Shown, from left, are Jake Owensby, Joel Bourlet, Matthew Wolfe, Lily Turpin, President and Head of School Larry A. Peevy, Brooke Hayes, Zach Freeman, Teyrk Tilley and Head Pitmaster Tom Tilley. Not shown is Marc Crotta.
The Tallulah Falls School Pit Vipers competition barbecue team finished the 2021 BBQ season as repeat state champions (Georgia BBQ Championship Series), Reserve Champions for the Southeast (Rufus Teague Series), eighth place in the KCBS national team rankings (Kansas City BBQ Society) and World Junior BBQ League Champions. They are currently ranked No. 1 in the KCBS preseason 2022 rankings.
“I am so proud of the accomplishments of this group of kids,” says President and Head of School Larry Peevy. “I’m really enjoying my role as volunteer recipe taster/quality control sampler.”
The Pit Vipers had a very extensive barbecue travel schedule this season which included South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma. They finished the season with three Grand Championships, three Reserve Championships and 11 Top Ten finishes.
“We’ll take a well-deserved break and enjoy the holidays,” says Head Pitmaster Tom Tilley. The team returns to competition for the 2022 season on March 4 at the Sip & Swine BBQ Festival in Lawrenceville.
The TFS Pit Vipers include sophomores Brooke Hayes of Cornelia, Matthew Wolfe of Clarkesville, Joel Bourlet of Tallulah Falls, Marc Crotta of Cornelia, freshmen Jake Owensby of Cornelia, Teyrk Tilley of Tallulah Falls and Zach Freeman of Clarkesville. The TFS Pit Viper dessert maker is freshman Lily Turpin of Demorest.
All this month I promised we would feature great cookie recipes for holiday baking. I had to renege on that when my niece, the baking queen in our family, shared this recipe. The flavors of cranberry and orange together are scrumptious and perfect for this time of year.
Even though they aren’t cookies, I’m adding these to my own baking list for Christmas. I can not wait to taste them!
Ingredients:
Streusel Topping
½ cup flour
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp orange zest
¼ tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
¼ cup butter, chilled
Batter
½ cup butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
¼ tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 tsp orange zest
1/8 tsp salt
2 cup fresh cranberries
2 Tbls coarse sanding sugar
1 cup flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 8×8 pan, line with parchment or spray with Baker’s Joy.
Whisk together melted butter with eggs, vanilla, sugar, zest and salt. Gently stir in cranberries and remaining flour until moistened and mixed. Spoon into prepared pan. Sprinkle with sanding sugar & top with streusel.
Bake until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean, 45-50 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Cut into ¼” squares.
Recipe notes
*I add a dash of nutmeg, allspice, and cloves anytime I make these.
*Reserve part of the batter flour and roll those cranberries in it. Flour helps them to not sink to bottom of pan.
*I added a splash of orange juice in the last batch I made (maybe 2 Tbls, tops) and it gave it an extra citrusy-sweet edge!
*I never make the 8×8. I double it and do a 9×13 pan. Trust me, you’ll want to do the same. These get gobbled up pretty quickly!
Editor’s note: My food pictures never turn out like this. Guess that’s what happens when you are not just a baker but also a professional photographer:)
Gov. Brian Kemp originally unveiled his plan to reshape Georgia’s private insurance market back in 2019. (Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder)
(GA Recorder) — Advocates are calling on the public to weigh in – again – on the governor’s plan to bypass healthcare.gov.
Gov. Brian Kemp’s health care proposal would divert consumers looking for insurance to a privately run process. His plan was approved by the Trump administration last year but is now being scrutinized by the Biden administration, which is reviewing all previously approved state health care waivers.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reopened Georgia’s waiver for public comment in November. The deadline to submit a comment is Jan. 9.
Advocates from groups representing a range of constituents, from immigrants to rural, low-income residents, panned the proposal in a virtual event Tuesday hosted by the Cover Georgia coalition.
“The plan was not a good fit for Georgia when it was proposed in 2019, and it’s an even worse fit for our state now,” said Martha Shockey with the left-leaning Indivisible Georgia Coalition. “Gov. Kemp’s plan dismantles the most widely used and only unbiased place that consumers can shop for comprehensive coverage.”
The advocacy groups are urging people to take time during the busy holiday season to contribute to an official record that they hope will help doom the plan.
