Of three special election runoffs for House seats at stake today, by far the most interesting is the District 80 contest between Democrat Taylor Bennett, the former Georgia Tech quarterback, and J. Max Davis, the former mayor of Brookhaven.
The district went 56 percent for Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. Gov. Nathan Deal won it with 54 percent in 2014. African-Americans make up less than 20 percent of the registered electorate.
This should be a gimme putt for Republicans, but it’s not. Bennett, a local attorney specializing in discrimination cases, led the vote in the first round of voting in July. Since then you’ve seen every Republican of note, including U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Roswell and the governor himself, trekking to Brookhaven.
We've mentioned this race in connection with the gay marriage debate. But another reason the contest is deemed close is the fracture within the DeKalb County GOP.
At its July 30 meeting, some sort of fracas broke out that apparently involved much shouting. A mention of it comes by way of an Internet publication called the Georgia Weekly Post. Our AJC colleague Mark Niesse has turned up the incident report that was filed with Dunwoody police, five days later. It is bereft of details and doesn't look like it's going anywhere, but it speaks to the libertarian-establishment rift that has paralyzed the local party unit.
Then there's the statement that Republican Catherine Bernard, the third-place finisher in July, posted on her Facebook page on Monday. It included this:
Many of my Brookhaven neighbors expect me to support Taylor simply because he's not J. Max – never mind his vision of a Georgia government that spends even more and exercises even more control over our lives, and complete lack of commitment to working in local and state government before seeking office. If I could have endorsed either of these men, I wouldn't have had to run for state representative; I could have saved a lot of time and money by simply supporting one of them instead of enduring another campaign.
…. The sad part is that no one has even bothered to defend J. Max as a candidate, not even Nathan Deal: when the governor appeared in Brookhaven last week at a fundraiser, his entire speech was devoted to the importance of maintaining the Republican majority in the Fulton delegation….
Also on her Facebook page, Bernard said she cast a blank ballot this morning.
Meanwhile, the Libertarian Party of Georgia said it favored Democrat Taylor Bennett over Republican J. Max Davis this morning, though it stopped short of a full endorsement. From party chair Doug Craig:
We believe Bennett will support better ballot access and that J. Max Davis would fight against us. The Libertarian Party of Georgia is not endorsing Bennett but wishing him luck in this race as we look forward to working on ballot access during next year's session.
There has been some mention that a House GOP super-majority is at stake in the District 80 contest, but this is incorrect. If Davis wins, 119 members of the House would call themselves Republican. The GOP would still be one vote shy of a two-thirds majority vote.
We'll let the Macon Telegraph recap the details on the House race down in Middle Georgia:
About 2,201 voters already have cast their ballots in the runoff election, said Houston County's registration and elections assistant Beverly Nable. Of that number, 1,000 voted on Central Georgia Technical College's Warner Robins campus, and 1,201 voted at the board of elections, she said. Early voting ended Friday.
In the third House race, Clay Pirkle and Horace Hudgins are in the District 155 special election to replace Jay Roberts of Ocilla. As in the District 146 race, both candidates are Republican.
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Constance Henson, the 91-year-old mother of Senate Minority Leader Steve Henson, D-Tucker, will be buried today in a private ceremony, Senate spokeswoman Liz Flowers has posted on her Facebook page.
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Secretary of State Brian Kemp was on the ray-dee-o with Tim Bryant of WGAU (1340AM) this morning, to review the impact of his March 1 SEC primary and this past weekend's RedState Gathering. Listen here:
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In today's premium edition, we take a look at Sen. Ted Cruz's bet on the SEC Primary. A taste:
"This bus tour is all about building our grass-roots organization and our leadership team," Cruz said after his Huntsville stop. "And I have to tell you the energy and enthusiasm that we saw in Alabama and yesterday in Georgia and South Carolina is electric."
Cruz is not the only one, though: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is spending time in the SEC states. Left on the cutting room floor of this piece was a chat with Gainesville U.S. Rep. Doug Collins on why he got out early to sign on with Walker.
Collins said he first met Walker during his recall campaign and that the two have "similar values." He added that Walker believes in pushing incremental conservative gains, an unspoken contrast with Cruz, who is seen by many of his colleagues as more concerned with purity than lawmaking:
"And we understand it's a long term game. He understands it's a long term game. And we're not going to solve it overnight, but we've got to solve something and I think that's the part we're seeing here."
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Cruz also picked up an endorsement from Georgia Right to Life while he was in town. The group only backs lawmakers who refuse to allow rape and incest exceptions in abortion-related legislation.
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Trouble brewing, as former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is now running an IOU campaign. The Washington Post reports he's stopped paying his staff.
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A phone call with Fox News chief Roger Ailes appears to have ended the feud between Donald Trump and the cable news network. He called into Fox and Friends this morning. Steve Doocy begins the interview with: "Glad we're friends again."
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One of Ted Cruz's big endorsers in Georgia is state Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus. But as researcher James Carter IV noted on Twitter, McKoon also donated $2,000 to a Marco Rubio joint fundraising committee in January.
Update 11:20 a.m. McKoon replied on Twitter that Rubio is a "good man" but he's Cruz all the way.
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We may have another same-sex marriage debate on our hands.
State Sen. Josh McKoon said on Facebook he intends to push a version of the First Amendment Defense Act in January. It would ban the government from discriminating against individuals who cite their religious beliefs in believing that same-sex marriages are immoral.
It's separate from the "religious liberty" bill that kicked up plenty of controversy last year and the "Pastor Protection Act" that House Speaker David Ralston is championing.
The First Amendment Defense Act is not as sweeping as the controversial state laws passed in Indiana, Arkansas and elsewhere that created a right for private businesses to deny their goods or services to gay people or to same-sex couples. The bill is instead focused on actions the government may take — in particular, potentially revoking the tax-exempt status of churches and nonprofit religious groups or denying them government grants, contracts or jobs. Last week, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback issued an executive order making similar provisions in his state.
McKoon issued a challenge to his fellow Republicans in his post: "Every Republican in Georgia's Congressional Delegation has co-sponsored the First Amendment Defense Act. If Georgia's Supermajority Republican General Assembly fails to pass a state FADA in January, it will be clear proof that Elected State GOPers are to the left of our own U.S. Congressmen and Senators."
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Gov. Nathan Deal's decision to remove Confederate holidays from Georgia's official calendar did little to appease one of his harshest critics.
State Sen. Vincent Fort called him "the most racially insensitive governor since Lester Maddox." Those are harsh words given Maddox's segregationist views. He also said the same thing to CBS News, which elaborates here.
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Lost in the RedState Gathering shuffle late last week was this: retired U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss will be inducted into the Cooperstown of cotton next month, the University of Georgia's Agricultural Hall of Fame.
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