Georgia House Speaker David Ralston (R) named as one of his committee chairs a state representative who opposed the erection of a statue to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the grounds of the State Capitol and said the Ku Klux Klan made “people straighten up,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Rep. Tommy Benton (R) will chair the House Retirement Committee, which oversees the retirement funds for Georgia teachers and state employees.
“As a battle over the fairness of Georgia’s recent election for governor moves from the political arena to the courtroom, two men are locked in a runoff race, with far less fanfare, to oversee the future of the state’s election apparatus,” the AP reports.
“Republican state Rep. Brad Raffensperger faces former Democratic congressman John Barrow in a Dec. 4 runoff for Georgia secretary of state after neither garnered the more than 50% of votes required to win outright on Nov. 6.”
“John Barrow (D) picked up a surprising endorsement in his December 4 runoff bid for Georgia secretary of state: The third-place finisher who forced the race into overtime,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“Libertarian J. Smythe DuVal threw his support behind Barrow, a former U.S. House member whom he said was able to ‘fix Georgia’s broken election system’ and save tax dollars through a ranked choice voting system that would eliminate separate runoff elections.”
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ProPublica found that Georgia officials were busily fixing problems with its voter registration just hours after the office of Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for governor, had insisted the system was secure.
“Security experts frown on making such seemingly ad hoc changes close to major events, such as an election, because they can create unforeseen problems when made so quickly.”
“The state of Georgia has blocked all foreign internet traffic to its online voter registration site, BuzzFeed News has learned, a move that would do little to deter hackers but blocks absentee voters. The site, registertovote.sos.ga.gov, is accessible only to U.S. IP addresses.”
“The decision has outraged technologists and voting groups. In theory, it’s meant as a security measure, based on the idea that a person visiting the site is more likely to be a foreign hacker. But in practice, it has the opposite effect: Georgians abroad who don’t know how to reroute their internet traffic with tools like virtual private networks or Tor will be prevented from registering to vote.”
“In a meeting that lasted less than 60 seconds, a Georgia board of elections voted down a plan Friday to close seven of a majority-black county’s nine polling places ahead of November’s midterm elections,” CNN reports.
“Critics had said the plan to consolidate polling places in Randolph County, Georgia, was a brazen attempt to suppress the black vote in Georgia’s governor race, which pits former Georgia House minority leader Stacey Abrams, who is black, against Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is white.”
“The indictment last week of 12 Russian military officers is focusing new attention on election servers in Georgia that are currently embroiled in a lawsuit between election integrity activists and the secretary of state,” Politico reports.
“The activists, intent on proving that the state’s paperless voting machines are not secure and should be replaced, want to examine two state election servers to look for evidence that Russian hackers or others might have compromised them to subvert elections. But the state has been fighting them for more than a year, citing sovereign immunity from lawsuits and also insisting to the news media that Georgia was never targeted by Russian hackers.”
“Turnout among black voters soared in last month’s Georgia primary, a show of strength that could bode well for Democrats in this year’s contests for governor and other statewide offices,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“The number of black voters rose 43 percent in the May 22 election when compared with 2010, the last time there was a competitive race for governor. The data show the broad majority of African-American voters pulled Democratic ballots, which could bolster the hope of Stacey Abrams, who is racing to be the nation’s first black female governor. Her Republican opponent will be decided in a July 24 runoff between Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp.”
“At the same time, the proportion of white voters continues to decline. White voter participation in last month’s primary was down 9 percent from 2010.”
Politico: “After weeks of Brooklyn telegraphing a competitive race in traditionally red states and making public moves that look like initial investments — boosting staff, holding fundraisers, and promising more investments — Trump is now campaigning in Arizona, which has voted Republican in 15 of the last 16 elections, while his running mate goes to Georgia, a state that’s gone red in seven of the last eight cycles.”
“That’s a deployment of precious resources away from swing states that Trump must win to make the Electoral College math work in his favor.”
CBS News: “Hearing the words ‘Georgia’ and ‘battleground state’ in the same sentence seems almost inconceivable to modern political observers, for whom the Southern state has long been seen as a Republican stronghold on the national level. But the combination of Donald Trump’s candidacy and the long-shifting demographics of the state have some Democrats thinking it could finally be within reach—enough so that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is opting to invest additional resources into the state.”
“It would still certainly be an uphill climb for Clinton and her campaign, according to veteran Georgia operatives on both sides of the aisle. But it’s within the realm of possibility, a testament to just how much Trump as the Republican nominee has the potential to alter the map of true battlegrounds this fall.”
The HuffPost Pollster average shows Trump leading Clinton in Georgia 44% to 42%.
A new Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll in Georgia finds Donald Trump leading Hillary Clinton by four points, 45% to 41%.
Perhaps the most telling sign of all: Sen. Bernie Sanders polled higher than both in one-on-one matchups, winning a potential contest with Trump 47% to 42%.
A new Landmark/RosettaStone poll in Georgia finds Donald Trump barely ahead of Hillary Clinton in a fall match up, 41% to 40%.
The survey also shows more than a third of independent voters have not made up their minds about a candidate.
A new Landmark/WSB Georgia Poll finds Donald Trump leads with 39%, followed by Marco Rubio at 20%, Ted Cruz at 15%. John Kasich and Ben Carson “are hovering in the single digits.”
Trump is up seven points since the firm’s last poll released a week ago.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders, 70% to 23%.
A new SurveyUSA poll in Georgia finds Donald Trump leading Republicans with 45%, followed by Marco Rubio at 19%, Ted Cruz at 16%, Ben Carson at 8% and John Kasich at 6%.
A new WABE poll finds Trump leading with 41%, followed by Rubio at 18%, Cruz at 15%, Carson at 7% and Kasich at 7%.
A new Landmark/Rosetta poll in Georgia finds Donald Trump leading the GOP primary field with 32%, Marco Rubio at 23%, Ted Cruz at 19%, Ben Carson at 8% and John Kasich at 8%.
In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders, 72% to 20%.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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