Cobb GOP does a 180 and other reports from the County Conventions
Reports started coming in on Saturday of weak attendance around the state as County Republican Parties hosted their county conventions to pass resolutions, make rules changes, and elect delegates and alternates to the Congressional District and State Conventions.
As this is a Presidential election year, the convention process is only used to elect delegates to the Congressional District and State Conventions as party officers will not be up for election/re-election until next year. The delegates at the Congressional District level will elect three delegates and three alternate delegates to the Republican National Convention and the State Convention will elect the remainder of Georgia’s RNC delegation as well as elect/re-elect the National Committeeman and National Committeewoman who will represent Georgia on the Republican National Committee for the next four years.
While the lower stakes typically means less turnout (and fewer shenanigans), this past weekend saw turnout at anemic levels as attendance dipped to the lowest level in decades as many Republicans stayed away. I heard from many long-time Republican activists who, like myself, decided to skip the convention cycle this year.
Reports from Cobb County, which historically sees over 300 delegates attend, even in Presidential years, saw only about 180 attendees show up to elect the Cobb delegations to the state and Cobb’s congressional district conventions.
(PHOTO: Empty seats dominates the Cobb County GOP Convention on Saturday, March 23, 2024.)
Gwinnett County apparently didn’t do much better as 132 showed up. One Gwinnett GOP insider reported it was the lowest number in 15+ years.
(PHOTO: Gwinnett Republicans leave plenty of empty space in the pews at the Church where they held their convention.)
Fulton County was reported to have had 193, about 100 less than in recent convention years that saw attendance rise to high 200s to low 300s (380 attended the 2023 convention).
Reports also came in from Whitfield County where their County GOP Convention targeted, as Scot Turner noted, their Republican State Rep. with a censure resolution, the Convention also apparently decided it wanted to follow Catoosa County down the road to bankruptcy and passed their own so-called “Accountability Rule.”
Speaking of Catoosa County, where they are breathing a sigh of relief since Superior Court Judge Don Thompson has postponed this week’s hearing to give the Georgia Court of Appeals time to review the Catoosa GOP’s appeal, the 25 attendees, also a much lower than normal attendance, passed a resolution in support of State Senator Colton Moore and against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis DEMANDING Moore be reinstated by the Senate Republican Caucus. No word on whether his floor access in the House should be reinstated too, but Catoosa has the Congressional District and State Conventions left to have their additional demands be aired (and ignored).
While Scot continues to give State Party Chairman Josh McKoon the benefit of the doubt, giving him credit for trying “to walk the razor’s edge between a party taken over by activists hell bent on fighting Republicans on one side and trying to support Republicans in office on the other,” at a time where clear leadership is needed, I have no faith in McKoon, now almost halfway through his first term, to show the strong leadership that is necessary to change the direction the party seems bent on heading…a 180 from actually being focused on defeating Democrats and winning larger majorities for Republican candidates. It will serve McKoon right if the Georgia Republican Party is ordered to cover some of the legal costs in Catoosa based on the fact that the GRP had the authority under Party Rules and state law to rein in the tomfoolery, but has chosen to do nothing but show weakness. Having served on the State Executive Committee for 13 of the past 23 years, I can state I have seen strong leadership truly make a difference.
Of course, covering legal fees seems to now be the reason the Georgia Republican Party exists these days, so what does is matter if some more were to be added?
If you have any other reports from around the state, please leave them in the comments below.
This judge, Don Thompson, appears to run his court in a “make it up as I go” type of process. There were several things that appeared to be rather awry in his written orders previously that I am not going to enumerate at this time, BUT….one thing I cannot find in the 2023 Uniform Superior Court Rules is the process of a hand signature “by permission.”
What I am talking about is if you look at the last page of that Consent Order he issued regarding waiting for the Court of Appeals to review the case, there are 5 signatures, all by the same hand, where each lawyer’s signature has a note of “express permission” at the end of it.
Meaning, ONE person “signed” the name of each of the lawyers in the case.
I will link to the 2023 version of USCR below, but I want to bring attention in particular to their Rule 1.2. Authority to Enact Rules Which Deviate From the Uniform Superior Court Rules
[Begin Citation:] (A) The terms “local rules,” “internal operating procedures” and “experimental rules” will no longer be used in the context of the Uniform Superior Court Rules. Any deviation from these rules is disallowed. [End Citation:]
Here is a copy of the rules. Find me the part that says a judge can order someone to forge a lawyer’s signature:
https://georgiasuperiorcourts.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/UNIFORM-SUPERIOR-COURT-RULES-2023_08_24.pdf
With all due disrespect, you are an absolute dolt. If you could read further down the page than the length of your… neverminded. Let me cite it for you so you can see it:
Rule 1.2. Authority to Enact Rules Which Deviate From the Uniform Superior Court Rules
[Begin Citation:]
(B) Notwithstanding the expiration of local rules, internal operating procedures and experimental rules on December 31, 2010, courts may continue to maintain practices and standing orders to regulate the internal processes of the court in matters which are not susceptible to uniformity, which relate only to internal procedure and which do not affect the rights of any party substantially or materially, either to unreasonably delay or deny such rights. Such internal processes include but are not limited to case management, court administration, case assignment,…
[End Citation:]
If you would like to challenge the permission of the—PRINTED NAMES—on that document, I challenge you to contact the individuals implicated and submit your findings to the editor, so we can all see how wrong you are.
I appreciate that correction. However…there’s still an issue on that last page: They stacked-up the attorney names of Catherine Bernard and Jordan Alex Johnson within the same section as David Oles’ name, but they didn’t forge those two signatures.
So, since you are so brilliant, tell me, is it alright to stack the names of ANY attorneys on an Order, and NOT get their signatures on said order, forged or otherwise?
And, to one of your points, Jason, regarding Josh McKoon. He has the leadership abilities of, essentially, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. He brings nothing but political impotence to the State Chair position.
Of course, you cannot expect much from someone whose legislative hero is David Shafer.