Random Thoughts on Primary Election Day

I have just returned from the Liberty Precinct (yes, that is where I go to vote) and proudly cast my vote to re-nominate Barry Loudermilk for the U.S. Congress for Georgia’s 11th District, and I have had a whole bunch of random thoughts floating around my mind that I thought I would share. My son, Sam, got to vote in his first Republican Primary today.

Over the weekend the Georgia Republican Party held a state convention where they elected Amy Kremer to be the National Committee Woman to the RNC. Each state party gets to elect one man and one woman to serve in these roles where they represent their respective states in the national party. The role for the women had been filled for a long time by Trump loyalist and long time activist, Ginger Howard. The nominating committee at the convention was aware of her faults and recommended against electing Kremer, but the convention did it anyway.

You may have noticed there was a lack of coverage of the GAGOP convention on Peach Pundit and that’s because with one exception, our contributors didn’t go. For me it is the first one I have missed in the last two decades. If you need to know why I opted out, just look at the results for national committee woman and you have your answer. I am just tired of the divisiveness and lack of unity all for the support of someone who we should be collectively embarrassed to represent us.

The real story coming out of convention is that those of us who did not attend after being there every single time for decades could have held a parallel convention and filled the room if we had wanted to. I saw dozens of posts on social media from long time activists celebrating they were not in Columbus. One even texted me a group shot of them with a stuffed rhinoceros as they decided to hang out together far away from the Lowell of the South. These people certainly are not RINO’s, but decided to poke fun at those who would consider them as such.

The current crop of convention delegates are also the ones responsible for some of the insane ballot questions Republicans were asked during this primary. Including one that apparently was designed to stoke fear over the UN taking over the United States during a future pandemic. Another question was designed to gauge support for requiring people to re-register to vote periodically. One asked if public officials should be held accountable, as in thrown in jail, when illegal immigrants break the law. And yet another invoked imagery of evil, dirty, stinking lobbyists running the State Election Board (SEB).

Which brings me to the rail roading of Ed Lindsey, the recently erstwhile member of the SEB, by Republican activists. Lindsey is the former Majority Whip of the Georgia House and is now a partner at Dentons, one of the largest and most prestigious law firms in the world. Earlier this year in his capacity as an SEB member he voted against a non-binding resolution to call on the legislature to end no excuse absentee voting. That action angered the activist class and a fatwa on Lindsey was declared even though the resolution was a complete waste of time and public support for no excuse absentee voting is in the stratosphere.

Lindsey resigned his seat on the SEB last week and Speaker Burns replaced him with Janelle King.

But part of the fatwa can be seen on Republican ballots today in the form of question number 3: “Should the legislature ban registered lobbyists from serving on the State Election Board?” This is a direct shot at Lindsey, who recused himself due to a potential conflict of interest from three of the thousands of cases that came before him during his tenure. Activists pointed to those recusals as some sort of evidence that lobbyists cannot do the job when they were actually upset over Lindsey’s resolution vote. State law requires all kinds of people to register as a lobbyist, even if that is not how they earn their living. I, for example, have registered as a lobbyist even though I do not earn a living that way, but instead run a non-profit. Having a more nuanced understanding of the law, I voted no on question three, although because it lacked context I suspect I will be in a tiny minority.

Cherokee County, my home place, has become ground zero for the craziest of primary challengers. State Rep Brad Thomas, my successor in the House, is being challenged by a self-proclaimed exorcist. I am not making that up. I verified it directly before repeating the claim. Although, maybe the General Assembly could use a good exorcism… Long pause for day dream. I’m sorry. Where was I?

Cherokee County isn’t the only place where challengers have questionable backgrounds. In Henry, State Rep Lauren Daniel’s challenger is facing serious allegations of lobbying without registering as she has been to the Capitol so often lobbying legislators that a couple of House Members swore affidavits to that effect. Meanwhile over in Forsyth County Rep Todd Jones, one of the intellectual power houses in the legislature, has been covered with false attacks.

I was approached by The Josh Clark for State Senate campaign a couple weeks ago about a story that saw his opponent entering Clark’s home while he was not there. They provided me with edited security footage. I told them that I would write about it when they filed a police report, which they never did. I am mentioning it now because election day is half over and I doubt it would have an impact. The fact that no police report was filed indicates to me that there may be a reasonable explanation, but who knows?

When the polls close I will be clicking refresh every couple of minutes on the Catoosa County Commission races. The local GOP there participated in FA, and are now in the FO stage of their efforts to keep elected Republicans off the ballot there. I am eager to see if they actually have a pulse with regular GOP voters there.

Early voting turnout was very low which historically is bad for incumbents. But I am not seeing a massive shift in the GOP makeup of the legislature at this point. But this is Georgia politics, man, anything can and will happen.