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March 2006
Hurricanes can help your numbers
Mississippi senators viewed in better light than their Southern peers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re not sure how much worth there is in a survey which rates the job approval of all 100 U.S. senators, since no amont of data could convince most of them they’re not at the top.
But an outfit called Survey USA puts out a tally every month, based on recent polls in all the states, and we couldn’t help noticing that the South’s most popular senators, coming in the 10th and 11th slots nationally, are Mississippi’s Trent Lott and Thad Cochran. That’s far ahead of Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, who come in 71st and 77th in this survey.
Lott and Cochran’s favorables have something to do, we assume, with the relatively good Katrina relief deal they were able to get through Congress right before Christmas last year. Relative to Louisiana, that is: Sen. David Vitter, still with a little first-term sheen, ranked 33rd, and Sen. Mary Landrieu was in 80th place.
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A Ralph Reed sampler
As Dr. Hook said, there's a special thrill that'll getcha when you get your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At some point, someone will have to find a way to measure the impact of all of these national articles being written on Ralph Reed and his campaign for lieutenant governor of Georgia. This week, it was Rolling Stone, for the hip, musically inclined, and the Nation, for the vaguely elite and liberal. Then there’s World magazine, for the devotedly evangelical.
Yes, the circulation of these three national mags in Georgia is limited. But the Internet is the Internet.
Read, digest and argue. And have a sterling weekend.
Delta versus AirTran
Somebody important has realigned himself with the new airline economy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As the 2006 session of the Legislature careened toward its end, a House-Senate fight has broken out over $28 million in tax credits for Delta Air Lines. This is a bill whose first three authors are House Speaker pro tem Mark Burkhalter, House Speaker Glenn Richardson, and House Majority Leader Jerry Keen.
The Senate tipped the legislation toward AirTran, which is based in Orlando, but is the No. 2 airline at Hartsfield-Jackson.
Never mind the arguments right now. Look at who’s in the fight. AirTran hired McKenna, Long & Aldridge to make its case. According to the on-line registry of the State Ethics Commission, three of the firms employees have announced themselves as AirTran lobbyists.
They are: Steve Labovitz, former associate of former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell; Eric Tanenblatt, former chief of staff for Gov. Sonny Perdue; and former Gov. Zell Miller himself.
We talked to state Sen. Cecil Staton (R-Macon), who has acted as Miller’s book publisher. Staton said Miller’s involvement was a surprise to him — that he hadn’t heard of any Senate member getting phone calls from the former governor, who once presided over the chamber.
McCain’s Southern strategy
Getting to know you, getting to feel free and easy....
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Hill newspaper, which focuses on the doings of Congress, has a piece on U.S. Sen. John McCain’s developing strategy toward the South. Both U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston and U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson are quoted here.
A talk with Lynn Swann, candidate
Hall-of-Fame hands reach for a governorship
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lynn Swann, the NFL Hall of Famer, broadcaster and now Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, was in town Tuesday for a fundraiser put together by former U.S. Senate candidate Herman Cain, former Falcon Mike Kenn, former Home Depot biggie Bernie Marcus and several other notable Republicans.
We caught up with the first-time, but far from little-known, candidate for a chat before the event. He’s an articulate candidate, as you’d expect from all those years on the sideline, and he finds himself in an interesting place politically.
Swann’s Republican competitors have moved to the sidelines and he has a clear shot at incumbent Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell. No incumbent governor has lost since Pennsylvania began allowing two terms back in the ‘70s, but one recent poll had Swann and Rendell in a dead heat.
We won’t try to handicap Pennsylvania politics, but we did note with interest Swann’s answer to one question, as carefully executed as a post pattern. We asked if he felt good about the support he’s gotten from the national Republican Party, and he replied:
“I feel good about the support I’ve gotten from the state party. And I feel good about the conversations and support I hope to get from the national party. I think it’s very important, if we’re going to run a good campaign and if the Republican Party is going to be what it wants to be, then, as a minority candidate, they’ve got show the full support they would give any other candidate in an important race,” Swann replied.
A victory for his campaign, Swann said, would demonstrate that Republicans were simply offering to have a conversation about change.
“We would have demonstrated the party’s ability to change and grow, and to be extraordinarily inclusive,” Swann said.
Holy mackerel — he’s back
A veteran of several Georgia campaigns jumps in the New Orleans fish tank
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We knew Tim Phillips was back on his game – we’re speaking here of the Democratic consultant, not the Tim Phillips of Ralph Reed-Century Strategies fame – when we spotted an item in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Phillips represents Audubon Institute CEO Ron Forman in the upcoming New Orleans mayor’s race. At a recent fundraiser, incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin recounted how he saved his daughter’s goldfish, in contrast to the thousands of fish lost under Forman’s watch at the Aquarium of the Americas.
“That’s just carping,” Phillips responded. “Holy mackerel. I can’t believe he’s saying that. It’s a red herring.”
