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BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2016
Opinions
“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press,
and that cannot be limited without being lost.
~ Thomas Jefferson ~
Georgia Press Association, first place, Best Editorial Page; first place, Best Serious Column
There may be some
competive races this fall
Hatred for
Trump really
baffling
In less than three months, we will know
who our next president will be.
And while the Libertarian Party and
Green Party candidates are polling as well
as anyone from those groups have ever
done, in reality, the next president will
be either Hillary
Clinton or Donald
Trump.
It seems as if the
2016 general elec
tion has boiled
down to which of
those two voters is
disliked the least.
Despite all the neg
ative surrounding
Hillary Clinton dat
ing back decades,
there are some
who claim to be
conservative who are still having the most
difficult of times supporting Trump.
As someone who has followed the
Trump campaign since it began well over
a year ago, it’s interesting to hear all the
negative reaction to him. Yes, he’s opin
ionated. Yes, Trump says a lot of things
that are not politically correct. Yes, at
times, he has stuck his foot in his mouth.
Yet, no one is going to convince me that
Trump would be the worst president we’ve
ever had. The mere fact that we really hav
en’t had a decent president since Ronald
Reagan says a lot. To me what George
H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush
and Barack Obama did while occupying
the White House all outweigh anything
Trump may or may not do.
Let’s be clear about something: A presi
dent can only do so much. A president, or
presidential candidate, can make all sorts
of claims about radically changing certain
things, but those promises usually never
materialize. Remember Obama saying he
would close Guantanamo base as soon as
he took office? It’s still open folks.
A president’s power is limited in most
ways. It takes congress to enact many
things and many of the things Trump is
boasting about now he likely would never
attempt if elected.
Trump has already proven most of the
political experts wrong. He was never
going to have an impact on the race. He
was going to drop out before the first state
voted. He was going to quit as soon as he
began losing primaries. Trump was going
to eventually say something which ended
his renegade support.
As we all know, none of that has hap
pened despite many talking heads on
cable TV trying to convince us otherwise.
Even now with Trump trailing in some
polls and in some key states, it would be
unwise to count him out. So what’s to
like about Trump? You could start with
his business mind which has made him
one of the richest people in this country.
You could talk about how he doesn’t care
what GOP insiders think. You could also
mention how his campaign has week
after week, month after month left the old
guard trying to figure out why they are
scratching their watch and winding their
rear-end.
Would Trump be the worst president
this country has ever had? How could he
possibly be? All one has to do is look at
the past 28 years for the answer to that.
• • •
The race for U.S. Senate this year in
Georgia has been a somewhat quiet con
test. Most believe Republican incumbent
Johnny Isakson is a sure bet to win
re-election.
However, Libertarian Party candidate
Allen Buckley deserves a look. Buckley
has called out Isakson on his votes for
massive spending increases. Isakson,
despite claiming to be a conservative on
fiscal issues, has contributed greatly to
the national debt with his spending votes.
Buckley will be ready to challenge
Isakson with the facts on this issue in
forums in coming weeks. It will be inter
esting to see if the incumbent U.S. Senator
is willing to take part.
• • •
It was a great night for our local foot
ball teams last Friday. Winder-Barrow
High School and Apalachee won their
preseason scrimmages while Bethlehem
Christian Academy won its regular season
opener. Here’s hoping for success for
all our local players this fall. Our annual
football preview section is included in
today’s edition.
Winder resident Chris Bridges is editor
of the Barrow News-Journal. You can
reach him at cbridges@barrowjournal.
com.
If you write about legislative races
in Georgia, the last few elections have
been downright boring in their pre
dictability.
Republicans go into the November
election holding a two-to-one advan
tage in legislative seats over their
Democratic counterparts.
Republicans come out of the
election holding that same two-
to-one advantage.
There are very few legislative
districts that are drawn to be
really competitive, so you can
figure out in advance which
ones will remain Republican
and which will stay in the
Democratic column.
