Let the Airing of Grievances Commence…
Back in the early days of Peach Pundit, when our readers didn’t have the bevy of social media sites to post their thoughts on and had to come here to find an online community – I think at one point there may have actually been a Peach Pundit MySpace page, but don’t quote me on it – we all looked forward to the annual Festivus (for the Rest of Us) open forum to air out the grievances of the previous year. If you’re unfamiliar with the traditions of Festivus, I’ll wait while you watch this short primer on the holiday’s history and traditions:
Looking back in 2024, there are many grievances that have been aired on Peach Pundit, and likely more that we grumbled privately about that never made it to the pages of Peach Pundit the Blog. Many others were also aired by Scot, Buzz, and Jason Pye, on Peach Pundit the Podcast.
Below are my Top Five Grievances for 2024. Feel free to air your own in the comments here on the Blog, or on the social media channels this post will likely be shared on:
- The State Elections Board Runs Amuck: throughout the year we saw time and time again that the State Election Board (SEB) looked more like a wholly owned subsidiary of the kooks at Georgia Republican Party rather that an independent state board created to promulgate fair rules and hold hearings on violations of state election statutes and rules. In the end, none of their controversial rules changes designed to game the election for Donald Trump stuck, but it was all for naught as Donald Trump won the presidential election in Georgia anyway. What did stick was the embarrassing behavior of several board members coupled with a near Machiavellian level of overreach that ignored both State law and well settled legal precedent by a group of unelected bureaucrats drunk on their own power. The Georgia General Assembly would do well to once again look at the organizational structure of the SEB and reform it before the courts have the opportunity to do so.
- The Volunteer Grandmothers Who Legally Got Runover by the Georgia Republican Assembly: When you want to know why so many people despise lawyers, you only have to look to the actions of Georgia Republican Assembly (GRA) President Alex Johnson. In advancing his and his organization’s (but I repeat myself) ridiculous legal theories positing that small group of leaders of a local Republican Party organization can decide for all of the Republican voters in a county who is and is not a true Republican, Johnson found willing proxies in Catoosa County to advance his ideas (and suffer the legal consequences). Several County Party organizations, including Pickens County, adopted similar rules, but did not enforce them like Catoosa County did. In an effort to cast the Catoosa GOP leadership as “victims,” the propaganda ministers of the GRA (namely the Darnells) have sought to cast them as poor, retired grandmothers who are just volunteering their time in serve to the GOP. The only reason Superior Court Judge Don Thompson didn’t throw them in jail for contempt of court was he believed they were relying on bad legal advice, presumably from Alex Johnson. After losing in both Georgia courts and the federal courts, the lawyers for the plaintiffs are now seeking attorney fees and court costs that will likely be in the hundreds of thousands…amounts that should not have to be borne by the retired grandmothers or the Catoosa GOP, but by the lawyer who put them up to it for his own personal crusade. Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon could have shown a little leadership by putting the GRA in its place, but that’s getting into my 3rd grievance…
- The Continuous Cowardice of the GAGOP Chairman, Josh McKoon: In any organization, the buck stops with the leader. There has been much said about successful and unsuccessful leadership. Winston Churchill once quipped, “Have enemies? Good. It means you stood for something sometime in your life.” Theodore Roosevelt added, “who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Even Jesus Christ condemned trying to walk the middle line so as not to take a stand, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” McKoon, who has been a darling of the GRA for years now, has stood by silently through the entire Catoosa County debacle not wanting to offend his GRA backers, attacked some Republicans for trying to uphold GOP values, while casting a mostly blind eye to the antics of former 1st Vice Chair Brian K. Pritchard (until he could no longer ignore them) and 1st District Chair Kandiss Taylor. Rumors are that McKoon is not planning on running for a second term as State GOP Chair (who knows? Maybe he has a job waiting as the newest Georgia advocate for casino gaming), but no announcement has been made yet. Admittedly, he will need to find someone who will continue to direct party funds for the legal defense of his mentor, David Shafer, and others, which likely totals over $2 million at this point. Of course, this doesn’t count the legal fees that the party has racked up over the SEB nonsense.
- Cobb County Commission Illegally Draws its Own Maps: Republicans were not the only ones who took bad legal ideas to court this year, and lost…the Democratic majority on the Cobb County Board of Commissioners did the same when they passed their own Commission Districts, superseding the maps drawn by the Georgia General Assembly. Never mind the federal courts in 2001 had agreed that the Commission could not draw it’s own maps…something we lawyers like to refer to as a “bright-line rule,” the newly elected Democratic majority eager to flex its new-found power on the Commission decided to throw out the maps in favor for their own. Eventually, Superior Court Judge Kelli Hill tossed the maps out as “unconstitutional” and the County finally decided not to appeal her decision. A new election has been ordered for the two Districts (2 and 4) for April 29, 2025. Qualifying for the elections occurred last week with nine candidates qualifying for the two districts. The Superior Court will also have to decide whether or not one of the two Commissioners keeps her office until her successor is elected. Incumbent District 4 Commissioner Monique Sheffield is running for re-election, but District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson was drawn out of her district and decided to run in the the Congressional District 6 Democratic Primary for Congress instead, losing to Lucy McBath. Her term ends January 1. As the County Commission continues to raise taxes and fees on Cobb residents, it should be a grievance of everyone in Cobb County that taxpayer money will be wasted on a special election that didn’t have to be but for the hubris of the Democratic Commissioners.
- Wither the County Parties: The once vibrant and active county party organizations, even the ones in blue metro counties like Fulton and DeKalb, have seen a decline from which they may not recover. In Cobb, where incumbent County Party Chair Salleigh Grubbs is term-limited, it does not seem like many are jumping at the chance to lead what was once one of the leading party organizations in Georgia. In the waning weeks of the 2024 election, taking her cue from McKoon, Grubbs was more focused on legal briefs than grassroots organization for get out the vote. The results were Trump increased his vote in Cobb by roughly 3,000 votes from his 2020 totals (168,679 in 2024 vs 165,459 in 2020 vs 152,912 in 2016) while Harris did almost 7,000 votes better than Biden did in 2020 (228,404 in 2024 vs 221,846 in 2020 vs 160,121 in 2016). It wasn’t much better in other metro counties where the metro Atlanta area, including the suburbs, were some of the few areas across the country where Harris outperformed Biden’s 2020 results. While the Party tries to take credit for Trump’s Georgia comeback, most who followed the ground game closely give the proper credit to Governor Brian Kemp and his political organization, as well as Kelly Loeffler’s Greater Georgia, and third party organizations like Faith and Freedom and AFP Action.
With grievances aired, it is now time to turn our focus to the feats of strength…now stop crying and fight your pundit! LET’S RUMBLE!!!
