Warnock focuses on voter rights, Walker deals with social issues

Georgia’s Senate Runoff Election may not decide party control of the upper branch of the legislature, but the battle is no less fierce between the Democrats and Republicans. Senator Raphael Warnock has chosen to focus on voting rights and the importance of participation in politics, while Herschel Walker is tackling the abortion subject and LGBTQ issues head on.

JOHN TURES Columnist

The

The

I covered Senator Warnock’s rally at Emory University in Atlanta. He praised the young people there for their “impatience.” He added “we need that impatience. Just don’t get discouraged by the sometimes slow pace of democracy.” He called upon those in person to reject passivity as well as “those who traffic in division.” He not only discussed his public housing and Upward Bound experiences growing up. He defended expanding Medicaid, Pell Grants, and resolving student debt, and “Dreamers,” who are “living in the only country they’ve ever known.”

But with the greatest emphasis, Warnock focused on voting, noting that Georgians “would have to choose between January 5 and January 6” he included, noting the date of the runoff in 2021, and the insurrection attempt the following day, in emphasizing the importance of the ballot. As it stands, Chatham, Muscogee County and others are allowing early voting on weekends, thanks in part to Warnock’s lawsuit, but also court rulings and people speaking at public hearings.

Walker disagreed with Warnock’s efforts to enable early voting on the weekends. “You don’t change the rules in the middle of the game,” he said, as reported by Fox News. “They’ve known this, and it’s sad that right now they’re making it harder on the voters by bringing questions into the election system.”

His base is likely to skip Early Voting, to the detriment of the Republicans.

Thanks to a court ruling, and the choice of several counties (mostly blue, but a few red ones like mine), Saturday and Early Voting, turnout has been high, something that’s likely to benefit Warnock. His events like the GOTV concert with Dave Matthews were a hit with crowd.

I spoke to a reporter who covered Herschel Walker’s event in Cobb County earlier that day (I didn’t get the invite). “It was a lot of old people there, and they were very pro-life,” the reporter from New York told me. “Very enthusiastic too.” Not sure that was the best issue to focus on.

Walker also decided to go very strongly for the most conservative base of the party with a long speech on LGBTQ issues. In his speech in Carrollton, Yahoo News posted that Walker gave a speech high critical of transgender people.

Such words may fire up a crowd in a conservative county. But perhaps his campaign was unaware of the shooting in Colorado Springs the previous night, described as a hate crime, which led to at least five deaths and 20 wounded by a shooter allegedly in tactical gear. Instead of expanding his voting appeal, Walker appears to contract it. Earlier this week, I was interviewed for a story about the runoff by the Savannah Morning News, covered by USA Today and other publications. When asked about what should be the campaign strategy, I suggested both candidates think about reaching out to the center, focus on independents, Libertarians, and maybe moderate members of the other party. A Republican strategist also quoted suggested that it would be better to play to the base in a special election, where turnout was likely to be lower.

Clearly both candidates are seeking to fire up their base for the final battle on December 6. But Warnock’s message has sought to reach those voters beyond his base, while Walker’s campaign prefers an appeal to the core members of his voting bloc. This runoff will be an excellent hypothesis test about Georgians, special elections, and voting turnout in America.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange. edu. His Twitter account is JohnTures2.

Pet of the Week – Mia

Mia is an eight-month-old, 40 lb. female hound looking mix that came to us as a stray and was never reclaimed. She is incredibly sweet, great with other dogs, very playful and just a very happy girl!

Our adoption fees are $100 for dogs and $50 for cats under one-year-old; cats over one-year-old can be adopted by approved adopters for a fee of their choosing. This adoption fee completely covers the mandatory spay or neuter, basic immunizations, de-worming, microchip, heartworm check for dogs, rabies vaccination

Humane Society of Elmore County News

By Rea Cord Executive Director

With Christmas now coming up fast, many families may be thinking of adding a new pet to the family. Christmas can be a good time as many people are on extended time off from work and have time to integrate a new pet into the home. But it can also be a super busy time with shopping, parties, church activities and, for some, too busy a time to bring in a new pet. And no matter the holiday, come January 2, most people are back to work and getting into the pattern of another year. What this means is before getting a pet for Christmas (or anytime for that matter), we ask that everyone give some thought to personal schedules to ask if this is truly a good time to add a cute new puppy or kitten to the family. Getting off to a good start will set the tone for the rest of the pet’s life so please plan ahead before bringing home a new pet, no matter what time of year.

