Political Insider

This morning, Democrats pointed to state Rep. Rusty Kidd, an independent from Milledgeville, as the single lawmaker who stood between Republicans and a supermajority in the House.

This is the same Kidd who fended off a Democratic challenge from Quentin Howell last night. From their press release:

“Democrats won decisive victories and held the Republicans below the magic number of 120,” said House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams. “Rep. Rusty Kidd is an independent who does not caucus with either side, but represents Baldwin County that voted for President Barack Obama. House Democrats won the night in Georgia.”

House Speaker David Ralston scoffed at the claim of victory:

“Unlike the House Republican majority, House Democrats couldn’t protect their incumbents and didn’t win anything other than not losing as many seats as some thought they would. Only a loser would call losing winning.”

But Ralston may not have been the only offended party. Ray Henry of the Associated …

Continue reading Lawmaker considers switching, could give House GOP a supermajority »

The message from last night: The dynamics of Georgia politics haven’t changed much in four years. Republican Mitt Romney on Tuesday won this state (53.4 percent) by nearly the same margin as John McCain (52 percent) in 2008.

Here’s the county-by-county map of last night’s returns.

In fact, with the exception of D.C.-infected Virginia, Republicans won every state in the Old Confederacy, and a few border concerns besides. But 206 electoral votes won’t win you a presidency. Elsewhere, the GOP clearly needs to recalculate its audience and its message.

Republicans had bet the demographic changes measured in countless surveys and the 2010 census wouldn’t show up at the polls. They were wrong. The quick and simple from the Associated Press:

In exit polling Tuesday, voters mirrored the voting public’s makeup of four years ago, when Obama shattered minority voting barriers and drove young voters to the polls unlike any candidate in generations.

White voters made up 72 percent of …

Continue reading Your daily jolt: Republicans absorb Tuesday’s lessons »

Perhaps you thought that trip to the polls would settle the struggle for control over your kid’s education – the one waged between the public school establishment and the ladies and gentlemen who inhabit the state Capitol.

Not a chance.

The ballot issue to reaffirm the state’s authority to license charter schools, even over the objection of local school systems, enjoyed easy passage on Tuesday, confirming a new path for privatized education in Georgia.

But consider that vote a mere first volley. The next chapter, already being written, will be a vast melodrama with elements of revenge, naked assertions of power and – perhaps – some consideration of what’s best for more than 1.6 million kids who answer the bell each day.

Legislation is now being crafted to reduce the clout of Georgia’s 180 local school boards by making it easier for parents to seize control of individual schools.

And there’s the question of whether state School Superintendent John Barge, who …

Continue reading Charter school measure wins, but the fight has just begun »

If U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Augusta, has a little bounce to his step this morning, it could be that some number-crunchers have given him some hope that today may not mark the end of his congressional career.

As newly redrawn, the 12th District in east-by-southeast Georgia has an overall African-American population of perhaps 32 percent. Republicans have been calculating that a slightly depressed black vote, 30 percent or lower, might spell doom for the last white Democrat from the Deep South – and send GOP state lawmaker Lee Anderson to Washington.

Advance ballot stats place African-American participation in the 12 District contest at 36 percent, thanks to President Barack Obama’s name at the topic of the ticket, and a Richmond County sheriff’s race.

Statewide, African-Americans cast 34 percent of Georgia’s early ballots.

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Never mind that joke that caused such a fuss last week. We’ve gotten word that the Rev. Joseph Lowery, one of Barack Obama’s frontier supporters in …

Continue reading Your daily jolt: Signs that John Barrow might survive »

With the July primaries, Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office unveiled a new election night tabulation system that essentially allows you to customize the evening’s Georgia returns on your laptop — concentrating on the essentials and weeding out the gimmes, if that’s your choice.

But the system requires some practice, so Kemp’s office has created this five-minute tutorial. Practice, and enjoy the evening:

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

For instant updates, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on Facebook.

Continue reading Brian Kemp’s quick course in election night returns »

The tea party rift over Amendment One, the ballot issue on charter schools, has broken into the open.

