Rick Jackson rolled out a video the other day for his campaign. Songs and jingles for campaigns are not unusual. Many candidates come up with something to plant the name of the candidate firmly in the listener’s mind.
This song did that and more. It told a powerful story of the struggles of a child. It told how that child overcame those overwhelming odds to make a life that impacts thousands of lives today.
The song walks you through the first time that Rick drove a car. He could barely see over the dashboard to drive his drunk and passed out mother home. He told of nights at home with literally an empty cupboard.
He was labeled and laughed at and bullied. He was told that he was white trash.
At five years old something led him to walk to a downtown church where he found refuge and a sense of peace. When the world knocked him down, he found the strength to get up and get up again and again and again to keep fighting against the labeling, name calling, bullying, and being told he would never amount to anything.
He tracked his job career from shoeshine boy, to a paper route, to vacuum cleaner salesman, to the Chief Executive of a multibillion dollar company today. He determined to learn life’s valuable lessons even in the lowliest jobs.
Through his experience, he honed the value of one-on-one relationships and a servant’s heart. Rather than accepting the label of a white trash loser, he looked to win and win big.
He was shaped along the way by loving foster parents and later in the United Methodist Children’s Home. “From the hard road to the high road,” he learned and applied what it took to win big.
He related in his song servanthood and putting America first. When Covid hit, he made Georgia the priority for finding medical personnel to fight the deadly disease. He could have easily increased his bottom line profits by turning his business toward New York – but he stuck with Georgia. (He was not running for and had no thought of running for Governor back then.)
China, had a monopoly on medicine production. When they tried to squeeze America, Rick Jackson bought an American medicine manufacturer and turned it around to keep some medicine production on American soil.
With all of his millions, he never forgot where he came from. He built a successful organization to help foster children when they aged out of foster care.
He sees this run for Governor of Georgia as a drive that calls for strength and clarity. He demonstrates both in his support for law enforcement, families, and the working man.
He is running to win and win big. I like the way he puts it when he says he doesn’t want to be governor. He wants to be a good governor.
Listen to the song here on YouTube. It will move you as much as any patriotic song you’ve ever heard.
If you want to meet Rick in person, he will be making a couple of stops in Southwest Georgia on Friday, March 6 in Blakely and Thomasville. Click on the invites below for more information.
It was a simple request. Stand up if you agree. Was it so hard to do?
“The first duty of the American government is to protect its citizens, not illegal immigrants.” If you agree, stand up.
Some Democrats had stood, reluctantly, several times during the State of the Union speech. Some refused to stand for anything.
But it was this point in the speech. Every American in the House chambers should have been on their feet. He did not ask them to applaud. He did not ask them to cheer. He just asked them to stand.
There were many memorable moments in the two-hour State of the Union address. There were cheers and applause for the USA Hockey team.
Tears came to my eyes at the reunion of the Venezuelan political prisoner with his niece. They were clearly emotional as well. Trump then told the pair to go enjoy themselves.
One after another the President introduced military heroes and gave them awards. Two received the highest military honor possible, the Congressional Medal of Honor, right on the spot.
He recognized victims of crimes by illegal immigrants to emphasize why he slammed the border shut He explained that that is why he is now aggressively going after hardened criminals who entered our nation illegally.
It was during the speech that he made the simple request to stand. Democrats sat on their hands. It makes me wonder if the Democrats will stand for anything.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has an opportunity to pass a measure that 85% of Americans support, the SAVE America Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility). Democrats in the Senate have declared the bill dead on arrival as they know that Republicans cannot get 60 votes to stop a filibuster.
But we need understand the filibuster and the Senate rules. It is not as simple as Democrats want to make it out to be.
Over the years the filibuster has morphed into a matter as simple as handing a note to the clerk of the Senate stating that there is a filibuster on a particular vote. When that happens, all action on the vote comes to a halt and the Senate pivots over to work on other matters.
That was not the original meaning of filibuster. The original practice has been so watered down that today there are two names for the filibuster. The “silent” filibuster is what we are familiar with today. One side just “says filibuster” and that’s it.
