On Wednesday of last week, the family of Georgia House Speaker David Ralston announced his passing at the age of 68. Everyone on the panel offers up their thoughts and memories of the late Speaker and reflect on his time in office. 

House Republicans had already nominated Jon Burns to succeed Speaker Ralston, so all signs point toward that moving forward as planned. Jan Jones of Milton would remain Speaker Pro Tempore. What can Georgians expect from a Speaker Burns? And how, if at all, will Georgia’s soon-to-be new Lieutenant Governor, Burt Jones, work with a Speaker Burns?

Next up, the so-called “Heartbeat Bill” (HB481) has been overturned by a Fulton County Judge, but the legislation is far from dead. What happens next with abortion law in Georgia?

Underhyped/Overhyped, Play-Along-At-Home and much, much more on today’s episode!

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Megan Gordon @meganlaneg

Preston Thompson @pston3

Hans Appen @hansappen

Proud member of the Appen Podcast Network.

#gapol

On The Georgia Politics Podcast today, we kick off a special series called “Politics for Dummies” where we dive into common misconceptions or questions about how politics works in Georgia and across the country.

Craig welcomes in co-host Daelen Lowry to help kick off the series and are joined by friends of Daelen, Kenlee and Elizabeth. Together, they present questions to Craig and Daelen about politics that they think will be useful to listeners to have answered. The goal is keep the series non-partisan, informational and useful to listeners.

Topics include the structure of Georgia’s state government, the difference between primary and general elections, how to find out if you are registered to vote and what candidates will appear on your ballot, and more generally how to become a more informed and involved citizen in our electoral process.

Like what you’re listening to? Leave us a review in the Apple Podcast store or wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps us spread the word about the show and makes it easier for other people to find it.

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Connect with Daelen on Instagram @daelen_lowry

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Welcome to this special episode of The Georgia Politics Podcast where the panel goes over the results of Tuesday night’s Midterm Elections.

In Georgia, the big takeaways are that incumbent Governor Brian has defeated Stacey Abrams in their 2018 rematch and that incumbent US Senator Raphael Warnock is headed to a December 6th runoff with challenger Herschel Walker. It also looks like Republicans will net +1 in US Congressional seats.

In other statewide races, Republicans swept the board, and successfully held their positions of power for Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General and more.

For the state legislature, Democrats net +1 in the State Senate and +3 in the State House.

On the show the panel also talk about the influx of money into this year’s races, notably for Marcus Flowers, who raised over $20 million in his attempt to unseat Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who ultimately won by over 30 points. Is this further proof that money has a diminishing influence in politics, or something else?

Election day turnout was also not what many pundits expected in Georgia, and frankly, across the country, given record breaking early vote totals. What gives? And is Stacey Abrams playbook for turning out low propensity voters officially debunked, or is it still too soon to make a verdict on the strategy?

Please Go Away!, Play-Along-At-Home and more on today’s special episode!

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Megan Gordon @meganlaneg

Preston Thompson @pston3

Hans Appen @hansappen

Proud member of the Appen Podcast Network.

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Today on The Georgia Politics Podcast, the panelists make 12 bold (and not so bold) predictions on what we can expect once all the votes have been counted.

You, the listeners, have been clamoring for the panelists to let you know how they think the midterms are going to turn out and so the panel is here to give the people what they’ve asked for. From ballot referendums, turnout and race results, each panelist brings 4 predictions to the show and the other panelists react.

Some of the predictions may take some time before we will know how close to reality or off base they really were, but that is just more one reason to keep listening to the show! Have predictions of your own or feedback on any of the ones made on today’s episode? Let us know!

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Megan Gordon @meganlaneg

Preston Thompson @pston3

Hans Appen @hansappen

Proud member of the Appen Podcast Network.

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Professor Stone is back on The Georgia Politics Podcast to talk about the history of midterm elections.

Next week, America will decide thousands of congressional and state legislative races and Republicans are largely expected to have a good night. Craig and Professor Stone discuss how previous midterm elections, notably 1982 and 1994, shaped American politics and defined the changing landscape of American sentiment for incumbent political parties.