This is the first political race Phillips has consulted on since what he still describes as his “emotionally devastating loss” in the 2002 Georgia governor’s race, when his client was Roy Barnes.
He saw this as a chance to make a difference in a race that will probably be like no other. It’s also the hardest thing he’s ever done, he said. And this is a man who worked for Zell Miller.
Just living day to day in New Orleans is a challenge, Phillips said, while something like getting phones installed in a headquarters office – which took 12 days – can be a major undertaking. And how do you poll?
But we can tell Phillips is back in the swim of things (ouch) politically.
Speaking of the New Orleans mayor’s race, we’re interested in how much politicking has been going on in the Atlanta evacuee community. If you’ve heard of any, let us know.
News from the front
Updates on bills for paper-trail voting, eminent domain, private cities, and the natural gas pipeline. And Bill Stephens gets candid about the Speaker and Sonny Perdue's days in office.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Sen. Bill Stephen’s farewell presser on Wednesday afternoon — he’s leaving to run for secretary of state —produced several tidbits heading into the final day of the 2006 session of the Legislature.
Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson’s take on several bills appear toward the bottom of this file.
First, Stephens, the Republican from Woodstock, announced a final agreement on S.B. 500, a bill that establishes a pilot program to test the feasibility of hitching a paper trail to Georgia’s electronic voting machines.
The bill establishes three locales for the pilot: Cobb, Bibb and Camden counties. Final changes included a notation that the bill for the experiments will be picked up by the state.
Stephens, who advertised himself as “unplugged,” also had some harsh words House Speaker Glenn Richardson, who a day earlier had criticized the Senate for blocking approval of the $18.6 billion state budget.
In a stem-winder of a speech, the speaker spilled the beans on a conversation in which Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson had offered to move AGL’s natural pipeline bill if the House would agree to the Senate’s budget position.
Johnson was in the room when Stephens said the following:
“I would say that I was very disappointed on a personal level. I thought his comments were inappropriate on a professional level. Politically, his comments will be judged over time.
“There are certain boundaries, certain things that you can talk about without them becoming public.
“If I went back and recounted some of the conversations that Glenn and I had when he was the House floor leader and I was the Senate floor leader, in the first year of the administration, when the budget was in shambles, where there was a proposed tobacco tax, when everything was in disarray, probably neither one of us and most of the people in the building would be in political office now.
“There have to be some boundaries. I think he crossed over those boundaries. And I was personally disappointed when a friend of mine went that far.
“In the long run it will end up being a healthy thing — when the House and Senate went up to the brink of really messing something up in an election year, and backing away from it.”
By the by, Stephens also announced he’d obtained the endorsement of 100 lawmakers for his run for Senate — a feat he said was unprecedented, except perhaps for Joe Frank Harris’ 1982 run for governor. Take that, Casey Cagle.
After Stephens’ finished, reporters surrounded Johnson, the leader of the Senate, for word on what would come to pass Thursday.
Johnson said he didn’t want to stick his neck out with any definitive news on the budget, given that Gov. Sonny Perdue hadn’t weighed in yet. “There’s still a third leg of the stool that will have a final say-so,” the Senate president pro tem said.
The PPT expressed the most worry over the eminent domain bill: “We’re concerned that there appears to be reluctance from the House on reaching agreement on eminent domain.
“We’re trying to find the final place to land on that bill. Every time the conferees get close to the final deal, someone else — it’s all coming from the House side. ‘Yeah, but.’
“I don’t know what’s behind that, but there is a hesitancy and reluctance coming from the House on H.B. 1313.
Asked if a headstone could be placed over S.B. 1325, the natural gas pipeline bill, Johnson simply said, “Yes.”
Johnson all but said the “private cities” bill would fall short on Thursday. “There is clearly a majority of support on that bill, but there does not appear to be a two-thirds majority for a constitutional amendment.
“I think that’s one we’ll have to continue to work on and educate people. I don’t anticipate that being taken up tomorrow, although miracles do happen.”
Max Cleland’s rolling again
This time on behalf of an Army copter pilot, running for Congress
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former U.S. senator Max Cleland still lives up in Washington, though he makes no secret of wanting to make his way back home, eventually. In the meantime, he’s at it again this election year.
He’s helping Tammy Duckworth, a former Army helicopter pilot who lost both legs in Iraq. Duckworth is running as a Democrat for the Illinois congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, a Republican.
In an interview with NPR, Cleland is asked what he shares with Duckworth. “Her sense of having been blown to hell and back,” he replies. Here is the link to a Q&A with Cleland on the topic.
Tales out of school, in an old-school style
In a House-Senate budget fight, the Speaker raises a curtain on a normally secretive process
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let’s focus a bit on that speech given Tuesday by House Speaker Glenn Richardson, on his budget impasse with the Senate.