That scenario could change
a little this year. Events of the
last two weeks have put at least
two House seats up for grabs,
raising the possibility of something
you rarely see these days: competitive
legislative races.
In southwest Georgia’s House District
151, Kenneth Zachary has been certi
fied by the secretary of state’s office
to run as an independent against Rep.
Gerald Greene (R-Cuthbert).
Zachary is actually a fill-in for the
Georgia Democratic Party, which orig
inally qualified James Williams to run
against Greene.
Because of an error by local elec
tion officials, Williams was disqualified
when it was found he didn’t reside
within the district boundaries. Zachary
subsequently gathered enough peti
tion signatures to get on the ballot
against Greene.
The demographic makeup of House
District 151 would make it promising
for any Democratic candidate: its vot
ing age population is 52 percent black
and 5 percent Latino, and it went for
Barack Obama in 2012 by 5644 per
cent.
Greene, in fact, represented the dis
trict as a Democrat for his first 30 years
in the legislature. He didn’t switch to
the Republican Party until 2012.
Greene has more financial resourc
es than Zachary for the upcoming
campaign — he had $69,000 in his
campaign account as of June 30 com
pared to $300 for Zachary, and House
Republicans will give him more money
in an attempt to hang onto the seat.
But in a presidential election year
where black voter turnout is greater,
this could develop into a competitive
House race.
There could also be a very spirit
ed race in Middle Georgia’s House
District 145, probably the most evenly
divided legislative district in the state.
In the 2012 presidential election, the
district’s voters went for Mitt Romney
by exactly five votes over Barack
Obama: 9,670 for Romney, 9,665 for
Obama.
Rep. Rusty Kidd of Milledgeville
recognized the divided nature of his
district, choosing to serve as the only
independent member of the General
Assembly.
But Kidd said recently he won’t run
again because of medical issues. That
leaves the race to Republican Rick
Williams, a former Baldwin County
commissioner, and Floyd Griffin, a
former state senator and mayor of
Milledgeville, who both have experi
ence in running for office.
House Minority Leader Stacey
Abrams (D-Atlanta) was undoubtedly
referring to these two districts when
she said in a cable TV interview that
Democrats had a shot at winning
Republican seats in November.
“Right now, we are on track to flip
three seats, but we can
flip even more,” said
Abrams, who didn’t
identify the districts.
“The demography
has been leading us
in this direction for
quite some time and
[Donald] Trump is just
the fuel we needed to
accelerate our prog
ress,” Abrams said.
“He has had an extraor
dinary ability to unify
every community that
opposes him.”
On the other side of the rotunda,
you could also see a possible party flip
in Senate District 43, which includes
portions of DeKalb, Rockdale, and
Newton counties.
Former legislator Tonya Anderson
won the Democratic runoff elec
tion for this seat by a 10-vote margin
over state Rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler
(D-Lithonia). That sets up a rematch
of last year’s special election that
was called in this district when Ron
Ramsey stepped down to accept a
judgeship.
Rockdale County Republican JaNice
VanNess defeated Anderson by 84
votes in a low-turnout special election,
despite the fact that the district is 59
percent black, 6 percent Latino, and
gave 71.5 percent of its votes to Obama
in 2012. In a regular election year, that
result might be reversed.
If all these changes were to happen,
it wouldn’t change the current balance
of power in the Legislature. No matter
what, Republicans will still hold a
strong majority in both the House and
Senate.
But we may actually have some sus
pense on election night.
Tom Crawford is editor of The
Georgia Report, an internet news ser
vice at gareport.com that reports on
state government and politics. He can
be reached at tcrawford@gareport.
com.
The Barrow News-Journal
Winder, Barrow County, Ga.
www.BarrowJoumal.com
Mike Buffington
Scott Buffington
Co-Publisher
Co-Publisher
Chris Bridges
Editor
Jessica Brown
Photographer
Susan Treadwell
Advertising
Sharon Hogan
Office & Reporter
Also covering beats are Alex Pace and Scott Thompson
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Adventures in
puppy-sitting
I used to think having a puppy was different
than having a baby or small child. Boy, was I
wrong.
