At the same time an endorsement by President Donald Trump is roiling the GOP race for governor, a weekend appearance by Jeff Sessions, who commands the administration's Department of Justice, appears to have been downgraded.
Sunday will mark the start of a three-day summer conference on Jekyll Island for the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia. Originally, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was listed as the keynote speaker in a prime 1:15 p.m. slot on the first day of the program.
Aside from camaraderie among district attorneys, county solicitors and their staffs, among the primary purposes of the event are “continuing legal education” credits required by the State Bar of Georgia. For which attendees are personally billed.
And some, apparently, didn’t appreciate having to pay to hear Sessions.
A revision to the program was issued this week, with this note from Peter Skandalakis, the organization’s executive director:
"It's not every day we get to hear from the highest justice official in the nation. I know our group will be respectful to the USAG and his staff. While there may be some disagreement with some administration policies, I believe it benefits us all to hear opinions that may be different from our own. And, you can be confident PAC is handling the details to make this a great experience.
-- Sessions is addressing our group on Sunday; he is scheduled to be the last speaker. There will be a 15-minute break between our last conference speaker and Sessions' address which will allow you the opportunity to leave the conference center if you choose.
-- Attendance is voluntary CLE and POST hours will not be offered for this portion of the conference and no one will be penalized for leaving.
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Robert Faturechi is an investigative journalist who encountered Secretary of State Brian Kemp at a hunting lodge in Downs, Kan., in 2016 while he was reporting a story about how lobbyists court elections officials.
As he was at the one-story, wood-frame lodge, he reported at the time, Kemp mingled with corporate donors and secretaries of state from Kansas, Mississippi and Arkansas.
They also watched the second presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, unknowingly in the presence of a reporter. The debate came two days after disclosure of that recording in which Trump described his celebrity success with women.
Although the vignette didn't make it into his story, here's what Faturechi wrote on Twitter after Trump's endorsement of Kemp on Wednesday:
"I watched the post-Access Hollywood presidential debate with Brian Kemp at a Kansas hunting lodge. (He didn't realize I was a reporter.) He joked "Trump should have gone over there and groped her!" to a room of corporate donors and other secretaries of state."
Faturechi’s Tweet quickly gained traction online -- and the attention of rival Casey Cagle’s campaign. Kemp spokesman Ryan Mahoney was dismissive:
"Is anyone surprised that a liberal reporter who aims to destroy politically incorrect conservatives like Donald Trump and Brian Kemp is making wild accusations just days before the July 24 election? It's absolute nonsense."
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U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., on Thursday pushed back against the idea that President Trump's endorsement of Brian Kemp in Georgia's GOP gubernatorial contest represented a behind-the-scenes Perdue clan power play.
He said he stayed out of the GOP gubernatorial primary in order to “impact each person in the race about the issues I think are important” and that his first cousin, the former Gov. Sonny Perdue, has “been very busy being secretary of agriculture.”
“Sonny and I love the people of Georgia, and we respect them. We respect their judgment. The last thing we would do is to try to manipulate that,” he said.
Of his close ally Trump, Perdue said he was “surprised” that he endorsed ahead of the runoff but that he “makes up his own mind. He looks at races around. He’s a political junkie.”
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We're hearing of another Georgia figure who should be considered when looking for fingerprints on President Trump's endorsement of Brian Kemp: Ralph Reed.
The founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition was defeated by Casey Cagle in the 2006 GOP primary for lieutenant governor, derailing Reed’s plans for a political career. Reed has direct access to the White House -- and 12 years would make for an appropriately cold dish of revenge.
Moreover, you’ll find many veterans of Reed’s bid for lieutenant governor in Kemp’s circle.
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A call for calm: Some Republicans are getting increasingly worried that rhetoric in the GOP runoff may be crossing an invisible line -- and then some.
Shortly after Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle sent out an email to supporters headlined: “Kemp can’t beat Abrams,” state Rep. Sam Teasley pushed out a tweet of his own.
