The endorsement of GOP presidential candidate
Donald Trump by Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, on Wednesday has set off an epic battle in Iowa over evangelical voters.
The outcome could have a great impact on how Trump’s chief rival U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas fares in the South. The billionaire already has a heft lead in New Hampshire. Should Trump hang on in Iowa, he would have the momentum of two victories as the primary barrels into South Carolina and, after that, Georgia.
Here's the word from Ralph Reed, whose Faith and Freedom Coalition has focused on that state's caucuses, via the New York Times:
"Palin's brand among evangelicals is as gold as the faucets in Trump Tower," said Ralph Reed, the chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.
"Endorsements alone don't guarantee victory, but Palin's embrace of Trump may turn the fight over the evangelical vote into a war for the soul of the party," he said.
Here’s the video:
Palin's entry into the contest also guarantees the contest for Iowa will have the flavor of an internal uprising within the GOP. From a Des Moines Register account of a Tuesday evening appearance:
"This is what we have to remember in this very contested, competitive, great primary race: Trump's candidacy, it has exposed not just … the ramifications of that betrayal of the transformation of our country," Palin said. "But two, he has exposed the complicity on both sides of the aisle that has enabled it."
Many evangelicals, of course, are unnerved by Donald Trump. Among them is John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council. From a lengthy note Stemberger sent out this morning:
"This is a man who's been married three times, a man who owns casinos, has put in them strip clubs of all male revue. These are not mistakes. These are things he's openly proud of. He'd give us the first 'First Lady' who has posed openly nude multiple times. This is a highly questionable situation."
When you get Sarah Palin, you don't just get an endorsement. You get family drama. From the Washington Post:
The day before Sarah Palin offered her high-stakes, high-profile endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, her son Track Palin was arrested on domestic violence charges after a fight with girlfriend, who said she was concerned he would take his own life with an AR-15 rifle.
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A whopping 834 voters turned out on Tuesday in the special House District 58 election to pick a replacement for state Rep. Simone Bell of Atlanta. The result is a March 1 (primary day) runoff between Park Cannon (47.36 percent) and former state lawmaker Ralph Long (33.69 percent). Both are Democrats. Kwame Thompson finished third with 19 percent. The district includes parts of midtown and south Atlanta.
A runoff means this text exchange published Monday by Georgiapol.com, between Long and another, unnamed individual may have some life:
Other: "You aren't going to stay in the State Rep seat if elected?"
Long "Not longer than I have too. Been there done that. It just opened up. To be honest most of the issues that I want to change are local now. The State Rep seat gives me a larger platform to speak from."
Long: "It pays more too Alan."
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The Sons of Confederate Veterans is readying for a "battle" with Democrats who want changes to Stone Mountain.
The group sent out an urgent action alert to members Tuesday night about House Bill 760, a proposal sponsored by state Rep. LaDawn Jones, which would require the state agency overseeing Stone Mountain to maintain an "appropriate, inclusive and historically accurate" memorial to the Civil War.
It also appears to remove restrictions on government agencies from making changes to memorials so long as they are "historically accurate and appropriate. (Stone Mountain's role as a memorial to the Confederate war dead is enshrined in state law.)
The legislation riled up Georgia's SCV chapter, which has been the most vocal defender of Rebel symbolism in Georgia government.
"If we lose this battle, what will be next?" wrote Ray McBerry, a former leader of the group (and former gubernatorial candidate.)
Bear in mind that Jones, an Atlanta Democrat, has an infinitesimally small chance at moving her bill. As she herself has admitted. The AJC's Legislative Navigator gives her a 13 percent chance of success - and that may be vastly overstating it.
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Our AJC colleague James Salzer reports that, at a budget hearing on Tuesday, Secretary of State Brian Kemp assured lawmakers that criminals don't have the sensitive information of 6 million Georgia voters that was exposed in a massive data breach last year:
"I am no expert on data security, but my personal opinion is if that information had made it out to the bad guys, we would already have had some issues," Kemp said. "I am very confident that information never reached the public domain."
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Gov. Nathan Deal signed an executive order shifting $5 million more from his emergency fund toward the cost of water wars litigation.
That's just the start of the 2016 costs for the legal battle with Florida. Deal's aides predict the taxpayer tab will reach $10 million this year.
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Don't miss this latest collaboration between the AJC and the Georgia News Lab.
Records show that since taking office in 2005, Burns, who has supported legislation designed to increase transparency in state government, has not disclosed more than $77,000 in payments from Georgia's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to the agribusiness of which he is president and CEO. He also failed to disclose at least $43,000 in payments from his home county's school system, which, as a subdivision of state government, is subject to disclosure law.
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