Home > Political Insider > Archives > 2007 > February
February 2007
The Legislature takes a breather, to see if Sonny can pin Uncle Sam
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After today, the slowest-moving Legislature in years. Will. Get. Much. Slower.
The State Capitol will stand nearly empty for two weeks. Some committees will soldier on, but for the most part lawmakers will flee for home, to re-introduce themselves to the spouse and kids.
Already, this session has earned a reputation for lethargy — not necessarily a bad thing if you don’t like strangers peering into your bedroom or your wallet.
As of Wednesday, the 26th day of a 40-day gathering, the House had experienced only two full-fledged debates — one over gun legislation, and a second over a retirement fund investment bill.
The action in the Senate has been only slightly more exciting.
The main reason for the torpidity — as well as the recess until mid-March — can be laid at the feet of PeachCare, and Gov. Sonny Perdue’s wrestling match with the U.S. government.
Georgia’s health insurance program for 273,000 children of the working poor, in large part funded by the federal government, has a $131 million hole in it. Several other states are in the same situation.
Washington has vowed to fix it, but hasn’t said exactly how or when.
Both are important questions to a state that demands the Legislature approve a balanced budget each year. Without immediate cash from Congress, Georgia has a choice of filling the gap itself — which would have profound implications elsewhere in the budget — or subjecting a popular social program to severe cutbacks.
“I certainly can understand why the Legislature would want to wait until we have some certainty in our budget picture,” said Perdue spokesman Dan McLagan. “And hopefully that certainty will be forthcoming from Washington very soon.”
But it wasn’t really the Legislature’s decision. Coach Perdue is calling the plays on this one. He’s been to D.C. twice to urge feds — from President Bush on down — to come up with the cash.
Perdue thinks it bad policy to allow Washington to walk away from its obligations. He laid out his position to members of the state’s congressional delegation at a meeting at the Governor’s Mansion last week.
There are Republicans who question, rather quietly, the chances that a stare-down with Congress is likely to bear fruit.
Last week, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss visited the Capitol, and in a speech to the state Senate, gently suggested the Legislature begin to consider some stop-gap funding.
The senior senator’s next stop was with the governor, who had seen the remarks on closed-circuit TV. Chambliss was informed the meeting had been canceled — to allow Perdue time to cool off, we’re told.
“The governor has been very specific, that he wants to work closely with Congress, to try and leverage those funds to come in. And he’s asked for that time to do it. As a result we’re still holding,” Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said Wednesday.
Asked if he agreed with the tactic, Cagle replied, “That’s not my strategy. That’s the governor’s strategy.” But the lieutenant governor is willing to let Perdue play the hand out.
Word is that Congress has selected an emergency defense spending bill as the vehicle to also carry extra cash for the children’s health insurance program. Debate isn’t scheduled to start until mid-March.
That’s about when the Legislature is scheduled to reassemble.
So when 236 lawmakers come back, the PeachCare problem in all likelihood will be unchanged, and tough decisions will have to be made.
House Speaker Glenn Richardson has said he’s in favor of shrinking the number of kids that PeachCare covers by 30,000.
On Wednesday, Cagle strongly implied that he doesn’t want to see any children dropped from PeachCare rolls.
“If Washington does not act, we do have to act. I think we can reduce the deficits significantly. The House is in the posture of reducing eligibility. That issue is still out there and there is not a clear concensus,” he said.
In other words, a dull session could still have stirring finish.
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A fight over intellectual property in the Legislature. Not at all like a brace of vegetarians arguing over a piece of steak
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There’s a new front in the war over whether the University of Georgia Research Foundation, which controls that insitution’s intellectual property, can sell licenses for brands of turf its created.
H.B. 606 would rip away from Georgia’s universities the power to grant licenses from discoveries made in their laboratories, and give it to a new State Intellectual Properties Board.
This measure is said to have legs. With millions, perhaps billions, of dollars at stake, look for a big, big fight.
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A developing resistance to the cervical cancer vaccine
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville) is picking up heat from the right for S.B. 155, a bill to require girls in Georgia who are entering the sixth grade to be vaccinated against human papillomavirus, or HPV.
The vaccine is intended to prevent cervical cancer and genital warts.
U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey has come out against mandates for the vaccine. WSB radio talk show host Neal Boortz dwelt on the topic this morning, condemning the bill as unnecessary government intrusion.
