Could Atlanta be in the running for second Amazon headquarters? (Cumming: to relocate, humid)

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate and Georgia state Senator Michael Williams of Cumming is actually one of the main underdog political figures in the GOP primary season that both the leadership of the Republican establishment and the state's business community are intensely worried about.

The Republican establishment and the business community are worried that Williams' relentless attacks on frontrunner and GOP and business establishment favorite Casey Cagle will take hold and allow Williams to overtake Kemp to get into the second spot in the primary runoff.

Williams viciously and repeatedly attacked Cagle to his face in the well of the Georgia Senate last week. As the frontrunner, Cagle can do very little, if anything, to respond directly to Williams' attacks because it will give Williams' the attention he needs to increase in popularity and move up in the polls into one of the two runoff spots.

GOP leadership and the business community are also deathly afraid that the attacks of Williams and others (like Josh McKoon) against Amazon will take hold and help deter them from picking Atlanta as the site of their second headquarters.

A major motivation for deeply conservative political figures like Michael Williams and (Georgia GOP Secretary of State candidate and outgoing Georgia state Senator) Josh McKoon (of Columbus) to want to deter Amazon from moving their second headquarters to Georgia because they fear that it will make the state's political environment less conducive to the political advancement of socially conservative causes like Religious Liberty as well as the election of deeply conservative political figures like themselves to statewide office by bringing in more politically and socially moderate voters into the state along with the likely increase in high-tech industry.

Ignoring this douchebag is probably the best move on Cagle's part.

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

I wouldn't say that it is meaningless, particular since a company is not consider a legal residence without having a major corporate and not just a warehouse located everywhere. An Atlanta corporate office would give Amazon federal diversity, and a right to file cases under federal authority. A warehouse presence would not grant federal diversity as a legal residence. Some of those unclear laws on internet transactions will allow easier access through Atlanta's local courts and an appeal process if necessary liability occurs. Nevertheless, Atlanta have some very big litigation attorneys, I think that help our chances.

You are right - it is not meaningless. My bad. But it is not as compelling as talent pool and number of dog parks for employee's pooches.

[Pemgin]

Casey Cagle sucks hard, too. Georgia is in a huge lose-lose situation when it comes to the next governor.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Pemgin

Casey Cagle sucks hard, too. Georgia is in a huge lose-lose situation when it comes to the next governor.

On the surface, one might think so. But I rather suspect that putting Cagle in office might result in Nathan Deal redux. Not a bad thing IMO.

[Pemgin]

Originally Posted by Iconographer

On the surface, one might think so. But I rather suspect that putting Cagle in office might result in Nathan Deal redux. Not a bad thing IMO.

That's the best case scenario. But, Cagle seems much more eager than Deal to fight the conservative culture wars, in which case it will be a losing battle for Georgia.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by Pemgin

That's the best case scenario. But, Cagle seems much more eager than Deal to fight the conservative culture wars, in which case it will be a losing battle for Georgia.

Ironically, hilariously, the hope is that Cagle's a big fat liar. That he's telling the right-wing base one thing in order to get elected, and then he'll actually be very moderate in his policies and pursuits as a governor. At least on par with Deal, or maybe even better.

In this state, crossing our fingers and hoping someone is a dishonest panderer is our best chance for progress. I guess I'll take what I can get.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Pemgin

That's the best case scenario. But, Cagle seems much more eager than Deal to fight the conservative culture wars, in which case it will be a losing battle for Georgia.

I dunno, Pemgin. Seems to me that he signed that Religious Freedom Pledge with a pretty shaky hand.
At the end of the day, he'll need the business community on his side...and that community is based in the ATL.

[arjay57]

How about former Navy SEAL Clay Tippins? Could he become a front runner? Tippins says he's not signing any religious freedom pledge.

Clay Tippins makes a Super Bowl-sized splash in Georgia gov race


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEKcd4-UIHE

[Pemgin]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Ironically, hilariously, the hope is that Cagle's a big fat liar. That he's telling the right-wing base one thing in order to get elected, and then he'll actually be very moderate in his policies and pursuits as a governor. At least on par with Deal, or maybe even better.

In this state, crossing our fingers and hoping someone is a dishonest panderer is our best chance for progress. I guess I'll take what I can get.

Originally Posted by Iconographer

I dunno, Pemgin. Seems to me that he signed that Religious Freedom Pledge with a pretty shaky hand.
At the end of the day, he'll need the business community on his side...and that community is based in the ATL.

I hope that I'm wrong and you all are right. He panders too hard to the far right for my liking.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Pemgin

That's the best case scenario. But, Cagle seems much more eager than Deal to fight the conservative culture wars, in which case it will be a losing battle for Georgia.

Just about everything that a candidate like Cagle says about fighting the culture wars (by advancing issues like Religious Liberty, etc) is lip service to the deeply conservative base voters that he needs at least some significant part of to get through the primary and the primary runoff process... A primary and primary runoff process that is going to be very bruising during the second year of the Trump era when base voters on both sides of the political spectrum are extremely energized and on the warpath.

One must keep in mind that Cagle is at heart a conservative moderate who shares a very close relationship with the state's domineering and fast-growing business community because Cagle himself was a business owner early-on, even after he got heavily into politics.

One must also keep in mind that Cagle beat the sweetheart of the national religious conservative movement, Ralph Reed, in the GOP primary on his way to winning his first campaign for Lieutenant Governor back in 2006.

Many religious conservatives are still peeved at Cagle under the surface because he did not drop out of the 2006 Lt. Governor's race and clear the way for the scandal-tainted Reed to advance his national political aspirations which many religious conservatives wanted to go all the way to the White House.

When Cagle talks about issues like Religious Liberty, it's pretty much because he has got to do so to win acceptance with the deeply conservative base voters that dominate the primary process and also because he leads a very-deeply conservative governing body in the Georgia state Senate in his position as Georgia Lieutenant Governor.

Originally Posted by Iconographer

I dunno, Pemgin. Seems to me that he signed that Religious Freedom Pledge with a pretty shaky hand.
At the end of the day, he'll need the business community on his side...and that community is based in the ATL.

This is an excellent point.

Cagle was extremely reluctant to sign the Religious Liberty pledge and even tried to avoid signing it by some accounts... Something which is not surprising given that Cagle is by far the preferred candidate of the state's business community for the 2018 gubernatorial election... A Georgia business community that simply abhors any debate of a highly-controversial Religious Liberty issue that they view as extremely harmful and toxic to the state's economic well-being and their own financial bottom lines.