It was by far the most significant of the session, full of passion, and probably the best Richardson’s ever given in the chamber. There’s nothing like a good fight to help a leader cement his standing with the people who put him there.
This was also a risky speech, a bit of brinksmanship that placed in public view many doings that have traditionally been kept under wraps.
First, Richard alleged that Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson offered up a vote on H.B. 1325 — a bill to help Atlanta Gas Light to build a $300 million, ratepayer-funded pipeline — in exchange for more Senate say in the state’s $18.6 billion budget.
Such deals are usually offered in secret, and kept so — even when they fall apart. Richardson said he found the offer insulting. Johnson, the speaker said, offered only to put the bill up for a vote. The votes to pass it weren’t there.
“The heck with that bill. If that bill’s not on, it’s over with. They don’t have any tools to use on me,” a choleric Richardson said, as thousands of dollars in AGL lobbying fees swirled down the toilet.
Johnson admitted making the offer, and portrayed the trade as nothing out of the ordinary. But it’s not a slight that’s easily forgiven.
Johnson’s deal, the speaker said, was made in a telephone conference call, a “pre-meeting” to which the public has no access. Richardson was a bit sheepish about that. These meetings aren’t supposed to happen, but they do — and everyone knows it.
“We just talk about things,” the Speaker said.
Richardson spoke of a private negotiating session involving the Holy Triumvirate: The Speaker, The Senate President pro tem, and Gov. Sonny Perdue. And boldly claimed that the governor was on his side.
“The budget ought to be about numbers rather than words,” Perdue spokesman Dan McLagan told the Associated Press.
The Speaker also disclosed that he had brought in Leah Sears, chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, to help him fend off an attempt by the Senate to impose tighter legislative control over the judiciary’s budget.
Old-timers who saw Richardson’s speech, and Johnson’s reply, immediately drew parallels with fights waged between House Speaker Tom Murphy and Lt. Gov. Zell Miller in olden, Democratic days.
The difference, they pointed out, was that those fights were conducted in private. Republicans have kept their out-in-the-open, no-holds-barred style of warfare — developed as a frustrated minority — and have made it part of the daily discourse.
“I know there’s some risk in me doing this. I know they may dig in,” Richardson said of his colleagues in the Senate. “I fear this has already happened.”
McCain and the Christian right
Looks like those negotiations with Jerry Falwell paid off.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sen. John McCain will be the featured speaker at Liberty University’s graduation ceremonies this spring. This could have many implications not just for McCain, but the place of Christian conservatives in the GOP as well. Read the complete article here.
Outtake on the latest Reed news
Dems urge Reed to keep criminal investigation alive. Reed's people avoid profanity.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Democrats are feeling a little left out in all the back-and-forth between Ralph Reed and Casey Cagle, our two Republican candidates for lieutenant governor.
Following is a quote from state Democratic chairman Bobby Kahn, from a press release issued Tuesday: “Maybe Ralph is getting away with this because he did a good job of concealing his illegal activity. If Ralph really believes that he did nothing wrong, he should want an investigation to clear his name, so he should waive the statute of limitations to allow the prosecutor to proceed.”
Reed’s people weren’t impressed. “We won’t be taking advice from Bobby Kahn. No one listens to him, least of all Republicans, since he presided over the two worst defeats for his party since the Civil War,” said Reed campaign manager Jared Thomas.
Batten down the budget hatches
An odd topic for a nasty finish: It's not just the money, but how you account for it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Within 72 hours, the 2006 session of the Legislature will come to a close.
But the $18.6 billion budget remains the unaddressed elephant in the room. After a week of negotiations, the House and Senate have yet to get down to the issue of money. Now, that’s not wholly true. Subcommittees have been negotiating sub rosa. But it is mostly true. We’re in for a dirty finish.
For decades, the budget has worked like this: Working with the Office of Planning and Budget, the governor spends four or five months drawing up his fiscal plan for the state. He hands it to the House, which has 10 or so weeks to play with it. The House hands it to the Senate, which has only three weeks.
It’s a constitutional thing.
But in a place where money — and the knowledge of how it is deployed — is power, this has put the Senate in the position of red-headed stepchild. But a family rebellion is underway.
The Senate is attempting to revolutionize the process by changing the way the budget is calculated, organized and presented. When House Speaker Glenn Richardson accuses senators of writing in Chinese, this is what he’s talking about.
House members accuse the Senate of using the budget to create administrative policy, on topics like education and the funding of the judiciary. A power grab, they snarl. The Senate happily agrees that this is so. Budgeting is policy. Money talks. And the Senate wants the House to acknowledge its equal status — by accepting its budgeting system — before they get down to numbers.
Will it work? Who knows. And frankly, not many outside the Capitol would care. But we did talk to one House member who sought to remind senators that many individual projects are contained in an $18 billion document. And some of those line items could come to harm in a nasty struggle between the House and certain Senate leaders.
We’re not endorsing that kind of stuff. We’re just passing the message on.