The other name is the “standing” or “talking” filibuster. In short, the standing or talking filibuster requires one side to keep talking until one of three things happen: (1) 60 Senators vote to end debate; (2) one side gives up; or (3) the two-times rule is invoked, and the minority runs out of speakers.
Congressman Chip Roy sent a “dear colleague” letter to the Senators explaining how they could pass the SAVE act with a simple majority. (A copy of the letter is at the end of this article.) It will not be easy, but it is possible if our Republican senators will discipline themselves and, as Nike says, “just do it.”
In short, Republicans would have to vote with a simple majority to table any amendment that Democrats bring up and keep tabling amendments. Democrats, on the other hand, would have to keep someone talking the full time. The Senate rules only allow a person to speak twice on any one bill or amendment.
Even if the Democrats stayed fully in lockstep to filibuster, they would eventually come to a point of having no one left to debate and Republicans could end debate and vote on the bill. Sound complicated? It is, but it would be worth it.
Congressman Roy closed his letter with a worst-case scenario. “Democrats filibuster to death an 85% issue like Voter ID and citizen voting in front of the entire country.”
Best case, the bill passes and we have real voter ID for national elections. Senate Republicans, this is a no-brainer. All you need is the discipline to make them filibuster.
If you live in Bibb, Crawford, Houston, Monroe, Peach, or Upson counties, then you may be in Senate District 18. There is a special election runoff that puts Steve McNeel, a Republican against a Democrat in a head-to-head contest.
I encourage you to go vote early. You may ask why. That’s a good question and I’ll give you two quick answers.
First, no one is promised tomorrow. You considere voting to be an important patriotic duty. You probably vote Republican. This ballot has a Republican and a Democrat. There is nothing that will come up between now and Tuesday, February 17 that is going to change your mind. So, there is no reason to put it off.
Second, the Republican party, GA Republican Senate Caucus, Steve McNeel’s campaign, and other conservative organizations are working hard to get out all votes. On election day, volunteers will be calling, texting, and reaching out to get voters to the polls. If you vote early, you won’t need a call, and these conservative organizations can focus their attention on those who have not already voted.
We can debate the issue of early and absentee voting. I personally think that there should be one day for voting in person and absentee voting be allowed only for a stated reason. While I hold that opinion, the fact remains that the playing field and rules we operate under allow early voting and no-excuse absentee.
Be assured, the competition is using the early and absentee vote. If we do not use it strategically, then we will lose. This is especially true when there are three weeks of early voting.
I ask you to do two things. Both are simple and cost nothing.
First, go vote early. Get your vote in and take someone with you to go vote.
Second, if you are on social media, then post a photo of you wearing your, “I voted” sticker. You influence others and when they see you, they are more likely to go vote. I’m proud to post two photos of Republican leaders in Senate District 18. Dave Sumrall is the former Republican Party Chairman of Bibb County and Wade Yoder is a Peach County Commissioner.
It is especially important in this election because we are in a special election cycle for one race in a runoff. Let’s face it, going to vote is not high on the news and conversation list right now. That is why, like Dave Sumrall and Wade Yoder, you need to lead by example and let others see you voting early.
So, now that you have read this, go vote. If you don’t get it done early, then by all means get to your polling place on February 17 and, if you live in the district, vote for Steven McNeel, Republican in Senate District 18.
Let me share with you what I learned from listening to him and checking him out with people who know him. The title of this article sums it up best – he is for real.
It is not only what he says, but how he says it. I watched his speech and listened to him carefully. I saw a firm, resolute, calm strength and character that developed over years of testing and trials that most of us will never experience.
Rick Jackson grew up in the projects and foster homes. His life was influenced by living with a Christian family and later in the United Methodist Children’s Home.
An article in TwoTen Magazine from ten years ago told his story. When this article was written a decade ago, he was not running for anything. He did not need anything. He just had a committment to help those who had no voice, children in foster care.
That article told how, at five years old, he walked to Sunday School at a church in downtown Atlanta. Living in a foster home, he experienced a family praying before a meal. It was so foreign to him that he could not process the love and faith of that family.
