Hillary Clinton checks her email. Associated Press
Two thoughts crossed many Republican minds when personal emails from the Democratic National Committee were hacked and then leaked: Glee at a jaw-dropping embarrassment for their political nemesis, and horror that the same could happen to them.
GOP strategist Seth Weathers, a former state director for Donald Trump in Georgia, is among the GOP strategists warning clients not to be complacent. Here’s a snippet from his memo to clients:
"You may be thinking that you are not a former Secretary of State or a Presidential candidate. While this certainly decreases the chance that you become a target, it doesn't mean that it won't happen to you. Emails do not have to deal with national security or deeply personal items to be damaging if released. Sometimes, if for no reason other than not causing personal hurt to others."
A sense of queasiness is gripping much of Washington, too, after former Secretary of State Colin Powell saw his personal musings highlighted in news reports. Some are deleting their email accounts, giving up their smartphones or scrubbing their archives of indelicate details.
The latest hack could well spur a new rash of email deletions across the country as millions of people scan their sent mail for anything compromising, humiliating or career-destroying. It adds to the sense that everyone is vulnerable.
The soul searching is happening with a special urgency in Washington, where email accounts burst with strategies, delicate political proposals, gossipy whispers and banal details of girlfriends, husbands, bank accounts and shopping lists.
A television news anchor said that producers and staff members at her network had jokingly agreed at a morning news meeting to issue blanket apologies to one another if their emails were ever made public.
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County sheriffs and their deputies have one response to Gov. Nathan Deal's proposal to raise state law enforcement pay 20 percent: What about us?
Our AJC colleague Craig Schneider reports how a range of local officers are pushing for more funding for their own salaries.
Gov. Nathan Deal. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM
Then there was Gordon County Mitch Ralston, who took an opposite tack in an open letter sent to Deal’s office.
“In the end, it’s all about trust and relationships. I trust the people hired by the state to do their job of helping me do my job when help is needed. I maintain the relationships I have with them so as to better serve the people of Gordon County,” Ralston wrote. “Again, congratulations to Gov. Deal for recognizing the needs of Georgia’s state law enforcement officers. Enhancing their services can only make Gordon County a safer place to live, work and raise our families.”
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The Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor Ebenezer Baptist Church, is having second thoughts about his decision not to run against Republican U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson.
"I'm not afraid of Johnny Isakson," Warnock told CNN. "I'm not interested in a symbolic candidacy. I would've run to win."
U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Jim Barksdale. (AP Photo/Branden Camp)
He's not the only Democrat to lament passing up the chance to take on Isakson the same year Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket. Jim Barksdale, a little-known investment manager, stepped in to fill the void – and he now badly trails Isakson in most polls.
Barksdale, however, trails Isakson by 16 points in a Monmouth University poll released Monday, even though Donald Trump is up only 3 points ahead of Hillary Clinton. Georgia is looking increasingly like a missed opportunity for Democrats trying to win back the Senate — and many fault Barksdale himself.
"We were giving a godsend, I believe, with Donald Trump," said Barksdale supporter Leonard Ware as he waited for the candidate to speak in Gwinnett. "If we had a stronger candidate, we could've taken that Senate seat."
For national Democrats, Barksdale's disappointing bid is part of a broader trend facing the party that came into 2016 with a favorable map of Senate races.
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