The unlisting of an e-mail list
Now Republicans are looking for a new way to say they're against porn, gambling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s not often that a bill that passes 49-zip in one chamber stumbles across the hallway. But that’s what has happened to S.B. 425, the bill to create a no-call registry for e-mail.
The measure started out as a cause celebre among religious conservatives, a way that families — even whole school systems — could declare themselves off-limits to Internet advertisers for porn, gambling, tobacco and alcohol.
Then business interests woke up, and the bill has become a first-rate example of the fissure building in the state Republican party between economic and social conservatives. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce began raising doubts about the impact the bill would have on retail businesses heavily dependent on the Internet.
The first sign of crumbling came last week, when a substitute to S.B. 425 exempted beer-makers from the bill. We talked Monday with state Rep. Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta), vice chairman of the House science and technology committee, where the measure now resides.
“I’m a tech guy by trade. I have a problem with creating a registry,” Martin said. The penetration by a hacker into a state database that houses the personal information of more than 500,000 state employees and pension members, announced last week, provided Martin with an example of the danger.
He knows the Legislature needs to pass out something before it closes down for business on Thursday. Martin’s trying for a bill to require porn and gamblers to use a coding system that can be rated (XXX) and blocked.
Advocates of a registry haven’t given up on their idea. If it flies, it will be a slimmed-down version. Booze and tobacco, who have significant lobbying clout at the Capitol, would be given a pass, so that the effort would focus more tightly on porn and gambling. Who, so far as we know, have very few public supporters in the Legislature.
A Starr burning out
Democratic veteran says he won't try for 40 years in the Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bow your heads and say a prayer for your Legislature.
State Sen. Terrell Starr (D-Jonesboro) is quietly spreading the word that, after 38 years, he’s done. He’s bowing to family concerns and says he won’t sign up for re-election next month.
It’s doubtful his decision will have a bearing on the balance of power in the Senate. But the institutional loss is massive. Starr is the longest-serving lawmaker still standing in the state Capitol.
And he’s pretty much done it all. He’s been president pro tem, right under the lieutenant governor. He’s been chairman of Senate appropriations, finance and appropriations. Under Democratic rule, his negotiating skills made him a sought-after force on most conference committees that mattered.
Starr’s departure is particularly significant since it comes on the heels of the January death of Secretary of the Senate Frank Eldridge, another Senate mainstay.
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A wanted man turns up
Note to Dollar: Just to be safe, ix-nay on any cruises to Acapulco this summer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At 2:30 p.m. Friday, state Rep. Matt Dollar of Cobb County showed up on the House floor in a suit and blue bowtie, proving the rumor mill wrong.
Dollar had not, after all, been captured by Mexican federales, bundled into a plain brown van, and hustled across the U.S. border to face charges of forgery or counterfeiting. But he had dumped the evidence.
Thus ends, presumably, the diplomatic flap that provided the subtext to last week’s debate in the state Capitol over the illegal immigration bill. Consider it one more example of the frayed nerves the issue has provoked.
For you latecomers, let’s review: On Thursday, Dollar was one of several House Republicans who rose to speak in favor of S.B. 529, the bill that aims to tamp down illegal immigration in Georgia. But unlike other speakers, Dollar brought props.
Matricula consular cards are a form of photo ID issued by the Mexican government to Mexican nationals in the U.S. The IDs can be used for any number of purposes, including the opening of bank accounts.
Opponents of illegal immigration consider the cards an easily forged pathway to the essentials of U.S. society, including a drivers license.
Dollar, who is 28 years old and as American as his name, presented one from the well of the House.
“It’s issued by the government of Mexico. It has my picture, my name, my address,” Dollar told his colleagues. “It says I was born in Guadalajara, and while I’ve never been there, I hear it’s quite nice. And just to show that it wasn’t a fluke, I actually got two of them.”
Word of Dollar’s remarks was quickly transmitted to Mexico’s consul general in Atlanta, Remedios Gomez-Arnau. With the consulate’s document expert in tow, she marched through the doors of the Capitol and into the office of House Speaker Glenn Richardson.
She wanted to see Dollar and his documents. One presumes she felt obliged to inquire whether the lawmaker who obtained the cards from her government had engaged in any fraud.
Gomez-Arnau was met by Richardson’s counsel, Sam Choate, an intense fellow who quickly, perhaps forcefully, told her that what a Georgia lawmaker says during formal debate in the state Capitol is privileged.
No legal repercussions apply. It matters not whether what one says is true. (To be fair, veterans will tell you that truth is so prized in the Capitol that it is only brought out on special occasions, like 30-year-old Scotch.)
The Mexican diplomat was brusquely shown to the hallway outside the House chamber, where she was invited to send a written message to Dollar inside. But Dollar had somehow vanished, not be be seen until the next afternoon.
