Tim Denson, Chair of the Athens-Clarke County Democratic Party and District 5 Commissioner for Athens-Clarke County Unified Govt.

The North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble podcast covers democratic politics in North GA, the 9th Congressional District, and across the state of Georgia. The podcast is in Q&A/Interview format with various democratic politicos including county chairs, democratic operatives, politicians, and more. It is our mission to deliver crucial information to our listeners in a timely manner as we fight for community values and principles in the 3rd most Conservative district in the state. Our website is: https://www.fcdpga.com/podcasts

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Meral Clarke: 0:18

Hello and welcome back to the North Georgia Blue Podcast produced and distributed by the Fannin County Democratic Party. I'm your host Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble today with our guest Tim Denson, chair of the Athens Clarke County Democrats. Welcome to the show. Tim, we're happy to have you with us today.

Tim Denson: 0:38

Well I'm happy to be here.

Meral Clarke: 0:39

Fantastic. So let's let our listeners know a little bit more about you. Tim is a father, husband and community organizer who has the privilege to serve as district five Commissioner for Athens Clarke County unified government and chair of the Athens Clarke County democratic committee Tim is a founder and former president of Athens for everyone northeast Georgia's largest and most effective progressive organization. He has performed community organizing work with United campus workers of Georgia occupy Athens Moral Monday, GA, Athens, anti discrimination movement, k back in schools, local GA, n double A CP and others to advance social, economic and racial justice priorities. Many point to Tim's 2014 Athens may oral campaign as a galvanizing point for progressive politics in the Athens area. Tim believes that by uniting the people, we can make an Athens in Georgia that works for everyone. Oh, my you are busy. Man, aren't you?

Tim Denson: 1:43

I like to stay busy. I do.

Meral Clarke: 1:45

There's no doubt about that. So let's talk about the Athens Clarke County Democrats. What are some of the things that you're doing in focusing on right now?

Tim Denson: 1:54

Well, you know, I think that a lot of it's the challenges that all of us across the state are facing right now, some of that's just, you know, trying to work our way back from this pandemic. So that's been a constant, ongoing thing, while we, at the same time, simultaneously try to continue turning Georgia blue and keeping it that way. And focusing on offices from local, such as our school board, no commission, all the way up to the Senate races, but also our, of course, our state house and State Senate seats. Two, we're focusing on those. And I think the best way that we can be doing that, and that we really been focusing on it is increasing our capacity as a local democratic committee, and really making us more effective at the work that we want to do. Like people know that this we even exist, Athens is thought of as a very blue area up in northeast Georgia, and we vote democratic for pretty much every single election and have for quite some time. But at the same time, we need to be doing more than just having those people turn out and vote. And when we have an election, we need that constant engagement from individuals. And so we're trying to work on that part just we just created a platform Committee, which we've never had before. And so we're going to be creating the platform for Athens, Clarke County Democrats, and something that we can then measure candidates who run as Democrats against and kind of show what our priorities are. And sure what the priorities of the people of Athens, they're the ones actually creating this platform. And that's been I think, one of the most exciting things. We're right in the midst of that right now. We have a survey out on our website and social media feeds that Athens residents, Athens, Democrats can fill out, let us know what their priorities are. And that's going well. And I think the other thing is just trying to increase our capacity by how many people are involved with Athens, Clarke. And they do that we've kind of restructured our membership a little bit for our committee. So we still have, of course, the normal voting committee members, the post holders, like we have to have those people who actually vote on our bylaws and endorsing candidates and such right. We've now expanded that because we are having in some districts, we're having folks who want to join the committee, but there was no vacancies there. And we're turning people away and at some level, which I really didn't like. So we've now expanded that out to have a general member here, or anybody who signs that David Waring. They are going to support democrats and vote for democrats and support those ideals. They can join the athletic county Democratic Party, and we're open that will expand how many people show up during meetings then involved or different projects, and really just grow our capacity as an organization.

Meral Clarke: 4:33

antastic there are obviously a lot of great things going on up there and I'm so happy to hear it when you ran for Chair of the Athens Clarke County democratic committee, you spoke of a broad left approach. What does that mean?

