Jekyll Island watchers: Deer-baiting program delayed by race for governor?
You may be able to count Bambi among those praying for a runoff in Georgia's race for governor.
In July, a move by the Jekyll Island Authority to cull the state park’s deer population was taken off a meeting agenda, with a promise to quickly revisit the bait-and-shoot operation.
The proposal still hasn’t resurfaced. “Just asking around, it appears that a lot of phone calls have gone into the governor’s office,” said David Egan, co-founder of the Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island State Park. “Now, nobody’s talking about it.”
Egan and his co-founder wife, Mindy Egan, oppose the operation, noting that deer-baiting is otherwise illegal on public lands -- as you can tell by the above photo sent by Mindy Egan.
The deer-baiting proposal was again a no-show on this month’s agenda of the authority. David Egan said he suspects that the JIA is waiting until after the governor’s race is finished, so that Republican incumbent Nathan Deal isn’t caught in the crossfire.
***
Speaking of a gubernatorial runoff. Libertarian Andrew Hunt is asking you to see it not as an extra four weeks of TV ads, but as a liberating experience. From his Facebook page this weekend:
Your vote is currently your only control over government. The governor's race will be a runoff, which means each person is free to vote for the candidate best representing what he or she wants government to be."
***
The Legislative Black Caucus, a thoroughly Democratic group, has a 10 a.m. sit-down today with Brian Kemp, the Republican secretary of state, to discuss his investigation of the New Georgia Project for instances of voter registration forgery – and 51,000 registration forms that the group says have gone unprocessed. An 11 a.m. press conference in the state Capitol to follow.
***
The Washington Post has awarded a maximum four Pinocchios to a U.S. Senate ad running on behalf of Republican David Perdue, which claims Nunn's Points of Light Foundation "gave money to organizations linked to terrorists." To wit:
On top of that, the claim that Nunn "funded organizations linked to terrorists" is utterly bogus. She did not fund any such organizations; neither did Points of Lights. Islamic Relief USA has no links to terrorism and in fact has been embraced by the White House — which is why eBay continues to list it as an approved charity.
***
The first word we got about Michelle Nunn's 2 p.m. event today at the state Capitol came last week - from Republicans. Which is not surprising, since GOP officialdom controls the space.
A host of the Democrat's female backers plan to target Republican David Perdue - we're guessing it has something to do with this stalled equal-pay legislation in Washington. If so, the GOP has already counter-programmed.
Shortly before Nunn's event, House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones and state Rep. Lynne Riley will join local tea party leader Julianne Thompson and other Republicans to demand that Nunn "be truthful with Georgia voters."
Oh, and neither candidate will be there. Call it surrogate central.
***
Republican insider Eric Tanenblatt reports that eight Republican candidates for U.S. Senate, four men and four women, will drop through Georgia this week, now that Congress is in recess, to boost Republican David Perdue's lead in the polls.
Meanwhile, Republican trackers caught up with Michelle Nunn in California, where she was attending a fundraising event at Sen. Dianne Feinstein's place:
"What are you guys hoping to get out of this?" an aide for the Democrat says as Nunn enters the house.
***
Want proof that Democrat Jason Carter is trying to shore up the Jewish vote?
A tipster passed along an invite to the candidate's parlor meeting on Sunday at a Sandy Springs eatery featuring Jewish machers, including banking bigwig Joel Arogeti, businessman and former Senate candidate Michael Coles and party insider Jeremy Berry.
"Learn for yourself why Jason Carter is the best leader for Georgia on issues important to us all, including US - Israel strategic cooperation and Georgia - Israel economic cooperation," intones the invite, which also includes a link to Carter's statement on Israel.
His November opponent, Gov. Nathan Deal, has tried to make inroads with Jewish voters (and evangelical Christians) with a recent trade mission to the Holy Land and an op-ed with former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton on strengthening cybersecurity ties between the two governments.
***
If it's good enough for the NFL, it's good enough for a federal judge who was arrested for allegedly beating his wife in an Atlanta hotel room:
Sewell released a statement on Wednesday comparing Fuller's fate to that of the NFL players who are accused of the same crime: "If an NFL player can lose his job because of domestic violence then a federal judge should definitely not be allowed to keep his life-time appointment to the federal bench. It is my hope that Judge Fuller would spare us the expense and further public humiliation by doing the right thing and resigning."
***
From the Just-Because-It's-Interesting Department: Andy Miller at Georgia Health News reports that Georgia researchers may have found the reason that male children have a much higher rate of autism than female children:
The researchers have found that the expression of estrogen receptor beta is significantly decreased in autistic brains. The receptor also plays a role in locomotion as well as behavior, including anxiety, depression, memory and learning.
About the Author
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
