Let’s catch up on the state of play this week on The Georgia Politics Podcast.

This past week Georgia voters got the results of two statewide polls, one from the AJC in partnership with UGA, and one from Marist. It’s worth noting that these two polls were VERY different in sample and result, but the panel focus on the AJC poll, what it means, and who has some catching up to do.

The panel also get into some election consequences theory on what would happen if/when Dems regain at least one of the chambers of government under the Gold Dome and wrap up with some general observations from the campaign trail.

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 this cheeky episode of The Georgia Politics Podcast, we chat with Frederick Guy, an American living in England, on what the scene is like since the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

Frederick has lived in Great Britain since 1995, and has seen enough to tell us what Americans get right about the Brits, what they get wrong about Americans, and why the passing of the Queen is such a big deal over there (and why we Americans may not be able to fully grasp the milestone).

Frederick also touches on more broadly what life is like there and what he, as an American, was surprised about when he moved over there, and what he misses most about the States.

As most of you are aware, there has been wall to wall coverage of the passing of the Queen, and we thought we would give our own #gapol twist on acknowledging her passing and recognizing the legacy she leaves behind.

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Proud member of the Appen Podcast Network.

#gapol

Kicking off The Georgia Politics Podcast today, the panel discuss the potential Warnock/Walker Senate debate(s). Senator Warnock has agreed to Walker’s preferred Savannah Debate on the condition that there be a second event next month and that the topics not be provided in advance. How much, if at all, would the debates make a difference? Who is winning the debate about the debates?

In a bit of a Candidate Corner segment, the Libertarian candidate for Georgia Governor has challenged the constitutionality of leadership committees and Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan refuses to endorse the man looking to succeed him, Burt Jones.

And is Stacey Abrams’ campaign for Governor in trouble? Well, the New York Times seems to think so. The panel discuss the scathing article that was published over the weekend calling into questions the likelihood of her November election and hints at “Democrats in disarray.” But are they?

And finally, the Atlanta Medical Center announced that it plans to close its doors in November and Grady seems to be in some trouble as well. What the heck happened and more importantly, how do we fix it?

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

It’s a mailbag episode on today’s installment of The Georgia Politics Podcast!

We appreciate all the feedback and listener questions we get from our pod peeps, so from time to time we try to spend some time on air answering some of the questions you all send our way. We got some great one this episode, as we touch on the status of the PSC elections, the Fulton County investigation of Donald Trump, ballot referenda in Georgia and much more.

To cap the show, we play a Back-To-School edition of Play-Along-At-Home and get thoroughly embarrassed.

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

Welcome to The Georgia Politics Podcast, where Craig and Professor Stone present Part 2 of their special on the life and legacy of Senator Ted Kennedy. The primary topic for Part 2 is the notorious Chappaquiddick episode of Kennedy’s life, how it shaped the country’s politics, and continued a Kennedy family legacy of controversy.

The Kennedys are the closest equivalent America has to political royalty. John F. Kennedy was, of course, the 35th President of the United States and his brother Bobby Kennedy served as his Attorney General, and later as a Senator from New York and Presidential candidate. Various other Kennedys have served in other appointed and elected political positions. Ted Kennedy, the younger brother of John and Bobby, is known for his long tenure in the United States Senate, where he served from 1962 until his death in 2009.

His political and personal life was full of both promise and controversy. He was long considered the heir to the Kennedy dynasty, and then a tragic incident on Chappaquiddick Island left 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne dead after a car driven by Kennedy crashed into the Poucha Pond. Kennedy survived.

Clips used in this episode:

1969 ABC News report on Ted Kennedy's accident at Chappaquiddick Island

Edward J. McCormack Jr. debates Ted Kennedy for the Senate seat vacated by John F. Kennedy.

“Robert Bork’s America” speech by Ted Kennedy

Mitt Romney and Ted Kennedy United States Senate debate

Face the Nation: Senators look back at Ted Kennedy’s legacy

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

This past week, voters turned out at record levels in Kansas to shoot down a proposed constitutional amendment that would have given the Kansas legislature authority to amend its constitution to outlaw abortion. Does the vote signal a change in the electorate? Also, Democrats are simultaneously passing key parts of their agenda in DC. What should Georgians take from the Kansas vote, and is the political pendulum swinging?

Next up, a federal judge ruled Friday that Georgia must end statewide elections for the Public Service Commission because they discriminate against Black voters, a decision that could bar state officials from holding a November election to fill two seats. The ruling likely will lead to an overhaul of how commissioners are now elected. State law now requires commission members to live in one of five districts but allows voters from across the entire state to cast ballots for all commission seats. The panel discuss.

Lastly, this year’s Music Midtown festival was canceled last week in part due to the state’s laws surrounding guns in public parks. A 2019 Georgia Supreme Court ruling has made it more difficult for private groups to restrict guns from short-term events held on public land. Big deal, little deal, or no deal?

Overhyped/Underhyped, Play-Along-At-Home and much more on this week’s episode of The Georgia Politics Podcast.

