Lions and Eagles

It's been a crazy year, but as always, I still do my own research before voting, and I wouldn't want to let an election go by without sharing my thoughts for anyone interested!  I do have to start with a disclaimer, though I am an officer of a local political party affiliate, these thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone. I encourage everyone to do their own research and make their own decisions before voting. An informed vote is a powerful vote.

Before I send in my request for a mail-in Ballot for the May 19th primary, I wanted to make a quick breakdown of the ballots, according to which races actually have more than one candidate to look at. I pulled the Qualifying Candidates lists for the election from the Georgia Secretary of State's website. Later on, I'll get into researching the candidates. But, if you have a particular race you know you want to be able to vote in, or if you want to maximize the number of actual options you can look at, this information may be useful. Some of these races will definitely have Independent and/or third party candidates in November, but for May, here are your choices:

I've gotten into an interesting Facebook conversation on rights. It started with an event invite to an upcoming meeting of local Libertarians on gun politics. A curious Facebooker asked a question, and I found that my answer was getting long, so, here it is in blog form:

I'm going to do something different this time. In the past, I've looked at the candidates at the order they appear on my sample ballot. (If you haven't looked at your own sample ballot, you really owe yourself a visit to the Georgia My Voter page .) This time, I'm changing it up a little. Three-candidate races are actually interesting, so I'm going to give them top billing. Two-candidate races, not nearly so interesting, they get pushed down. One-candidate races get ignored altogether, as I have in the past. Last of all, as always, I will look at the proposed constitutional amendments and ballot referendums. Interesting races  For Governor  BRIAN KEMP Republican  STACEY ABRAMS Democrat  TED METZ Libertarian  I’m tired of playing the Red and Blue game. The only thing Kemp had going for him was that he wasn’t Cagle. Other than that, his appeal is strictly "good old boy" Trumpian.  The only reason to vote for him is if you don't like Democr...

I know that it's super last-minute, but I've finally got my voting decisions for tomorrow's Republican primary. First observation: Negative campaigning via Google. As I was searching for Hunter Hill, the top link was a “sponsored” page on Clay Tippins’s website criticizing Hill. Searching for Geoff Duncan and Rick Jeffares gave me “top links” to pages paid for by David Shafer. Interesting. For Governor L.S. "CASEY" CAGLE EDDIE HAYES HUNTER HILL BRIAN KEMP CLAY TIPPINS MARC URBACH MICHAEL WILLIAMS I am leaning strongly towards Hill in this race. Here's an article of interest . The top contenders are Cagle (currently At. Governor), Kemp (currently Secretary of State), and Hill (state senator, former Army). Cagle lost my support especially over that Delta issue. While I appreciate the sentiment of supporting the NRA and the second amendment, I am disgusted by the pandering and the threat of using government power to force others...

A good friend from church sent me a forwarded email, one of those "Trump is bad but still have to vote against him to stop Hillary" things. This was the reply I sent back to him:

PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS I'm going to have to do some jumping around here, but I'll make up for summarizing at the end. Items #1 and #3 are each standalone, but each of them has a bunch of story that is not being told on the ballot that has to be shared. #2 and #4 each seem to follow a pattern that I want to explore, to make sure that I can vote with principle and consistency, so that I can decide not just the question of whether this particular proposal is good, but whether this type of proposal is sound.

I'm not going to write about the Presidential race. I'm done with it. Let's go down the ballot. For United States Senate JOHNNY ISAKSON (Incumbent) Republican Talks conservative, but votes liberal.  https://www.conservativereview.com/members/johnny-isakson/liberty-card/ . JIM BARKSDALE Democrat Typical Democrat party line of being “for the little guy”... With more taxes, regulation, Federal control. ALLEN BUCKLEY Libertarian Seems to be a Libertarian of the “not wacko” sort, really for bringing Washington back to its proper place. For Public Service Commissioner TIM ECHOLS (Incumbent) Republican ERIC HOSKINS Libertarian During the primary I voted for Echols’ Republican challenger. Echols’ website bragged on some great causes that in my mind are very worthy for private undertaking but not related at all to the role of Public Service Commissioner. Now, I'd like to give the Libertarians a chance, but Hoskins doesn't even seem to b...

Now that I've been through my research, here's the "bottom line" on where I'm voting for each race: Part 1: US Senate:  Mary Kay Bacallo US Representative:  Mike Crane Part 2: Public Service Commissioner:  Kellie Pollard Austin District Attorney:  Rudjard Hayes Sheriff: Barry Babb Coroner: W. Bee Huddleston Part 3: County Commissioner: Eric Maxwell for District 1 Allen McCarty for District 5 Board of Education Brian Anderson Part 4: Republican Party Question "Yes" for empowering parents Part 5: Judge, for Superior Court Mack Crawford (Was leaning Sanderson, but getting more information that is swinging my vote)  Scott Ballard Judge, for Magistrate Court Christy A. Dunkelberger

Last post in my voter guide for this election! I'll follow up with the "summary", now that I've been through the whole ballot. For Judge, Superior Court of the Griffin Judicial Circuit Mack Crawford (Incumbent) https://www.facebook.com/Judge-Mack-Crawford-480952888779042/?fref=ts Appointed by Perdue in 2010. Previously director of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council. Catherine Sanderson http://www.electcatherinesanderson.com/default.html Challenging Crawford on the basis that family law cases, divorces, and other proceedings have not been handled expediently. Update: I was leaning towards Sanderson, but I have learned a few things this morning. First, her campaign has apparently included some smear and false claims. I'm still researching this, but I have no patience for dirty campaigning. Second, looking over her Facebook page, she seems to strongly lean towards progressive, left-leaning causes. I want my judges to be Co...

Let's take a moment to look at the Party Questions. This time, I'm not going to look at just the one Party Question on the Republican ballot, but also the five on the Democrat ballot.

I know I'm running late, early voting is almost over and the actual voting day is this coming Tuesday, so I'm hurrying up! County Commission and Board of Education!

Moving on to Public Service Commissioner, District Attorney, Sheriff ,and Coroner

Once again, it's time to write about our upcoming races! Long list of candidates to look over, let's get this show on the road! Federal Seats For United States Senate Mary Kay Bacallo http://lionsandeagles.blogspot.com/2012/10/my-voting-guide-for-november-2012-part-2.html http://www.marykaybacallao.com Served on Fayette County school board. Also ran for State School Superintendent. Has spoken out often against Federal over-regulation particularly in Education. Has been particularly outspoken against Isakson. Derrick Grayson http://www.grayson2016.com Don't see much on his website about his background Has several issue positions I like, but I am worried about his opposition to Citizens United. Johnny Isakson (Incumbent) Basic party guy In this race, Mary Kay Bacallo gets my vote. I see where she’s coming from, why she’s running, and I approve. She is a local/state education person going to Washington, to get Washington out ...