I know there are some mothers out there
who get mad or offended when pet owners
refer to their pets as “furbabies.” It’s somehow
a slap in the face to motherhood in their eyes,
which I don’t understand
to be honest. I’m sure all
furbaby parents love and
respect the role mothers
play and wouldn’t use the
term “furbaby” to offend
them.
That being said, there
are a lot of similarities
between caring for a
puppy and a human tod
dler. They both require
constant attention and
care otherwise there’s a
mess spread all over your kitchen when you
thought they were being good.
My father has been in the hospital for the
past week, so I’ve been watching the house
and pets while my mom was with him. Don’t
worry, my dad is back home now. He will be
on antibiotics for a few weeks, but he’s home
and feeling much better than he was when he
went in.
Watching after a puppy all day long for a
week has been a challenge in several regards,
and I found myself acting like a mom more
than I’d ever had in my entire life. So let me
tell you about my crazy dog mom experiences
from this past week.
As I was on the phone, I was walking around
the house to keep an eye on Ruger to make
sure he wasn’t getting himself into trouble. I
had a conversation about my dad’s hospital
stay that was quickly interrupted with popular
“mom phrases” such as:
• “What’s that in your mouth?”
• “Don’t put that in your mouth!”
• “Get that thing out of your mouth!”
• “Shhh, I’m on the phone.”
• “What are you getting into?!”
•“No!”
• “Get off the table, please.”
• “You’re getting in big trouble!”
Of course, I had to apologize to my boy
friend on the other end of the phone as I had
to jump between letting him know my dad’s
update and scolding my rambunctious pooch.
If I don’t put Ruger down for a nap, he gets
extremely fussy. The only difference between
a fussy baby and a fussy puppy is that a fussy
baby just screams and cries. A fussy puppy
bites. More specifically, he bites me. It’s imper
ative that I get him down for a nap so I can
have peace of mind.
Then I am exhausted from running after him
in the morning so when he finally falls asleep,
I fall asleep right next to him. I’ve heard many
moms say the best time to sleep is when the
baby is sleeping. Thank you mothers every
where for that tip because it definitely applied
in my situation.
After an exhausting week came the weekend
and I was ready for sleep and a chance to
relax. Spoiler alert: that didn’t happen. I had
errands to run and chores to do, but trying to
get anything accomplished with a puppy fol
lowing you is nearly impossible. Every time I
tried to get dressed, Ruger would bite and yank
my pant leg and run off with my shoe.
I enlisted the help of several people so I
could get things done. A family friend came
over to puppy-sit Ruger for a few hours Friday
night so I could go to work. I put all his favor
ite treats on the counter and went over them
in-depth with her. I told her what his favorite
toys are and how he likes to play with them.
I left the house saying “Bye, bye Ruger. I love
you. I’ll be back soon. Be good!”
Then on Saturday, I needed to run to the
store to pick up the usual items that we hadn’t
been able to get since everything was so hec
tic. My best friend came over and played with
Ruger while I ran to the store. After getting all
of the items on my list, I grabbed some vanil
la ice cream and cones specifically for the
puppy. He turned six months old on Sunday
and he’s had a rough week. He deserved a
special treat.
Let me just say, I still don’t understand why
moms get offended when we call our pets
“furbabies” because if anything, they help to
show us how tough your job is. It requires
so much patience and sleepless nights. It’s a
thankless job sometimes. You constantly make
sure your child isn’t putting the cat’s toys in
their mouths and hoping they don’t poop all
over the floor. As soon as they are being quiet
you know it’s too good to be true and yep, sure
enough they are doing something they know
they shouldn’t be doing. I get it now.
Winder resident Jessica Brown is the staff
photographer for the Barrow News-Journal.
You can reach her at picsbyjessical @gmail.
com.