The Savannah Morning News is on top of a move by state lawmakers to put a casino on Hutchinson Island, a mound of very expensive dirt in the middle of the Savannah River. From the website:
But there appears to be a little confusion in the approach:
Ron Stephens, who was not at the luncheon, said later he did not believe legislation had to be introduced because Georgia's constitution already allows gambling through the Georgia Lottery.
***
If it's Thursday, then the 2018 race for governor must be underway. Proof can be found in an emailed assessment of election night take-aways by GOP strategist Joel McElhannon, an ally of Secretary of State Brian Kemp, that included this criticism of the Georgia's Republican lieutenant governor:
Almost bankrupting his campaign account, Cagle essentially tied other GOP statewide candidates like Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens, and others – all of whom spent very little and devoted their resources to support Governor Deal instead of just campaigning for themselves.
***
Over at our fancy premium site, we've teed up a post-mortem on how seemingly close races turned into a blowout. Here's a few gems you shouldn't miss:
"I've never seen so little street activity on Election Day in my life," he said. "Some of my biggest, hottest precincts, there was no activity, no street corner activity, no poll activity. They were running an Obama-style campaign without Obama. It's like doing 'Othello' without Othello."
Others worried that the party could be relegated to an afterthought if it ignores its once-fervent white base.
"We are struggling with people who look like me," said state Rep. Scott Holcomb, a white Democrat who survived his own tight race. "Republicans know they have to expand their base to include minority voters. And we need to do a better job expanding ours to include white voters."
...
Holcomb, for one, said one of the biggest mistakes was self-inflicted: a flier aimed at turning out more black voters that invoked the unrest in Ferguson, Mo.
"I was shocked the first time I saw it," Holcomb said. "I think many other white people had a similar reaction. And there was a lot of negative reaction in African-American communities, too."
***
In more Democrat postmortem news, here's the mayor in the New York Times:
"We needed to change the electorate," Mr. Reed said. He faulted the campaigns of Michelle Nunn, who was following in her father's footsteps in running for the Senate, and Jason Carter, a grandson of Jimmy Carter who was running for governor, for not spending more time and resources to register and turn out what he said were roughly 600,000 unregistered black voters in Georgia, and 200,000 unregistered Latinos.
Our AJC colleauge Jeremy Redmon caught up with DuBose Porter, chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, for a reply this morning:
"One, he (Reed) lent no hand to help with it. And, secondly, what we did to get the other 100,000 was phenomenal. What Stacey Abrams did was absolutely incredible. And the amount of resources that would have to be raised to do that is something Kasim was not willing to help with. Stacey Abrams raised $3 million through her group to do it. And it is simply a matter of cost and scale. But still I think we have the right message, whether you register that many more thousand or not.... At one point, he (Kasim) said you had to do that many in Atlanta. You don't have that many people in Atlanta. I think his numbers are way overstated. And I wish he had done more to help in this election."
***
Gov. Nathan Deal's re-election may have been expensive, but do not grieve for him. He's not penniless, according to this post at the AJC's Watchdog blog by James Salzer:
Deal's campaign took in more than $150,000 on Monday and Tuesday, Election Day, while Carter took in roughly $13,000 the day before the vote. On Election Day alone, Deal's campaign – which outspent Carter 2-to-1 – collected about $30,000.
***
Another money note on by Ken Foskett over at the Watchdog blog:
The San Francisco Ethics Commission reports that The American Beverage Association California PAC raised a whopping $8 million to defeat the measure. The top contributor to that PAC? Atlanta's Coke, which donated $5.8 million, according to MapLight, which tracks money in politics. (PepsiCo was the No. 2 contributor.)
***
Former state lawmaker Mitch Kaye is marveling over the current success of the former IBM employee and resident of east Cobb County who hosted Kaye's first "neighborhood coffee" when he ran for the state House in 1992.
On Tuesday, Thom Tillis ousted Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan in North Carolina’s race for U.S. Senate.
***
Rep. Jack Kingston seems a changed man since his grueling runoff battle. And since then, he's been playing the role of the dedicated party stalwart, stumping for Republicans across the state. He showed up in St. Simons last week to greet Gov. Nathan Deal's bus tour - surprising planners who didn't know he was coming.
We caught up with the Savannah Republican on election night, when he said something we haven't heard from him before: He gave (unsolicited) advice to his Democratic rivals. Said Kingston:
"If you look at Michelle Nunn, she was not able to show true independence from the national party. And historically the blue dog southern classic Democrat like Sam Nunn and Bo Ginn really could show some independence. They were there with their party many times, giving their party a numerical majority. But they also would vote with Ronald Reagan and whomever to exert some independence."
Among the mistakes she made, he offered, was getting out in front with support for raising the minimum wage and aligning herself with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on gun control. He added:
"She did not come out against Obamacare and yet there's so much to offer in Obamacare politically … If I was a consultant for the Democrat Party, I'd say study the third way. See what lessons can apply. And make elections local and personality driven as opposed to national and philosophical."
Kingston made clear he's still hungry to join the fray.
"Every time I watch a debate I have this put me in coach, gimme the ball feeling. I try to get over it. I'm struggling through that."
No word yet on whether the Democrats have offered him a consulting gig.
***
The Washington Post has an epic tick-tock on how Republicans won the Senate. Georgia is but a footnote, but Phil Rucker and Bob Costa's account does include more detail than we've previously reported on Perdue's bad meeting with the U.S. Chamber:
Seven minutes in, the meeting was over. Perdue spilled his bottle of water on the way out. A couple of hours later, he called Engstrom to apologize and asked for a do-over. But it was too late. The Chamber endorsed rival Jack Kingston, a longtime congressman, and stayed neutral in the general election.
And then there was the "outsourcing" damage control:
In the fallout, Perdue mangled his message. He kept trying to explain the mechanics of business and the intellectual rationale for outsourcing. Kevin Madden, who counseled Romney through similar pitfalls in 2012, flew to Georgia to re-brand Perdue. He coached the multimillionaire to channel everyday people's pocketbook concerns, trying to avert a potential disaster.
About the Author