This part of Kemp’s health care proposal also sparked opposition during the public comment period last summer, including from those who said they found the state’s replacement plan confusing.
“Georgia’s choosing to leave consumers on their own to navigate this incredibly varied, very complex network of qualifying plans and subsidies,” said Abbie Fuksman, representing the Jewish Community Relations Council of Atlanta. “There’s simply no way for a consumer to do a direct apples-to-apples comparison, while also being informed about what government subsidies and other options are available.
“There is right and wrong, and purposely causing people to have less access to their care choices is about as wrong as wrong can be. It is time to speak up,” Fuksman said.
The governor’s office has criticized healthcare.gov as being clunky and difficult to use. The Kemp administration has also defended his health care proposal and accused federal officials of trying to backtrack without justification.
“CMS already conducted a comprehensive and robust analysis and approved Georgia Access, and there have been no relevant changes since then to either the governing legal framework or the nature of the program,” Grant Thomas, director of the governor’s Office of Health Strategy and Coordination, wrote in an August letter to federal health officials.
Thomas said state officials were concerned about the feds’ apparent disregard for “the significant investments” from the state and others to “facilitate a seamless implementation.”
State officials have brushed off requests from the Biden administration to provide more information on how recent changes on the national level, such as increased funding for outreach to enroll people, would affect the proposal. The Kemp administration has instead notified federal officials that Georgia intends to move forward under its earlier approval with plans to launch in 2023.
But the 1332 waiver plan includes another provision creating a reinsurance program that has been more favorably received.
The 1332 waiver is separate from another one being held up by the Biden administration that would allow slightly more people to sign up for Medicaid but only if they satisfy work or other requirements.
A sign at the University of Georgia encourages students to get their vaccines. A vaccine mandate for employees and contractors who do federal work there and at Georgia Tech will be temporarily blocked following an order from a federal judge in Augusta. (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
AUGUSTA (GA Recorder) — A federal judge in Augusta has temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate set to go into effect for federal contractors next month.
The decision, which will have a nationwide impact, comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Attorney General Chris Carr, Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black and the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents and leaders from six other states.
U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker of the Southern District of Georgia agreed with the plaintiffs that President Joe Biden’s mandate exceeded the White House’s constitutional authority.
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr outlined their plans to challenge the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate last month. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder
“Even in times of crisis this Court must preserve the rule of law and ensure that all branches of government act within the bounds of their constitutionally granted authorities,” the Trump-nominated judge wrote. “Indeed, the United States Supreme Court has recognized that, while the public indisputably ‘has a strong interest in combating the spread of [COVID-19],’ that interest does not permit the government to ‘act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends.’”
Kemp celebrated the news on Twitter.
“Georgia is now 3 for 3 in our fight against Biden’s unconstitutional vaccine mandates!” Kemp posted. “This nationwide injunction for federal contractors will provide necessary relief to many Georgians who were in fear of being forced to choose between this vaccine and their livelihood.”
Biden signed the executive order instituting the mandate in September. Originally, contractors and those who work “in connection with” them had until Dec. 8 to be fully vaccinated, but the deadline was later pushed back to Jan. 18.
Tuesday’s order comes on the heels of decisions by other Trump-nominated federal judges in Missouri and Louisiana blocking a vaccine mandate for health care workers.
In Georgia, the debate centered on public universities, which receive hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts each year. In order to keep that money flowing, the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech told workers they would need to comply with the mandate in October.
Other public schools would not have been affected, said American Association of University Professors Georgia chapter president Matthew Boedy.
“While I am disappointed the legal process has taken this turn, there was already limited benefit to college campuses in Georgia as only a few had contracts that forced the vaccine mandate,” he said. “While I believe many of my fellow faculty and staff are fully vaccinated, this mandate would have pushed more to get the shot, and so made those schools more protected. Hopefully many had already gotten a shot and those who are scheduled to because of the mandate will follow through despite today’s ruling.”
For now, workers who have not gotten the shot are off the hook, but this decision is not the end of the story, said Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis.
“The administration will appeal to the 11th Circuit for sure,” he said. “It’s hard to say what the timing will look like. My guess is that they’re going to try to get this up to the Supreme Court as quickly as they can so that they can get some kind of national resolution because if the whole goal is getting folks vaccinated, particularly in the wintertime and particularly as these new variants are popping up, they’re not going to want this to linger for weeks on end.”