Balfour said he had few doubts that the bill would get a floor vote — seeing that, as chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, he controls the flow of bills. But he acknowledge ideological resistance within his party.
“If I get half of Republicans I’ll be doing a good job,” Balfour said. With Democratic support, S.B. 155 could pass.
Conservative objections might cause the bill some trouble in the House, but again, Balfour will hold the future of much House legislation in his hands. No one thought the fireworks bill had a chance last year, either.
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An SV poll on ‘08, Bush, Sunday booze, and Genarlow Wilson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Another Strategic Vision poll is out, and again Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are the leaders in the ’08 race for president in Georgia — but Barack Obama has made great gains on the Democratic side.
In the same survey, President Bush has a 46 percent overall disapproval rating in Georgia — which rises to 50 percent when it comes to Iraq. That is stunning.
On the alcohol front, 53 percent favor the sale of beer and wine on Sunday.
And 42 percent favored a bill to permit a judge to adjust the 10-year sentence given to Genarlow Wilson, a Douglas County teenager, for consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old. A third of voters said no, and 23 percent were undecided.
The poll parameters: Conducted Feb. 23-25, of likely voters, with a 3 percent margin of error. And keep in mind that SV is a Republican-leaning public affairs firm. Georgia Digest has the entire Strategic Vision release here.
The numbers among Republicans: Giuliani at 28 percent; John McCain at 21 percent; Newt Gingrich at 14 percent; Mitt Romney at 8 percent; Tom Tancredo at 4 percent; Mike Huckabee at 3 percent; Sam Brownback, 2 percent; Chuck Hagel, Jim Gilmore, Duncan Hunter, all at 1 percent.
That leaves 16 percent undecided — one year out.
Among Democrats: Clinton, 28 percent; Barack Obama; 25 percent; John Edwards, 18 percent; Wesley Clark, 5 percent; Joe Biden, 3 percent; Bill Richardson, 2 percent; Chris Dodd and Dennis Kucinich, 1 percent.
And 17 percent undecided.
On Iraq: While Georgia voters disapproved of Bush’s handling of Iraq, they’re not ready to side with Democrats. A firm 58 percent said Democrats in Congress had no better plan to resolve the occupation.
And 53 percent said they would oppose cutting off funding to send additional troops into the Middle East.
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Blogwatch: Andre and Georgia Politics Unfiltered is back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For a time, Andre the Blogger was one of the more prolific commentators to pop up on Atlanta’s political blog scene. He disappeared in mid-January, for still-unexplained reasons.
Regardless, he’s now back with Georgia Politics Unfiltered.
Current topics include the need for Democrats to rally around Terry Holley in the 10th District congressional race, and the establishment of one his new web sites, Georgians for Hillary.
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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.
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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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Perhaps a new name in the ‘08 race for U.S. Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Over the weekend, a group of Atlanta fans of the DailyKos put up a notice that they would be forming a local chapter, with the mission of chasing after U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the Georgia Republican.
That’s not news.
The juicy item was the survey included in the solicitation, naming seven potential Democrats who might make decent candidates in the ‘08 Senate race.
Most of the names you’ve heard before: Attorney General Thurbert Baker, Columbus attorney Jim Butler, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon, Atlanta attorney Jim Martin; and state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond.
Maybe we’ve been under a rock, but the seventh name was new to us: Charles Brewer, the “former Mindspring.com founder and CEO, now an eco-friendly Atlanta real estate developer.”
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A college presidency for Cathy Cox?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dick Pettys and InsiderAdvantage are reporting that former secretary of state Cathy Cox is on a short list of finalists to become the next president of Young Harris College up in north Georgia.
At least through the evening, we’ll have to let Matt Towery’s organization carry the load on this one. We’ve no info to add.
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A taste of Ralph Reed speaking about Rudy G.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Down below, we mentioned this weekend’s New York Times Magazine piece on Sam Nunn. Here’s another telling paragraph — but this one comes from New York Magazine, a different publication. The article is a profile of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. The context is the work he did in 2006 for Republican candidates across the country:
Everywhere [Giuliani] went, he played the 9/11 card, dismissing the Democrats as squishy on terror. More often than not, it worked. “Ask anyone, and they will tell you that their Giuliani event raised the most money,” says Ralph Reed. (Last year, Giuliani campaigned for the former director of the Christian Coalition during his unsuccessful, scandal-marred run for Georgia lieutenant governor.) “People don’t forget that.”
