Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024
Good morning! We start today with Donald Trump’s campaign stop in Savannah. We then look at students at a local high school walking out of classes to urge state lawmakers to take more steps to ensure school safety. Finally, we note some important things for your radar, including the referendum over zoning changes on Sapelo Island. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com
NEWS: ELECTIONS
Trump sets down in Savannah
Donald Trump is set to give a campaign speech today at Savannah’s Johnny Mercer Theater today starting at 1 p.m. The Republican presidential nominee’s visit comes a little more than three weeks after his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, made campaign stops in Hinesville and the Hostess City. Billed as an economics speech, Trump’s speech is sure to be much more. Here are three storylines we’re watching:
*Which Georgia GOP officials will attend? Those statewide and Coastal Georgia Republicans who have tied their political fortunes to Trump, starting with 1st District U.S. Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter, will likely be present.
But Brian Kemp apparently won’t be. The Georgia governor, whose ties to the former president are cool at best, will reportedly be on a long-scheduled trip to Pennsylvania to campaign for Republican Senate candidate there. As of last night, there were no indications he’s going to alter his plans to join Trump in Savannah.
Whether any of Kemp’s allies will be in attendance out of party loyalty — and concern about their status and future in the Georgia GOP if they fail to — is another matter.
• Who will Trump single out for praise? Trump’s speeches have often focused on his own political agenda, pet peeves and grievances. In this election cycle, however, he often has lavished praise on local officials and candidates. Will he do so with any Coastal Georgia politicians or candidates today? Chatham County district attorney candidate Andre Pretorius? County commission chair candidate Joel Boblasky?
And will he give another shout-out to the three Republican members of the State Election Board, whom he called “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory” at his most recent speech in Georgia, on Aug. 4 in Atlanta?
Election supervisors, some GOP officials, Democratic lawmakers and other board critics say the rule changes passed recently by the Republican-dominated board are hasty and could disrupt the fall elections in Georgia.
Speaking at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Saturday, Trump again said “Democrats cheat . . . that’s what they do.” That’s why, he said, his supporters need to produce a turnout in this fall’s elections “too big to rig.”
• How much will Trump aim his remarks at potential women voters? To prevail in November, the GOP nominee needs to minimize any loss of support among Republican women who may be dismayed about his wavering positions on abortion and reproductive rights — which evidently was on Trump’s mind when he wrote late Friday on his Truth Social media site, saying that if elected, “I will protect women at a level never seen before. They will finally be health, hopeful, safe, and secure. Their lives will be happy, beautiful, and great again!”
NEWS: PUBLIC SAFETY
‘You can tell’
For Cecilia Adams, the threat of being shot at school has been part of her life since kindergarten.
During her first school shooting drill in kindergarten at Marshpoint Elementary on Whitemarsh Island, one classmate wept inconsolably. “That thing was crazy,” Adams said.
Adams, now a senior at Savannah’s Herschel V. Jenkins High School, recalled her classmate’s anguish on Friday. She was one of some 800 students, out of about 1,100, who walked out of classes to hold a vigil in memory of the two students and two teachers shot and killed by a 14-year-old student at Apalachee High School in northern Georgia earlier this month, The Current’s Gillian Goodman reports.
The students stood silent for four minutes to honor the four dead from the shooting. Some of the student organizers then spoke, urging state lawmakers to reconsider the Pediatric Safe Storage Act, introduced last year by Rep. Michelle Au (D-John’s Creek) and co-sponsored, among others, by Rep. Carl Gilliard (D-Savannah). The measure died in committee.
The measure would require gun owners to “take steps that a reasonable person would believe sufficient to prevent the access to a readily dischargeable firearm by a child.”
Meanwhile, a generation seared by Parkland, Sandy Hook, Uvalde — and school shooting drills — bears the memories. They say they are “over it, said Cecilia’s mother, Lynn. “But you know, you can tell” it affects them, she said.
5 things for your radar
- McIntosh County voters are still set to vote in a referendum on Oct. 1 on zoning changes to Sapelo Island’s Hogg Hummock. As of yesterday, Superior Court Judge Gary McCorvey hadn’t ruled on the county’s legal challenge to the referendum. If approved by voters, the measure would repeal rules that allow larger, taller houses in the enclave. Residents fear the zoning changes would force out Sapelo descendants in favor of wealthy developers. Some 600 residents have already cast ballots in early voting, which has been underway since Sept. 9, The Current’s Mary Lander’s reports.
- Students set meets: Tigers for Harris, Dress for Success! at Savannah State University from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. SCAD Students for Harris/Walz starts Thursday, Sept. 25, at noon. at Savannah’s Forsyth Park. Click here for more information.
- Glynn County Dems hold their annual dinner on Friday, Sept. 26, starting at 6 p.m. at Queen & Grant, 1315 Grant St., in Brunswick. The featured speaker will be political commentator Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina state representative who practices law in Columbia. For more information, contact 912-208-2357 or email democrats@glynndems.org.
- Party in the Pines for state Rep. Jesse Petrea (R-Savannah) will be on Oct. 6 at 6 p.m. at the Forest City Gun Club, 9203 Ferguson Ave. in Savannah. Attending guests include Gov. Brian Kemp and House Speaker Jon Burns. For more information, contact cnewman@alcovepropertiesllc.com.
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Listen up! Podcasts from The Current
Welcome to episode one of Coastal Navigator, where we chart out our series course and begin our path to the Georgia General Election on Nov. 5. We’ll introduce you to Billy Wooten, director of Chatham County Board of Elections. We’ll chat with voters about why the process matters to them and also tackle some questions […]
In the wake of Apalachee shooting, hundreds of students walk out of Herschel V. Jenkins High School
The Jenkins students observed four minutes of silence, one for each life lost. Organizers then spoke, with somber speeches punctuated by chanting by hundreds of protesters gathered on the football field in support of gun reform.
Judge hears arguments on validity of Sapelo referendum
As McIntosh votes on repealing the zoning on Hogg Hummock, a hearing considers if the referendum is valid.
Q&A: Chatham County District Attorney candidates
Chatham County DA candidates give answers to same set of questions.
Commissioners: Midway will have to pay for Liberty County fire coverage
Midway “would have to come up with some kind of tax or fee or something,” Brown said, adding, “How they generate that money is going to be up to them.”
Hyundai’s water use: What does it take to build an EV?
Hyundai has made clear how much water it needs, but not how it will use this public resource.
Georgia board’s Trump loyalists OK rule to require ballot hand counts despite warnings by state AG
Opponents of rule expressed concerns over the added time-consuming regulations being imposed on election workers and that counting ballots after polls close for early voting would not protect ballot security chain-of-custody law.
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