The high court has ruled on vaccine mandates in the past. Late last month, they denied an appeal from Boston hospital workers who did not want to be vaccinated, and the month before, they blocked a similar push in Maine, but the order out of Georgia is based on different circumstances than those cases, Kreis said.
“The court has really been hesitant to touch the state level, liberty-based claims,” he said. “That might be somewhat of an indication that they may be somewhat hesitant to overturn the Biden administration’s requirements, but at the same time, the nature of the claims are slightly different, and so they might find some light in between them in order to deal a blow to the Biden administration here.”
Theron Downey Bryant age 89, of Gillsville, entered heaven in the early morning hours of Tuesday, December 7, 2021.
He passed away peacefully in his sleep at his residence. Downey was born November 10, 1932, to the late George Dewey & Mary McGinnis Bryant of Murrayville. He was preceded in death by his twin brother, Dean, sister Jane Coleman and brother, Jack. Downey served his Country in the United States Air Force having served during the Korean War era. Downey was very talented and enjoyed machine shop work. He trained at Northeast Georgia Technical College in Clarksville and went on to teach machine shop classes at the MDT Center in Gainesville. He retired in 1994 from the US Postal Service after a number of years of service in the Gillsville Post Office. Downey, along with his wife, Carolyn, was a charter member of Pine Grove Baptist Church, now known as Emmanuel Community Church, where he taught the Adult Men’s Sunday School Class for a time and served as a Deacon for 25 years.
Survivors include his loving wife of 67 years, Carolyn House Bryant; son, Bobby (Charlotte) Bryant; daughters, Jan (Rick) Eckert & Karen (Paul) Montecalvo; brother, Sidney Bryant; Grandchildren, Austin Montecalvo, Dylan Montecalvo & Kellen Vanhook; great-grandchild, Peyton Vanhook; a number of nieces & nephews also survive.
Funeral services honoring Downey will be held at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, December 9, 2021, at the Emmanuel Community Church, Gillsville (formerly known as Pine Grove Baptist Church) with Rev. Seth Harvey & Rev. Kip Wright officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery with Rev. Sam Henderson officiating. Downey will lie in state at the church from 2:00 p.m. until service time. The family will receive friends in the church fellowship hall after the burial service.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Hospice of Northeast Georgia Medical Center, 2150 Limestone Parkway, Gainesville, GA 30501.
Please share online condolences with the family at www.wardsfh.com. Ward’s Funeral Home is honored to serve the family of Theron Downey Bryant.
The Habersham Sheriff's Office's float had a "Mele Kalikimaka" vibe, with surfboards and flamingos decorating a tropical float. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
The Habersham County 2021 Christmas parade was a success, with more than 50 groups participating.
Many participants decorated their vehicles, parade attire and lights around Christmas movies, this year’s parade theme. Lighted cars and parade floats had beloved Christmas movie characters waving to crowds, like the Grinch and his dog Max, Buddy the Elf, children on the Polar Express and the Peanuts gang around Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree.
The Cornelia Fire Department’s Ladder 2 truck was covered with Christmas lights. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
Apart from themed floats, public safety vehicles were dressed up with Christmas lights and decorations to showcase their holiday spirit. The Baldwin Fire Department showed off their ladder truck with a real flame that burst from the side as it drove down Main Street, and Habersham County Sheriff’s Office members walked along with their float.
The parade began at 6:30 p.m. at Cornelia Elementary School and made its way to the Big Red Apple. A video of the parade will be available from Now Habersham in the near future.
Aubrey Higgins with parents Sarah and Dee Higgins during his recent signing. (photo by Lane Gresham)
On Tuesday afternoon at Tallulah Falls School, senior Aubrey Higgins of Cornelia signed his letter of intent to pursue his academic and baseball career at Berry College.
The Berry Vikings are located in Mount Berry, GA, and reside in the Southern Athletic Association as a member of NCAA Division-III.
“We are very excited for Aubrey to join our program next year at Berry College,” says Berry baseball coach David Beasley. “He is a tremendous talent on the mound and we look forward to him growing as a pitcher at the next level. I would definitely like to thank Coach [Justin] Pollock for all of his help during the recruitment of Aubrey.”