Tim Denson: 4:47

I guess another way to say is like the big tent approach we have you know, here in Athens, I think honestly, everywhere, you know, people get themselves Democrats, there's a lot of differences within us. We have everybody from here in Athens, people who can themselves democratic socialists or into all the way to folks who are kind of old school Blue Dog democrats who are thinking themselves much more as moderates. Yes. And I want us to make sure that we have a committee where we are welcoming to everyone. And we also welcome that debate on policy and approaches. Yes, we have room for all of that. And I think it makes us better as a committee, it makes us form better candidates and better policies and better campaigns by having all those folks involved. And so that's been what's a bit I really wanted to be able to push and have us be welcoming that and grow in that kind of direction. I think it's a strength of mine from my background of coming from a more of the progressive side, Athens river, one that I kind of came up with was definitely thought of as like much further left, I think then the Athens Clarke County dems, but I saw the benefits that everybody brought. So no, I myself got involved with the gyms and I've been working with the dems for years, and made sure that I was presenting myself and being accessible to anybody who wanted just to see the political left in Georgia grow and do more, because I believe that the left side of our politics here is the pathetic politics, who really cares about people, and that if we succeed, then the people are succeeding, we're able to take care of our communities and individuals make our communities better.

Meral Clarke: 6:20

Yes. So basically, the big tent approach, right, except on the local level, as Tip O'Neill famously said, all politics are local. That's terrific. So Athens, along with many other areas across the state saw increased turnout in 2020. And the push to make Georgia Go Blue. What were some of the tactics that your committee used? And how will you implement what you learned in the years and elections to come?

Tim Denson: 6:48

This was arguably the biggest elections season that we've ever had in Georgia, I mean, at least generations. And we're in Athens. And we knew that Athens goes blue. And that's obviously an assumption. But we wanted to make sure that we were going over and beyond that, what we've done, that's what we had to do, right to be able to get Asafa Warnock to win. Correct. Everybody has had to over perform outperform what they've been able to do. And so we set that as our goal, and we're like, we're gonna break the records for turnout here for a special election in Athens, Clarke County, that's how we're gonna deliver. And we saw the best way for us to do that was knocking on doors, right? We've done a little bit of that during the general, but we're still kind of figuring it out because the the pandemic had lots of limitations there. But we had a little bit of a trial run here in Athens, because we had a special election even earlier than the senate run off with a district attorney runoff for Stephens and Oakland counties. And so we were able to kind of get out there and figure out what we call the progressive canvassing core with that first run off, and we ended the knocking on 10s of 1000s of doors, and then a week that we're doing this and fundraised really well, so we were able to pay local individuals who already knew their communities and live in those neighborhoods to be the ones who are leading the door knocking efforts. And so we're able to pay living wages to these folks and train them in organizing, you know, people in Athens just stepped up. And so the door knocking works, we had the highest special election turnout we've ever had in Athens Clarke County. And I think we learned a lot of tricks that worked. And we're planning on keeping that progressive canvassing core going, it's going to be something that we always have as part of our toolkit. And so we look forward to doing it next year, next spring, whenever we have local elections here and during the primaries, and then, of course, rolling that all the way up to the huge November 2022 elections that we're going to try to take back the governorship and keep those Senate seats.

Meral Clarke: 8:41

That is definitely our hope. It's very important that it does, obviously, for so many reasons. This So what are some of those new measures besides knocking on doors? Did you do any direct mailings or any letters to the editor or anything along those lines?

Tim Denson: 8:58

Yeah, we did. We ended up doing a really robust communications strategy. So at that time, I was actually the communications chair. So we put together our own campaign and kind of made our own ticket for the 2020 General all the way from county commission seats all the way up to the presidency. And we did direct mailings with that, we did ads and other local newspapers and basically put a fundraising ass behind that like help us fund get the word out. And thankfully that the dems in this area really saw it as a good investments and donated heavily so we could pull that off, and ended up sending out I believe three mailers throughout the entire thing. Plus, again, doing all of the slim gems there, that the stuff we handed out the door to door, and of course, also doing social media ads, and all of that, too. So just really tried to have a really robust, locally driven and locally tailored message for those races. And I think it worked and we definitely learned some things that were very effective. We learned some things that maybe weren't quite as good investments that we probably won't do in the future. But you know, that's how you get better and better and kind of hone that down. So I think in 2022, that we're gonna be very prepared for that and be able to also build off of all the data that we got from doing those door to door knocking on those doors. No, we were able to update our data, and vote builder, and just all of that those telephone numbers, those addresses those voters information, the more accurate they've been in, maybe ever here in Athens.

