A hotly contested Georgia Supreme Court race raises eyebrows -- and questions
Last month, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp attended a fundraising luncheon for his political action committee with First Lady Marty Kemp at a major Atlanta law firm. The keynote speaker was Justice Andrew Pinson, whom Kemp appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court in 2022 from the Court of Appeals.
In the first seriously contested Supreme Court race in decades, Pinson is facing a high-profile, well-funded challenger, former Democratic Congressman John Barrow, to keep his seat. The fundraiser for Kemp’s Georgians First Leadership Committee at Troutman Pepper had a suggested donation amount of $2,500 per person.
That was one of many signs that the Pinson-Barrow contest is one of the most competitive and expensive Supreme Court races Georgia has seen in years. It’s also testing the norms of campaign speech for judicial candidates — reflecting the reality that even non-partisan races are not immune from partisan politics.
Ordinarily, incumbent judges run unopposed, but Pinson has attracted a challenger, Barrow — and the former Athens Congressman is making abortion rights a centerpiece of his campaign for the May 21 election.
https://atlantaciviccircle.org/2024/05/09/georgia-supreme-court-election-pinson-barrow-partisan/
