AROUND TOWN: Will Georgia governor race decide fate of democratic party?

Evans, Zito holds, “has a message designed to appeal to rural, independent and conservative voters, and Abrams stands for a future in Georgia that is centered in urban Atlanta.”

So who has the effective strategy?

“Is it merely to maximize turnout among African-Americans and transplants in the Atlanta area, or is it try to claw back the rural blue-collar voters that Democrats ancestrally had when they used to win in Georgia? That is a serious, existential question for Democrat operatives as they look at winning back anything in the Trump Belt,” she writes.

Former Gov. Roy Barnes has thrown in his lot with his fellow Cobb Countian.

“Georgia is a changing state. If Republicans win in November, they get to redraw the maps. Again. And just like last time, they’re going to be able to draw those maps to keep Democrats in the minority. Georgia families cannot let that happen, and with Stacey Evans as our nominee, it will not happen,” Barnes said in a statement.

Barnes says Georgians aren’t worried about Washington, D.C., and party divisions, but about how they can pay for their kids’ and grandkids’ college and health care premiums.

“Stacey Evans gets that and that’s why I’m supporting her bid for governor. Stacey’s story is powerful. Her work for working Georgia families is powerful. It gives me hope. And I’ll be standing with her every step of the way through this election.”

Whether its Evans or Abrams Democrats choose in next year’s primary, one will square off against the Republican nominee. Republicans lining up for that role include Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, state Sen. Hunter Hill, R-Smyrna, Secretary of State Brian Kemp and state Sen. Michael Williams, R-Forsyth County.

Speaking of Hunter Hill, Leo Smith, the political strategist and community activist who’s been directing Republican Minority Voter engagement, is eyeing a run for Hill’s state senate seat, which he plans to vacate in his race for governor.

Smith is known as a grassroots leader in the Cobb GOP and former GOP State Committeeman.

“I intend to run this race to represent citizens invested in bridging divides for all families and businesses throughout the district. My voice will be a place at the table for a broad, pro-jobs coalition,” he said.

Smith would face Democrat Dr. Jaha Howard who has previously announced his campaign for the state Senate District 6 seat.

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THE LIFE-SAVING C-130: Congressman David Scott, D-Atlanta, was one of 61 House members who signed a letter earlier this month urging the Department of Defense to sign a multi-year deal with Lockheed Martin for hundreds of new C-130s, all of which would be built in Marietta.

Scott, who called the aircraft “the backbone of our nation’s defense” in a Friday interview with the MDJ, has seen its versatility and capabilities first-hand.

In fact, he said a C-130 saved his life.

During a trip with other members of Congress to Iraq in January 2006, military officials wanted the delegation to stay in safe zones in Baghdad. But the lawmakers pushed to get taken to Camp Victory and visit the troops.

“I said, ‘Look, folks. We don’t need to come this far as members of Congress and not go out and have supper with those guys at Camp Victory out there that are really on the front lines,’” Scott said. “We were in safe equipment. We went out there, and then, on our way back coming out of Iraq (and) going into Kuwait, where we landed and took off, all heck was breaking loose.”

A missile had been fired at the C-130 with the congressional delegation on board, but the aircraft has anti-missile technology and fires flares to draw a missile away. Scott said he did not find out until later that the aircraft had been fired upon.

“That C-130 saved my life, it saved the life of many members of Congress,” he said.

Scott said he “can’t wait” to tell that story on the floor of the House if the Department of Defense needs more convincing, but he’s confident that once the importance of the C-130 is made clear, a multi-year deal will follow.

“I have confidence in (Secretary of Defense James) Mattis. I just think he needs to hear from us,” Scott said, adding, “I’ve got a picture of the C-130 in my office where everybody can see. And you know what? It’s one with those flares going out, showing the capacity of the C-130. There’s no other plane that delivers so much. … I’m a living witness to that.”

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TRANSITIONS: Former Marietta High School principal Leigh Colburn’s last day as director of the wildly successful Graduate Marietta Student Success Center is Friday. Rather than a retirement party, the Marietta Schools Foundation is planning a community roast in early November with proceeds to be donated to the center.

Colburn, a 30-year educator, will continue to be active with the center by working through the Marietta Schools Foundation on a volunteer basis. She will help with the center’s fundraising efforts and serve as a point of contact with the community. And beginning July 1, Colburn is also launching her own consulting company, The Centergy Project — a play on synergy, energy and centers — to advise school districts across the nation about how they can launch successful graduation centers.

Superintendent Grant Rivera, meantime, is in the midst of interviewing candidates to succeed Colburn as director.

Stay tuned for details on the November roast.

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VEINS OF INK: The late Marietta Daily Journal publisher Otis Brumby, Jr. was inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame during the GPA’s annual convention on Jekyll Island earlier this month. Remarks were made by DuBose Porter, owner of The Courier Herald and chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party.

Brumby graduated from the University of Georgia Law School and began working at the MDJ as assistant to the publisher in 1965. Two years later he became publisher, a position he held until his death in 2012.

Brumby launched the Neighbor Newspapers in 1969, which published free weekly community newspapers to serve the Atlanta suburbs. By 1984, the Neighbor Newspapers consisted of 27 weekly mastheads. Brumby was president of the Georgia Press Association in 1978-79, following in the footsteps of his father who was president in 1941-43. Brumby Jr.’s son, Otis Brumby III, current publisher of the MDJ, is in line to be president of the GPA in 2018.

“Otis Brumby, Jr. is the only person I know who could talk to Gov. Roy Barnes and get through to him,” Porter said in his remarks. “Sometimes he would grab me to go with him, even though he never had a problem by himself, and he would explain things to the governor and then we would leave and he would have that ‘well, we got that across’ but it was seldom a ‘we’ conversation.”

Porter quoted Brumby’s longtime friend Harris Hines, chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, who once said of Brumby, “I think back to the Book of Isaiah that mentions a giant cedar falling. When Otis does leave this Earth, it will be a giant cedar that has fallen in our community. I say comfortably that there has been no person in Cobb County that has contributed as much to the community as Otis Brumby.”

Hines later said, “At his core, Otis was a journalist whose first commitment was to open government and protection of the First Amendment, and he did that.”

Porter also quoted Barnes on Brumby. The former governor said “Otis was a giant in our community, he was a giant in our state. He was the epitome of public service. ... He demanded transparency. He was a guardian of open government and he was what all newspapermen and women should aspire to be.”

Yet Porter said he thought the best reflection on Brumby’s life was written by the man himself. In a personal editorial in the MDJ in the November before his death, Brumby reflected on his illness and thanked family and friends who had cared for him, telling readers “I may have cancer in my bones, but still have ink in my veins.”