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Monday, April 3, 2006
Reed’s four are also Stephens’ four
So Bill Stephens walks up to Ralph Reed and asks, 'Are you using live bait? Crickets, maybe?'
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Something interesting happened on Monday.
Several people lent their names to state Sen. Bill Stephen’s Republican campaign for secretary of state. The names listed by his campaign included U.S. Reps. Charlie Norwood of Augusta and Nathan Deal of Gainvesville. But also included were U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, Georgia Christian Coalition Chairman Sadie Fields, and south Georgia activists Kay Godwin and Pat Tippett.
It’s that latter group that merits comment. All four are also big supporters of Ralph Reed, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. They’re not just representative of the Christian Right. Westmoreland is making inroads among hard-core economic conservatives in the GOP.
No one’s suggesting that Stephens and Reed are running in tandem. Tactically, that would be unusual, if not pretty darned dumb. (This judgment applies whether the candidates are Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative.)
However, it’s clear that both men are fishing in the same pool of voters — which means their futures could be tied together, despite any absence of strategery. Dispirited supporters in one camp could weigh down the other. Likewise, if one campaign catches fire, the other is likely to benefit.
What this also could mean is that the dual wings of the Republican party could have yet another reason to go at each other this July. Stephens’ opponent in the GOP primary is Karen Handel, the chairman of the Fulton County Commission. She’s also a former aide to Gov. Sonny Perdue.
And we all know how well Perdue and Westmoreland got along when they were under the same roof.
Cagle sets the bar at $100K. Reed’s answer to come by Friday or so.
The other news on Monday was the claim by Casey Cagle, the other GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, that he’d raised $100,000 in a single day last week. Spontaneously. It happens all the time in Georgia neighborhoods. Checks just drop from the sky.
Under the schedule for campaign finance disclosures, March 31 was the deadline for the period. It was also the day after the close of the Legislature, which set Cagle’s finance operation free. Reed has had three unchallenged months to beat up on Cagle with the checkbook crowd.
Reed’s returns, and Karen Handel’s in the GOP race for secretary of state, will be items of high curiousity on Friday, the approximate date they should trickle in.
Gainesville: The focus of an American nation
The dilemma of immigration, through the eyes of a city dedicated to chickens and their innards.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s always interesting to see what outsiders think of us. The Washington Post on Monday published a profile of Gainesville, Ga., and the argument over immigration. It included this bit:
“Reality speaks and it says that, absent Hispanic workers, we could not process chicken,” said Tom Hensley, chief financial officer for Gainesville’s largest chicken plant, Fieldale Farms. “There aren’t enough native American people who want to work in a chicken plant at any wage. We’d be put out of business.”
Read the entire piece here.
