Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024
Good morning! We hope you had a great Labor Day weekend. We start today with three political dramas we’re watching as we enter the heart of the election season. We continue with some notes from the campaign swing to Coastal Georgia last week by Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. We conclude with 6 things for your radar in the post-Labor Day flurry. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com
NEWS:POLITICS
3 political dramas we’re watching
Remember when Labor Day marked the beginning of the election season? For political junkies and professionals, that now seems a quaint, even laughable, proposition. But it’s still true for most voters, who will only now start tuning in for real. So, here are three tug-of-wars we’re watching closely as the election system kicks up several notches:
• In Coastal Georgia, it’s Savannah Mayor Van Johnson versus Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones. A Democratic, Jones is on the ballot this November, facing a well-funded Republican opponent, Andre Pretorius, waging a classic, law-and-order campaign. Which is why we were surprised last week when Johnson, also a Democrat, publicly criticized Cook Jones for dismissing murder cases she said had been compromised by police misconduct, as The Current’s Jake Shore reported.
• The second clash we’re watching is between Gov. Brian Kemp and the State Election Board. The board’s 3-to-2 conservative Republican majority recently approved two rules, one of which gives county election officials more power to delay vote certification, starting with November elections.
Democrats want Kemp to open ethics investigations against the three-person majority. He’s asked Attorney General Chris Carr whether he has the legal authority to do so.
• The third political grudge match that has our eye is between Kemp and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The longtime foes have allegedly made up following the former president’s withering blasts at the Georgia governor and his wife at a rally in Atlanta last month, but put us down in the still skeptical column, even after Kemp attended a Trump fundraiser in Atlanta last week.
Will Kemp stump publicly for Trump this fall or appear at rallies alongside him? And what does providing Kemp’s vaunted election apparatus to the Trump campaign in Georgia actually mean?
As the page on the calendar turned on Sunday, Trump held an advantage in the all-important Electoral College, while Kamala Harris leads the race nationally by between 2 and 4 percentage points. In Georgia, the polls lean slightly in Trump’s favor, with emphasis on “slightly.” The road ahead for Harris in Coastal Georgia is especially daunting. Still, the race in the state is too close to call.
NEWS: POLITICS
‘Blessings are in the neighborhood’
All eyes were on Kamala Harris when she stumped with running mate with Tim Walz in Hinesville at the Liberty County High School’s band practice and Sandfly BBQ in Sandfly near Isle of Hope. All eyes were on her, too, when she went solo in downtown Savannah with visits to Dottie’s Café on West Broughton Street or at The Grey on Martin Luther King Blvd.
Local Democrats shared a bit of the spotlight, too. Chester Ellis, chair of the Chatham County Commission, and Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, along with Nikema Williams, head of the Georgia Democratic Party, greeted Harris and Walz at the airport.
State Sen. Derek Mallow and Rep. Edna Jackson of Savannah, as well as Johnson, preceeded Harris at the podium for her 21-minute speech at Enmarket Arena on the city’s west side. Among the politicos The Current spotted in the audience were 1st District congressional candidate Patti Hewitt; Aaron “Adot” Whitely, chair of the Chatham County Democratic Party and a county commissioner (District 6); and Mitzi Toth, chair of the Skidaway Island Democrats.
Many Coastal Georgia Republicans scoffed at Harris’ Savannah appearance, with 1st District U.S. Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter telling Newsmax that the vice president’s “running around this country saying she’s going to fix the problems that she created is like O.J. [Simpson] going to look for the real killer.”
Still, nothing was likely to tarnish the day for Katelyn Green, president of Savannah State University’s Student Government Association. Green was given the task of introducing Harris at her rally. The honor of introducing Harris with a three-and-a-half-minute speech before a packed arena was one shared by at least one of her fellow SSU students.
“My colleague, my president, my coworker, my mentor, my big sister — it was emotional hearing her (Green’s) speech,” Lepairea Harper told The Tiger’s Roar, SSU’s student newspaper.
“When she told me she was speaking, I told her that God put her in this position for a reason, and I know that God is going to bless the rest of us soon because the blessings are in the neighborhood,” Harper said.
NOTES
6 things for your radar
- Rural Black Americans for Kamala Harris will hold a zoom calls this Thursday, Sept. 5, at 6 p.m. Click here to register.
- Ware County Democrats will host a meet-and-greet for 1st District congressional candidate Patti Hewitt on Friday, Sept. 6, at 6 p.m. at The Stephens Venue, 773 Ossie Davis Parkway in Waycross.
- The Darien-McIntosh Chamber of Commerce hosts a forum for local and state candidates on Thursday, Sept. 12, at 5:30 p.m. at the auditorium of McIntosh County Academy, 8945 Highway 17 in Darien. For more information, contact the chamber at (912)437-6684 or khoyt@mcintoshchamber.com.
- Ladies on the Right will host a luncheon featuring Annabelle Rutledge of Young Women for America and Joel Boblasky, candidate for chair of the Chatham County Commission, Thursday, Sept. 19, 12:30 p.m. until 2:00 p.m, at the Palmetto Club at The Landings. For more information and reservations, click here.
- McIntosh County will hold a special election on Oct. 1 on whether to reverse the decision by the county commission to rezone Hog Hammock.
- To serve as a GOP block captain in the upcoming election, contact Jerilyn Gibbs, second vice chair of the Chatham County GOP, at Jerilyn.gibbs@hey.com or (301)461-7236.
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