Meral Clarke: 10:28

That's great. So what are your electoral priorities in Athens going into next year's elections,

Tim Denson: 10:35

I think the biggest focus for us is going to be the State House seats. Athens is gerrymander, when it comes to the State House, we're the smallest county in Georgia, yet, they've divided us up into three slices, so that we can only have one state rep, that's a democrat and two republicans that also represent us. And we were able to get those seats back during a special election back in 2017, when we got Jonathan Wallace, and ever Gonzalez in there, who's now our district attorney, but we then we lost those seats back again, the very following year. So we know that those are winnable seats, we've proven that we've done it, that has been and continues to be our biggest focus. And outside of that, we just really want to have a strong Jim on the ticket for every single elected office that's up on the ballot, because that's again, how we build capacity. That's how we are able to get better data moving forward. And all these districts so we have no state Senate seats that are much harder to win. And there are congressional seats, which were divided up also with the Georgia 10th. And the Georgia nine, having a slice of Athens, Clarke County, you know, those are obviously much bigger mountains to climb. But we are dedicated to having strong candidates in there to run. So even if we're not able to win those harder races, we're getting closer and closer, every time we run a good campaign, our data gets better, our volunteers get better networking gets better, we're able to train more people to run staffing for campaigns. So we just got to make sure that we are challenging every seat.

Meral Clarke: 12:00

Let's talk a little bit about your community organizing, you're certainly in great company with President Obama on that score. So tell us a little bit about that. And all the different organizations you're working with her

Tim Denson: 12:12

Yeah, the way I kind of got into politics and such was actually back during the occupy movement back in 10 years ago now back in 2011. So I came from it from I think a bit of a more radical place than a lot of other folks who are working in the in the dems, Georgia now, but really establishing that community organizing focus. And realizing that where our power comes from is from the people and always keeping that in the forefront of my mind, I guess I myself, you know, did not really know much, I did not feel that empower to powerful myself either. Until I was standing shoulder to shoulder with a lot of other people who were also fed up who wanted to see a more equal and equitable society, then by doing that, that's kind of getting smarter and figuring out politics. And working together, we started getting some small little policy wins in the local level. And we realized that that's how we build power, that's how we get things to change. It's a long haul. So that's really the my focus has been trying to find out ways to let other people realize the power that is within them really feel empowered, and that the more people that we can turn that off, turn that pilot light on, that light doesn't go off. So every time we touch those people, we build our capacity, we build a little bit more about what we're capable to do, and how we're able to improve our community. So I've taken those kind of lessons into all sorts of politics, I don't see that much of a difference. And with the team that we have here with ACC dems me a lot of people come from backgrounds, also as organizers, which makes us even more capable when we are out knocking on doors, or recruiting candidates, or recruiting volunteers to help us with our different projects we have going on. And I've been really, really proud to be a part of this movement that's been building up in Athens over the last decade, where we become more diverse, our leadership, and diverse within race and gender and gender identity, but also in like generationally, like the ages of folks who are stepping up into these new roles. And I'm also happy to see that that is starting to spread all over Georgia as a whole. And we know where we're going right? The Democrats are going to take back this entire state. And the republicans know that. And that's because of folks organizing around this and realizing what they are capable of themselves, but even more so what we're capable of doing by working together.

Meral Clarke: 14:34

Fantastic. And I'm sure that your numbers have increased massively since the 2020. election, correct.

Tim Denson: 14:42

They have we've had a lot of people stepping up and we're actually going to be going back to our physical meetings this summer and that starting next month, and so we really expect that even ballooned even larger because we fail to keep people engaged while still operating virtually and trying to keep everybody safe during this pandemic. But they have and honestly that's going to happen. Since 2016, you know, the silver lining of Donald Trump is that man, he mobilized people. And so you know, we've grown exponentially since then my goal is for us just to keep that mental growth happening for years.

Meral Clarke: 15:12

How are you fighting the voter suppression law? gA 202, which is horrendous. And how are you finding that in your county to ensure that turnout is not impacted?

