In Georgia, Barack Obama’s GOP judicial nominee is more than an ad for Ancestry.com

Dax Lopez, a DeKalb County state court judge, and his wife Zulma in 2012. Miguel Martinez, mmartinez@mundohispanico.com

A catchy name, Dax Lopez. There’s more to it than you might think.

In 2013, President Barack Obama attempted to fill a slot on the Northern District of Georgia bench by picking a Democrat conservative enough to pass muster with our state’s two Republican senators.

In the end, the nomination of state Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs, a former state lawmaker, was blocked by Democrats troubled by his past votes against abortion, gay rights and removing the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag.

In July, in a second attempt to fill the vacancy, the White House changed tactics, settling on a Republican who could pass muster with Georgia Democrats.

This is Dax Lopez, who was appointed five years ago to a DeKalb County state judgeship by Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue. At age 34, no less. As his name might suggest, Lopez was born in Puerto Rico. He would be the first Latino in Georgia appointed to a lifelong position on the federal bench — if he survives U.S. Senate confirmation.

Last week, the first serious efforts to torpedo Lopez’s nomination surfaced. This time, they are Republican in origin.

As a state judge, Lopez is an elected official. In Georgia. And as stated before, he’s Latino. His sin: his board membership with the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.

“Judge Lopez’ 11 years of service on behalf of [GALEO] would suggest prejudice towards law-abiding citizens and law enforcement across this county,” Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren wrote in letters addressed to U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson and David Perdue.

“GALEO has called for law enforcement to turn a blind eye towards criminals that have illegally penetrated our borders and then perpetrated crimes against the very citizens I am sworn to protect.”

Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway has also cited Lopez’s membership in GALEO — the group opposed the state’s 2011 signature anti-illegal immigration law — as a disqualifier.

Phil Kent, the CEO of InsiderAdvantage, a political news website, also questions Lopez’s credentials as a member of the GOP. “Waving a magic wand and sprinkling pachyderm powder over Lopez didn’t automatically make him a ‘Republican,’ ” wrote Kent, a member of the state Immigration Enforcement and Review Board.

But given that Lopez has been pinned with a GOP label, it has become the job of one of Georgia’s top Republican lawyers to mount a public defense of the Obama nominee.

“The idea that to be a judge you have to have gone through your career without being active in any groups interested in the law and legal process is absurd. That is the wrong way to look at a judicial candidate,” said Robert Highsmith, who was on the governor’s Judicial Nominating Commission that approved Lopez’s appointment to the DeKalb judgeship.

In a season of Donald Trump and talk of mass deportations, opposition to Lopez is also worrisome to Republicans attempting to expand their party’s demographic reach.

Lopez’s Internet footprint is scant. In a 2012 interview posted online, the DeKalb state judge discusses the anti-illegal immigration bill passed by the Legislature the year before. “House Bill 87 was a bill that was intended to drive out the illegal populations of Georgia — those individuals who are here without documentation,” he said.

He continues with a neutral discussion of the law’s implications, but he also addresses the benefits of a multicultural background. “I understand that there are cultural differences that we have to contend with in court, that sometimes the person I’m talking to might not understand the concepts — not the words, but the concepts that that I’m trying to relate to them,” Lopez told his interviewer.

The website of the Federal Election Commission indicates that Lopez has made no contributions to candidates in federal races. A state-based search turns up only one: A $125 check written in 2006 to state Rep. Kathy Ashe, an Atlanta Democrat. Which can be easily explained away: Ashe was the wife of a partner in the law firm where Lopez worked at the time.

This isn’t the conduct of a closet Democrat. But it is the mark of a Republican officeholder who must be elected countywide in Democratic DeKalb. Low-profile or no-profile is the way to go.

As befits a man about to undergo U.S. Senate scrutiny, Dax Lopez has abandoned social media. His final postings on both Twitter and Facebook date to last September. The messages were identical.

“L’shanah tovah!” he wrote. Which is Hebrew, not Spanish — a new year’s greeting for Rosh Hashanah.

Wait — didn’t I mention that Dax Lopez is both Latino and Jewish?

When going before the Senate Judiciary Committee, credentials are important. So is biography. Senators, just like real people, love a good story. Lopez has one. It dates to the 15th century.

“Dax’s ancestry is Spanish. During the Inquisition, a number of Sephardic Jews elected to convert to Catholicism to avoid the rack and the thumbscrew,” Highsmith said. Secretly, they maintained aspects of the old religion.

Lopez arrived in Georgia from Puerto Rico at age 6. By age 12, his family had begun open observance of Jewish rituals and tradition. At age 18, the year he graduated from McEachern High School in Cobb County, Lopez began individual instruction.

At age 20, he underwent a “symbolic” bris. Lopez and his family are members of The Temple in Midtown Atlanta.

Lopez’s genealogy is more than fodder for an Ancestry.com commercial. In the parlance of identity politics, he’s a “twofer.”

Republicans may be divided over whether and how to reach out to Hispanic voters in Georgia. But the Jewish community is a highly valued GOP constituency with clout that extends well beyond the financial.

Those critical of Lopez’s GALEO membership will have to tread carefully. Should they stray into xenophobia, they’ll have two angry constituencies to deal with rather than one.

There is, of course, the small matter of whether a Republican-led Senate will even take up Obama judicial appointments.

Highsmith has his fingers crossed. “I cannot wait for the spectacle of Ted Cruz grilling Dax Lopez about immigration law,” he said.

from lloydcurry1 http://ift.tt/1LIXurR

In Georgia, next year’s anti-abortion target could be pregnant women

Anti-abortion rights activists hold a January protest in front of the White House in Washington. AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

No, Georgia is unlikely to follow the lead of Texas when it comes to driving abortion clinics out of the state, as the AJC’s Rosalind Bentley reports here.