In his first speech, he said that his company’s main cultural value is “Others First.” I checked the Best Places to Work website and found that 90% of his nearly 2500 employees said that it is a great place to work compared to 57% at a typical US based company.
At one point in the speech when he spoke of his addressing a senate committee about foster care, you could see the powerful conviction welling up in him. It caused him to pause for a moment to catch his composure. That kind of reaction cannot be manufactured. He summed up his Others First values:
“The system forgets the people who don’t have money, power, privilege or fame, not those who need it. Right then, I committed to do everything I could to help those without a voice, without a lobbyist, without a checkbook to make their voice heard.”
He did not have to say that he felt a calling to run for Governor. It was evident in his whole being as he spoke. He laid out his vision to make Georgia the the most affordable state in the nation.
His commitment is to freeze property taxes and slash the income tax by 50% in four years. In eight years he strives to eliminate the income tax all together.
He wants to freeze tuition, room and board for state higher education. He wants to tackle the cost of home ownership.
He addresses the “woke nonsense and complete insanity. “ He says that if Christianity cannot be taught then neither will this ideology find a place in Georgia’s public schools.
There won’t be any boys playing in girls sports or in the girls bathrooms and locker rooms. “There are two genders and they are God-given.” He went farther to say that anyone pushing this ideology will not be just stopped but will be held accountable.
He says that there will not be a stronger supporter of the 2nd amendment. From his own personal experience growing up, he is a passionate supporter of law enforcement. I like the way he said that he will make Georgia the worst place in the nation for criminals.
I went beyond what I could find in research and checked with some of those who know him. One commented, “I know of his genuine faith.”
Rick Jackson is for real. I will be proud to give him my vote and have him as my governor. Check him out and I believe you will too.
Last Week the FBI executed a search warrant at the Fulton County Election Office. About 700 boxes of ballots were seized along with voter rolls, voting machine tapes, absentee ballot envelopes, and other documents and evidence from the 2020 Presidential election.
I wondered just what kind of evidence of what kind of crime the FBI had in mind when they searched the facilities. I thought a Goggle search would easily show the search warrant but I was wrong.
The search warrant was mentioned in many news reports but I could not find a copy of the search warrant itself. Finally I found a copy of the search warrant on Facebook posted by Mark Davis on January 29. I have attached a copy of the warrant at the end of this article.
Apparently the affidavit and the warrant were sealed. Fulton County filed action in federal court to order the return of the items and had to enter the search warrant itself as evidence which effectively unsealed the warrant. The affidavit which gave justification for the search to the judge signing the warrant is still under seal.
Attachment B lists the items for which the FBI was searching. It includes:
* All physical ballots from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County; including, but not limited to: absentee ballots to include envelopes; advanced voting ballots, provisional ballots; in-person election day ballots; emergency ballots; damaged or destroyed ballots; duplicated ballots; or any other ballot that was used to cast a vote;
* All tabulator tapes for every voting machine used in Fulton County; including but not limited to; zero tapes, opening tapes, closing tapes and any other tabulator tape printed from a voting machine utilized during the 2020 General Election in Fulton County;
* All ballot images produced during the original ballot count beginning on November 3, 2020, the recount, and any other ballot images that were created from ballot scanning from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County;
* All voter rolls from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County from absentee, early voting, in person, and any other voter roll that indicates voters: to whom an absentee ballot was issued, from whom an absentee ballot was received, or who participated in advance voting or election day voting.
This is an extensive list. I can understand the reports of 700 boxes carted out to the awaiting vehicles.
Democrats exploded with rage over the search warrant. Secretary of State Raffensperger continues with his mantra that Georgia has the most secure elections in the country and that there were three recounts that proved Joe Biden won.
My issue with the recounts is that all they were doing was counting the same ballots over and over. The count wasn’t the problem.
My question points more toward the reconciliation of votes cast to the absentee ballot envelopes and voter sign-in sheets. In other words, were the ballot boxes “stuffed” with fraudulent ballots. In a mere recount, a fraudulent ballot would be counted the same as a valid ballot.