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Clinton and Giuliani lead South, says poll — but take it with a grain of salt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A new poll of five Southeastern states, including Georgia, gives an early edge to Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 race for the White House.
The poll was conducted Feb. 18-22 by Elon University of North Carolina. Note that it has one of the loosest screens imaginable.
The 719 residents surveyed were drawn from the general population of Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, and Virginia. This survey wasn’t about more decerning, likely voters.
When results were divided by party, the Democratic portion of the poll had a margin of error of 5.75 percent, and the Republican sub-sample had a 6.65 margin of error.
The Democratic line-up was as follows: Clinton, 30 percent; Barack Obama, 14 percent; and John Edwards, 8 percent. The rest were undecided or didn’t know.
Among Republicans: Giuliani, 21 percent; John McCain 16 percent; and Mitt Romney, 3 percent. The rest were undecided or didn’t know.
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For some reason, Bridges decides to give evolution bill a rest this session
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For the first time in 11 years, state Rep. Ben Bridges (R-Cleveland) won’t introduce a bill to hinder the teaching of evolution in Georgia, according to last week’s White County News.
You’ll remember the memo that jumped up in state legislatures across the country, the one that declared evolution to have religious roots in Jewish mysticism.
It also sent readers to a web site that says, contrary to Copernicus, Galileo and NASA, the earth doesn’t revolve around the sun.
Bridges’ name was at the top of that memo, though the north Georgia lawmaker says he never saw it, or read it. An acquaintance apparently was the author.
Friends like that are quite common. They tell your girlfriend she’s fat, or declare the theory of relativity to be a kabbalistic fraud, then leave it to an embarrassed you to explain what they really meant.
Anyway, Bridges has blamed people like us for the hoopla. “This thing got blowed out of proportion,” he told the newspaper. “I ain’t guilty of anything. I regret the media made what they made out of it.”
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This is no election. It’s a coronation.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Long-time GOP activist Sue Everhart of Cobb County has picked up yet another endorsement for chairmanship of the state Republican party — this one from Jim Beck, president of the Georgia Christian Coalition.
Beck, who once worked for Pierre Howard, the Democratic lieutenant governor, wanted to be sure no one thought him partisan. I would have considering to an endorsement in the Democratic chair race — but I was not asked,” he said late last week.
Everhart has already received a personal endorsement from Sadie Fields, chairman of the Georgia Christian Alliance. State Sen. David Shafer of Gwinnett County, who lost a GOP chairmanship race to Ralph Reed in 2001, also endorsed Everhart last week.
The only other announced candidate in the race is Anthony-Scott Hobbs, the current chairman of the Cobb County GOP. The next Georgia chairman will be selected by delegates to the statewide convention in mid-May. The delegate selection process began over the weekend.
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Dear Calvin Smyre: Wish you were here
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) checked out of his hospital bed and is now recuperating at home after back surgery. The 32-year veteran of the General Assembly is the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
Mail complaints about his absence to 1103 Glenwood Road, Columbus, Ga. 31906. Smyre’s e-mail address is calvinsmyre@synovus.com.
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What keeps Sam Nunn awake at night
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For those of you not into the Oscars tonight, the New York Times Magazine published an excellent piece this weekend on Sam Nunn and his worries about the spread of nuclear weapons.
For local historians, one of the best tidbits concerned the negotiations between Nunn and Ted Turner, the media mogul whose donation of $250 million in stock allowed the Nuclear Threat Initiative to open. A small taste:
Turner considered establishing an organization to revive the dormant nuclear-disarmament movement. But foreign-policy specialists he met with persuaded him to focus on more realistic, incremental change.
A mutual friend connected Turner with Nunn, who was then practicing law at an Atlanta firm.
According to one person familiar with N.T.I.’s founding, who does not want to be named because he works with N.T.I. and does not have permission to speak on its behalf, “There was this very prolonged dance where people were trying to come up with ideas that were exciting enough for Turner but sensible enough for Nunn,” who was uncomfortable with Turner’s passion for disarmament, a movement Nunn had long considered irresponsible.
