The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some in GOP say Handel has winning formula
Some top Republicans believe Karen Handel set the course GOP candidates should take in this year’s congressional midterm elections in a political climate dominated by President Donald Trump and his low approval ratings.
Handel, according to Politico.com, attended a closed-door meeting this past week in Washington that was apparently organized by the National Republican Congressional Committee.
“Leaders believe that Handel’s success shows that Republicans can win — even as Trump’s approval ratings remain underwater,” Politico.com wrote. “Her campaign proved to Republicans that they can tie Democratic candidates to unpopular party leaders, even in districts where Hillary Clinton ran roughly even or ahead of Trump in 2016.”
The report noted that when Handel was running in last year’s special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, she worked hard to link her opponent in the runoff, Democrat Jon Ossoff, to U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her “San Francisco values.”
Ossoff, who raised $30 million in what became the most expensive congressional race in U.S. history, doesn’t appear to be aiming for a rematch in November, Democratic contacts say. That hasn’t stopped Handel from frequently citing him in her fundraising letters.
Two Democrats who are running against Handel have, at this stage, dropped some significant coin in their piggy banks.
Bobby Kaple, a former Atlanta television anchor, reports that he has raised about $255,000 since entering the race.
Businessman Kevin Abel has raised $200,000 since late October. He also wrote his campaign a check for $50,000.
By the way, Real Clear Politics, in its average of recent polling by numerous organizations, set Trump’s national approval rating this past week at 39.2 percent. The disapproval rating was 55.2 percent.
■ New man on the team: Jackson Healthcare just added another former — at least for now — politician to its payroll.
Tom Price, the onetime congressman from Roswell, has joined the advisory board of the Georgia-based provider of health care staff and technology services.
That puts the former secretary of health and human services — who stepped down in September amid probes into his use of taxpayer-funded private jets — at the same table as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Employment is only one way Bush has benefited from the largess of Jackson Healthcare’s CEO, Rick Jackson. Substantial campaign donations would be another.
When Bush ran against Trump and 15 others for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, he received $500,000 in donations from Jackson. Jackson Healthcare also dropped $550,000 into Bush’s campaign pot.
Jackson also spreads money across Georgia.
The 2014 re-election campaigns of Gov. Nathan Deal and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle each tapped Jackson’s family for about $50,000. Cagle, who’s now running for governor, still stays in touch. As of last year, according to filings with the state ethics commission, Jackson had given at least $17,000 to Cagle’s campaign.
Jackson, who spent six years in foster care, has taken a big interest in privatizing Georgia’s foster care system. He was a big supporter of House Bill 359, which Deal vetoed last year, saying it would have created “a parallel and unchecked system” to the state’s Division of Family and Children Services by granting power of attorney for a child to an individual or nonprofit agency without oversight. That, Deal said, could “unintentionally” place “children at risk.”
HB 359 staged a comeback earlier this month when its contents were added to House Bill 159, a measure of great importance to Deal that aims to make the state’s adoption process easier and faster. The strings attached to that addition lead straight to the lieutenant governor’s office. ■ Warming up to a shift in bond ratings: Climate change has its critics, but the investor analytic service Moody’s is rating it a buy.
The firm recently announced that as part of its bond rating process, it will start looking at how coastal governments prepare for rising sea levels.
“The growing effects of climate change, including climbing global temperatures, and rising sea levels, are forecast to have an increasing economic impact on US state and local issuers,” Moody’s wrote. “This will be a growing negative credit factor for issuers without sufficient adaptation and mitigation strategies ...”
That could mean a lot to Georgia. Not only does the state hold a top bond rating, allowing it to borrow money at low interest rates, The Savannah Morning News reports it outranks all other states for the percentage of population living in a 100- to 500-year flood plain.
■ Gold Dome retirement community expands: The exodus of metro Atlanta Republicans from the state Legislature just got a little bigger.
State Reps. Rich Golick of Smyrna, Tom Taylor of Dunwoody and Wendell Willard of Sandy Springs have already announced they’re saving boxes for a move out of the Capitol.
Now, state Rep. David Casas, R-Lilburn, says he’s calling it quits after serving in the state House since 2003.
Casas, Georgia’s first Hispanic Republican, has not campaigned against an opponent since scoring easy victories over Democratic contenders in 2008 and 2010.
But he was likely to face opposition this November after Clinton won his district by about 12 points in the 2016 presidential election.
■ Setting up shop: Stacey Abrams just stepped on the gas in her pursuit of the Democratic nomination for governor.
She has now entered the campaign phase of setting up offices in key spots across the state. She plans to open a Savannah location on Jan. 27. It will soon be followed by similar moves in Albany, Augusta, Columbus, Cobb County, Hinesville, Rome, Stockbridge and Sumter County.
Abrams, a former state House minority leader who aims to become the nation’s first black female governor, is running against former state Rep. Stacey Evans for the Democratic nomination. Five Republicans — Cagle, former state Sen. Hunter Hill, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, businessman Clay Tippins and state Sen. Michael Williams — are also campaigning to succeed the term-limited Deal.
■ Another gold rush? Apple, perhaps seeing the big fuss Amazon created with its proposal to build a second headquarters (with promises of a $5 billion investment and 50,000 jobs), announced a smaller, yet still enticing plan of its own along similar lines.
The high-tech company plans to hire 20,000 more people over the next five years and create another campus.
So could Apple end up in the Peach State? Georgia’s liable to try.
The state got some good news Thursday when Amazon announced that, after combing through offers from 238 communities, it was putting Atlanta on its short list of 20 metropolitan areas in North America where it could locate its HQ2.
■ Another special election still coming: Four candidates are now running in a special election to replace Republican Amy Carter of Valdosta, who decided to vacate her seat in the state House to take a job with the Technical College System of Georgia.
The candidates in the Feb. 13 election are Teva Gear, a Democrat and educator; John LaHood, a Republican and CEO of Fellowship Senior Living; Bruce Phelps, a Republican and emergency medical technician; and Coy Reaves, a Republican who is self-employed.
Candidates, endorsements, etc.
— State House Speaker David Ralston of Blue Ridge will face competition in May’s Republican primary. Margaret Williamson said in a statement to the hyperlocal website Fetch Your News that she is running. Williamson was part of a tea party effort that supported wrestling coach Sam Snider when he ran an unsuccessful campaign against Ralston in 2014.
— New Jersey U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, while in Atlanta to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, stumped for Abrams. Just last month he was in Atlanta to campaign for Keisha Lance Bottoms, who then won the city’s race for mayor.