Tim Denson: 15:24

Yeah, that's a great question. And you know, I think, obviously, we've seen as this takes on all fronts. Now we need the federal government to be suing like they are taking those and all those lawsuits we have going on, and hoping that we can overturn that sb 202, or at least elements of it. But we still need to prepare for the worst need to prepare that bill is in place next year. And so we've been got ways to do voter information, voter engagement, one of the things we're doing right now was no with the voter purge lists at the Secretary of State released, we are now starting a project where we have a team that's putting together postcards and doing phone banking to the 1600. Athenians who are on that list now to make sure that we find anybody and everybody who was incorrectly put on there. And we make sure that we keep that vote active. And we've also been able to work with Board of Elections here in Athens along with the county commission, which I serve on, and which both have passed resolutions, dedicating resources and funding to a more robust voter information campaign. And so our Board of Elections is now hosting in person town halls. Plus, we'll be putting together our local telephone education lines where people can learn more about this, potentially sending out postcards to all registered voters in Athens, Clarke County, letting them know about changes to absentee ballots, provisional ballots, and all the other changes, something I told somebody else is, I really see sb 202, as this last ditch effort by the Republicans. You know, it's kind of like if you think back to like the fugitive in a police chase, and the thing is running into a building that has no way out. But as they're in their their last ditch effort, they're throwing over bookcases and throwing chairs, just desperately trying to put anything they can bring them in the inevitable. And that's the way I see them doing sb 202. Because while they keep on throwing hurdles at us, we have gotten really good at jumping over hurdles. That's great. It's only made us better. So I feel confident that sb 202, it's not gonna stop us, and we're gonna keep going forward, and we're gonna win.

Meral Clarke: 17:29

That's great to hear, because we certainly need to ensure that we have the turnout next year that we had last year. So that is great to hear. Tell me a little bit more about how you're working. I assume you're working with the University of Georgia go Agha guys my favorite mascot. So tell us a little bit about that, you know, the young

Tim Denson: 17:46

democrats that you have UGA have really done a great job, especially in the last five or six years of growing and getting more and more engaged. And you know, some of the changes that we're adding to the committee even such as like this rod left approach, and trying to find new ways to engage members, sometimes inspired by the young times, and I would go to the meetings every once in a while. And they were just doing a really good job of making sure that every person that showed up those meeting, even visitors and such, really felt like they had a place and a reason for being there. And they encourage the bait on different issues, which I thought was really interesting. And so we've tried to keep some of that going with the democratic committee for Athens as a whole. And we also have a great relationship with the young dems over at UGA, when it comes to doing all that canvassing and volunteering that we have going on. They're dedicated, they show up. And we've even had a research project recently with some uj, young Tim's and the bluebird pack that's based here in Athens, they do really in depth research into our state house seats and those districts so that we can, again, have really, really great defined and detail data that we can hand over to whoever the Democratic candidates are going to be that take on those races and have it have a leg up right there from the beginning. So we found a lot of creative ways to keep working with them. And also even here, one of our high schools like Clark Central, we have the young dems, even at the high school level to that we'd be able to work with. And so I look forward to us fighting even newer and better ways for us to keep that relationship going and engaged.

Meral Clarke: 19:21

That's great. That is just absolutely fantastic. I mean, I'm always so happy to see the young folks getting involved in becoming more active in the electoral process and the democratic process. So that is wonderful news. Speaking of your 2014 Athens mayoral campaign Do you think you might run again,

Tim Denson: 19:41

I am actually going to be on the ballot next year for re election for my commission seat. So I plan on definitely running for another term there. And Mayor Kelly grits here in town he has one more term that he can run for before getting term limited so you can run for two, so I definitely am going to be supporting him next year also for his reelection. We've really been able to work together really well, especially during these challenging times. And, you know, this past what I think is maybe one of the most progressive budgets in history in northeast Georgia, with raising all county employees to$15 an hour higher, putting in place zero fare public transit for the entire county, and actually creating a non police emergency Crisis Response Team to so we're doing some really fantastic bold things. And I was looking forward to being reelected, hopefully, for another four years.

Meral Clarke: 20:29

That would be great. Tell us a little bit more about keep Athens schools local and how you're dealing with critical race theory. We had Melissa Clank from Forsyth County on with us last week and she spoke of they're helping to defeat the folks that were looking to eradicate the teaching of diversity, inclusion and equity in their school system. Is that a battle that you're having to fight as well, thankfully, not