“C'mon folks... saying ‘my candidate is the only one who can win in the Fall’ is not helpful. I understand ‘my candidate is the most likely one to win in the Fall,’ but on 7/25, we will hopefully be united & you will wish those words weren't out there for all to see.”
The Marietta Republican, who supports Secretary of State Brian Kemp, told us he wanted to remind both candidates to be careful “about making statements they may need to walk back -- and Democrats should be careful what they wish for.”
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The Georgia Budget & Policy Institute, which casts a progressive shadow, is out with a report detailing the costs to local governments that come with cooperating under the federal government's 287(g) program. A taste:
Honoring federal detainers, non-binding requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest and hold a person, cost Georgia's local governments an estimated $88 million over the past decade, or about $9 million a year statewide on average. These costs stem from the fact that people with detainer requests are more likely to be held in custody rather than ticketed and released for minor offenses. They also tend to remain in jail for longer than people without detainers, since ICE often fails to promptly pick them up.
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The Henry County Herald reports that the city of Stockbridge has lost its first bid to block a referendum approved by the Legislature that could turn much of the city's territory into a new city of Eagles Landing. Stockbridge officials are promising to appeal the Thursday decision by Henry County Superior Court Judge Arch McGarity.
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A U.S. Senate confirmation vote for Georgia Supreme Court Justice Britt Grant, who has been nominated to a seat on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, could come very soon.
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Grant's nomination on Thursday, a week after Arizona Republican U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake lifted the hold he placed on her nomination due to unrelated trade issues.
Grant allies suspect a confirmation vote could be imminent, perhaps as early as next week. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has prioritized confirmations for President Trump's circuit court judges on the Senate schedule, and Grant now sits in the next group of nominees up for a vote. "I hope we'll (confirm) her next week," Georgia U.S. Sen. David Perdue said Thursday.
Expect the confirmation vote to be a partisan affair. Grant advanced out of the Judiciary Committee yesterday on a party-line 11-10 vote. Democrats did not speak about why they opposed her, but some offices later pointed to concerns raised by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights about Grant's tenure as Georgia solicitor general.
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One U.S. Senate confirmation vote that will definitely take place next week is for Robert Wilkie, President Trump's nominee to be veterans affairs secretary.
Georgia's Johnny Isakson, the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, had issued a statement urging Wilkie's confirmation "without delay" shortly after the Washington Post reported that the department's current caretaker secretary was "taking aggressive steps to purge or reassign staff members perceived to be disloyal to President Trump." Isakson, who backs Wilkie, said it was of the "utmost importance that any policy changes that impact the future of the department be made by a confirmed VA secretary who can be held accountable by Congress and the American people."
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U.S. Sen. David Perdue is now officially on board with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Perdue said he had the "strongest support" for the D.C. Court of Appeals judge shortly after their meeting yesterday.
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John Lewis danced on stage. Stacey Abrams got huge applause. Keisha Lance Bottoms recounted her tight election victory. And Democrats raised a trove of cash at the "IWillVote" gala Thursday in Atlanta.
It was the first of a series of events outside Washington to raise money for the 2018 campaign, part of an aggressive election effort to reach 50 million voters this year in part by highlighting Donald Trump’s presidency.
The event was opened by DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond, who gave a rousing endorsement of Abrams.
“I’m getting tired of saying she’d be the first black female governor,” he said. “We’re going to elect the best governor Georgia has ever had.”
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Congressional candidate Carolyn Bourdeaux is out with her first television ad less than a week before the Seventh District Democratic runoff. The 30-second spot describes how Trump's inauguration and the GOP's repeal and replace debate prompted her to run for office, as well as her desire for "affordable health care and a world class public education system." Watch the ad here. Bourdeaux faces David Kim on Tuesday.
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It's pretty safe to say that U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, has one of the most colorful opponents this campaign cycle. Democrat Steve Foster is the challenger in the deep red 14th District in northwest Georgia. He owns a "adults only, clothing-optional lifestyle retreat" in White County and was also involved in a bizarre boat theft case with the U.S. military in the 1990s. Now the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that Foster is representing himself in a drunken driving case.
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