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Georgia GOP gubernatorial candidates debate issues at forum in Gwinnett
On Saturday, the Republican candidates for governor of Georgia participated in a spirited debate of the issues facing the state at a forum hosted by the once-vaunted but still formidable Gwinnett Republican Party at Norcross High School.
Transportation was an issue that came up very early-on in the forum.
Both former Georgia state Senator Hunter Hill of Smyrna and metro Atlanta businessman Clay Tippins of Buckhead advocated for the construction of an outer bypass to divert truck traffic away from Atlanta.
Lt. Governor, President of the Georgia state Senate and gubernatorial race frontrunner Casey Cagle referred to a 10-year strategic transportation plan that is part of his campaign platform and advocated for the possibility of reversible lanes with the use of movable barriers on the freeway system.
Former Norcross High School teacher Marc Alan Urbach said that he would launch an investigation into the I-85 bridge collapse and advocated for the construction of a statewide system of high-speed bullet trains connecting outlying cities like Columbus, Macon and Augusta with Atlanta.
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp advocated for an illegal immigrant database to improve public safety and combat illegal immigration.
Georgia state Senator Michael Williams of Cumming advocated for the elimination of laws and regulations that inhibit economic development like certificates of need for hospitals and a three-tier system that regulates alcohol in the state. Williams also advocated for the elimination of Georgia's state income tax as a means of creating a thriving atmosphere for small business.
Williams also repeatedly went after Cagle and his political record while Cagle tried to respond directly to Williams as little as possible.
On Saturday, the Republican candidates for governor of Georgia participated in a spirited debate of the issues facing the state at a forum hosted by the once-vaunted but still formidable Gwinnett Republican Party at Norcross High School.
Transportation was an issue that came up very early-on in the forum.
Both former Georgia state Senator Hunter Hill of Smyrna and metro Atlanta businessman Clay Tippins of Buckhead advocated for the construction of an outer bypass to divert truck traffic away from Atlanta.
Lt. Governor, President of the Georgia state Senate and gubernatorial race frontrunner Casey Cagle referred to a 10-year strategic transportation plan that is part of his campaign platform and advocated for the possibility of reversible lanes with the use of movable barriers on the freeway system.
Former Norcross High School teacher Marc Alan Urbach said that he would launch an investigation into the I-85 bridge collapse and advocated for the construction of a statewide system of high-speed bullet trains connecting outlying cities like Columbus, Macon and Augusta with Atlanta.
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp advocated for an illegal immigrant database to improve public safety and combat illegal immigration.
Georgia state Senator Michael Williams of Cumming advocated for the elimination of laws and regulations that inhibit economic development like certificates of need for hospitals and a three-tier system that regulates alcohol in the state. Williams also advocated for the elimination of Georgia's state income tax as a means of creating a thriving atmosphere for small business.
Williams also repeatedly went after Cagle and his political record while Cagle tried to respond directly to Williams as little as possible.
I’m trying to remain objective, but how in the world can Cagle be the favorite?
Mainly money, as in the financial backing that Cagle continues to have from the North Atlanta, metro Atlanta and North Georgia business communities even after the dust-up over Delta Airlines discontinuing discounts for flyers traveling to NRA conventions.
Also name recognition from his 12 years as Lt. Governor and President of the Georgia state Senate and the statewide network of support that he has likewise built during his 12 years in that very powerful position.
People who disagree with Cagle's recent attack on Delta should be very careful not to underestimate him.
Cagle was the leading vote-getter in the 2014 general election, receiving more votes than any other candidate running for statewide office that year, including Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and Georgia U.S. Senator David Perdue.
Cagle's polling numbers in the GOP primary also appeared to rise significantly after his attacks on Delta Airlines for their disassociation elevated him to the status of a high-profile figure in the national conservative movement.
Cagle may not be very popular with moderate and progressive business expansion-minded metro Atlantans, but his stock appears to have risen significantly with the conservative suburban, exurban and rural voters that continue to dominate Georgia's electoral process.
Just the fact that so many moderate and progressive metro Atlantans (including here on this forum) strongly dislike Cagle in the wake of the Delta Airlines controversy probably means that he is doing really well with conservative GOP primary voters.
Can we please focus more on the Democrats as well? We all know the GOP candidates are a mess of backwards idiots trying to see who can send Georgia the furthest back in time, so maybe stop acting like they're the only ones who exist?
Abrams is attracting some money from liberal donors who hope to make gains in the South. She is also the first African American woman to qualify to run as governor.
I really like Stacey Evans. To me she's like a refreshing wave of realness and normalcy and common sense (which sadly may not be a good thing as far as getting elected in GA.)
Can we please focus more on the Democrats as well? We all know the GOP candidates are a mess of backwards idiots trying to see who can send Georgia the furthest back in time, so maybe stop acting like they're the only ones who exist?