Last season, Higgins anchored the Indians’ rotation, as we sported a 5-2 record with a 4.45 ERA, striking out 78 batters in 50.1 innings of work. He was a vital part of the school’s first state playoff team that put up a program-record 13 wins last season. His 7 career wins is first in school history, as is his single-season 78 strikeouts and single-game mark of 12 strikeouts set last season.
“Since middle school, Aubrey’s passion for baseball, for his teammates, and for developing into a respected young man has been a joy to watch,” says TFS Athletic Director Scott Neal. “His dedication to skill development, to offseason training, and to his peers as a consistent leader has earned him the ability to continue playing the game he loves while earning the respect of those around him.”
Higgins marks the seventh TFS baseball player to sign to play at the college level, and makes it a third year in a row that the Indians have had a college signee.
During their meeting on Dec. 6, the Clarkesville City Council decided to table until next year the ordinance governing liquor stores in the city. Voters approved package sales in November. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
The City of Clarkesville decided to table voting on a package sales ordinance at their Dec. 6 meeting until early 2022 as they continue to discuss their plans for the ordinance.
The city’s voters approved the sale of distilled spirits within city limits during the Nov. 2021 municipal election, and while the city has the ability to start selling on Jan. 1 if an ordinance is in place, the council isn’t worried about having the ordinance done by the first of the year.
City Attorney Janney Sanders discusses the drafted package sales ordinance with the Clarkesville council. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
Clarkesville city attorney, Janney Sanders, and city manager, Keith Dickerson, have worked together to lay out a draft of the ordinance over the past few months, but the council hasn’t put their final touches on it.
“I think we should take our time with this,” Councilman Steven Ward said. “We need to look at a map and make sure [we agree with] where Keith has outlined and maybe just go out and drive to see where these locations would be.”
The council needs to decide on specifics of the ordinance, such as how many stores will be allowed within city limits, store inventory minimums, where liquor stores can be located, licensing fees and other specifics that will designate how liquor stores would populate the city.
Councilwoman Roxie Barron expressed her concerns that the number of liquor stores in the city needed to be controlled to preserve Clarkesville’s historic charm. Barron also shared that she believes the city doesn’t need more than two liquor stores, and that letting demand control where, and how many, liquor stores came to the city wasn’t wise.
Councilwoman Roxie Barron shares her concerns about preserving Clarkesville’s history in the ordinance. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
“We just got the historic designation,” Barron said. “I think we need to really focus on maintaining some of our quaintness and our [history], rather than saying the market is going to control it. I don’t always trust the market.”
State laws indicate that liquor stores cannot be in residential zones, and must be 100 yards away from churches and 200 yards away from schools. The council seems to be in consensus that they are not interested in allowing liquor stores in the historic downtown area.
The council plans to further discuss the ordinance at their work session, and vote on an ordinance in February.
The City of Cornelia Commission held their monthly meeting and a budget public hearing Monday night, during which they discussed their 2022 budget and amendments to their alcohol ordinance.
The commission held a public hearing for their 2022 budget, during which no members of the public voiced questions or concerns relating to the budget during. Mayor John Borrow encourages any citizens with questions or concerns regarding the budget to contact City Manager Dee Anderson or City Financial Director Melanie Chandler.
The commission will consider the adoption of the 2022 budget at a special called meeting at noon on Dec. 20.
The Cornelia Commission also voted to post amendments to the city’s alcohol sales ordinance to allow for the package sale of distilled spirits after citizens voted to allow liquor sales in the Nov. 2 election. The amendments allow the city control of licensing, taxation, regulation of and sale of liquor in Cornelia.
Liquor stores in Cornelia will be limited to setting up shop along the city’s highway business district, away from Downtown Cornelia and the historic district, according to the ordinance amendments. The city will not allow liquor stores to open within 500 yards of any other business selling alcohol, and per state laws, cannot exist within 100 yards of a church, 100 yards of an alcohol treatment center and 200 yards of a school.
The establishing fee to open a liquor store in Cornelia would be $5,000. The city will hold a public forum for the alcohol sales ordinance at their Jan. 4 meeting.
Mary Geneva Anglin, age 84, of Gainesville, entered heaven Monday, December 6, 2021, at her residence surrounded by her family.