Nunn and Turner found common ground, however, in a narrower mission: responding to the threat of “loose nukes,” or the possibility that nuclear weapons and materials might be smuggled out of the former Soviet Union and find their way into malevolent hands.
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Eminent domain and the high cost of gasoline
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For two years, Republicans at the state Capitol have tortured themselves over eminent domain, the seizure of private property for the greater good.
GOP lawmakers and a GOP governor have dared the world and its courts to chisel away at individual rights in Georgia.
They’re about to tackle the topic again. But this time, the outcome is likely to be different. Senate Bill 173 pits the sacrament of land against your right to cheap gasoline for your cars, diesel for your tractors, and fuel for your jets.
In the past, outrage over eminent domain has been driven by government seizure of real estate for purposes of economic development. But in a sense, this has been something of a straw man.
Utilities, not the evil gummint, are the most common employers of eminent domain, in this state and elsewhere. And in Georgia, utilities generally get what they want - unless they screw up in horrible, horrible fashion.
Which reminds us of the story of Colonial Pipeline Co. It operates a dual set of underground pipes that stretch from Louisiana through Georgia and clear up to the New York City harbor, providing this side of the United States with all sorts of liquid petroleum products.
Back in the mid-1990s, the company hit an astounding stretch of bad luck. The federal government declared Colonial’s leaky pipes a hazard. Colonial pipes flooded the well water of a Bibb County pecan farmer with fuel. He turned out to be an influential state lawmaker.
And the company tried to muscle a new pipeline through the pristine plantations of some very, very wealthy landowners in south Georgia. These were the kind of people who could motivate then-Gov. Zell Miller to sign legislation in 1995 that subjected petroleum pipelines to a permitting system.
Before using eminent domain to expand, pipeline companies now are required to get approval from the state Department of Transportation and the state Environmental Protection Division.
But times change. Things happen, like Hurricane Katrina, the occupation of Iraq, and a near-nuclear Iran.
Five new refineries in Louisiana are set for completion in 2010. Colonial says it needs to construct a third, 500-mile pipeline stretching from Baton Rouge to holding tanks in Cobb County, to keep up with the demand. At an estimated cost of $1 billion.
S.B. 173, sponsored by Ross Tolleson (R-Perry), passed out of a Senate committee last week. Delta Air Lines, whose name is magic around the Capitol these days, spoke in favor of it. The added pipeline is specifically named in Gov. Sonny Perdue’s energy program.
The bill would strip away the requirements for DOT and EPD permits - for Colonial and one other petroleum pipeline company in Georgia. No other utility is subject to them, argued Colonial spokesman Sam Whitehead. (Sarcastic tree-huggers no doubt would point out that electricity and natural gas rarely leave oil slicks in groundwater.)
The permits cost time and money. “Our best estimate is that if everything went well, it would take eight to 12 months,” Whitehead said. But that’s only a guess. Though the legislation has been on the books for a dozen years, no company has actually gone through the process. Ever.
The bill would also let Colonial to relocate portions of its third line within a two-mile swath - one mile on each side of its current route - to avoid environmentally sensitive land, historic sites, and crowds.
“Oh, my God, that just might include anything,” said Robert Ray. He was the state House member with the pecan farm. A conservative Democrat, he retired from the Legislature last year. “I just can’t believe the new Republican Legislature is opening up these situations that were partially resolved,” he said.
Whitehead, the Colonial spokesman, said his company has changed with the times, and is more sensitive about deploying surveyors onto property it does not own. “Certainly, in these ensuing 11 years, we do these purchase of easements completely differently than was done at the time,” he said.
Republicans are handling S.B. 173 very carefully. So carefully that they’ve included two Democrats among the four top signatures, the better to spread the blame if things go wrong. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle issued a statement on Friday acknowledging the balancing act that must be struck.
Cheap gas is a must. As is fuel for crop harvests. “However, he recognizes that private property rights are paramount,” said Cagle spokeswoman Jaillene Hunter.
Colonial recognizes GOP discomfort with the issue. “We understand it’s a sensitive issue, and we would prefer not to be doing this,” Whitehead said. “But it’s a matter of needing to expand the capacity for petroleum products into not just Atlanta, but the entire state of Georgia.”
