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Sunday, April 2, 2006
Cherchez les femmes
Is it true that soccer moms are more frustrated by traffic than commuting dads, and is there power in that?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Legislature abandoned Atlanta last week. Hundreds of political candidates have been set loose to roam the landscape.
It’s no secret what comes next. A lot of skirt-chasing.
Private lives are private lives. We’re talking demographics. Both Democrats and Republicans are signaling that they believe women hold the key to victory in November.
State Rep. DuBose Porter of Dublin is the leader of 79 Democrats in the 180-member state House. The topic of conversation was his caucus’ strategy for preserving itself this election year. Of what he would reveal, more than half is devoted to womenfolk.
Democrats in the House were able to piece together a trio of victories this year, their first real wins as a minority. They softened a new program that subjects the homes of Medicaid nursing home patients to confiscation, after they die.
They defeated two proposed constitutional amendments proposed by Gov. Sonny Perdue: One to restrict state lottery funds used for the HOPE scholarship, and another to underline the legality of state contracts with religious groups that provide social services.
Both were unnecessary, they argued.
In an election year, acts of the Legislature aren’t just laws and resolutions that, upon a governor’s signature, bind the body politic. They are direct mail pieces. Bombs with postage stamps that land in tens of thousands of mailboxes two weeks before the vote.
For rallying against those two constitutional amendments, Perdue and his GOP will accuse Democrats of voting against “HOPE and faith.�
Porter knows this. His counterattack lies in a warehouse somewhere in Georgia, where Confederate enthusiasts tell him they have stored 300,000 signs saying “Sonny Lied.�
It’s not an outright alliance with the anachronistic, male-dominated, movement to restore the ’56 battle emblem to the state flag, whose members think Perdue reneged on promises made during his 2002 campaign.
Consider it a bit of jujitsu that a now-economically challenged political party must use to take advantage of a message that — regardless of what Democrats do — will be hammered into every other tree in rural Georgia.
So Democrats will attempt to take the flaggers’ message for men, and use it to discredit the governor on topics such as transportation and education — issues that resonate particularly among women.
Did you know, Porter asked, that polls show women are much more ticked off about metro Atlanta traffic than men? Men who work experience it only twice a day. Women toting children hither and yon, from appointment to appointment, are in it all day long.
Even in rural Georgia, the need to focus on women is obvious. Porter himself represents a district that, under the right circumstances, could go Republican.
But white women voters outnumber white male voters by 20 percent in his district. The number of black women voters is double that of black men. (In the Democratic primary, Porter leans toward Cathy Cox for governor. But common sense says that Mark Taylor’s strategy is similarly gender specific.)
Through their actions, Republicans admit that the Democratic emphasis on women is rightly placed. The most telling bit of news last week came from Perdue’s office. A spokeswoman for the governor said he would take his time deciding whether to sign a bill changing the formula for child support in Georgia.
State Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), sponsor of the measure, became a subject for demonization by the state’s army of divorced women.
Perhaps recognizing the governor’s November concerns, Ehrhart let it be known last Friday that the governor played a key role in eliminating the most controversial part of his bill.
That’s the bit that would have allowed many dads to reduce their child support payments, based on time spent with their children.
According to Republican lawmakers, the governor has no choice but to sign the bill — else Georgia won’t have any guidelines at all for making sure parents support their off-spring.
But get ready to meet Sonny Perdue, noble defender of the cast-aside spouse.
Can’t let this stay buried
We recommend sandy soil, and a bottle or two of Evian
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So there we were, in a hearing on a bill that would let owners of private cemeteries escape their scandal-plagued past and manage many of their own affairs.
A Republican lawmaker, very seriously, asked the head of a Georgia cemetery-owners group how deep they planted their clients. The General Assembly was examining a measure that mandated the burial of diseased chickens. The lawmaker needed advice.
The cemetery association guy, taken off-guard, cautiously explained that six-feet under is cultural fiction. No more than a line in a bad Western, the name of a defunct cable TV show, or a local restaurant.
In most cemeteries, the undead only have to claw through three to four feet of soil to escape.
To be fair, the cemetery guy is responsible only for the “three to four feet” part. The “undead” reference is pure speculation on our part. But we thought this was information you needed to know.
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