The book won't hit the stores until later this month, but on Tuesday we were handed a copy of "Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change."
This is the pre-campaign tome of Stacey Abrams, one of two Democratic candidates for governor. We were able to read only a couple chapters last night, but can fill you in on a couple points:
-- This isn't a book intended solely to juice a political campaign, as many such works are. "Minority Leader" (Henry Holt and Company, $28) is intended to survive a political campaign, with a DYI emphasis. The publisher explains: "After each chapter are exercises created to help readers hone their skills and realize their aspirations." That's right. There's homework.
-- While semi-biographical, “Minority Leader” won’t necessarily help observers flesh out more current aspects of Abrams’ biography, such as the $50,000-plus payment plan she’s worked out with the IRS. But the former House Democratic leader is quite upfront about her lifelong struggles with finances. From Chapter Five:
"The problem was, though, I didn't have the financial literacy to understand the hole I was digging for myself. I hadn't learned much about money management ever. My parents taught me the value of education, the necessity of service, and the responsibility of keeping your word. However, I never saw them balance a checkbook, and I had no conception of the evil genius of the FICO score."
-- The marketing of “Minority Leader” fits a Democratic primary fight, but not necessarily a general election battle in Georgia. The publisher extols the book as “the handbook for outsiders, written with the awareness of the experiences and challenges that hinder anyone who exists beyond the structure of traditional white male power – women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and millennials read to make a difference.”
The book hits the shelves on April 24. No dates for Georgia book-signings have been scheduled yet.
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Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is increasingly trying to align himself with a popular GOP figure in Georgia as he runs for the state's top office. And it's not Donald Trump.
The GOP front-runner for governor debuted his second TV campaign ad this morning, tapping deeper into the more than $4 million worth of airtime he reserved earlier this year for the pre-primary rush.
This ad is somewhat of a departure from the first, which launched last month by keying on his immigration crackdown pledge.
This one invokes Gov. Nathan Deal as Cagle shares credit in the governor’s favorite talking point, an industry magazine’s designation of Georgia as the “No. 1 state in the nation to do business.” And he said that “working with Gov. Deal” he helped secure a state income tax slash.
That much is true, but you’ll recall that it was no happy arrangement. The governor initially didn’t support the tax cut but accepted it once a jet fuel exemption for Delta was included in the package. And Cagle effectively spiked that incentive in the brouhaha after Delta severed ties with the National Rifle Association.
The ad will run on Atlanta, Savannah, Macon, Augusta, Albany and Columbus markets on broadcast and cable; and on cable in Chattanooga, Tallahassee, and Jacksonville. See the ad for yourself here.
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Banking on a Republican desire for continuity, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle isn't just following Gov. Nathan Deal's on legislative accomplishments. We've told you about the breakdown between Blue Cross Blue Shield and Piedmont Healthcare that has cut off 600,000 people from being able to use their designated health care provider without incurring out-of-network costs. It's a big deal.
At 2:50 p.m. Tuesday, the governor announced that, for at least 30 days, the state would absorb the additional costs that state employees are saddled with. From Deal's statement:
"Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia and Piedmont Healthcare must return to the negotiating table, and Blue Cross Blue Shield must honor the contractual obligations made to the state."
At 3:15 p.m., a statement rolled out from Cagle’s office. In part:
"I call on Blue Cross Blue Shield and Piedmont Healthcare to immediately resolve this stalemate and honor the commitment made to the thousands of families who depend on their services."
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A month or so ago, we told you about the students at Pike County Consolidated High School, an all-black institution, who emptied into the street in 1969 to protest the way desegregation was being handled in their community. As punishment, all members of the Class of 1969 were denied their diplomas.
They finally received those diplomas last month, in large part to the efforts of a retired teacher, Geneva Woods – who, when we talked in February, was in the final stages of a bout with cancer. Woods died last night, we’re told. She was 84.
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President Donald Trump has issued a proclamation noting the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Historians will dispute these lines:
"We must actively aspire to secure the dream of living together as one people with a common purpose. President Abraham Lincoln sought to eradicate the senseless divisions of racial hierarchies when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Just over 100 years later, Dr. King continued this effort and called upon Americans to reject ugly impulses and prejudices, and to recognize the beauty and the humanity of all people, regardless of the color of their skin…."
It is the interpretation of Lincoln’s motivations that chafes, crushing another 150 years of effort into the more narrow action taken by a war-time president.
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Atlanta magazine has a Q&A with Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in its April issue. The most interesting quote:
"[T]here's still an enormous amount of racial distrust in this city. The divide is much more glaring than I thought it would be. Part of it was that it was such a negative campaign. There were so many narratives that were put out there that I think really are typical of narratives put out on African American elected officials: "You're all corrupt. You're all unethical."—these stereotypes. I was not expecting that in Atlanta. I especially wasn't expecting it as it relates to me. I guess putting it out there was not as surprising to me as the fact that so many people bought into it."
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The Red & Black student newspaper in Athens has a closer look at the general race between Attorney General Chris Carr and former prosecutor Charlie Bailey, a Democrat. From the story:
Bailey centered his campaign around his legal experience and according to David Shipley, UGA Law professor, this sets Bailey apart from current Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr on the level of experience. "Charlie has more hands-on experience in the courtroom than Chris Carr, who spent a lot of time as an assistant for Johnny Isakson," Shipley said.