If you still have any doubt about the ultimate fortunes of S.B. 173, remember one thing: You live in a state that, 18 months ago, shut down nearly every school in the state to make sure farmers had enough diesel to gather up their peanuts.
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And you thought talk of an early Georgia primary would have no impact
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Any doubt that Iowa would be in play was removed this afternoon, as that state’s former governor, Tom Vilsack, withdrew from the Democratic race for president. This according to the Washington Post.
Vilsack’s problem was financial. “This process has become to a great extent about money — a lot of money,” he said. “And it is clear to me that we would not be able to continue to raise money in the amounts necessary to sustain not just a campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire, but a campaign across this country.”
In other words, this move by all the other states, now including Georgia, to move their primaries into early February 2008 has put incredible pressure on shoestring presidential campaigns.
The era established by Jimmy Carter in Iowa in 1976 — in which a handful of fervent supporters, a bit of cash, and early luck could put a nobody governor into the White House — may indeed be over.
Marshall on his Iraq vote: He splits the difference
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Macon) was one of the few Democrats to vote against the House resolution that was critical of President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq.
He told the Moultrie Observer this week that he’d gotten mixed responses on his vote:
“Yeah, people will send me e-mail saying that’s it, they’re cutting me off, they’re not going to vote for me. Then I get contrary e-mails thanking me very much for my vote, saying it must have taken a lot of courage to do it.
“My response to both is that I’m just trying to do what’s right as I see it,” Marshall said.
“We’re going to continue to have debates with regard to the way forward in Iraq. My guess is there will continue to be substantial controversy, so this story is not going away.”
An explanation of how Genarlow Wilson landed a 10-year sentence
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Early this week, in the midst of the debate over Genarlow Wilson, former state lawmaker and current pundit Matt Towery said that the law that put the teenager behind bars for 10 years for oral sex with a 15-year-old had a “phenomenally disastrous” flaw.
This was news, because Towery was the sponsor of the bill. The publisher of InsiderAdvantage.com posted a long explanation of how and why his Child Protection Act of 1995 failed to include a safety valve for teenagers of like age with raging hormones. We offer it below, with permission, in its entirety:
(2/21/07) Yesterday I arose and, half awake, read the first few paragraphs of a story related to a longstanding nightmare which I inadvertently helped create.
Because I have been in negotiations on a television project and have been polling several critical issues in several states, I had not read Sen. Eric Johnson’s comments on Senate Bill 37 nor had I realized that the issue was once again a source of trouble.
I certainly didn’t realize that it had been a subject this week of Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor or CNN.
For the first time in 10 years, instead of sitting in a studio providing analysis and reporting the news, I was instead making it.
I did so only after years of writing columns, talking to influential legislators, and continually asking to find a way to help correct a phenomenally disastrous result coming from a bill which I sponsored in the Georgia legislature in 1995.
From the start let me say that my comments were not directed at Sen. Johnson. Eric is one of the finest public servants I have ever known and has been my personal friend since 1980.
He has every right to hold his own view on this issue and some of his arguments are meritorious. But as I told the reporters present, the real story of “aggravated child molestation” and the punishment for statutory rape in Georgia had to be told.
I did not call Eric before my press conference because I intended to, and did, make it clear that the issue was not Eric Johnson. I did call him immediately afterwards, as his comments were raised by the reporters. Eric was, as usual, the gracious and mature leader he has always been.
So let’s move this story off of my friend Eric Johnson to where it should be—what Paul Harvey called “The Rest of the Story”
It was December of 1994. As chairman of Newt Gingrich’s campaign I was basking in the afterglow of his election as U.S. House Speaker and preparing for the next Georgia legislative session.
I really had it made in the sense that although I was a Republican, I had known Democratic Gov. Zell Miller since I was 10 years old, had a close personal friendship with Democratic Georgia House Speaker Tom Murphy and his family, and had a great relationship with the man who beat me for lieutenant governor (and would later be my business partner), Democrat Pierre Howard.
I say this to explain how a Republican could possibly have passed such a sweeping bill in the days of Democratic domination of the Gold Dome.
That December I saw a news report in which a child had been terribly abused but the laws in Georgia were too weak to properly punish the person responsible.
That led to my introduction of The Child Protection Act of 1995. As introduced, it did create mandatory ten year sentences for those who did certain unimaginable things to children—but it did not raise Georgia’ age of consent laws.