Geneva was born September 25, 1937, in Gainesville to the late Vestel & Ruby Tanner Brown. She was retired from CWT Farms where she worked as an egg grader. She was a member of Springway Baptist Church but had attended Pond Fork Baptist Church for close to 30 years. She was preceded in death by her husband, Melvin Anglin; brother, Jimmie Brown; brother-in-law, Junior Baugh.
Survivors include her kids, Glenda (Dennis) Turpin & Gene (Loraine) Anglin; grandkids, Keith & Linda Turpin, Corey & Amy Anglin, Jessica & Clair Anglin; great-grandchildren, Ashley & Sammi Turpin, Ansley & J.J. Anglin, Kaylie, Trinity & Matthew Fletcher & Haden Ellis; great-great-grandchild, Bryson Turpin; sisters, Jerry (Sam) Lewis, Carolyn Baugh & Margie (James) Willis; sister-in-law’s, Bonnie Brown & Gwen Pierce; a host of nieces & nephews and other relatives also survive.
Funeral services will be held12:00 p.m. Thursday, December 9, 2021, at the Ward’s Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Johnny Knight & Rev. Chris Hulsey officiating. Burial will follow in Springway Baptist Church Cemetery. The Family will receive friends from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.
A special heartfelt thanks to Natasha Wohlrab, Jennifer Day, Rosa Rencos, Kerry Nolan and the rest of the Northeast Georgia Medical Center Hospice Team.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Hospice of Northeast Georgia, 2150 Limestone Parkway, Gainesville, Georgia 30501.
Please share online condolences with the family at www.wardsfh.com. Ward’s Funeral Home is honored to serve the family of Mary Geneva Anglin.
Former Sen. David Perdue, pictured in 2020 with his wife, Bonnie Perdue, will run in the GOP primary against current Gov. Brian Kemp. (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
(GA Recorder) — Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue has joined the race to become the state’s next governor, setting up a bruising primary against sitting Republican governor Brian Kemp before the eventual victor can challenge likely Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams.
“It will be like a cage match,” said University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock. “World heavyweight title on the line. There will be no holds barred, I suspect. They were friends, and the story is – probably accurate – that the Perdue cousins were instrumental in getting President Trump to weigh in on behalf of Gov. Kemp in the Republican runoff in 2018, but now that they’ve broken, they’ll be unrestrained, and there’s an awful lot at stake.”
Back in 2018, Kemp, then the secretary of state, styled himself as a political outsider in President Donald Trump’s mold, and the president’s endorsement helped ensure his victory over then-Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, the establishment pick in that year’s Republican primary.
But a lot has changed since then, and Kemp has found himself in the crosshairs of the former president after Trump’s narrow 2020 loss in Georgia, and he now faces what could be the first serious primary challenge for a sitting Georgia governor in a century.
Perdue publicly announced his candidacy Monday and received Trump’s official endorsement on the same day.
“The last time I think there was a really serious one, certainly the last time that a sitting governor was denied a nomination was 100 years ago in 1922,” Bullock said. “Thomas Hardwick lost the Democratic primary to Clifford Walker. The big issue was the Ku Klux Klan. Hardwick opposed it, Walker was a member.”
For about 30 years ending in the 1970s, Georgia governors could not run for a second term. Since that changed, no sitting governor has been seriously challenged from within his own party, Bullock said.
Trump issued a pair of statements Monday, praising Perdue and condemning Kemp in equal measure. The former president has vowed to help defeat Kemp ever since the governor refused to overturn last year’s election results.
Gov. Brian Kemp stood with Sen. David Perdue shortly after Perdue qualified to run for reelection in 2020. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder (file photo)
“This will be very interesting, and I can’t imagine that Brian Kemp, who has hurt election integrity in Georgia so badly, can do well at the ballot box (unless the election is rigged, of course). He cost us two Senate seats and a Presidential victory in the Great State of Georgia,” Trump said.
Kemp’s campaign scoffed at the idea that the governor was responsible for losing Georgia’s two Senate seats. In a tweet, Kemp’s communications director Cody Hall accused Perdue of “Blam(ing) your two election losses on someone who wasn’t even on the ballot, but did dozens of campaign events/fundraisers for you.”
A referendum on 2020
When it comes to policy, there are not a lot of differences between Kemp and Perdue, said Amy Steigerwalt, a political science professor at Georgia State University. The distinction between the two, she said, comes down primarily to their relationship with Trump and the 2020 presidential election.