That’s when he answered questions in the House anteroom. “I basically obtained these IDs to prove kind of a point of one, how easy they are to obtain, and two, how really non-secure this form of ID is. I really got them for the purpose of this bill, just to show as a prop,” Dollar said.
Where did you get the documents? “I can’t say.”
Did you use the Internet? “Let’s put it this way, I did not have to physically go anywhere to obtain them.”
Are they authentic? Did you get them from the Mexican government? “They are authentic. To my knowledge, they are legit,” Dollar said.
At this point, Choate — the House legal counsel — approached and pulled Dollar away for a quick tete a tete. Presumably, they chatted about the chamber’s Final Four pool.
When Dollar returned, his account about the Mexican ID cards had shifted slightly. “I can’t validate whether they’re real or not. I just obtained them for use on the floor of the House. And they are not in my possession any more,” he said.
What happened to them? “I’m not going to say whether they’re destroyed or not. But I don’t have them.”
Dollar has already become a young hero to the anti-illegal immigrant movement. “I admire him for bringing it up,” said activist D.A. King, who has a pair of the Mexican ID cards himself. Which also show his birthplace as Guadalajara.
Repeated calls to the Mexican consulate have gone unanswered. But as Friday came to a close, reporters asked Speaker Richardson if he had any regrets about the way that Mexican concerns were handled.
Richardson said no, that what happens on his House floor isn’t the business of any foreign government. “They should feel brushed off,” the speaker said.
Blasts from the past
The two will meet in the middle of Sanford Bridge to compare notes on Bill Clinton.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Athens will be seething with frustrated ambition on April 7. On one side of the University of Georgia campus, former U.S. senator John Edwards of North Carolina, the erstwhile Democratic vice presidential candidate, will make an appearance at the law school. He’s doing his bit as part of a public interest law conference.
On another section of campus, former President George H.W. Bush, known to his friends as “Ol’ 41” will be on hand to help dedicate the $40 million Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical Health Sciences.
Past the point of kumbaya
Huo dao lao, xue dao lao, hai you sanfen xuebudao.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cast your mind back to last year, when Republicans in the House and Republicans in the Senate, savoring unified GOP rule of the state Capitol, embraced each other in manly, non-Brokeback Mountain fashion.
Click the shutter on that mental picture, put it in an album, and shelve it. Because it’s gone.
As with the Democrats, institutional rivalry has asserted itself and become the driving force of the final days of this session. Late Friday, the Senate made it clear that it wouldn’t vote on the natural gas pipeline bill much beloved in the House. In response, Speaker Glenn Richardson quickly gaveled his boys and girls home for the weekend.
It’s hard to say whether the Senate has actual misgivings about the AGL bill, which would allow ratepayers to shoulder the entire burden of a $300 million pipe through the state. The claim in the Senate is that there aren’t enough votes. “It’s not a bad bill,” said Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons). “It just hasn’t been explained.”
So it’s difficult to determine whether H.B. 1325 is dead, or merely a hostage.
But both sides agree that the state’s $18 billion budget is causing most of the tension. Both chambers claim the other side has done its work in Mandarin. Williams, a former missionary, recited his take on the House budget in a respectable Beijing accent: “Yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, qi, ba, jiu, shi.”
Bring out your dead
The AGL bill has a bad cough, the Western Union bill is down with typhus, and the 'clean e-mail' bill may get saddled with a hangover.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re collecting a list of casualties of the legislative session. Feel free to pass on any you’ve heard of.
In the Senate on Friday, Bill Hamrick (R-Carrrollton) gutted a House bill that would have slapped a 5 percent tax on any funds that illegal immigrants wired home. He replaced the contents with his version of some title pawn reforms that had appeared dead for the season.
Negotiations with the House could begin Monday. One death, one resurrection.
Remember “The Georgia Child, Family and School Communications Act”? That’s the measure pushed by religious conservatives to create the equivilant of a no-call list for Internet e-mail. It passed the Senate with nary a dissent. Only then did Republican business interests begin to worry about its impact on web-site retailing.
The bill, S.B. 425, would allow schools and families to add their e-mail addresses to a state-maintained list. Retailers would then be forbidden to send those targets any advertisements that have to do with gambling, prostitution, porn, drinking, and so on.
The measure appears to have bogged down on the House side. And it has gained an interesting bedfellow. We’ve seen a draft substitute that creates an exemption for beer ads. We’re looking for more info on that one.
The calm before the 30-second storm
She's specifically looking for a lobbyist-looking type she can throw under a bus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Spring is that time of year when a young candidate’s fancy turns to production values.
Cathy Cox, one of two Democratic candidates for governor, e-mailed a cattle call to supporters this week, looking for volunteers to appear in her TV commercials. You must look like regular people, of course. Preference will be given to those with a talent for portraying change-hungry multitudes.
Laugh if you like, but Cox knows who she’s up against. In 2004, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor’s “Big Guy, Little Guy” commercials were far and away the best of the year. He’s got the same media team working for him this time.
