Congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter of Pooler present at the convention — in manner of speaking. After saying he had “every intention of being there,” Carter said a little more than a week before the convention that he would be sending a video instead.
“I hate to miss it. I would be there if it were not for my family vacation,” he told the Butch & Bob Show on WIFO radio in Jesup.
Done, yes, but dusted? Not exactly.
Meanwhile on center stage, Donald Trump’s speech remains the talking point of national media. It was everything Donald Trump is: charismatic and crass, swaggering and mocking, boundlessly self-pitying and infinitely self-regarding, The Current’s Craig Nelson reports from Columbus here, here, and here.
A day after federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging him with 37 counts of mishandling classified materials and obstructing federal investigators, Trump sought to save himself, not serve as a bridge-builder for the fractious GOP. That isn’t his style.
Can crying political persecution work?
Ask those Republicans who heard him in Columbus and not a few say they’ll go to prison if he does.
Congressional Republicans are going on the warpath, too, vowing to step up their investigations of the “Biden crime family” and federal law enforcement agencies.
The efforts are highly unlikely to alter the arc of Trump’s legal predicament. Criminal investigations past a certain point have a momentum all their own, largely beyond outside pressure. It will all just play out, deep into the presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, the even more Trump-centric Georgia GOP heads into an election with a new chairman, former state senator Josh McKoon, but with a sizable base and new party leadership that’s galvanized by nothing more than the insistence that the past presidential election was stolen and that the state’s election system hasn’t been fixed.
Is the state GOP facing an identity crisis? Calls for unity aside, events in Columbus suggest the answer for is “yes.” In other words, Coastal Georgians, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
ICYMI
- “Mayor takes Pinova to task for fire, calls for accountability” (Brunswick News, June 9, 2023) “Among other things, the committee will be tasked with creating a timeline of ‘failures’ on the part of Pinova that led to the fire, as well as those that occurred during the fight to extinguish it. Based on that information, [Mayor Cosby] Johnson said the committee will also present some recommendations on changes the plant can make to prevent it from happening again.”
- “The conservative Supreme Court might have paved the way for Dems to take the House” (Politico, June 8, 2023) “In declining to further weaken the Voting Rights Act, the high court opened the door for Democrats to make other claims of racial gerrymandering in states across the South. That decision could possibly cause a domino effect in Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia and Texas, which may be forced to add new districts where Black and Latino voters would hold greater sway.”
- “Georgia education panel votes to cleanse teacher lesson plans as school culture wars rage on” (Georgia Recorder, June 8, 2023) “Commission Chair Brian Sirmans said the changes came at the request of the University System of Georgia and are intended to clarify language that had picked up unintended negative meanings over the years.”
- “U.S. Attorneys, Assistant AG respond to appeals by Arbery’s murderers” (Brunswick News, June 10, 2023) “Attorneys with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Assistant Attorney General say Ahmaud Arbery would still be alive today had he not been a Black man running on public streets and that the hate-crime convictions of his murderers should stand in federal court.”
Georgia GOP projects unity: Can it last?
Before next year’s primaries, the party will need to solve splits involving the state GOP, Kemp’s fledgling campaign apparatus, and Republican-affiliated groups against each other over endorsements and in arguments over who is — or is not — a “true” Republican or conservative.
Reporter’s notebook: Georgia GOP convention 2023
County delegations, reps work to be heard among state’s conventioneers while some avoid gathering altogether.
Trump takes on charges, prosecutors to rapt GOP faithful
Former president blames out-of-control prosecutors with political goals.
Georgia voters sign up in record numbers following change to automatic registration in 2016
The study praised Georgia’s election officials for maintaining more accurate voter rolls with the aid of a multistate partnership that allows states to share information whenever someone moves.
Georgia education panel votes to cleanse teacher lesson plans as school culture wars rage on
Commission Chair Brian Sirmans said the changes came at the request of the University System of Georgia and are intended to clarify language that had picked up unintended negative meanings over the years.
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