u/PowerLaw-Pinecone

Alright folks. I’ve heard enough from my fellow eastside friends about wanting a family friendly place to hang out and have a beer (something like Athentic). With the assumption that there is a need and want to have such a place (note there are 3 separate SFH developments under construction right now on the Eastside), where on the Eastside could this actually pop up? I’m guessing somewhere on the Barnett Shoals/Gaines School corridor, but would love to hear other opinions. This is wishful thinking but perhaps could be a fun discussion.

Spicy.

"We’re in political times that require courage, but also psychological maturity [and] healed, competent leaders"

I agree that we need leaders to be a bit more courageous and obviously we hope they show maturity and competence. But what does it mean to be a 'healed leader'?

On FB, Ed Tolley’s campaign page reported results from a survey with 56 respondents (48 from D7) asking about the proposed accessory dwelling unit amendment (the commissioners will on this amendment on Tuesday evening). Among the 48 D7 respondents, 29 of them (~60%) said the commission should reject the amendment or return it for further review/study. 

Although the report qualified the results by saying, ‘this was a voluntary survey and should not be treated as a scientific poll of the entire district’, the literal next sentence says, ‘…it offers a clear message from the constituents who participated: there is not support for approving this amendment as currently proposed’. 

I encourage more data-driven discourse in campaigns and from elected officials, but only if they do it correctly. For example, the interpretation of the results qualifies that from the constituents who participated in the survey, there is no support for approving the amendment as currently proposed. This is a flawed interpretation: 29 out of 48 constituents endorse a perspective and now the campaign views this as ‘no support’. This is an over-generalization from a small sample of D7 constituents. Also, was this survey only sent out to people who follow the Tolley FB page? Seems like a perfect situation to enter into a self-reinforcing thought bubble.

Advice to the amateur survey folks making some extra $$$ in the Tolley campaign: just because you identify a flaw in the polling methodology, it doesn’t mean you can then interpret the results like nothing ever happened.

Is this how we want our local leaders to lead? Decision making via low N surveys? 

Ask current commissioners if they have ever renovated their own properties to add ADUs on their own property. Did they play by the rules? District 9 commissioner?

Hi Friends. My birthday is coming up and I'd like to try to get a round at a golf course that I have never been to that is still driving distance and day trip-able from Athens.

My normal circuit is: UGA, Chimneys, Arrowhead, Lane Creek, Hard Labor.

Any suggestions for a quality course that is 0-2 hours away? I'm willing to pay a little more because it's one of those milestone birthdays.

Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Democratic primary race for Governor with 57% of the vote, eliminating the need for a runoff. Let’s say you accept the thesis that the runoff for the Republican ticket for Governor really helped Dexter Fisher in the Athens Mayoral runoff (Dexter won by over a 1000 votes; ~5%). 

Question: If there was a runoff for the Democratic ticket for Governor, would Tim Denson have had a better shot to win the Athens’ Mayoral runoff? 

I know we all need to get some more hobbies at this point, but I figured I would pose this question as we process this pretty intense local election cycle. 

Two democrats are running for the non-partisan mayoral election. Denson, a DSA member, has provided a vision of Athens-Clarke County that relies on collectivist principles that are generally associated with socialist economic and governing principles. Fisher, a self-avowed democrat, has provided a vision that relies more on individualist principles. For example, I would argue championing single family houses – at the expense of mixed-use density – would land closer to the individualist side of the spectrum. Zesty thoughts? 

My zesty take for right now is this: Republicans stand to benefit from the fact that the top of the runoff ticket is the gubernatorial primary runoff, whereas the Democrats only benefit from a runoff at the Lt. Gov. level. This bodes well for Fisher, who is likely to garner many of the votes from republicans in Athens-Clarke County.

Early voting is happening right now. I voted today and it took 5 minutes.

Results from the May 19^(th) election:

Tim Denson — 37.7% (9,638 votes)

Dexter Fisher — 27.1% (6,918 votes)

*difference between Denson ad Fisher was 2,720 votes, which, not counting the other candidates was a win delta of 1,360+1.

LaKeisha Gantt — 21.7% (5,553 votes)

Mara Zúñiga — 11.7% (2,984 votes)

Sharon Miller — 1.8% (466 votes)

It's going down to a runoff.

It is time.

You can find today's election results here: https://results.sos.ga.gov/results/public/clarke-county-ga/elections/GeneralPrimary51926

Any final zesty thoughts?

Call me lazy, but did Zander Mason get Dexter Fisher's endorsement? I haven't seen it.

He has some endorsements...He said he worked on Fisher's D5 commissioner campaign last cycle, so is there a reason why Fisher hasn't endorsed?

An Athens Politics Tale (in steps)

1. A dark money PAC sent out a mailer to many ACC residents 'contrasting' Fisher and Denson, heavily favoring Fisher and demeaning Denson. Ooo, zesty.
2. Fisher's campaign team (written by their manager who is a white woman...a relevant detail for this whole saga...) denounced the mailer and said they didn't have anything to do with it (which, like, if they did, would have broken some laws). *But* neglected to say how bad it was that the other three candidates (all women of color) were not discussed once in the mailer. This was called to their attention by many people online. She then corrected/edited their response, accordingly.

*An editorial indulgence: Ya'll, it is crazy that the first thing many folks in our community jumped to was how unfair and biased it was that a targeted negative ad -- contrasting between the two seemingly obvious front-runners -- left out the other candidates and called it racist and misogynistic. It's a targeted negative ad. Most folks who have paid any attention to this race would say it is between Fisher and Denson. Perhaps there is racism and misogyny with that reality, but this was a targeted negative ad against one candidate. People who are writing negative ads aren't considering if they are balancing their attention to all candidates equally in a race.

3. Denson created a video responding to the mailer. Many online people were also upset that he did not bring up that the other candidates were not discussed.

4. Gantt goes on FB live to say how community members need to be better allies.

5. Lots of online slappy fights have ensued throughout the weekend.

This whole saga has been dumb. How pretty much everyone who has responded has been embarrassing and self-important. But I guess that's just politics.

A few questions:

• I always thought that this race would come down to Fisher and Denson in a runoff. And then I thought many Gantt general voters would vote for Denson in a runoff. Did this saga make this potential outcome less or more likely?
• Does Fisher lose any support from this saga? In a campaign, this saga *is* a big deal and how your team responds matters. On the contrary, did this mailer help Fisher in any way?
• Gantt was the only of the three candidates not featured in the targeted mailer to respond (to my knowledge). Did her response and the way she is playing this whole dynamic make her look stronger or weaker?

I've recently seen a number of endorsements from local campaign employees. This is not just limited to one candidate or race. This doesn't seem normal to me, but perhaps I'm wrong. 

It is sort of like if David Axelrod made a special announcement that he was endorsing Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign.

Is this a normal thing to do? Zesty thoughts?