Gov. Sonny Perdue is teasing his video campaign as well. The governor’s campaign web site has thrown up an Internet spot that could very well up on TV. It’s built around Perdue’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina and his temporary suspension of the gas tax. You can see it here.
Abortion and the job market
And whether Roe v. Wade is why Atlanta radio stations play Hispanic hip-hop
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Several weeks ago, the Hartwell Sun reported on the line that state Sen. Nancy Schaefer (R-Turnerville) drew between abortion and illegal immigration. Schaefer thinks that her words have been twisted out of context — that she never implied that abortions had caused a shortage of “cheap labor.”
Life is too short not to offer a mulligan now and again. Here are some lengthier comments Schaefer made on the topic, in an op-ed piece also published in the Hartwell Sun. Feel free to read and discuss:
“Guest-worker amnesty must be defeated in Washington, too. If it is not defeated, millions of illegal aliens who violated our laws will remain in American and bring their families here.
“Big employers may get the benefit of cheap labor, but the U.S. taxpayer will pay for their health care, food stamps, schooling for children, and income tax credits.
“I am convinced it is a consequence [of] the almost 50 million children we have put to death in their mother’s womb through abortion. The large, unfilled job market in Georgia would not be a problem if the almost 50 million Americans were here, filling many of those jobs.”
A chance to customize your Insider
As a cup of coffee to wake you up, or something to give you night sweats
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re still trying to learn the ins and outs of this blogging stuff. One of the most important questions we have is, when do you check in with us?
If something’s important, we’ll post the info as soon as we get it.
But what do we do with the routine stuff? Right now, we’ve set the timers so that new entries slide in at 6 a.m. every morning. Is that cool, or would you prefer a nightcap — midnight or perhaps earlier?
Whattya think?
Just a tiny international incident
But imagine the watercooler talk in the Latin American division at Coca Cola.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Rep. Matt Dollar of Cobb County became the focus of a genuine diplomatic flap on Thursday.
The details are still sketchy, but this is what we’ve picked up from eyewitnesses: Dollar was among several House Republicans who went to the rostrum to speak in favor of S.B. 529, which aims to discourage the presence of illegal immigrants in Georgia.
But Dollar, one of the youngest members of the chamber, did more than speak. He produced what he said were two pieces of ID obtained from the Mexican consulate in Atlanta. (They’re called matricula consular cards, and can be used by Mexican nationals for any number of purposes, including the opening of bank accounts.)
Dollar’s remarks were quickly relayed to Mexico’s consul general in Atlanta, Remedios Gomez-Arnau. With the consulate’s document expert in tow, she marched through the doors of the state Capitol and into the office of House Speaker Glenn Richardson.
She wanted to see Dollar and his documents. You can see her point of view. If there’s an allegation that the Mexican consulate hands out fake ID to the youth of East Cobb, that could empty entire high schools. Nor would Gomez-Arnau appreciate a public servant of Georgia publicly accusing her diplomatic outpost of colluding in an operation to produce counterfeit documents.
The consul general got as far as the speaker’s legal counsel, Sam Choate, who informed the diplomat that Dollar would not be produced, and would not be disturbed. He also told her that what a Georgia lawmaker says during formal debate in the state Capitol is privileged. No legal repercussions apply. Whether what one says is true or not.
As to the content of Dollar’s remarks, and the authenticity of his documents — we weren’t there, the video wasn’t yet available, and attempts to reach him at his home were unsuccessful. Said the speaker’s press liasion, Michelle Hitt: “When legislators on the floor debate a bill, they have a right to make a point.”
The ‘gas guy’ game begins
But the 'sssssss' you hear is the sound of gas leaking through a united front
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Word’s come through that the measure to make it easier for Atlanta Gas Light to construct a $300 million pipeline through Georgia, paid for by the company’s smaller and smallest customers, will be passed out of committee this morning.
It’s due for a vote on the Senate floor sometime Friday.
That kind of pace leads one to presume that Gov. Sonny Perdue has made some sort of peace with the bill, despite Democratic threats to portray any rate increase as a Republican tax hike.
One reason may be the fact that H.B.1325 has split the most powerful constituencies in the state Capitol, including Republicans, though GOP dissenters have been rather bashful, and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.
Most important to Perdue’s calculations may be Democratic disunity on the issue. For instance, this week, a press release went out, under the name of state Reps. David Lucas (D-Macon) and Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta). The headline was: “Pipeline unnecessary $300 million tax on Georgia consumers.”
The problem is that House Minority Leader Dubose Porter (D-Dublin) voted for the bill. He says Dublin city leaders think it at leads hold the potential for increasing competition.
Break out the pajamas
'Pour me an extra cuppa coffee, honey. I'm working from home today.'
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Earthquakes begin with small tremors. The Senate today will offer close-to-final approval to a bill that would give Georgia corporations — for the first time — a monetary incentive to increase telecommuting and keep workers off the road.
