Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024
Good morning! We start today with the weekend tragedy in McIntosh County. With just two weeks left until Election Day, we then look at the rush of early voting amid looming post-voting legal challenges. Finally, we look at the controversy over who is “real” Democrat in Chatham County and note some news you may have missed. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com
NEWS: SAPELO ISLAND
‘Catastrophic structural failure’
What combination of technical and human error led to the collapse of a crowded gangplank at a Sapelo Island ferry dock on Saturday and the deaths of seven people and critically injured others is unlikely to be known for months, if not longer.
What’s certain, however, is that the tragedy was felt far beyond Sapelo Island and McIntosh County, especially among the many residents of Coastal Georgia who claim Gullah Geechee ancestry and still have relatives and friends in the area. At worship services across the region on Sunday, they prayed for the dead, the oldest whom was 93, and the youngest, 73.
The Current’s photographer, Justin Taylor, initially received word of the gangplank collapse, which occurred on the same day of an annual celebration of Gullah Geechee culture.
Within hours, The Current’s Mary Landers, Susan Catron, Margaret Coker and Jabari Gibbs were as close to the scene of the tragedy as local sheriffs and police officers permitted, interviewing witnesses and piecing together the events before, during and after the 80-foot gangplank buckled.
As the scope of the tragedy unfolded, Taylor and The Current’s Liberty County reporter, Robin Kemp, worked the phones, gathering background information and reaction.
Kemp and Landers, who has written extensively on the Sapelo zoning fight, went on to report Sunday about questions over the gangplank’s instability that were raised in the weeks leading up to what one state official called its “catastrophic structural failure.”
EXPLAINER:ELECTIONS
‘Scary climate’
With legions of attorneys preparing to contest the results of next month’s elections, will 2024 be the year of the lawfare election? In her latest podcast, The Current’s Gillian Goodman explores the question with Nora Benavidez, a civil rights and free speech attorney at Free Press. The systems are operating working in a “scary climate in which it’s hard to even convince people what facts are and what truth is,” Benavidez tells Goodman.
Meanwhile, as of late Monday afternoon, the number of early, in-person ballots in Georgia had surged to 1.55 million, including 8,670 in Bryan County, 7,419 in Bulloch, 38,548 in Chatham, 9,360 in Effingham, 15,111 in Glynn, 7,401 in Liberty, 4,271 in Ware and 4,486 in Wayne, according to the secretary of state’s website.
What does it mean? Other than voter enthusiasm is running high, it’s hard to tell, a University of Florida professor says. And even as early voting sets records, fears of political violence over election results loom, with one federal judge saying he’s praying Americans accept the outcome and worried that Donald Trump and his allies are spreading the same sort of conspiracy theories that fueled the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
A new YouGov survey on poll workers finds that 39% of Americans think it is at least somewhat likely poll workers will attempt to tamper with the November election, though fewer think those attempts will be successful. A majority (55%) of Republicans believe this is likely, an increase from 45% in October 2022 about the following month’s elections. 34% of Independents and 28% of Democrats say the same.
NEWS:POLITICS
Not the real thing
“Real” Democrats don’t support Andre Pretorius, the Republican candidate for Chatham County district attorney: That’s the crux of a 147-word statement issued last week by the Chatham County Democratic Party.
Eager to discourage county Democrats from turning their backs on incumbent District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones at the ballot box, the statement, entitled “Democrats Supporting Republicans,” censures unnamed elected officials for “openly or informally” endorsing her Republican opponent, whom it also doesn’t name.
To discredit the alleged turncoats, the pronouncement’s authors echo the anti-Democratic Party rhetoric of Donald Trump and other hard-core Republicans by referring to them as “democrats” and “democratic leaders” — in other words, not the real thing.
Finally, the statement calls on party leaders to repudiate any actual or “perceived” endorsement of Pretorius and prove their loyalty to the party’s candidates up and down the ballot.
It’s unclear what prompted the declaration. CCDC chairman, Aaron “Adot” Whitely, who is also a Chatham County commissioner (District 6), didn’t respond Monday to a request for comment.
It’s widely known, however, that Savannah City Council members Linda Wilder-Bryan (District 3) and Detric Leggett (District 2), both Democrats, attended and spoke at a fundraiser for Pretorius at the Savannah home of businessman and philanthropist Greg Parker in August.
Also, a photo of Savannah Mayor Van Johnson figures prominently in a recent mass mailing by the Pretorius campaign, alongside a quote attributed to the mayor saying, “We need people who are going to prosecute crimes.”
In fact, Johnson, while critical of Cook Jones, as The Current’s Jake Shore has reported, hasn’t endorsed her opponent, nor is he likely to. Still, by using Johnson’s image and alleged words, the Pretorius campaign hopes to give permission to a sufficient number of Democrats possibly disgruntled with Cook Jones to cross over and vote for her Republican opponent.
ICYMI
- “Taylor Square challenge heading to Georgia Supreme Court” (Savannah Agenda, Oct. 18, 2024) “David Tootle, who claimed the renaming of the square violated state law, recently appealed the decision after Chatham County Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley dismissed the lawsuit against the city in July.”
- Donald Trump’s cancellation of his scheduled appearance at a National Rifle Association event today in Savannah was one of many. His website schedule has him at a rally on Saturday in Pennsylvania before a Turning Point PAC/Turning Point Action rally Wednesday in Duluth, Georgia.
- “Harris turns 60: How her age compares to past presidents” (Axios, Oct. 20, 2024) Kamala Harris “is older than the median age of a U.S. president (55) at inauguration. But she’s a political generation younger than President Biden (81) and her opponent, former President Trump (78), who would surpass Biden to become the oldest person ever elected.”
- “America’s Gullibility Crisis” (Axios, Oct. 19, 2024) “Human gullibility is not a new phenomenon. But social media and polarized politics are exposing it at industrial scale, fueled by a poisonous cocktail of bad actors, media illiteracy and plummeting trust in traditional news.”
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‘Catastrophic failure’ of gangway led to 7 deaths on Sapelo
The Georgia DNR Commissioner points to structural failure as a cause of the ramp failure that left 7 dead on Sapelo.
7 dead, 8 injured after Sapelo dock collapse
Seven people died and several others were seriously injured after a ferry ramp collapsed on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, a historic Gullah Geechee community.
Concrete suppliers get prison time for bid-rigging in Savannah area
According to court documents, the defendants colluded to submit bids charging uncompetitive prices and coordinated the issuance of price-increase letters to customers between 2010 and 2016.
Georgia hits 1 million mark in early voting
On Tuesday, the first day of the early voting period, more than 300,000 ballots were cast, starting the record momentum that has carried through the week and allowed Georgia to eclipse the 1 million mark on Friday.
Savannah man convicted on charges from Jan. 6 insurrection
Dominic Box was convicted by a federal judge, after waiving his right to a jury trial and declining a plea deal offered by prosecutors.
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