I remember that Suzi Voyles, one of the recount observers, raised an issue over seeing multiple ballots in unfolded, pristine condition, with the ballot marking appearing to be the same image on every ballot. The process should have been halted then and there to have a closer examination of the ballots to determine if they were original ballots or not. That did not happen so now those questioned ballots are somewhere in one of those 700 boxes of ballots.
The issue of Fulton County handling of the 2020 election was put under the spotlight last December when the Georgia Elections Board finally considered a complaint that was originally filed with the Secretary of State in 2022. One can only imagine why Secretary Raffensperger’s office took nearly three years to bring the complaint before the State Elections Board.
In this case, Fulton County admitted to certifying 315,000 early vote ballots without signatures on the machine tapes. The response from Raffensperger’s office was the same claim that Georgia has the most secure elections in the country. He brushed off the unsigned tapes as a clerical error.
Irregularities such as the ones reported shout for a thorough, trusted, impartial review. Based on the items secured, the FBI search will be looking at all aspects of the 2020 ballot handling to include the proper documentation of ballot handling. They rightly should make a thorough accounting and reconciliation.
I look forward to learning the results of the search. Hopefully it won’t be another five years.
The legislature is in session, and this session brings calls for killing taxes. The House is looking at killing the homestead property tax and the Senate is looking to kill the state income tax.
Florida killed the state income tax years ago and now is looking to eliminate property taxes. We should aspire to both eventually. This article focuses on the state income tax.
Senator Blake Tillery, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee is leading the charge to kill the tax. He was appointed to Chair the Special Committee to Eliminate the Income Tax. The Committee released its report as the General Assembly convened.
Bottom Line
The report begins with a bold “literally boldfaced, headline sized print” summary statement:
“We recommend making the first $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for joint filers completely tax free beginning in 2027. We also recommend reducing the state income tax rate for all other families and businesses. These proposals completely eliminate the state income tax on 2/3 of all working Georgians while drastically reducing the tax burden on everyone else.”
As the Chairman, Blake Tillery wrote an editorial for the Atlanta Journal Constitution to support the bold plan. Underscoring the aggressive plan, Tillery wrote that the committee’s charge was not to debate whether or not eliminating the income tax was a good idea. The charge was “to figure out how to do it responsibility.”
Plenty of politicians make bold campaign promises about cutting taxes. Chairman Tillery and the committee did not want to just talk. Their proposal is like the old Nike shoe slogan, “Just do it.”
What this means is that on day one of the new tax year, 2/3 of Georgia families would see an immediate elimination of the state income tax. That means zero state income tax deductions from their take home pay. It also means that the business they work for has less compliance burden in withholding and sending taxes to the state Department of Revenue.
How We “Pay for It”
When I mention eliminating the state income tax to some of my friends, the first question out of their mouths is often, “how are you going to pay for it?” That question itself belies an understanding that taxes come from a source that belongs to the government rather than to the individual. (That’s an article for another day)
Some liberal think tanks put out horror talking points stating that the sales tax would have to be increased to 12% to make up the difference. The committee faced those kinds of misrepresentations in its second meeting.
The committee unanimously and on a bi-partisan basis approved a motion that, “any elimination of the income tax wouldn’t accompany new state taxes on groceries, property, or gas.”
So how could the state adjust to the loss of state income taxes that are eliminated for 2/3 of Georgians? We do it by continuing the bold, conservative, fiscal policies that have led to strong economic growth and record surpluses each year.
We also do it by eliminating special interest tax breaks. In his editorial Chairman Tillery noted that the complexities of income taxes are an invitation to carve-outs and special treatment for special interest groups. Who ultimately pays for these carve-outs? You do.
The committee report puts it this way, “when special interests pay less, everyone else pays more.” Eliminating the income tax for everyone focuses on the average Georgia family as the special interest that is really important.
The committee has acted responsibly by holding four meetings across the state and receiving input from numerous sources. I am impressed that the 22 page report concludes with a one sentence recommendation,
“Pass legislation this year to eliminate Georgia’s personal income tax on the first $50,000 a year for single filers and $100,000 per year for married couples filing jointly, effective January 1, 2027.”
