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Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Pass the smelling salts: O’Neal gives Capitol press corps the vapors
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Rep. Larry O’Neal of Warner Robins took to the well late Tuesday. It was the first address by the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee since a particular situation erupted last summer.
“I’ll tell you right up front, it is a retroactive tax bill,” O’Neal said — loudly, for the deaf and sleeping members in the back. “In case you didn’t hear me, it is a ret-ro-ac-tive tax bill.”
Interesting word, retroactive. O’Neal used it perhaps a dozen times in a few short minutes, to describe his omnibus tax bill — an annual attempt to incorporate changes in the federal tax code into Georgia’s tax law.
“What effect does this bill have? Is it retroactive?” asked House Speaker Glenn Richardson of Hiram.
“It is a retroactive tax bill, Mr. Speaker.”
“We can actually do that?”
“We’re gonna see,” O’Neal said.
Two years ago, there was another omnibus tax bill. It passed the House with no problem. The measure contained a change to allow residents who sell property in Georgia, then use the proceeds to buy land out-of-state, to defer paying a capital gains tax. Good news for taxpayers.
While on the Senate side, the bill was made even better. Reportedly at O’Neal’s behest, lawmakers approved a last-minute modification. The bill was made ret-ro-ac-tive to 2004.
This small adjustment allowed one of O’Neal’s friends and business associates, Gov. Sonny Perdue, to claim a $100,000 tax deferral on $2 million land purchase in Florida, made in 2004.
The transaction was much talked about during last year’s campaign for governor. An ethics complaint was lodged against O’Neal, but was dismissed recently by a panel of three GOP colleagues — because the incident was older than the ethics legislation that might have covered it.
The attention, and the suggestion that he might have helped a client/friend in a position of power, has made O’Neal angry. In ret-ro-spect, other people are probably angry, too.
In the well on Tuesday, O’Neal asked fellow House members to search for the package of papers before them.
“You have on your desk a fiscal analysis prepared by Georgia State….I caution you to read it carefully before you vote on this legislation,” he said.
“I can tell you from past and current experience that if a close friend, family member, even your momma might benefit from these provisions, you’re likely to be criticized in your next campaign,” O’Neal said. “And written about in the Salem Constitution and Journal, in the witch-hunt section, where the truth never gets in the way of a good story.”
It was a disappointing comment. We are, as most of you know, the Journal-Constitution.
No virtual hat in this ring
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was intriguing to see Mindspring founder Charles Brewer’s name on a list of potential Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate in ‘08.
But we’ve since been assured, both by his office and Democratic fund-raising sources, that — at least in Brewer’s case — the list is only a wish.
We’re told the dot.com millionaire has three young children, a new business and no interest in politics. At this time, of course.
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About those other Oscars: Hunstein ad gets a Pollie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Back in October, during the snooze of a contest for governor, Georgia voters were awakened by a nuclear blast from the race for state Supreme Court.
Incumbent Justice Carol Hunstein drove challenger Mike Wiggins into the ground with a 30-second TV spot that highlighted a custody fight he’d had with his sister, over their ailing mother.
For those of you who’ve forgotten the details, click here.
The ad was the work of Allan B. Crow & Associates, a Democratic media firm based in Atlanta. And while you were obsessed with the Oscars on the Left Coast this weekend, Crow’s firm picked up two Golden Pollies in Miami from the American Association of Political Consultants.
These are the Oscars of politics, and one was for the Hunstein ad.
The challenge to Hunstein by a candidate backed by an extensive, national Chamber of Commerce network had its predecessors including a supreme court race in West Virginia, in which the incumbent was raked over coals. He lost.
“”The campaign made the determination early on that the second [her opponent] started doing that, they would fight back,” Crow said. “In a down-ballot race, you have to worry about getting noticed. When you put an ad up for a down-ballot race, it needs to be memorable.”
It was.
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Bloggers’ deep fear: Political campaigns will infiltrate their sites
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bloggers thrive on their sense of authenticity. Unlike the MSM, so the theory goes, they present the truth unvarnished and untouched by corporate hands.
That is, unless some savvy campaign publicist figures out that blogs, like every other medium, can be manipulated for his — or his candidate’s — ends.
In a Boston Globe article published last week, our own Erick Erickson of Macon — star of peachpundit.com and redstate.com — served as the lead example on the topic:
Erick Erickson has been running the popular blog Redstate.com long enough to know what his readers’ postings sound like: red-meat conservative rhetoric served up with a little dash of populist anger.
So when postings from an unknown writer on the site showed up praising Senator John McCain — one of the site’s least-popular Republicans for his deviations from hard-core conservative orthodoxy — Erickson thought he smelled a rat.
Or maybe a sock puppet, shill, or a troll — Web slang for bloggers who pretend to be grass-roots political commentators but instead are paid public relations agents.
The author of the pro-McCain articles on Redstate.com, Erickson determined after a Google search, was a Michigan political operative whose firm worked for McCain’s political action committee.
With big corporations now hiring public relations firms to pay fake bloggers to plant favorable opinions of the businesses online, many political bloggers are concerned that candidates, too, will hire people to pretend to be grass-roots citizens expressing views.
“This is going to happen more and more, and blogs are going to have to be vigilant,” Erickson said in an interview. “I expect there will be commenters jumping in and trying to build negative campaigns to cause scandal for the other side. That’s my fear.”
Read the rest of the article here
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Kemp throws hat in ring, again
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As expected, former state Sen. Brian Kemp has formed a campaign committee to run for the seat being vacated by state Sen. Ralph Hudgens, who’s running for the late Rep. Charlie Norwood’s congressional seat.
The Athens Republican also released a revised list of endorsers that includes what looks like every Republican in the Senate, including Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, as well as PSC member Bobby Baker, four House members and a slew of sheriffs, county officials and mayors.
As you’ll recall, Kemp left the Senate to make an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for agriculture commissioner last year. But you can’t keep ‘em down on the farm, once they’ve been to the Golden Dome.
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