To counter an appearance last week at an opposition rally by a member of Atlanta Tea Party Patriots, a top leader in FreedomWorks – a financier of the tea party movement – over the weekend endorsed the measure, which would reaffirm the state’s authority to create a charter schools over local opposition.

From Brendan Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns for the organization:

Continue reading Tea party rift shows up in charter school fight »

Updated at 5:15 p.m. to included comments from Calvin Moss, the Woodstock police chief.

Original: This embarrassing item just appeared on The Caucus, a New York Times blog:

In Woodstock, Ga., about 30 miles north of Atlanta, the president of a homeowners’ association sent an e-mail on Sunday informing residents that the entrance gates would be closed 24 hours a day beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, out of concern over possible civil unrest after the election.

“I feel it is better to take a position of caution to enhance controlled access to the community until we see what (if any) negative repercussions may occur because of the results of the election,” wrote Bill Stanley, the president of the homeowners’ association at the Cottages of Woodstock, a residential community for people 55 and over.

Here you thought zombies weren’t real. On the other hand, it does send an interesting message to the grandkids: “You’re on your own.”

The NYT quotes Stanley as saying that he was …

Continue reading Fearful of Election Day aftermath, a Woodstock community will lock its gates »

Tomorrow will mean the end of the road for either President Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. For others, including Gov. Nathan Deal, it’s the starting pistol for the 2014 campaign.

Over weekend, Deal addressed Republicans in Cobb County. One day after an AJC article poked at his decision to give a plum position to the wife of a top aide and six days after a tea party leader dissed his ballot issue on charter schools, the governor had an assessment of his critics. From Jon Gillooly and the Marietta Daily Journal:

Deal said he has a new term for bloggers who have lately been blasting him.

Gov. Nathan Deal, giving a recent speech in Gwinnett County. Bob Andres/bandres@ajc.com

“You know what I call those folks that do that kind of thing? I’ve come up with my own term. They are political arsonists,” Deal said. “They go out and say these things. They start a little fire over here, they go over here and start another little fire over here, and when the fire goes out on its own …

Continue reading Your daily jolt: Nathan Deal goes after ‘political arsonists’ »

Updated at 1:35 p.m.: Nearly 1.9 million votes have already been cast in Tuesday’s general election in Georgia — 35 percent of all those registered, according to figures released this morning by Secretary of State Brian Kemp.

But if you calculate a 70 percent turnout rate by 7 p.m. Tuesday, the number of early votes would tally more than half. (Turnout was 75 percent in 2008.)

Early voting in Georgia concluded on Friday. The most surprising number: Without an overt campaign in this state on behalf of President Barack Obama, African-American turnout for early voting matched the 2008 rate, at 34 percent of all advanced ballots cast.

In Georgia, that won’t change the outcome of the presidential race. Republican Mitt Romney will carry the day – but the number is sure to encourage Democrats as they cast their eyes toward 2014 and beyond.

This was noted by Gov. Nathan Deal on Saturday during an address to the Cobb County GOP. Said the governor, according to Jon Gillooly and …

Continue reading Black voters cast more than one-third of 1.9 million early Georgia ballots »

We are in a strange place when, days from a vote to pick an American president and – in Georgia – settle a statewide dispute over charter schools, political discourse is focused on a 91-year-old man attempting to explain a 50-year-old joke.

But that’s where a host of journalists and the Rev. Joseph Lowery had gathered on Friday, in a downtown Atlanta office building at the corner of Auburn Avenue and Absurd Street.

By definition, a dissected joke is a failed joke– no matter how reliable its service might have been in the past. The elder of the Civil Rights era knows this. Throughout his long life, he’s been something of a cut-up.

“I’ll say something at the beginning to relax people and cut through whatever hostility or apprehension there might be,” said Lowery, whose middle years at the height of the movement were fraught with hostility and apprehension.

This was the fellow who helped lead the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott in the ‘50s. He and Martin Luther …

Continue reading Joe Lowery and the history of a joke that failed »