Rather, any spur for new, statewide legislation in January is more likely to arise from the Saturday arrest of 23-year-old Kenlissia Jones of Albany on charges of malice murder, for ingesting an abortion-inducing pill she obtained via the Internet. The fetus survived less than an hour.

Though a misdemeanor charge for drug possession remains, Dougherty County District Attorney Gregory Edwards dropped the murder charges on Wednesday, citing the limitations of Georgia law.

In doing so, Edwards issued one of the most dense press releases ever, citing chapter and verse on the topic, including these passages:

Although third parties could be criminally prosecuted for their actions relating to an illegal abortion, as the law currently stands in Georgia, criminal prosecution of a pregnant woman for her own actions against her unborn child does not seem permitted.

The Georgia Legislature has not carved out an exception to the pregnant woman’s common law immunity from such prosecutions. Applicable criminal law and statutes provide explicit immunity from prosecution for a pregnant woman for any unlawful termination of her pregnancy….

Read it for yourself here:

Note this quote in particular from Edwards, emphasis ours: “I dismissed that malice murder warrant after thorough research by myself and my staff led to the conclusion that Georgia law presently does not permit prosecution of Ms. Jones for any alleged acts relating to the end of her pregnancy.”

Also consider these lines from an Associated Press follow-up on the Albany case:

While the Supreme Court has declared American women have legal rights to abortion, states have laws that place limits on where abortions can be performed, who can perform them and at what stages of pregnancy abortions are allowed. Traditionally, those laws have targeted doctors and other abortion providers, but not women seeking to end their pregnancies.

Abortion rights advocates worry that this could be changing.

In March, 33-year-old Purvi Patel of Granger, Indiana, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for feticide and neglect of a baby. Prosecutors said Patel ended her 7-month pregnancy using drugs from China rather seek a doctor’s help. Paltrow’s group called it the first time an American woman was convicted and sentenced for trying to end her pregnancy.

***

The news that U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson had Parkinson’s disease but still intended to run for a third term brought a surge of rumors and conspiracy theories.

Most involved some sort of variation of the notion that Isakson would step down shortly after a re-election (he’s assured reporters he would do no such thing) leaving Gov. Nathan Deal to fill the post.

Among the most-mentioned choices put forward by the tipsters are Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, his long-time ally; former Rep. Jack Kingston and his trusted chief-of-staff Chris Riley.

***

Johnny Isakson’s news also sparked an outpouring of support, as we lay out in the premium/dead tree version. That included an unequivocal re-election endorsement from Sen. David Perdue, Isakson’s rookie delegation mate.

Here’s what Perdue told Channel 2 Action News:

“I’ve watched Johnny operate here. He is a master. He is of the ilk of [former Majority Leader] Howard Baker. He really is. He’s a statesman in the highest regard. When he speaks, people up here listen, and he fights every day for the people of Georgia. … 

“He’s got a long history of public service. He’s my senior senator hes been a great help to my indoctrination here and my transfer into the Senate. I look forward to working with Johnny. I fully support him as our next senior senator here, and I wish him the best.”

The endorsement somewhat conflicts with Perdue’s current push for term limits, but what the heck.

***

Former Rep. Jack Kingston, we should add, is not straying far from the public eye.

He headlines Republican events around the state, introduced party chair John Padgett at last month’s GOP convention in Athens and is wading into a state House race in a solidly-Democratic district.

Kingston on Wednesday endorsed John Guest, an independent running for the Atlanta seat left open when Tyrone Brooks resigned to plead guilty to fraud charges. Guest, a businessman, was a staunch Kingston supporter in his failed bid for a U.S. Senate seat last year. The Savannah Republican recorded robo-calls for Guest and proclaimed his support for the long-shot candidate on Facebook.

Guest is the only non-Democrat among six candidates on the ballot in the June 16 special election.

***

Speaking of that particular race: Tyrone Brooks Jr. has filed an appeal in Fulton County Superior Court, challenging Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s decision to strike Brooks from the contest for the House seat once held by his father.

Brooks Jr. says an April 2014 change of address on his driver’s license, reflecting his move into District 55, should have served as legal notification that he had moved. Click here for a copy of the document.

***

The first Republican presidential debate is now a tripartite affair. From Politico:

The inaugural Republican primary debate on Aug. 6 is now slated to be joined by two separate “forums” sponsored by the New Hampshire Union Leader and Fox News, respectively, those organizations announced Wednesday night.

The sudden addition of these forums, where candidates speak directly to an audience one at a time, reflects the growing pressure on Fox News to expand its debate coverage beyond the party’s current criteria, which will limit the debate to the top 10 candidates according to national polls. Republicans in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire fear that such criteria will take the spotlight off their state and exclude candidates who may be popular among local voters despite low national recognition.

Joseph McQuaid, the publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, announcedWednesday that his paper would host its own Republican primary forum on C-SPAN on Aug. 6, in order to combat what its publisher described as Fox’s “threat to the first-in-the-nation primary.” Fox’s decision to “‘winnow’ the field of candidates” ahead of the New Hampshire primary “isn’t just bad for New Hampshire,” McQuaid said, “it’s bad for the presidential selection process by limiting the field to only the best-known few with the biggest bankrolls.”

***

Meanwhile, The Des Moines Register reports that the state’s quadrennial August carnival might be on its way out:

Friday could be the day the Iowa Straw Poll dies.

The governing board for the Republican Party of Iowa will revisit going forward with the event during a conference call Friday morning, as some party officials resign themselves to the view that the much-criticized party fundraiser could potentially damage Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, GOP insiders told The Des Moines Register Wednesday.

Will the death certificate list Erick Erickson as the cause?

from lloydcurry1 http://ift.tt/1C17fbN