Tim Denson: 20:56

the Clark County School District has discussed and I know they are actually working, they're working on it now as we speak, probably a resolution supporting the teaching of diversity, equity and a truly accurate history of race relations and white supremacy. So they are definitely supporting that. But it's still a challenging time, obviously, whenever you have at the state level, and so much misinformation, honestly, is really alive when it comes down to about what is even being taught. And know the old saying that like, no, you're destined to repeat the past if you don't actually know your history. And that's the last thing that we need, right? I mean, so I don't understand why anybody wouldn't be opposed for us just accurately teaching our youth the truth about race relations here, because we don't want that. But no, I thought that we are all even Republicans, Democrats, everybody, we're committed to trying to grow up in a world that truly was equitable, and that everybody had opportunity in. And for us to do that. We need to make sure that that means that opportunity exists for people of all races, and is that going to make folks uncomfortable sometimes? Sure, it definitely is, but oftentimes, change is a little bit uncomfortable. And there's nothing wrong with that. So I'm just really happy that our school board seems to be up for the task, and its makeup right now is extremely diverse, argue probably arguably the most diverse it's ever been. And so I feel very assured that the school board leadership will be able to guide us through this in an appropriate fashion.

Meral Clarke: 22:26

And I'm sure that your population is extremely diverse, too, with the university. There it is. Yeah,

Tim Denson: 22:32

no, Athens, Clarke County is very diverse. Actually, the non university community is much, much more diverse than the original University is definitely still also going through a little bit of its own struggles and acknowledging maybe it's past with race relations to but we're getting there. For instance, some of the situations came to light. Last year, the same linen towel, which people might have heard about getting some national press on that there was a lack working families community on the edge, the university that during urban renewal was was absolutely raised and demolished back in the 60s, so that UGA dormitories could be built. And those dormitories now built where those homes use the stand. And so the county is now working with the surviving residents of one in town. And we're attempting to work with you, Jay also to be able to acknowledge the existence of those communities that have been erased so that we can again, know our history and learn from our history and acknowledge it. And so I mean, it's been a little bit of a struggle, but I'm again, confident we'll get there and I look forward to UGA joining us and that, again, sometimes difficult, but overall productive conversation.

Meral Clarke: 23:42

What are your thoughts on reparations? I had read about linen town and it was absolutely horrendous as so much of our history is toward our African American brother in our black brethren. What are your thoughts on reparations?

Tim Denson: 23:57

I definitely think that there's a place for Reparations and a the Lenin town situation as its reparations is part of that discussion. And so the county has actually created a justice and memory committee that is actually chaired by one of the surviving members and residents of London town Hetty Whitehead. So with Georgia law, and he true reparations is very difficult to be able to legally do a lot of that because of the gratuities clause. I won't bore listeners on that. But it's your treaties clause makes it very difficult. So we're trying to be creative and how that we can actually go about that. And so this justice and memory committee is making budgetary recommendations to the county. So it's kind of a roundabout way of being able to to offer some level of reparations. And then we also just committed to doing a disparity study here in Athens Clarke County, so that we can study any potential historic disparities and in justices based around race or other characteristics and if we're able to actually have disparity study to come back and show that we can prove Those injustices existed, that actually opens up our ability to do more reparation work in the future. And that's happened in other cities, not really in Georgia, but other cities and the South North Carolina and stuff has done this work. So we're being creative to be able to do what I think to make it right, as Miss Hattie Whitehead, who sits on my committee says, that's what they're here to for is just to make it right. And I know myself and the Athens, Clarke County democratic committee has been very supportive of the whole town project and everything going on with that, too. And we're all just kind of working together to try to try to make it right,

Meral Clarke: 25:33

how closely Do you work with our statewide Democratic Party of Georgia, and on the federal level as well,

Tim Denson: 25:39

we definitely tried to as much as possible, you know, having a good relationship with all the folks that work on the DPG. And we have, of course, our State Committee members, a little shout out to like Linda banks and Jim haflinger, who have been just doing work with us for many years, representing Athens Clarke County in the State Committee, and keeping us abreast of everything that's going on. And also our state rep. Spencer fry, who's been serving us now for quite a few years. Again, we're gerrymandered. So even though Athens is super blue, out of five state representatives and state senators, we only have one Democrat, but he serves us well and is very closely connected to the ACC dems actually serves as our fundraising chair right now. And constantly keeping us abreast of what's going on there. And I mean, as most of us listening on this podcast and open North Georgia know that it's a little more difficult on the federal level finding folks that do work with us, since our congressional representatives are allowed to say subpar for this area. But things have improved, especially pretty quickly. I gotta say with Senator Asaf is in a war not taking office immediately, the communications and the line of dialogue immediately improved. And not just saying with the dems here, but I can speak from that from being with the county government, that we just now are able to have better communications to get things done. We need to they're visiting the areas more so that we can actually have a dialogue between residents and what they need, and these elected officials and their staff. So I've been really impressed by just how quickly that's happened. And I look forward to be able to do that with no Center also for years to come, and hopefully senator Warnock also and their staff.

