Blog Topic: Raging Election

In the Loop: Today Is the Last Day to Register to Vote

By Blake Aued | October 6, 2014 10:43am

Photo Credit: Blake Aued

If you're not registered to vote already, today is the last day to do so and be eligible to vote in the Nov. 4 election, when races for governor, Senate and Congress will be on the ballot, in addition to other statewide offices.

Read More...
In the Loop: Sunday Voting Under Consideration in Athens

By Blake Aued | September 18, 2014 11:07am

Photo Credit: Blake Aued

The Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections will consider holding early voting on a Sunday next month, according to Clarke County Democratic Committee Chairman Joe Wisenbaker.

DeKalb County kicked off the Sunday voting trend last week, scheduling early voting on Sundays in an effort to draw "souls to the polls"—African American churches busing their mostly Democratic congregants to voting booths. Since then, Fulton and Lowndes counties—both rich sources of Democratic votes—have followed suit.

Republicans have called the move "blatantly partisan" and vowed to put an end to Sunday voting during next year's legislative session. It's part of a larger battle in which Democrats are trying to register and turn out more voters, while the GOP is trying to block them.

Read More...
In the Loop: Jason Carter Meets Herschel Walker, Goes to Avid

By Blake Aued | September 2, 2014 11:45am

State Sen. Jason Carter (D-Decatur) spent his Saturday campaigning for governor in Athens with 100,000 Georgia fans—and potential registered voters.

Read More...
In the Loop: Watch Video of Gov. Nathan Deal Telling UGA Students He Presumes They're Undocumented

By Blake Aued | August 27, 2014 12:06pm

From left, Kevin Ruiz, Carver Goodhue, Preethi Raja and Lizbeth Miranda. Photo via Sarah Young/Twitter

Last night, Flagpole broke news about four University of Georgia students who challenged Gov. Nathan Deal at a College Republicans meeting about the state ban on undocumented students attending UGA. We obtained video of the confrontation this morning.

Read More...
In the Loop: Gov. Nathan Deal Presumes UGA Immigration Activists Are Undocumented

By Blake Aued | August 26, 2014 9:25pm

Photo Credit: Blake Aued

Gov. Nathan Deal speaks at UGA earlier this year.

Four University of Georgia student activists confronted Gov. Nathan Deal during a speech on campus Tuesday night over the state Board of Regents policy prohibiting undocumented immigrants from attending UGA.

Read More...
In the Loop: David Perdue: Don't Worry About the Unemployment Rate

By Blake Aued | August 26, 2014 5:14pm

A video of a journalist being forcibly removed from a Republican campaign event in Dawsonville has drawn a lot of attention lately. Lost in the shuffle, according to Democrat Michelle Nunn's Senate campaign, were her opponent David Perdue's comment on the unemployment rate at the 37-minute mark.

Team Nunn is circulating a Huffington Post article about the event that quotes Perdue as saying he's not concerned about Georgia's 7.8 percent unemployment rate, which is the second highest of any state and well above the 6.2 percent national average.

Read More...
In the Loop: Is Caterpillar in Cahoots with Gov. Nathan Deal?

By Blake Aued | July 31, 2014 11:10am

Photo Credit: Photo via online.wsj.com

This is a month old, but in light of our recent feature on the progressive group better Georgia and the connection to Athens, it's worth bringing up.

Gov. Nathan Deal has built his campaign around Georgia being ranked the No. 1 state to do business. But Better Georgia implies that Deal is using his political connections—including with Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman, whom Deal gave $44 million in tax breaks to build a plant in Athens—to influence the rankings.

Read More...
Homedrone: How R.E.M. Registered Millions of Voters

By Blake Aued | July 28, 2014 10:44am

R.E.M.'s seminal 1991 album Out of Time led to an explosion in young people registering to vote, as Slate writers Whitney Jones and Roman Mars explained Friday.

"[N]o album has had as large an effect on politics in the United States as R.E.M.'s Out of Time," they wrote.

Read More...
In the Loop: Senate Candidate Michelle Nunn Drops By Little Kings

By Stephanie Talmadge | July 23, 2014 4:10pm

Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones

The primary runoff Tuesday night confirmed that Republican businessman David Perdue is Democrat Michelle Nunn’s opponent for the U.S. Senate seat when Perdue defeated 11-term U.S. Representative Jack Kingston by about 51 to 49 percent. Knowing who she will now face, Nunn stopped by a fairly-crowded Little Kings Shuffle Club in downtown Athens Wednesday afternoon to talk more about the election.

Read More...
In the Loop: Bubber Wilkes Beats Oconee Commission Margaret Hale

By |

Photo Credit: Lee Becker

Former Oconee County Commissioner W.E. “Bubber” Wilkes unseated incumbent Margaret Hale in the Republican primary runoff for Post 3 on the Board of Commissioners Tuesday, with 51.2 percent of the 4,253 votes cast.

Wilkes will have no opposition in November, meaning he will return to the commission after an absence of 10 years.

Read More...