We love helping families find their new pet but also remind everyone that a pet is a serious commitment in money, time, training, patience and love. And considering that many of our dogs and cats live well into their teens, may have medical needs during their lives, and look to us for all of their needs, adding a pet to the family should only be done

Tornado

Continued from A1 if old enough, free health exam with your participating veterinarian. after much consideration and planning for both the near-term and long-term. For those who bring in a new puppy or kitten – they will be small and puppy/kitten adorable for only a few very short months. Then you will have the fun of a gawky, unruly, wild teenager for another few months before they begin to settle down into adulthood. Some breeds will challenge you with two-three years of boisterous, sometimes maddening behavior and you simply need to be up to that challenge. Doing some breed research before bringing home that new puppy can help you prepare for what challenges they may bring as there is a rather big difference in the antics of a three-month old Yorkie puppy versus a three-month old Labrador puppy – think digging and chewing on two very different scales. But the rewards of learning your new pet’s personality, integrating them into your family routine, and being given complete and unconditional love are all worth it to those of us who think of our pets as family.

If you are interested in meeting Mia or any of our pets, our first step is our adoption application you can do here: https://elmorehumane.org/adoption-application-onlineform2.html . Once approved, we will coordinate with you to set up an appointment to meet and adopt.

We are located at 255 Central Plank Road, Wetumpka, AL, 36092, our phone number is 334-567-3377 and our website is www.elmorehumane.org for more information.

Most Shelters, us included, discourage giving pets as gifts to nonfamily members as getting a pet is a very big and special thing and all of us don’t look for the same thing in a pet. But for your children or parents or siblings, what can work perfectly is

Alabama Department of Transportation were out Wednesday cleaning it up. The line crossed over Jasmine Hill Road and Willow Springs Road damaging several homes and damaging utility poles. One homeowner found himself lucky. He had trees blown down but the only significant property damage was to a large bird bath.

“We were watching it on the phone,” the property owner said. “We saw it in Prattville. We had lost power here. We to gin up an Adoption Gift Certificate, perhaps get a stuffed toy dog or cat and some toys, food bowls, etc. and put everything in a big basket with a bow as that first step towards finding that next pet. Then, after all the hoopla of the holidays has settled a bit, the search for that great pet match can begin. We have found that the #1 most adopted pets at our Shelter just prior to Christmas are kittens. This is an odd year in that kitten season has never really slowed so we have many kittens that will be ready for adoption before Christmas. Please understand that all our adoptions require an application and once approved we then set up an appointment for everyone to meet and finalize any adoption. There will be no adoptions done on Saturday, Dec. 24 – only pick-ups of preapproved adoptions. And yes, you can apply for just a kitten as opposed to naming one in particular as we know that about 50 percent of folks who come to meet a particular kitten or cat end up going home with another. For those that might want a puppy – sadly January is generally a huge month for puppy intake from those that were not sold or given away for Christmas. So, waiting into late Jan. - Feb. can not only get you through the hustle and bustle of the holidays but save a life when the need is the greatest! heard the siren go off nearby and the phone too. We got to our safe spot just in time. It was like five to seven seconds of chaos then it just went silent.”

By 9 a.m. the driveway was passable but lots of work will be needed to clean up the yard.

The National Weather Service in Birmingham dispatched survey crews to evaluate the damage caused by the storm and to confirm if a tornado did touch down. The surveys revealed that an EF-2 tornado did touch down in Elmore County. The same storm that produced the tornado in Elmore County produced a tornado in Montgomery County that killed two people.