The days leading up to New Year’s Eve always offer an opportunity to look back at the year that was, and 2014 certainly deserves some reflection. From snowstorms to stadiums, midterms to MARTA, here is a countdown of the top five political stories in our state over the past twelve months.
1. Snowpocalypse
On January 28th a mid-day snowstorm shut down the city, trapping thousands in in their offices and more in their cars in traffic. Abandoned cars were strewn across the highway as the city began to look like a wintry scene from The Walking Dead. Both Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Georgia Governor Nathan Deal were heavily criticized for not doing enough to warn people of the impending storm or to help people once they were caught out in it, charges which many thought may come back to hurt the two candidates as they faced re-election campaigns later in the year. Those fears proved to be unfounded though, as both men cruised back into office for a final term.
2. Savannah Harbor Deepening Project Gets the Green Light
The proposal to deepen the Savannah Harbor has been discussed for over a decade, so it was a big victory for the many Georgia legislators who supported it when it was finally given the green light in October. Former U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, one of the project’s most vocal supporters, approximately 352,000 jobs in Georgia are related to the port and the economic impact is approximately $18.5 billion in revenues (millions of dollars in state and local taxes and billions in federal taxes). With money allocated and the Army Corps of Engineers settled into the beautiful city of Savannah, 2015 promises to be a busy year for one of the nation’s busiest harbors.
3. Emory Takes on the Ebola Scare
The Ebola epidemic that has decimated much of West Africa trickled across the Atlantic in August, and Georgia found itself at the center of the United States’ confrontation of the disease. Emory Hospital’s infectious disease wing housed several American Doctors and missionaries who contracted the disease while in Africa, and despite fears that the disease might somehow spread in an apocalyptic mutation, the hospital proved why it has such a sterling reputation. Politicians on both sides of the aisle were quick to demand that travel to West Africa be stopped immediately, a move that garnered good will from supporters at a time when many of said legislators were gearing up for a heated midterm contest. Eventually the Ebola fears began to subside, but Emory, (and Georgia as a whole) has to feel proud about the way it handled the situation.
4. Perdue Emerges From Crowded GOP Field
Businessman David Perdue was considered something of an afterthought as the 2014 Republican Primary first began to take shape, considering his lack of a political resume. U.S. Rep Jack Kingston had establishment support, fellow Congressman Paul Broun was the Tea Party darling, and Karen Handel had a grassroots organization behind her that had very nearly put her into the Governor’s mansion in 2010. It was Perdue, though, who capitalized on the public’s general distrust of sitting politicians, and emerged out of the primary, with Kingston hot on his tail. A nice story, most pundits thought, but one that would likely end there as the Kingston machine picked up the endorsements of most of the rest of the primary candidates and nearly every political bigwig in the state. Perdue marched on, however, continuing to cast himself as the ‘political outsider’, a role that won him another stunning upset in the runoff and set him on a collision course with Democratic opponent Michelle Nunn in November.
5. Democrats Swept Away by GOP Wave
2014 was supposed to be the year Georgia turned purple. Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter headlined the strongest Democratic ticket in years, facing off against a political newcomer in David Perdue and an incumbent Governor in Nathan Deal who was facing a cavalcade of ethics questions. There was no primary fight to drain the funds or sap the energy from the Democratic contenders, and many observers had the beet-red state of Georgia tabbed as one that the left could steal away from a GOP that had grown fat and happy. Of course, that was not the case either in Georgia or basically anywhere else in the country, as both Nunn and Carter were wiped off the map as a tidal wave of Republican voters gave their party control of the Senate. President Barack Obama was left wondering if he should laugh or cry, as a party that virtually turned its back on him during campaign season now left him with a Legislative branch that promises to cut him off at every turn over the final two years of his presidency.