Meral Clarke: 27:17

So do you think that Stacey Abrams is going to run? Will she or Won't she, for governor, this is the question on everyone's minds right now.

Tim Denson: 27:27

I feel very confident that please, everyone will be running for governor. And I'll say I feel awesome, very confident that he is going to be governor, I feel very confident he's going to win. No, no big secret law that a lot of the victories that happened last year. And in this past January, a lot of that was built a ton upon the work that Minority Leader Abrams has been doing for years and building up the infrastructure. And Stacey Abrams is an organizer. I know that might not be her official background, but just watching the way that she works, and watching the way she's build that build up the infrastructure. She works like a community organizer, and I'm just so impressed by the network and infrastructure that she's built. And I feel very confident she's gonna run and she's gonna win next year.

Meral Clarke: 28:12

Terrific. We can all hope for that would be great. And pivoting back to what you said with a broad left approach. And we are such a big tent, as you know, as Democrats, how do you reconcile the more conservative or moderate Blue Dog democrats with the emerging progressives that have come about in the past few years in Georgia,

Tim Denson: 28:34

it is sometimes a struggle. But I believe the way that we do so is just by talking to have conversation. And also, of course, going into those conversations, knowing it's okay, if we don't all agree on everything. We shouldn't all agree on everything, right? We're individuals. That's how ideas grow and get improved. And so I think it's just about respectful dialogue. And I think at times, maybe for people who have been more moderates, and who are used to an older version of the Georgia Democratic Party, things may seem like they're moving fast and changing rapidly, and maybe they are. But I think one thing is that we have to trust what is driving us. And so whenever I'm talking to somebody who might be more moderate in their approach and their policies than me, I still want that conversation trusting this person who is himself in a Democrat, wants to do what's best for people. And I have to make sure I believe that and trust that with the person. So therefore, even if I disagree with their saying, I don't disagree with their intention. It's just about the difference and packed and how we get there. And I tried to make sure that we're fostering that same understanding and trust, no matter where you're coming in from each other. So therefore, if at the end of the day, the platform doesn't represent exactly how you feel like you are as a Democrat, that you can still say, but I trusted the process. And I trusted the people who built this and who spoke to those things I don't agree with but I know I also trust that they're trying to do what's best for the people of Georgia and the people of Athens and to take care of their community. And so if we can have that and truly believe it, then we should be okay. Even when things honestly come out exactly the way that we think.

Meral Clarke: 30:11

And speaking of getting along with folks and finding common ground, how well do you work with the republicans in your area?

Tim Denson: 30:18

I try. I try, man. Sometimes it's hard. You know, I, but I do try. And in the past, I've definitely had some good relationships with some of the republican representatives around here. But it's gotten a little bit it's tense right now, relationships aren't the best they've ever been through probably, maybe the definitely a little frayed. But I still just tried to, you know, to keep that going on. We actually had some of the folks from they see dems, go to the Athens Clarke County GOP meeting last month, just to see what's going on. And you know, just kind of check in and, and it went, well, they had some discussion afterwards. So I'm gonna try to keep that dialogue going on. But I honestly since Trump came along, everything has gotten a lot more toxic. And misinformation has become just absolutely out of control. And so again, like we talked about, like, you need to have that trust in place to be able to have a real dialogue. It's hard to have that trust, when people don't actually even believe in facts. You know, that's a little hard. And it's really difficult when this information gets quoted. And so it's challenged, but I'm not giving up on that. I believe in the people of Athens and Georgia, and America. And I think we're going through a rough patch right now, some of us more than others. But I think that I'm committed, I think Athens Clarke County dems are committed, I think Georgia dems are committed to getting through this rough patch. And getting back to a place where Democrat or Republican, whatever it is, we get least first and foremost, say we care about each other on what what's best for each other.