Clips Used in This Episode

1994 – Representative Gingrich on the Congressional Transition

2018 - Nancy Pelosi speaks after Democrats win House control

1966 – Election Shocks

1982 – Election Night Coverage on NBC

1950 – American Election Roundup

About Professor Adam Stone

Adam Stone is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Department Chair for Social Sciences at the Alpharetta Campus of Georgia State University’s Perimeter College. Adam was born in San Francisco, California, and he grew up in Los Gatos, California. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and earned a Master of Arts degree in Politics from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Professor Stone has followed politics since his childhood. His “first” election commentary and analysis were delivered in 1966, 56 years ago, at the age of four. He is in his thirty-first year of teaching at Perimeter College.  His areas of research and writing include the U.S. Courts of Appeals, the Electoral College, Presidential Greatness, Southern Politics, and Georgia Politics. His most recent research examines U.S. Senate confirmation votes for nominees to the federal Courts of Appeals. Adam was a contestant on the Jeopardy! episode that aired on May 20, 2019.  He came in third and the game was won by “Jeopardy!” James Holtzhauer, the second greatest player in the history of the game.

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Proud member of the Appen Podcast Network.

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Welcome to The Georgia Politics Podcast! We hope you are part of the 816,000 people who have already voted early. If you aren’t – go vote!

And that’s exactly where we kick off the show today. The state has already seen several turnout records in early voting this year with 816,000 people having cast their ballots already, compared to the 500,000 during the same time period in 2018. Of those who have already voted early, 16% did not vote at all in 2022. The panel discuss what these early numbers mean, and what, if any conclusion we can draw from the effects of SB 201, the voting bill that Democrats lambasted as voter suppression.

In other news, Stacey Abrams is under fire yet again for a statement she made regarding the economic impact of the Dobbs decision during an interview on MSNBC. She said, “Let's be clear. Having children is why you're worried about your price for gas. It's why you're concerned about how much food costs. For women, this is not a reductive issue. You can't divorce being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy from the economic realities of having a child. It's important for us to be having both conversations. We don't have the luxury of reducing it or separating them out. But we also have to talk about what a governor can do: A governor can address housing prices. A governor can address the cost of education. A governor can put money in the pockets of everyday hardworking Georgians instead of giving tax cuts to the wealthy." Misstatement, or did she say what she meant? The panel discuss.

Also, David Perdue emptied his campaign account this week and wrote a sizable check to Brian Kemp’s Super PAC. Is all forgiven?

Lastly, Barack Obama is coming to town! Noticeably absent is President Joe Biden. Why?

Underhyped/Overhyped, Play-Along-At-Home and much, much more on today’s episode!

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Megan Gordon @meganlaneg

Preston Thompson @pston3

Hans Appen @hansappen

Proud member of the Appen Podcast Network.

#gapol

An ongoing storyline on The Georgia Politics Podcast is the efficacy of the modern day debate format and ways to improve them so that they give voters more useful information. Joining the panel for this special episode is Shruthi Balachander, a Georgia Secretary of State Ambassador and member of Student Leadership Johns Creek.

Georgia just saw some of its top tier candidates, most notably Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker, wrap debates with the Atlanta Press Club. They stood behind podiums and answered questions from moderators in what many would describe as a traditional debate. There were no big surprises, and both candidates probably walked off the stage thinking that not much in their race has changed.

We don’t know yet how many people tuned in, but its safe to say that it will be a small number. The question is why more people don’t tune in and how do we, the public, convince more people that they should?

Shruthi recently helped Student Leadership Johns Creek put on debates for local races in the north Metro Atlanta community. She details the format they used and the process for picking questions, getting answers from candidates, and addressing issues in real time. This give much of the discussion on scalable potential fixes context.

At the end of the day, the panel concludes that there is plenty of blame to go around for debates not “working” anymore, but does offer alternatives that could reach more people and affect the outcomes of more races.

Connect with Shruthi on LinkedIn

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Megan Gordon @meganlaneg

Preston Thompson @pston3

Hans Appen @hansappen

Proud member of the Appen Podcast Network.

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Welcome to The Georgia Politics Podcast! The panel talk about Herschel Walker’s latest scandal, the response, and whether THIS one will be the one that makes a difference in November.