H.B.194, sponsored by state Rep. Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta), is the work product of something called the Technology Leadership Coalition. Martin says there may be nothing like it in the nation.
The legislation would give corporations a tax credit of up to $1,200 per employee for the expenses of equipping homes with computers, software and network lines. Employees would have to spend 12 working days a month at home.
Tax breaks would be pro-rated for employees who can’t get away from the office that much.
This is an experiment. The tax credit affects only employers based in areas (like Atlanta) that flunk federal Clean Air Act standards.
To keep things under control, the state will allow a total of only $2 million in deductions each year, and the legislation has a five-year sunset.
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Some election year diplomacy
A binding rule of politics: Peace comes in even-numbered years, war in odd-numbered ones
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue held a quiet, unadvertised meeting with leaders of the Georgia Press Association on Wednesday. We hear it went well, given the fact that the two parties — last year — were on opposite sides of a bitter debate over a bill to expand official government secrecy in the realm of economic development.
The governor was asked whether his success in landing the $1.2 billion Kia auto plant, under the current state Open Records Act, had cured him of any desire to tinker with public access to information.
Perdue, we’re told, said he wouldn’t be sponsoring any repeat of H.B. 218 — though someone might.
A Reed report from Houston County
The first rule of barbecue: If the cook won't eat it, something's wrong with it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We weren’t there. The invitation was lost in the mail. But the Houston (County) Home Journal apparently slipped a reporter into Ralph Reed’s big grassroots conference in Perry over the weekend.
Two things worth noting, according to the article. First, in the home turf of Gov. Sonny Perdue, there was “the notable absence from the meeting of any of Houston County’s Republican elected officials.”
Then there was the fact that Reed, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, was gone before lunch was served. Read the whole thing here.
We be bloggin’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You’ll notice a small difference in the format today: We’ve gone to blog-style, which will give us more flexibility to update the Insider AND readers a chance to add their two-cents worth. Hope you like it.
Poll: Reed drag on GOP ticket
A tough race for Sonny could be even tougher with Reed at his side. Or so sayeth the pollster.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Monday, pollster Matt Towery raised Republican blood pressure with the news that President Bush’s approval ratings in Georgia had dropped significantly.
And that Gov. Sonny Perdue was no longer the shoo-in many thought he would be this November.
On Tuesday, the head of Internet political news service Insider Advantage cut loose another set of worrisome numbers for the state’s Republicans: Ralph Reed, the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, at this point represents an 8-point drag on a Perdue-Reed ticket.
For you geeks, the margin of error is 4 percent, and dates of the survey were March 14-17.
The question asked of 500 likely Republican voters was simple: “Would you be more or less likely to vote for Sonny Perdue as governor if Ralph Reed were the nominee for lieutenant governor?”
No mention was made of Reed’s Republican rival, state Sen. Casey Cagle of Gainesville. Nor was there any mention of Reed’s troublesome ties to Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Eighteen percent of those polled said they’d be more likely to support Perdue with Reed on the ticket. But 26 percent said they’d be less likely.
The difference could be crucial.
Reed has argued that he represent’s the state GOP’s best chance for turning out the base in November.
But Towery said Reed’s weakness is that he frightens the independents who are essential to the creation of winning majorities in Georgia.
In a head-to-head match-up among Republican voters, Reed leads with 24 percent to Cagle’s 17 percent.
Which leaves 59 percent undecided.
That’s a large number, given Reed’s past prominence in the party, first as head of the Christian Coalition, then as chairman of the state Republican Party.
Says a spokeswoman for Reed: “Many polls will say many things between now and November. But one thing remains constant: Ralph Reed is a recognized leader Georgians know and trust.”
You can read more on Insider Advantage’s Web site (http://www.billshipp.com/), but it is a subscription service.
Whistling past the graveyard: And you thought a natural gas line was the only consumer issue that mattered.
The question on Tuesday morning, in a fourth-floor chamber of the state Capitol, was whether the legislation in question would prevent Costco — or a small, mom and pop operation — from selling discount caskets, and delivering them directly to the resting place of your choice.
For immediate occupancy.
State Rep. Carl Rogers (R-Gainesville), the author of H.B. 910, said you’d still have that option.
A pair of staffers for Secretary of State Cathy Cox insisted the bill would take it away.
In the front row, a reporter madly scribbled away. Which made members of the Senate committee debating the matter nervous. So the panel postponed any action until Thursday.
H.B. 910 passed the House last week on Crossover Day, at 1:17 a.m.
It asks an intriguing question: How do you decide when a troubled industry has cleaned up its act, and can be trusted to handle its own affairs?
Seven years ago, a series of public hearings turned up some bad apples among the 200 or so private, perpetual-care cemeteries in Georgia. The graves of greats like Georgia Tech football coach Bobby Dodd had fallen into disrepair. In some cemeteries, the same lots had been sold three and four times. Fees were hidden, and exorbitant.
