For Georgia GOP, Unifying Despite Turmoil Is Key For 2020
But some state-level drama has distracted from party unity, like House Speaker David Ralston’s ethics scandal.
John Bazemore / Associated Press
The Georgia Republican Party began its convention in Savannah Friday morning. It’s a turning point as the party sets its sights on 2020, tries to find a united front and elect new leadership.
“You could probably call this the starting line going toward the finish line of November of 2020,” said Susan Meyers, a Republican communications strategist with Oak Grove Communications.
Meyers, speaking from just outside the convention on the banks of the Savannah River this morning, said most eyes are focused on the top of the ticket.
“The Republicans have a vision of one thing, and one thing only. And that’s re-electing Donald Trump in 2020,” she said. “That’s all you see in the halls: T-shirts, socks, hats, bumper stickers.”
But some state-level drama has distracted from that target, like House Speaker David Ralston’s ethics scandal.
It’s been a few months since an AJC-WSB investigation that revealed he appeared to have abused a scheduling rule for lawyer lawmakers to delay his legal cases. Ralston denies any wrongdoing, though he did support reforms of the rule which became law this year.
But, the voices of opposition have persisted from the sidelines. There’s a handful of state lawmakers, some county Republican parties and Erick Erickson.
He’s a conservative talk radio host on WSB, who argues Ralston is a political liability for the Georgia GOP.
“There are a growing number of metro Atlanta Republican parties that are aware he is beginning to be a burden on Republicans,” he said on a recent show. And the continued attention to it, he said, will generate “a feedback loop that makes it very bad for Republicans heading into 2020 if the speaker stays.”
Some delegates are expected to introduce resolutions at the convention asking Ralston to resign, though as Meyers points out, the convention really isn’t the venue to deal with the issue.
“That is up to the Georgia House of Representatives how it wants to govern itself,” she said.
More drama in the party? There’s the news about Insurance commissioner Jim Beck, who’s been indicted for embezzling millions and suspended from office.
That’s thrown a twist into the race for chair of the state’s Republican party.
One of the two front-runners for that post, David Shafer is being targeted by his opponent, Scott Johnson as a Beck ally. Shafer served on the board of the Georgia Underwriting Association, which Beck was general manager of and is accused of embezzling money from. That prompted a pseudo-Facebook war between the two.
Really, all this turmoil needs to be pushed aside said Chuck Clay, a former state GOP party chair.
“Republicans at the highest level need a high-functioning party to be in place by the next election cycle to be as sophisticated, as directed, focused and quite candidly as successful as the Democrats have been in the last one or two election cycles,” he said.
Simply put, he said, overcoming the drama and finding unity will be key to a victory in 2020.
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