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Thursday, February 22, 2007
When learning stick shift, finding first gear is always the hardest
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The good news, said state Democratic chairman Jane Kidd, is that May 17 has been picked as the day for the party’s annual fund-raiser, the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner.
Presidential candidate John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina, has confirmed his appearance. Other invitations are pending, Kidd said.
More good news: “We made the payroll this week,” she said.
The bad news: “But we can’t do it again.”
Kidd made her remarks this morning at a meeting of Georgia’s WIN List, a political action committee for Democratic women.
Afterwards, Kidd said much of her first month in the leadership position has been spent going to donors throughout the state, trying to patch up the once-mighty party’s finances. “I’m think I can almost get us a couple weeks more on what we came up with in Macon yesterday,” she said.
“Jefferson-Jackson has always been the event that brings in the budget,” Kidd said. Usually it’s held in February or March.
The party requires between $700,000 and $750,000 to keep its staff of 10 in rent money. That includes an executive director, who hasn’t been hired yet.
On another front, Kidd said the party intended to field a candidate for the 10th District congressional race in north Georgia. But that it would only be one candidate.
“It’s an opportunity to show who we are. It’s a different seat,” she said. “We’re going to have to behave like adults. It’s important for Democrats to have one qualified candidate. For the first time, we’re going to have to say no,” she said.
Republicans have already fielded two white, male conservative candidates. “We know what they look like,” Kidd said. “We’re looking for something different.”
What will the Democratic party be able to offer that candidate? “We’re not going to be able to provide money for the candidate. What we are going to provide is grass roots organization,” Kidd said.
Now that we’ve decided, let’s buckle up for Feb. 5
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The ink is not yet dry on the legislation - no, take that back. We don’t even know if the ink is on the legislation that would move Georgia’s presidential primary date back from March 4 to Feb. 5.
But when House Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter presented former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to the press before his big fundraiser Wednesday evening at 103 West, he spoke of the move as a done deal.
“We have decided here in Georgia that we are going to move our primary up,” Burkhalter said, moving lightly beyond the formalities of getting the date change approved by the House and Senate and signed by the governor. “Suddenly, Georgia has gotten a whole lot more important in the political world.”
Some might argue with the last point. Georgia has the option of staying where it is and voting with New York and Massachusetts, or moving up and voting with - in all likelihood - California, Florida, Texas, New Jersey and a bunch of other states on Feb. 5. Either way, it’s going to be hard to attract much attention from the candidates.
Romney said he was “delighted” the state would be moving up the calendar, “because I’m planning on doing very, very well here in Georgia.”
“I feel a particular kinship to the people here in Atlanta, and Georgia, because of your Olympic heritage,” said Romney, who was the Billy Payne of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
But wouldn’t there be some jeopardy for the bouyant former governor, we asked, in a huge early primary where name ID would count for so much?
As the crowd of influential Republicans standing behind him showed, Romney has been the standout in the inside game of Republican politics so far in this race. But former Mayor Rudy Giuliani still leads both Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain in polls in Georgia, and the nation as a whole. Feb. 5 - from this considerable distance - would seem to be made for him.
By next February, Romney replied, he’d be better known than he is today. And in the meantime he intends to continue a campaign of “getting to know people on a person to person basis.”
“We didn’t who Bill Clinton was - I wish we could have kept it that way - until pretty late in the process,” said Romney.
There were lots of people for him to get to know at the do Wednesday night — not only announced supporters like Reps. John Linder and Tom Price, and Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens, but uncommitted Republicans like U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson and state Sen. Chip Rogers, coming to take a look.
Romney’s very good at this style of retail politics. We’ll see how he does on Wholesale Day next February.
