Atlanta and the 2018 GA election: Straw poll results from GOP gubernatorial forum

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by jero23

Religious Freedom Bill will poison the well for any true economic development that will continue to attract the most talented of the young professionals. Georgia will be in the same boat as North Carolina...

I think that whether Georgia experiences any economic harm or how much economic harm Georgia experiences will depend on what kind of religious liberty legislation is pushed forth and how the religious liberty debate unfolds.

I like the comments that Lt. Governor Casey Cagle made a few days ago that while he promised to push for a religious liberty bill that mirrored the federal RFRA that was passed into law in 1993, he also would not tolerate or promote discrimination during the process of pushing for and guiding a RFRA bill into law at the state level in Georgia.

Cagle so far seems to have been the only GOP gubernatorial candidate to not only publicly state but assert that he would not tolerate a discriminatory RFRA bill to be pushed for and become law were he to be elected governor... A statement that seemed to be a sign to the business community (with whom Cagle has very close and very strong ties) that he would not allow this unavoidable religious liberty debate to spin out of control into something that hurts the state's image and economic viability.

There is no doubt that North Carolina's image and economic prospects were harmed during the debate over the highly controversial HB2 Bathroom Bill that raged on during the 2016 election cycle.

But one has to keep the North Carolina situation in a perspective of sorts... The passage into law of the controversial HB 2/Bathroom Bill legislation (that also stripped the right of municipal governments to pass anti-discrimination laws and ordinances at the local level) by the deeply-conservative Republican majority in North Carolina's state legislature was basically an angry high-profile temper tantrum... An angry high-profile temper tantrum that was pushback by social conservatives against all of the continuing demographic changes going on in the state that are being driven by the state's large and growing business and higher education profiles.

The situation that broke out in North Carolina last year is not preferable for any state to go through, particularly from an international image and economic development standpoint.

But with North Carolina's very advantageous location on the Eastern Seaboard only about 150 miles or so from the southern end of the extremely heavily-populated DC/Philly/NYC/Boston-anchored Northeastern Corridor; the state's extremely high profile of prestigious colleges and universities anchored by the four big-name Atlantic Coast Conference schools (UNC, Duke, NC State and Wake Forest); the state's high business profile in the three major metro areas of the Piedmont (Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro/Winston-Salem); and a top-10 population of over 10 million residents in the state; North Carolina most likely will be able to recover from the HB 2/Bathroom Bill fallout much quicker than most other states in that situation would because of all of the state's logistical, educational, business and demographic assets.

The perception is many national and international business interests is that there is too much economic opportunity and too much money to be made in a state like North Carolina to stay away from the area for long.

Also, many onlookers understand that the HB 2/Bathroom Bill legislation arose from a situation where a certain faction of people in the state (socially conservative North Carolinians who feel that they are losing control of the state's politics, cultural and social climate) were throwing an angry temper tantrum over the demographic, political, cultural and social changes that are ongoing in the state.

It obviously would not be good for Georgia to go through the type of religious liberty debacle that North Carolina went through last year. But even if Georgia was to experience the type of religious liberty debacle that North Carolina experienced last year, Georgia likely would be quick to recover because of a logistical, business and demographic profile that is extremely highly attractive to business interests.

[Laaaa]

Man, I'm so tired of metro Atlanta being held essentially economically hostage by some of these zealots from the rest of the state. I feel like we can't truly be our best selves until we see some changes at the highest levels of our state government.

[Forhall]

Originally Posted by Laaaa

Man, I'm so tired of metro Atlanta being held essentially economically hostage by some of these zealots from the rest of the state. I feel like we can't truly be our best selves until we see some changes at the highest levels of our state government.

The plight of all blue dots in red states, and blue states as a whole. Progress is held back by religious extremism yet they won't just cut the blue areas loose because they depend on their tax base. Blue cities support red states at the state level, and blue states support red states at the federal level.

[arjay57]

Looks like Georgia Equality has come out with its slate of endorsements.

https://georgiaequality.org/wp-conte...Nov-2018-1.pdf