Crawford is a ?-Cedartown because, long a Democrat, he has now declared himself a Republican while not having changed his own mind and beliefs on any issues.
He’s exactly the same guy with exactly the same opinions as a supposed Republican as he was when a supposed Democrat.
Welcome to elected office as polluted by party politics and the drooling after power and the pork barrel. There is an awful lot of this nowadays — speaking out of any side of one’s mouth that may fool voters. It just hasn’t popped up so obviously this close to the Floyd County home that Crawford actually still represents at the moment.
For those not aware — entirely possible as Crawford has hardly played a prominent role in much of anything in the House — until January he still represents a southern slice of this county and Cave Spring ... whose voters elected him as a Democrat and now don’t even have a chance to cast protest votes against what he’s doing … which is nothing more than last-ditch, desperation election-eve positioning.
AND VOTERS in his House District 16, still centered on Polk County but with all Floyd elements removed and more heavily GOP pieces of Haralson/Paulding added in the redistricting following the 2010 Census, now find there won’t even be a Democrat on the ballot … just two Republicans. There’s no such thing as a “none of the above” choice in Georgia either.
Seriously, Crawford’s viewpoints have not changed at all. He has always been pro-life and opposed to gay marriages as a Democrat and now he has supposedly “switched sides” to the Republicans because the national party has officially come out in support of same-sex marriages? The party has officially supported abortion rights like forever but that apparently doesn’t disturb Crawford nearly as much.
Not only that but the Republican platform is littered with policies that Crawford has opposed in the past. Democrats are known for their “big tent” approach allowing dissent; the GOP not so much. If re-elected, Crawford may have to choke down and shut up about his beliefs on other matters a great deal.
Weird. It is even weird if one knows that Crawford, an attorney, has for a bit more than a year had another “side job” as a professor of political science at Shorter University in Rome. Clearly, he had zero trouble with Shorter’s new “purity oath” for faculty regarding morality matters — heck, he even opposed allowing Sunday alcohol sales to be put on ballots. And, as not all know, before switching to law he was seeking a master of divinity at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
CRAWFORD MAY be pretty good at modern political science instruction, which in many places has morphed into teaching “poll survival.” Perhaps he is even trying to write a textbook.
Crawford is facing, in his now leaning GOP new district, a 25-year-old Cedartown native and law student with earned Republican sergeant’s stripes (he was Gov. Nathan Deal’s campaign manager for Polk) and able to recite by heart the entire “tea party” type of platform positions.
Not only that but when Crawford switched sides he did not receive the usual “hero defector” badge from state GOP leaders who made a special point of saying they were still for the other guy.
However, as Crawford may explain to his students, he has the “name recognition” and is now on “the right wing side.” Having barely won his district in 2010, Crawford may still well go down in flames but he has improved his chances. After all, Democrats now left without a candidate may still view him as the lesser of two evils but one who in the future will have access to majority power instead of being exiled to the back benches and gagged in the General Assembly, as most Democrats have been of late.
It also gives the GOP something of a funding and all-out effort dilemma. After all, this is no longer a “race.” It is an early sure victory for Republicans ... and that, not who, is what actually matters.
FOR THOSE who don’t understand the “end game” in General Assembly contests this year, it is about the Republicans — already very close — getting a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate. This would allow them to steamroller any constitutional amendments that they wish onto future ballots … and they currently wish for a lot, primarily in mandating all citizens honor and obey moral standards coming “from on high.”
It also would allow them to disguise such amendments to trick voters into adopting them, putting wolves into sheep’s clothing much as has been currently done with the charter school amendment on the November ballot. What voters get to see/read in the polling places is nothing at all like what the enabling and invisible legislation beneath contains — that’s why a “no” vote on the charter issue is absolutely necessary.
With Crawford now a Republican, getting to the two-thirds in the House is not something to worry about in his district. Party firepower, and funds, can be shifted to the all-out effort to remove Rep. Barbara Massey Reese, D-Menlo, whose House District 11 in Chattooga and Floyd counties has similarly been rejiggered to pack in more GOP voters.
THIS IS the real disappointing aspect of what Crawford has done … without actually changing a thing about his position but only his supposed affection in mid dance step.
He hasn’t learned what most Georgians know by heart: You stay at the dance with the guy that brung you while the guy is obligated to make sure you get safely home. No matter how tough — or attractive — the fella trying to cut in appears to be.
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