Meral Clarke: 31:46

Why do you believe that Trump has such a sway over the entire republican party and they've, you know, for the most part, thrown their support behind him? When do you think that will change and they'll get back to reality. Hopefully,

Tim Denson: 32:00

you know, I think Trump's been so successful, because I mean, this is history, World History has shown that this does happen. When you have somebody who doesn't even have a conscience, they're willing to do anything and everything to accrue more power, most of us have a line that we won't cross, even if crossing that line would benefit us, we wouldn't cross that line. I don't think Donald Trump has that line. So if there's something that is going to benefit him, whether whether it's a lie, or misinformation or making threats against undocumented folks, whatever it is, or immigrants, he will cross that line. And that's why he's so dangerous. Anybody who's willing to do that is a very dangerous individual. So I think that's always accrued so much power. And now you have people who either if you have a lot of people who worship Him, basically, then you have a lot of people who are scared of him in a political kind of way. So a lot elected officials were scared of them. And so they act like they worship them, which is just the same, possibly even more dangerous, and I'm not sure what it's going to take, possibly just the absolute destruction of the Republican Party, which is possible if they keep going down this line before that stops. But I don't say this hyperbolic, you know, but I think that Donald Trump is definitely the sole individual that is responsible for the most damage in the United States and hundreds of years.

Meral Clarke: 33:22

I would have to agree with that completely. And it seems like our local officials camp in the governor's office and reference burger in the Secretary of State's office, even though Trump has denigrated them and insulted them over and over again, they are still not speaking out against him and the republicans who support him. Do you think that's because they're afraid of him?

Tim Denson: 33:44

Oh, I think they're definitely afraid of him, right. They know that he controls the looking party. And if we think back over the last four years, a small handful of Republicans who have spoken out against Trump and really no said I'm not crossing that line, very few of them still have political careers. Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney and maybe are the only ones I would say, and they're constantly being attacked still. Both the other ones have retired. They've stepped away from the game and we look at lieutenant governor Jeff Duncan, right. He's, he sees what's going on, he's gonna step away from the fray and I'm guessing he's probably planning on popping back up, hopefully, he what he thinks and like, four years after this is getting better. Basically, if you're gonna play this game, it's Trump's game now. And again, it's dangerous. It's almost like Donald Trump, I'm sure he loves this, right? It's almost like he gets to have a little bit of control over almost every republican official is no matter if those people are school board or county commissioners or US senators or governors, they're all scared of them and he gets to control what they do a little bit by manipulating that fear and threatening to run people against them or something.

Meral Clarke: 34:50

Right, and people do seem like they are in fear of their political lives with the current movement. That's really a shame and certainly, I wish some of the republican officials would speak up and speak out. But the fact that they haven't tells me that they're cowards. And it's very upsetting to me, especially the Secretary of State here, which we know B. Gwynn is running against rapidez burger, and we're very excited about that. And Senator jen jerden is also going to be running is running against Chris Carr for attorney general, what are your thoughts on those folks in their chances?

Tim Denson: 35:26

You know, I think they have solid chances. I think a lot of these races are going to be puffer things, I think, no, we've shown that we're so close that right around 50%. And obviously, in those higher offices, I think that our democratic numbers grow a bit, obviously, with Biden winning, and then the Senate races and then Stacey coming to a close down ballot is gonna be a little bit tougher, I think, but it's definitely possible. And so I'm glad that we're having such a fantastic and qualified slate of Democratic candidates showing up, especially that it's being really led by such fantastic female leaders that are really starting to lead the Democratic Party of Georgia, which I think is just absolutely phenomenal. And you think the Secretary of State's office is definitely a harder one to predict, since Jody hice, has thrown his hat into this race with Trump's blessing, making that primary between him and rasp are going to be very, very bad and ugly, and probably a bit of a national spectacle, to be honest, that I think that they're probably gonna beat up on each other so much, and get so tainted in the primary process, that it very much could open up the door for you when or or you know, or somebody to build a step into that race. I think that one might be more winnable, but also harder to predict

Meral Clarke: 36:40

exactly. What are your thoughts about the state legislature and any opportunities we may have on that level, to turn it blue?