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

Back by popular demand, we once again welcome you to another special “political history” episode of The Georgia Politics Podcast. This time, Craig and Professor Stone sit down to discuss the life and legacy of the late Senator Ted Kennedy.

The Kennedys are the closest equivalent America has to political royalty. John F. Kennedy was, of course, the 35th President of the United States and his brother Bobby Kennedy served as his Attorney General, and later as a Senator from New York and Presidential candidate. Various other Kennedys have served in other appointed and elected political positions. Ted Kennedy, the younger brother of John and Bobby, is known for his long tenure in the United States Senate, where he served from 1962 until his death in 2009.

His political and personal life was full of both promise and controversy. Long considered the heir to the Kennedy dynasty, the focus of Part 1 of this episode is on his run for the Presidency in 1980 – what went wrong, what went wrong, and why he never tried again.

Clips used in this episode:

CBS NEWS and Roger Mudd interview Senator Ted Kennedy (1979)

"The Dream Shall Never Die" speech at the 1980 Democratic National Convention

NBC News coverage of Day 4 of the 1980 Democratic National Convention

NBC News coverage of Day 2 of the 1980 Democratic National Convention

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

Welcome to The Georgia Politics Podcast! Last week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed HB481, Georgia’s “Heartbeat Bill”, to stand, based on the Dobbs ruling from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The panel discuss what’s next for the pro-life community and reproductive services in the state.

Also, the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor, Burt Jones, has been asked to testify in the Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s probe into January 6th and surrounding actions. Jones is one of 16 Republicans who served as an “alternate” presidential elector for Donald Trump in December 2020. All of them were recently subpoenaed by a special grand jury and informed by Willis’s office that they could be indicted. Jones’s attorneys are calling foul, citing a June fundraiser that Willis held for the now Democratic nominee Charlie Bailey’s campaign at a Southwest Atlanta grocery store not long after the grand jury was seated, as well as a $2,500 donation she made to his campaign in January. Fair or foul? The panel discuss.

Legal experts say the fake electors may have violated laws including election fraud and forgery statutes.

As mentioned by Preston: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Atlanta History Center present “War in our Backyards”

Overhyped/Underhyped, Play-Along-At-Home and much more on this week’s episode of The Georgia Politics Podcast.

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Megan Gordon-Kane @meganlaneg

Preston Thompson @pston3

Proud member of the Appen Podcast Network.

#gapol

Craig continues his interview with Senator Mack Mattingly (R-GA), the first Republican Senator from Georgia since Reconstruction. As discussed in Part 1, Senator Mattingly unseated a titan of Georgia politics, Herman Talmadge, and served from 1981 to 1987.    

Part 2 focuses on the Senator's career both before and after the U.S. Senate. The Senator reflects on his time as Assistant Secretary of Defense at NATO, the issues facing the Western alliance in the late 1980s and the sensitive interaction of the 16 members of the defense organization. Craig and Senator Mattingly also discuss the future of NATO and the current war in the Ukraine and its implications for the United States. 

Senator Mattingly then relays his time as Ambassador to the Seychelles Islands, how he had a front row seat for the formulation of their constitution and the small nation's role in the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union.    

Craig and the Senator then go back to the 1960s and 1970s by discussing how the Georgia Republican Party started and its difficult travails during the Senator's years as party chairman in the mid '70s. The two reflect on the 1964, 1968 and 1976 Republican national conventions and the influence of other party leaders including Paul Coverdell and Newt Gingrich.  Senator Mattingly discloses his opinions on political movies and what contemporary leaders he wished he had met during his career. He also reveals what he and Walter Cronkite discussed over a beer in Kansas City at the 1976 GOP convention!

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Proud member of the Appen Podcast Network.

#gapol

Welcome to The Georgia Politics Podcast! On today’s show, the focus is on the June 30th fundraising numbers for Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp, and yet more bad news surrounding Herschel Walker.

First up, the numbers from the June 30th fundraising deadline have come in, and the candidates are breaking all sorts of records. Abrams has raked in $50 million dollars since announcing her campaign, with $22 million coming in the last two months alone, and Governor Kemp has brought in over $22 million in total. These numbers are due is in large part to a bill passed last session that effectively allows candidates to skirt most campaign finance regulations by establishing their own coordinated committees. Should Brian Kemp be worried? 

And in other news, the Walker campaign has had bad news after bad news over the last few weeks, and it looks like it’s starting to take its toll. Most recently the left leaning outlet Daily Beast obtained texts from the campaign painting a tumultuous behind the scenes picture, and one staffer even noted Walker spits out falsehoods like he’s breathing. Will any of it stick?

Overhyped/Underhyped, Play-Along-At-Home and much more on this week’s episode of The Georgia Politics Podcast.

Connect with The Georgia Politics Podcast on Twitter @gapoliticspod

Megan Gordon-Kane @meganlaneg

Preston Thompson @pston3

Proud member of the Appen Podcast Network.

#gapol