“It lays bare the fact that this is not about policy right now, it’s not truly about what is the best path forward in many ways for the country, it’s about what does it mean to be a Republican,” Steigerwalt said. “Does being a Republican mean that you adhere to conservative policy positions and values, or does it mean that you support former President Trump, including his accusations of fraud? And that’s not a great place for the party to be.”
Republican strategist Brian Robinson agreed that the primary race is shaping up to be a referendum on 2020.
“It’s a fascinating battle royale, and it’s going to potentially divide the party right down the middle based on how you view the 2020 election,” he said. “I mean, Perdue told us that today, he wants the election to be about the 2020 election, and Brian Kemp wants the election to be about Perdue not winning his runoff, about the stock portfolio issue, et cetera. So I think we’ve gotten a preview already of what the campaign is going to be. It’s going to be personal. It is going to be vicious.”
Perdue, who served one term in the Senate, could be a dangerous opponent for Kemp – at least according to a survey funded by Trump’s Save America PAC, which found a Trump-endorsed Perdue could have the upper hand in a primary against Kemp.
And even if Kemp pulls through in the primary, the governor can’t be happy having to spend time and money fighting off Perdue rather than Abrams, Steigerwalt said.
“Now there is going to be a terribly nasty and brutal Republican primary that is going to leave scars and wounds, festering, bubbling, horrible open wounds, I think, not only on whoever wins, but on the party and its ability to then reunite for the general election,” she said.
And while both GOP candidates will have the incentive to play to the base in the primary, pushing too far to the right could haunt the nominee in the general election when more moderate swing voters become important.
“The more that both of the candidates feel that they have to run to the right to try and not just shore up sort of the hardcore base, but the QAnon base, to bring in the Marjorie Taylor Greene voters out in the 14th, the more they feel they have to do that during the primary, the more difficult it’s going to be for them to win the general election,” Steigerwalt said.
And Trump himself will likely prove to be a more dangerous foe to Kemp than Perdue, Bullock said. Kemp has so far been unwilling to return the former president’s barbs.
“What we’re going to see is Trump following through on his policy, which has been to try to do everything he can to prevent Brian Kemp’s renomination,” Bullock said. “Can you continue to turn the other cheek, turn the other cheek, turn the other cheek?”
If Perdue clinches the primary, he could have a hard time winning back moderate voters who favor the GOP but dislike Trump, Bullock argued.
“He’s not going to be in the position like Glenn Youngkin was in Virginia, where Youngkin was not wrapped in Trump’s cloak,” he said. “If David Perdue gets the nomination, he’s going to be very much wrapped up in Trump’s cloak and not be able to separate himself from Trump.”
Kemp’s status as an outsider – this time from the Trump wing of the party rather than the establishment wing – could help him in the general election, but only if he gets that far, Bullock added.
“If he makes it to the general election, then he doesn’t bear the stigma of being Trump’s candidate, which might cost him among that critical electorate, but can he get to that stage?” Bullock said. “Certainly, he’ll have plenty of money. He’s got power. He’s got influence as the governor of the state, so it’s not like he has no tools.”
Abrams watching the fight
Perdue started off his announcement video Monday with a jab at Abrams rather than Kemp, but he didn’t hold back from attacking his former ally.
“I’m running for Governor to make sure Stacey Abrams is never governor of Georgia,” he said. “Make no mistake, Abrams will smile, lie and cheat to transform Georgia into her radical vision of a state that would look more like California or New York. To fight back we simply have to be united. Unfortunately, today we are divided and Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger are to blame.”
Raffensperger has consistently pushed back against allegations he mismanaged the election. He did so again Monday.
“I made sure we had honest elections, and I’ll continue to fight that because I think people want people who hold high office to have integrity,” Raffensperger told reporters Monday after a Rotary Club of Atlanta meeting. “Integrity counts. It always has and always will.”
Democrat Stacey Abrams, who came within about 55,000 votes of defeating Kemp in 2018, announced her plans to run again last week. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder (file photo)
Abrams, who came within about 55,000 votes of defeating Kemp in 2018, announced her plans to run last week. It’s likely that very few Georgians were happier to watch Perdue’s announcement video than her, Bullock said.
“She gets to sit back and watch her opponents beat each other over the head for a while,” he said. “Bring out the popcorn.”
Abrams’ campaign said as much Monday in reaction to the news.