Tim Denson: 36:48

That one is really important, our state legislature and Georgia have, to me been an embarrassment under the Republican leadership, you know, I'll just say it, they've made it intentionally difficult as they can for local governments who do want to take care of their citizenry better. A couple years ago, we passed an ordinance getting rid of cash bail for all local ordinance violations, so that we're not keeping people in jail just because they don't have money. And while people with money are able to bail out, studies have shown that cash bail actually hurts people, it actually increases poverty increases recidivism, but still, then our state legislature basically passed the law trying to repeal part of that and taken away local control when it comes to cash bail and signature bonds. And this has just happened over and over again, this party that supposedly calls themselves already have local control is constantly actually tried to, they stop on local control, if it's not what they like, and it keeps happening over and over and over again. And so I think that we really need to have a state legislature that is responsible, that speaks to the needs of the people. And that is my biggest hope. And that's why I think here in Athens, we have the chance to get to state house seats back, we can take those ones back right now. they'd send it's gonna be even more of an uphill climb. But we have to keep working on it. And we have to get with a keep on organizing, and really organizing outside of the Atlanta metro area. And that has been definitely a passion for me for years now working in democratic politics, is that Atlanta, and the people who represent lanta do amazing, fantastic work. But we have to be doing more outside of Atlanta and the democrats have to get stronger outside Atlanta to get better candidates or to get better organizing. And we need the DPG, I think to offer more support and resources to democratic committees outside of the Atlanta metro area. I think that's happening. I've seen that happening over the last few years with the DPG. And I think that they also realize the same thing. And I've been trying to increase the amount of support and resources that they give to county committees that are in North Georgia and South Georgia in the middle of the state. I don't think we're gonna be able to take back the state house until we are better organized those other areas,

Meral Clarke: 39:03

I would have to agree. rural areas are so important and crucial to state politics. And I'm hoping that more of the folks in metro Atlanta realize that so I could talk to you forever. If you ever decide to run outside of Athens, I will vote for you and gladly but let's end on a happy positive note to tell us a fun fact about yourself something outside of the Democratic Party, something in your personal life that our listeners may not know and would be interested in. Sure.

Tim Denson: 39:34

So actually, what got me even up into Georgia I grew up down in rural South Florida, but I grew up in a family of musicians eat your son and music was a big thing. So I was always in the music. So actually, I came up through Georgia because Athens had a fantastic music scene and I came up here as a firing indie rock musician who ran a record label and such wow. So I think that's a weird thing that that that's what brought me here, the politics and there's also the Fantastic people of North Georgia what got me here, but in a weird way, myself vishna, Mariah Parker, who serves me on the commission, and also Mr. Jesse cool. All three of us came up through independent music scenes and being like performers on stage. So I think it makes a lot of sense. Maybe we need to be recruiting candidates by going out to the 40 walk club in the Georgia theater, the shows and trying to recruit.

Meral Clarke: 40:22

I think that's wonderful. That's really interesting. Have you always been a democrat?

Tim Denson: 40:26

I am the son of Republicans of one issue. Republicans, really, abortion is my parents big issue. I grew up in a very conservative role, area. And so why I've always been as a person who cares about the people, I also I think the biggest point, the reason that we're here on this earth, right is to be able to have good experiences and take care of each other so that everybody can have those good experiences. And why I'm a democrat is because I believe that Democrats are the party that prioritize that. And so I can definitely say that I have voted for every time I'm able to have a chance to vote. I voted for a Democrat. A couple times people feel less than Democrats. But yeah, I am. I've been there for most of my adult life.

Meral Clarke: 41:06

I bet that makes for some interesting family dinners.

Tim Denson: 41:09

Sometimes just get to get to find other subjects to talk about, and I think are familiar with that. Yeah,

Meral Clarke: 41:15

yep. Oh, that's wonderful. Well, thank you, Tim, for joining us today and sharing more about your crucial work to maintain our democracy. Go ahead and plug your website and the phone or anything else that people can reach you with emails, if they're interested in volunteering with the Athens, Clarke County Democrats, what are those addresses?

Tim Denson: 41:35

If people are wanting to get more information, they can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, we're all over on there. And you can reach me you want more information about anything that we're talking about here at chair at Clark dems, calm, and you can find our website, which we actually just launched a brand new website at Athens, Clarke gems calm so you can find all information that's going on where our meetings are happening, all that good stuff, because we want to have anybody who's interested to get involved. Again, like I said, we expanded our membership. So come join us. Oh, that's

Meral Clarke: 42:10

wonderful. Well, I'm Meral Clarke and on behalf of our team, I'd like to thank everyone for listening to the North Georgia Blue Podcast. We hope you'll listen next time when our special guest will be Holly McCormick candidate running in Georgia's 14th district to defeat Marjorie Taylor green. To learn more about the Fannin County democrats and the work we're doing Please visit us online at Fannin County, ga democrats.com and consider sharing the North Georgia Blue Podcast with your friends and family. Join us again as we get into some more good trouble