By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | When you anticipate running for political office, you can never tell what may throw any well-planned campaign off the tracks.
Most statewide offices are not up for grabs this year. Only the contest for a seat on the Public Service Commission is on the ballot, statewide, this year. There are three candidates for that six-year term.
But in 2018, most statewide offices will be on the ballot, including the governor’s race. With current Gov. Nathan Deal now in his second term, he is not eligible to succeed himself.
Most Georgia political watchers fully expect Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle to be a candidate for governor. He has been in office as the 11th lieutenant governor of Georgia since 2007. By the end of his term, he will have served 12 years in that office.
Yet this year’s “religious liberty” bill may derail the lieutenant governor’s chances.
Here’s why: While some raised a surprised voice when Governor Nathan Deal vetoed the bill, the state of Georgia has come out in good stead by the governor’s action. People across the nation are seeing Georgia as we think it is, relatively moderate and progressive, somewhat in keeping with modern times.
Compared to other Southern states where questionable new has caused quite a stir, Georgia is in good shape. Mississippi and North Carolina are now feeling the brunt of their governments by recently-passed legislation.
Cagle
Already Lt. Gov. Cagle has sided with the “religious liberty” element by wanting the bill brought back up in the next legislature. By aligning himself with this more extreme factor of the Georgia electorate, the lieutenant governor could be setting himself up for failure in the next governor’s race. We think far more Georgians would not want to see him in office if he champions false liberties such as this.
Perhaps in the next two years, Casey Cagle will re-think his position, and put himself on the side of the moderate (and we think majority) element in Georgia, and disavow this contentious and un-needed legislation.
After all, that religious liberty idea is already protected, we feel, in our First Amendment to the Constitution, which succinctly starts out: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
That says it, as far as we are concerned. We need no further interpretation, nor legislation.
THAT MARCH PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY in Georgia? Remember, Secretary of State Bryan Kemp championing this early date so as to put Georgia more in a spotlight in choosing the eventual presidential nominees? There was a good turnout, with high interest.
However, now with both major political parties appearing headed to a contested political convention this year, that early presidential primary is being questioned.
For instance, what if instead of voting for president in early March, Georgia was having the presidential primary on the Georgia primary date, on May 24? Coming toward the end of the presidential hullabaloo, instead near the start, and with May 24 being just a few weeks before the big California primary in June, wow! Georgia would be in the thick of political circles.
Was that March primary smart? Maybe not so much so.
One more thing: with not many local races on the political ballot on May 24, had the presidential primary been held on May 24, it would have brought out many more voters than came out in early March. As it is, there is an expectation that the upcoming primary may see a meager turnout and impact some local races.
NEW SUBJECT: We continue to be amazed at the way the Donald Trump candidacy garners attention. The current issue of The New Yorker magazine has nothing but Trump cartoons in this issue, except for one drawing by their late cartoonist William Hamilton, who died last week. It’s as though each cartoon artist had at least one Trump cartoon idea, so they bunched them together. Amazing!
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