The recommendation is positvely blunt with action, timeliness, and impact:
“Pass legislation.”
“This year.”
“To eliminate.”
Time for talking is past. Now it is the time to act. Just do it.
On February 24, 1836, Colonel William Travis sent a call addressed to “The People of Texas and All Americans in the World.” The call was for help in a major struggle.
Consider this a call for help to the Republicans of Georgia for the runoff special election in House District 23, Cherokee County. The runoff is between Bill Fincher, the Republican, and a democrat.
Now you may wonder why Cherokee County, a strong Republican county, needs help. After all, Donald Trump carried Cherokee County with nearly 70% of the vote.
The painful truth is that all over the country, Democrats are winning these special elections. It is not that the general population has turned against the Republicans.
The simple answer is that the Democrats got their voters to the polls while Republicans did not bother to go vote. I suppose there was a general feeling that someone else would go vote and the Republicans would win as they always did in the past. Therein lies the problem – someone else.
The problem is not that Republicans did not like their candidates, the problem is that Republicans did not vote for their candidates while Democrats turned out the vote.
I would not rank this call for help for Cherokee county at the same level as the call for help with Texas independence. It is a call for help though.
How can you help? I’m not asking for money. I’m asking if you would be willing to make a few friendly telephone calls to ask Republicans to go vote early. It’s that simple.
Here is what I know does not work. Posting and liking social media posts begging people to go vote does not work. It may make you feel better but it does not move the needle.
A personal contact, with a specific ask, “Would you go vote on the first day of early voting?” will be more likely to move someone to go vote than anything else.
There was one marching order for people who made phone calls:
“Your job is not to convince people to vote for our candidates. Your job is to talk to people who would be voting for our candidate and convince them to go vote.”
If you are interested and willing to learn more about how you can help, then just reply to this e-mail and I’ll be glad to fill you in.
This isn’t 1836 and I’m not William Travis, but I am tired of Republicans giving up ground to Democrats when we do not have to. Consider yourself called.
“Your job is not to convince people to vote for Joe Joe Wright and George Singletary. Your job is to identify people who will vote for Joe Joe and George and convince them to go vote.”
Those were the marching orders for more than 20 volunteers who signed up to help Joe Joe Wright and George Singletary win an election against overwhelming odds.
The Playing Field – Cordele Demographics
Cordele is the Watermelon capital of the world and the Gateway to South Georgia. The demographics for the city are 72% black, 23% white, with a small percentage of hispanics and other ethnic groups.
The City Commission consists of one Commissioner elected at large and four Commissioners elected from four wards. One ward is majority white. The other three are majority black. Prior to this election, four of the commissioners were black and one was white.
Eight years ago, the city elected the first black Chairman of the City Commission which was the at-large post. The vote was not strictly along racial lines as a significant number of white voters chose the black candidate over the white candidate.
While racial issues did arise on occassion, for the most part, the key issues were ones that impacted the general population across all races. That changed in 2021 when another black candidate took on the incumbent black chairman and made race a key component of his campaign. The challenger was elected in a runoff.
The next four years, the chairman made practically every issue a racial issue. Meanwhile the general welfare of the city slowly deteriorated. Mandated audits and financial reports were late. Tax bills were behind which severely impacted financial operations. The city was hit with multiple racial discrimination lawsuits for which the city was in an indefensible position.
Joe Joe Wright, who happens to be white, announced that he would challenge the incumbent. Joe Joe works for the Crisp County Recreation Department and had invested his life into the lives of all young people in the city. George Singletary announced that he would challenge the incumbent commissioner in Ward 3.
With a 72/23 black advantage and with the perception that blacks would only vote for blacks, the odds were not in favor of the two challengers.
The Strategy – Target Voters and Flood Early Voting
This is where the marching orders come into play. When it comes to elections, people will often express their support, offer encouraging words, put a sign in the yard, and even write glowing comments on social media. Believe it or not, some do all these things, yet never actually cast a vote. Without the vote, none of these other signs of support matter.
Fortunately there is a way to encourage voting and track to see when the vote was cast. It takes place during the early voting period In Georgia that’s a whopping 3 weeks.