Well, the Republican primary candidates (in this and many other primary races) more than likely are not as "idiotic" as they might appear to be to moderate and progressive voters. They are more than likely campaigning to a hard-right primary electorate by engaging in the kind of activist conservatism and taking harder-right positions that a Republican primary electorate likes.
Some of the relatively more moderate candidates in the GOP gubernatorial field (like Cagle, Hill, Tippins and Urbach) are more likely to moderate their positions towards the political center if they win the Republican nomination for governor... While the much more conservative candidates in the GOP gubernatorial field (Williams and Kemp) are likely to run Trump-style general election campaigns that will focus on maximizing turnout from the most conservative suburban, exurban and rural voters if they win the GOP nomination for governor.
If one is a progressive voter, one unfortunately is not likely to get as much focus from the Georgia media on the Democratic candidates in major statewide races (governor's race and otherwise) because the Democrats have not won a gubernatorial race in 20 years (1998) (...and Democrats have not won a statewide race in Georgia in 12 years, since 2006) and are currently considered long-shots to win a statewide race in 2018.
Cagle is viewed by many as being the "heir apparent" to the governor's office because of his popularity across a broad swath of the larger general electorate and because of his 12 years in the extremely powerful position of Lt. Governor/President of the Georgia state Senate.
Cagle has been grooming for the Governor's Mansion and has been seen as a future gubernatorial candidate (and likely future governor) ever since he first got elected Lt. governor back in 2006 by beating a formidable but weakened Ralph Reed who was a rising star in the national evangelical movement who had his eye on the White House but got entangled in a gambling scandal that year.
...So the Republican side of the gubernatorial race and the larger gubernatorial/mid-term election cycle is going to get the lion's share of attention from the Georgia media (TV, print and online) because that is perceived to be the side that is going to decide the election at this point in time.
The Republican side of the race is also going to get much more attention from Georgia media outlets because most of the media outlets (particularly in outlying parts of metro Atlanta and the state outside of Fulton and DeKalb counties) are owned by powerful Republican donors (the Gwinnett Daily Post, which published the article I posted, and the Marietta Daily Journal being two of the most prime examples of OTP county newspapers that are owned by Republican backers) and because the Republican Party continues to be the more organized political organization in areas outside of I-285 for the time being.
...Though, Democrats do appear to be making significant organizational and electoral gains for future electoral cycles in outlying OTP areas like Rockdale, Douglas, Henry, Newton and Fayette counties as well as in aforementioned Gwinnett and Cobb counties as the demographics continue to trend heavily towards Democrats in those areas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Forhall
Abrams is attracting some money from liberal donors who hope to make gains in the South. She is also the first African American woman to qualify to run as governor.
Those are excellent points about former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams.
Though Abrams seems to have had an extremely high "burn rate" when it comes to spending campaign funds in an effort to build out campaign infrastructure and organization early-on, Abrams is attracting much attention from out-of-state progressive donors, particularly because of her real and perceived strength with the black voters who make up a dominant part of the Democratic primary electorate in Georgia.
Abrams is also attracting much attention from out-of-state progressive donors because of the changing demographics in and around the outer suburbs of the Atlanta metro area/region that have the state of Georgia quickly trending towards 'purple' and/or even 'blue' status in the not-too-distant future.
A Gwinnett Daily Post article that I posted on another thread about a possible building sexual harassment scandal in the Lt. Governor's race noted that Stacey Abrams received a major endorsement from an important educators' group.
Quote:
The Georgia Association of Educators’ Fund for Public Education Committee announced it is endorsing Abrams in the race. The group said she had a history of fighting legislative proposals that it believed would have hurt Georgia students.
I really like Stacey Evans. To me she's like a refreshing wave of realness and normalcy and common sense (which sadly may not be a good thing as far as getting elected in GA.)
I personally think that Stacey Evans is an excellent candidate for governor or almost any statewide office.
In another era, former Georgia state Representative Stacey Evans would probably get much more attention as a candidate, but in this particular era of political extremes, Evans appears to be "too centrist," meaning that she does not appear to be far enough to the right or the left of the political spectrum to easily get through the primary process in this particular political environment that is powered largely by anti-establishment anger on both sides of the spectrum.
(...For whatever reason, Evans particularly seems to draw the ire of the Bernie Sanders progressive activist wing of the Democratic Party.)
Evans apparent weakness with some key groups of progressive base voters (particularly black Democratic primary voters in a state where black voters make up a dominant chunk of the Democratic primary electoral process) is concerning.
Though with the exceedingly (astonishingly) high rate of spending that Abrams has with campaign funds early-on, Evans chances will remain good through the primary election because of the possibility that Abrams potentially could run completely out of money before the primary campaign is finished.
They have already ended the requirement to pass the test which was important. Now it is 20% of the grade. There is definitely an incentive to teach to the test on the dozen or so courses with the test, and cram a bunch of material in.
Although it is nice to have some standard measure, so I've got mixed feelings on this.
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Georgia GOP gubernatorial candidates debate issues at forum in Gwinnett