This past Wednesday, the Daily Beast published a story saying that they had made contact with a woman who claims Herschel Walker paid her to have an abortion in 2009. The story was released on top of the pre-existing abusive history Walker his with women, and the recently revealed children that even people inside his team were not aware of.

In response to this, Christian Walker, Herschel Walker's son, who up until the latest story had been public about his support for his father’s campaign, took to social media with several posts about his father. One included “You’re not a ‘family man’ when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence.” In response to the story, Walker denied all allegations and claimed to have never heard of or met the woman in question. Later in the week, the Daily Beast acquired text messages shared between the woman and Walker's wife, causing Walker to change his response. The texts also lay out the relationship between Walker and his son with the same woman, which in short is complicated and distant.

The Georgia Republican Party has continued to back Walker wholeheartedly, stating on twitter that “regardless of this latest attack by liberal activists, Herschel Walker will become a Senator, and Georgians' lives will become better. Everything else is a distraction and should be treated as such.”

Next up, the Democratic Nominee for State School Superintendent, Alisha Thomas Searcy, took to Facebook recently to claim that she has been “ostracized and excluded” by the other Democrats on her ticket. Recently, at the Democratic Party convention, pictures taken of the statewide ticket notably excluded Searcy. The rift dates back to her time in the State Legislature, where she served alongside Abrams. Searcy was one of a few democratic outliers in that time who embraced Republican proposals on education to expand charter school and voucher programs. Since leaving the legislature, she has worked in a Gwinnett based Charter School operation.

Underhyped/Overhyped, Play-Along-At-Home and much, much more on today’s episode!

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Megan Gordon @meganlaneg

Preston Thompson @pston3

Hans Appen @hansappen

Proud member of the Appen Podcast Network.

#gapol

Jumping into your podcast feeds this week with a rare Wednesday appearance, Craig is joined by Senator Mack Mattingly to provide listeners with a firsthand accounting of his colleague and the topic of our Monday special episode, Senator Bob Dole.

Senator Mattingly first met Senator Dole over 50 years ago, and recalls Senator Dole’s time in a post-Nixon Republican party and then getting picked by Ford to be his running mate, opposite a ticket that featured Georgia’s own Jimmy Carter for the Democrats.

They talk about Dole’s rise in politics after the failed run for the White House alongside Ford, which led to his being voted Senate Minority Leader in 1986, and eventually the party’s nominee for President in 1996.

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

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Welcome to another special “political history” episode of The Georgia Politics Podcast.

Professor Stone joins the show again, this time to discuss the life and legacy of longtime Republican Senator from Kansas and Presidential candidate, Bob Dole.

Prior to his 27 years in the Senate, Dole served in the United States House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969. He was also the Republican presidential nominee in the 1996 election and the vice presidential nominee in the 1976 election.

Craig and the Professor start at the beginning, with Senator Dole’s modest upbringing and military service during World War II, and take listeners all the way through his political career, which was capped with the 1996 Republican nomination for President that he would eventually lose to incumbent Bill Clinton.

Clips used in this episode:

60 Minutes with Steve Kroft, 1993

1976 Vice Presidential debate

Senator Bob Dole farewell address

George H.W. Bush 1988 “straddle ad”

1988 campaign ad – “the difference is leadership”

1988 campaign ad – “deficit ad”

“Stop lying about my record”

The Late Show with David Letterman, 1998

About Professor Adam Stone

Adam Stone is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Department Chair for Social Sciences at the Alpharetta Campus of Georgia State University’s Perimeter College. Adam was born in San Francisco, California, and he grew up in Los Gatos, California. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and earned a Master of Arts degree in Politics from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Professor Stone has followed politics since his childhood. His “first” election commentary and analysis were delivered in 1966, 56 years ago, at the age of four. He is in his thirty-first year of teaching at Perimeter College.  His areas of research and writing include the U.S. Courts of Appeals, the Electoral College, Presidential Greatness, Southern Politics, and Georgia Politics. His most recent research examines U.S. Senate confirmation votes for nominees to the federal Courts of Appeals. Adam was a contestant on the Jeopardy! episode that aired on May 20, 2019.  He came in third and the game was won by “Jeopardy!” James Holtzhauer, the second greatest player in the history of the game.

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Proud member of the Appen Podcast Network.

#gapol