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ArcticStones's avatar

What does this mean for the Georgia Supreme Court? What is the liberal/conservative split? Does Georgia have issues similar to North Carolina, with a supreme court that is blatantly partisan and anti-democratic, willing to ignore past decisions and precedent, and eager to overturn elections that Democrats win?

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Absentee Boater's avatar

Officially, they’re all non-partisan, but it’s 8 R appointments & 1 justice who won an open seat, so speculate accordingly.

To my knowledge, I don’t think they’ve done anything as blatant as NC, but they’re still pretty conservative.

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James Trout's avatar

We haven't held the Governorship in Georgia since Roy Barnes was booted in 2002. Interestingly, the guy who booted him - Sonny Perdue - not only was a Democrat until 1998, but he had been the Senate President Pro Tempore.

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Jonathan's avatar

I helped Sonny Perdue win in 1990(his first race for State Senate); in a Houston County based district; in those days, the only race that mattered was the Democratic Primary and in the first primary Sonny missed out of avoiding a runoff by like 33 votes or some such; the runoff was just a brutal slugfest between Sonny and an even more conservative named Stewart Bloodworth; the race actually split family's because the Houston County political old guard had much cross pollination if you get my meaning

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James Trout's avatar

Apparently the reason for his party switch was because he didn't get along with the Senate Majority Leader Charles Walker, who would eventually become a convicted felon. Before his switch, Perdue had been talked about as a future Democratic statewide candidate and had strong relations with Lieutenant Governor Pierre (pronounced Pier for those of you unfamiliar with Georgia politics) Howard. I maintain Howard doesn't back out of the 1998 race for Governor, he wins that, then cruises to reelection in 2002.

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Jonathan's avatar

agreed; i knew Pierre Howard personally(his wife was one of the richest women in the state); he would have swamped almost anyone with cash and he was very nice guy and popular(hardly a bad thing could be said about him and he was a UGA tennis star to boot so he had many political tentacles at his disposal); Roy Barnes had a difficult relationship with Zell Miller, whereas Howard made easy friends with most everyone in politics(his wife's money didnt hurt in that regard either)

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James Trout's avatar

Which begs the question, what would have happened had Barnes appointed Howard and not Miller to the US Senate in 2000 when Coverdell died? Miller was clearly done with electoral politics after surviving that hard 1994 reelection battle for Governor and had rebuffed Democratic Party efforts - including a personal call from President Clinton - to challenge Coverdell in 1998. The fact that it took Barnes THREE times to get Miller to run in 2000 speaks for itself.

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Jonathan's avatar

great question; i feel like Howard was a star that never reached his full potential

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Jonathan's avatar

another thing here is Charles Walker was a huge dude; think of a black John Fetterman(i once shook hands with him and it was like a bear paw); im 6 foot and Walker towered over me

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John Carr's avatar

Democrats “should” be able to finally win that office in an open seat race in a Trump midterm with additional favorable trends in the Atlanta area (especially the southern suburbs). If not, I may start losing hope in this state becoming a blue leaning one.

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Jonathan's avatar

absolutely agree; Georgia is competitive with future demographic trends very much moving towards us

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ArcticStones's avatar

Especially if Stacy Adams helps mobilize our voter turnout.

Quick question: Should she have been the last DNC Chair instead of Jaime Harrison?

He seemed rather invisible – and I have not heard a single thing that he’s done to re-energize or turn around the Democratic party since the November election. My impression is that he was "parked" in the chairmanship and waiting for the election of a new Chair.

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Jonathan's avatar

imo Abrams has always been somewhat overrated; Ossoff and Warnock are exceptionally good politicians who ran against mediocre(at best) Republicans; and yes Abrams did a lot of good but lots of other factors were involved that had little or nothing to do with her

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Andrew's avatar

MN-Sen One thought I’ve had when it comes to who from the GOP could run is there isn’t really anyone from a blue/purple seat that would go for it bc it’s an easier constituency or race. It’s the only reason I can think of why GOP state Rep Robbins is considering bc her seat is going to slip from underneath her at some point soon due to suburbanization.

Her seat makes up half of the only state senate district where running for US Senate would be easier. State Senator Limmer is a relic of the past yet holds onto a suburban seat that we should have flipped already but things haven’t lined up. He definitely won’t run bc his incumbency gets him his wins at this point so starting over in a more Republican, yet still blue constituency, means an automatic state senate pick-up for us.

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