So in 2000, Cox backed the legislation to put these cemeteries under tighter control, and under her jurisdiction.
That was then, Rogers and private cemetery owners argued. “What was dirty in the past, in my opinion, has been cleaned up,” said Rogers, who now thinks the industry is being strangled by over-regulation.
He wants private cemeteries regulated by a governor-appointed Board of Cemeterians, which would write its own rules for what goes in private graveyards.
Help from Mississippi, the land of stiff-lipped Katrina survivors and those halls where the little ball drops into that spinning wheel
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The invitation to Monday’s event says, in big bold letters: “Ralph Reed election year kickoff.”
But it’s really a $100-a-head fund-raiser in Buckhead — and thus closed to the press. Which means we had to do some footwork and catch hold of Reed’s headliner, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, when he was in town last week.
“Ralph’s an old friend of mine. When I was chairman of the [national GOP] and he was executive director of the Christian Coalition, he was a great ally,” said Barbour, in town to hawk the rebirth of his state to developers.
“Ralph’s word was always good. One of the things I always admired about Ralph — if Ralph agreed to do something, and then found out later he couldn’t do it, he’d pick up the phone and call you,” the Mississippi governor said. “He’d say, ‘My people won’t go along with what I thought we could get done.’ “
Barbour is Reed’s best-case scenario: A successful Washington insider and lobbyist — his clients were Delta, Lockheed, Big Tobacco and more — who kept clear of the sleaze and transmogrified himself into a successful politician.
Barbour’s congressional and White House contacts proved essential in the months following Katrina — a point that Reed is likely to emphasize today.
In this particular visit to Georgia, Barbour may be threading an interesting needle. Ten days ago, at the Southern Republican Leadership Council in Memphis, Barbour singled out for praise Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — he of presidential ambition.
“He really helped us on the Katrina aid package, which I’m grateful for,” Barbour said.
McCain’s Indian Affairs committee, of course, has unearthed some of the most damaging evidence linking Reed to that fallen Washington angel, Jack Abramoff.
More than that, when it comes to economic development, Barbour is an unabashed supporter of Mississippi’s gambling industry. Still, in Memphis recently, the governor also heaped praise on evangelicals.
“Faith-based groups have been the backbone of our recovery,” Barbour said.
Crosstabs at high noon: On the count of three, gentlemen. And please don?t let your shots wander outside the margin of error
A serious skirmish may be breaking out between two Republican pollsters in Georgia. In a posting on his Insider Advantage Web site, former GOP lawmaker Matt Towery wrote the following:
“To the pollster who seems to release polls on virtually everything … we’ve figured out you have neither the resources nor the finances to poll so many races in the South.”
Towery refused to say who he was talking about, but the description only fits Strategic Vision, a firm that issues regular thermometer readings in Georgia and elsewhere.
“If it’s directed at us, it’s very humorous,” said David Johnson, CEO of Strategic Vision. Johnson said he thought the comments could be traced to the fact that the two pollsters are bumping heads in Florida.
Johnson also said he’d be happy to share cross tabs and his methodology with us.
Popeyes just put the boxes back under the lamp, and went about its business.
Last week, Republicans kindly scheduled “Crossover Day” for the same day as the Democrats’ annual Jefferson-Jackson Day fund-raiser. State Democratic Party chairman Bobby Kahn said Republicans may have done the loyal opposition a favor.
“We saved about $10,000 on chicken dinners,” he said. For the curious, the cheapest dinners at these banquets — all that Democrats can afford these days — run to $35 a plate.
Why U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) is struggling for campaign contributions: It’s well known that rich people make the worst tippers
In Washington, The Hill newspaper recently reported that Georgia’s 6th congressional district — north DeKalb, east Cobb, north Fulton and Cherokee counties — is one of the 10 wealthiest in the nation.
It ranks No. 4.
Another tidbit: Last week, business in the U.S. House ground to a halt when it was discovered that a blown fuse had trapped 11 members of Congress in a single elevator. Among them were U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Sharpsburg, who is being called a hero for his faithful application of stick deodorant.
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Jim Galloway
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jim Galloway, 47, has been with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for 23 years, and is an unrepentant child of the suburbs.
He played Little League ball (badly) on what is now the fourth runway at Hartsfield International Airport.
Galloway has witnessed all kinds of political contests, from commission to presidential. But the meanest, nastiest, most low-down he’s seen was a race for the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention.
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Tom Baxter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tom Baxter has been a reporter, Sunday perspective editor and national editor at the AJC. Since 1987, he has written about politics in Georgia, the South and the nation.
He and his wife, Liliane, have raised three children and have two grandsons. They live in Atlanta.
He attended Hank Williams’ funeral when he was 3 years old and is believed to be the only political analyst in the country to have sampled Tom Murphy’s voice in a rap song.
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