“While David Perdue and Brian Kemp fight each other, Stacey Abrams will be fighting for the people of Georgia,” her campaign said in a statement. “Both Kemp and Perdue would deprive 500,000 Georgians of health coverage that our taxpayers already paid for. Both would continue to underfund our schools, both would continue to divide Georgia and both would continue reckless decisions that have endangered the lives of Georgians during the pandemic.”
Not all Republicans are worried about a hard-fought primary leaving their candidate weakened against Abrams, though. Take Cobb County GOP Chair Salleigh Grubbs.
“I don’t necessarily see it as a bad thing,” she said. “I think there are people that want options, and now they have an option.”
As a county chair, Grubbs said she cannot support one of the two candidates until the primary is over. The Cobb GOP censured Kemp earlier this year for not carrying out campaign promises concerning illegal immigration.
“Of course, it always enters one’s mind,” she added. “The more that’s spent in the primary, the less resources you have in the general, so that’s a concern with every race. We have that situation in the 6th District, but I think there are a lot of Georgians who will get behind Perdue just like I think there’s a lot that will get behind Kemp.”
Grubbs said she will welcome the opportunity to take another look at the 2020 election results.
“We definitely have to look forward, but we have to look at the things that need to be fixed,” she said. “I for one am for hand-marked paper ballots. I think the Dominion system is flawed. There are many, many, many people who believe the same way, and in order to get confidence in the election for 2022, there are going to have to be some changes.”
Numerous investigations have found no evidence of widespread voting fraud in Georgia or elsewhere during the 2020 election, and three tallies of the vote confirmed Biden’s win. Still, state lawmakers passed a bill this year that they say will secure future elections, but Democrats say the law makes it harder for Georgians to vote, especially minorities.
And there are many factors that would favor a Republican in this race, Robinson said. Typically, the party in power loses during midterms, Democrats tend to have more problems getting out the vote in non-presidential years, and President Joe Biden’s approval ratings are far from enviable. Those factors will still be in play after the primary, he said.
“I do not deny that the Democrats are united at a time when Republicans are divided,” Robinson said. “But barring a runoff, the Republicans are going to go into the general election in an environment that is historically bad for Democrats. We don’t even need a 10-point swing like they had in Virginia or New Jersey, we need a much smaller swing than that here.”
“The crux of what the nominee, whoever it is, must do is not lose the educated metropolitan voters who abandoned the Republicans for the Democrats in the last few cycles,” he added. “Those people want to come home. Those people are mad about the inflation. They’re mad about how Biden is running the country. They’re mad about schools, and all of those issues are huge net positives for whoever the Republican nominee is. So the question becomes, can the party unite and mend after the primary? And that’s an answer I don’t have at this juncture.”
Georgia Recorder Stanley Dunlap contributed to this report.
Baldwin Police Chief Jeff Branyon has returned to the city after a two-week intensive public safety leadership training in Israel.
Branyon trained alongside Israel’s police executives, Georgia police chiefs and command staff, sheriffs, the director of the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council and a Georgia Bureau of Investigation assistant director.
The training program in partnership with the Israel Police was held by the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange’s (GILEE), a research center within Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. The research center’s goal is to enhance public safety by “nurturing partnerships within and across public law enforcement agencies and the private sector.”
“Acknowledging the more than 700,000 American police who have served on the front lines during an unprecedented pandemic and period of social unrest, GILEE’s delegates learned more about strategies to successfully lead ongoing, nonstop law enforcement services while building stronger, safer and better community relations through community policing,” the GILEE said in a press release.
Baldwin Baldwin Police Chief Jeff Branyon (front, center) was involved in a two-week intensive public safety leadership training in Israel. (Photo: GILEE)
More than 1,100 public safety officials—most from Georgia—have participated in the program in Israel. More than 40,000 have attended additional GILEE trainings, briefings, seminars and workshops in Georgia and around the world.
“Trying to describe the meaningful impact of participating in the GILEE delegation to Israel to others is no small task,” said Chief Janet Moon of the Peachtree City Police Department, president of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, and a GILEE delegate in 2015. “Observing how the Israeli Police interacted with people very diverse from them was inspirational. The Israeli Police embraced this diversity within its own ranks as well. I found the experience very rewarding in a way that led me to expand upon my commitment and resolve to utilize principles of community policing.”