Most people do not realize that the Secretary of State maintains a web page that reports on each day’s activity in the early voting phase. it records requests for absentee ballots, the return of absentee ballots, and early voting activity for each voter. Anyone can log on to the page and find the date that the individual votes as well as the style of vote, absentee or in person.
While I am not able to tell how an individual voted, I can tell that an individual voted. This readily available information, coupled with three weeks of early voting, can provide a strategic advantage to one who organizes and plans to get as many early voters as possible. This is exactly what the team supporting Joe Joe Wright and George Singletary did and it proved to be the winning edge.
Days before early voting began, we started with the volunteers who said that they would call their friends and neighbors to encourage them to go vote. We then took the voters list and asked the volunteers to identify specific voters for whom they would be responsible to encourage them to go vote early.
Those voters were labeled as “Target” voters. This gave us a specific targeted voter with a specific “tracker” who would track the actions of that voter from initial contact through casting a ballot or turning in the absentee ballot.
Once the target voter cast his or her ballot, the target voter was moved to a status of “voted” and no longer tracked. This vote was considered highly likely to be for our candidates. We spent no more energy trying to get this voter to vote because we knew that the vote was “in the bank.”
The process of targeting, assigning a traker, and monitoring voter activity allowed us to work smarter, not harder, in encouraging voters to go vote. The added advantage was that on election day, we had fewer people to track because we knew who had already voted. In some cases those who voted became “trackers” themselves and helped expand the net of potential voters.
The Victory – Amassing Early Voting Advantage that Could not be Overcome on Election day
When election day rolled around, we did all the normal election day activity of offering rides to the polls, standing near the polling place, waving signs and making phone calls to get people to the polls. The key difference was that we began with a huge lead because of the votes for our candidates that had been cast days earlier.
Our game clock did not begin at 7:00 am on election day. It began at 8:00 am days earlier when early voting opened. We had a head start, in this case just a 3 day early voting period, but we took full advantage of these three days.
Before early voting opened, we began to call the targeted voters to confirm that they were strong supporters of Joe Joe Write and George Singletarty. We asked them to go vote on the first day of early voting Many readily agreed. During the three days of early voting, we flooded the elections office with voters who would cast their votes for Joe Joe Wright and George Singletary.
On election day, the voters for the incumbents showed up in strong numbers. As strong as they were, their numbers fell short of the overall total needed.
Joe Joe Wright and George Singletary would have been handily defeated had they waited until election day to get the vote out. The key to their victory went right back to the marching orders given at the first campaign organiational meeting.
“Your job is not to convince people to vote for Joe Joe Wright and George Singletary. Your job is to identify people who will vote for Joe Joe and George and convince them to go vote.”
One important factor cannot be overlooked. There was a small but significant number of black voters who refused to vote merely along racial lines. These voters cared about the city and knew that the divisiveness was destructive.
These voters created a coalition that looked beyond race and looked at fellow Cordelians as wanting the same quality of life they wanted. While this percentage was small, it was significant.
The race would not have been won had it not been for the core group with the core values that they had. They just needed the encouragement to go vote at their first opportunity and fulfil their civic duty.
Their job was not to convince people to vote for Joe Joe Wright and George Singletary. Their job was to convince people to who supported these two candidates to just go vote.
Will the big cities decide on your power bill? They will if the folks in the unincorporated areas of Georgia don’t go vote.
The Public Service Commission regulates your power bills. Georgia has some of the lowest rates in the nation because we have conservatives on the Public Service Commission.
For the most part the odd year elections are for city governments and people living in unincorporated areas do not think about voting. This year if you live in the unincorporated area, you need to think about it.
Due to a lawsuit, the Public Service Commission races got thrown into an odd year. They are normally in the same year as Governor and other Constitutional offices.
This is an important election for everyone, not just the city governments. You may think that since it is not for Governor or President it is not worth your time to go vote. Think differently about this.
You need to do more than think about it. You need to go vote for Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson. They have done a great job on the Commission and we need to keep them there.
Don’t let the big cities decide on your power bill. Go vote.
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