The bill sailed out of the House in a matter of days and landed in the Senate. At that time there existed a bill in [the] Senate Judiciary [Committee] which raised the age of consent from 14 to 16 years of age. The problem was that the House would never accept the bill without using my bill as what we call a “vehicle” to get the age of consent bill to the House.
The chairperson of Senate Judiciary basically made it clear that if I wanted my bill to move, I would allow the committee to add the age of consent to the bill. I agreed. That’s where the disaster started.
No one would budge on the seemingly dangerous fact that kids or young adults - prone to break the age of consent laws from time to time - could easily face the mandatory 10-year sentence and be classified as having committed “aggravated child molestation,” although this clearly was not my intent.
Here’s a good example: A young man aged 17 having sex with a girl, say, two days before her 15th birthday would have been in deep trouble under this bill.
But ironically, since sodomy in Georgia includes oral sex, had the boy engaged in “sodomy” he would have qualified for the status of “aggravated child molestation” and faced 10 years—whereas had he engaged in intercourse, and intercourse alone, the penalty could have been less.
Now, anyone who has been through the legislative process with a major bill knows that we often fool ourselves into believing that the arguments against the bill are covered in the language. Does anyone really think that Pierre Howard or I, or most sane people would have wanted such draconian measures?
In the redrafting, our concerns were allegedly met, but we were unable to get the proponents of the age of consent law to allow for a true “Romeo and Juliet” clause which would have said that if the two consenting partners were within, say, four years of age, then the charge would be a misdemeanor.
Fortunately, several years ago wise minds did insert that provision into this code section.
On the day of the final vote on the bill, Tom Murphy talked to me along with Larry Walker (then the Majority leader). Tom expressed his severe concerns that young people would end up in prison for long periods of time.
(Now understand that by this time my friendship with Murphy had become much closer than anyone at the Capitol knew. We ate together, I had come to spend a great deal of time with his family, and we often got together on holidays or during the summer. )
Tom did not want to rob me of having my chance to pass the bill. But he made it clear that he would fight me from the well.
We had a friendly but very vigorous floor fight. Larry Walker told me last night that he recalled Murphy’s concerns and that he and other leaders were worried as well, but as Larry put it “it was hard to vote against a bill called the Child Protection Act of 1995 and the bill had a lot of merit in many other ways.”
My bill passed by a fairly wide margin. Afterwards Murphy and I were headed out together to get something to eat, as I recall with Bill Lee (the longtime and very bright Rules Chairman) and Butch Benefield along with others.
As we left, Murphy put his arm around me and said something like, “Well, you beat me, but I sure hope little Matthew (my son who he loved and was then 7 years old) doesn’t ever get into trouble with this piece of (insert his favorite expletive)!”
It was then that Murphy and I agreed that if we found judges applying the bill harshly in such cases we would immediately go in together and change the law.
I write this mistake off to several things: the arrogance of a younger Matt Towery who knew he could pass legislation in a Democratic House where Republicans were of little consequence; the insistence by the House Judiciary Chair and the age of consent sponsor that the two pieces of legislation be “married up” with no changes allowed (they feared the House would strip the bill out so it came to the House floor as an up or down vote); and finally our naïve trust that somehow judges and prosecutors could read our minds as to legislative intent.
Do I blame the DA’s who followed this law? No way—we created it. Do I blame the judges who imposed 10-year sentences—no, if the circumstances met the threshold, they had to impose the mandatory 10 years.
I know that my press conference was presented as an attack on Eric Johnson. I regret that not because of any recriminations (he’s not that way) but because it hurt his feelings and put him on the defensive over a bill who’s history even Eric, one of the most senior and savvy legislators in the state, could not have known. No one knew this entire story. Not one soul.
So what do we do?
Well first let me say that I did not do what I did to impact any particular case. I have no idea if the young man in Douglas County was found guilty of any other crimes other than “aggravated child molestation” as a result of the bill I passed.
I know the tapes of their “sex party” are said to be disturbing and I hardly want to endorse that behavior. But ten years in jail?
I do know the jury was horrified when the sentence (which the Judge had no alternative to hand down) was announced. Even David McDade, a great DA who prosecuted the case said he offered far less to the young man because he knew 10 years was too long.
But had we not set the bar so high, might not the offer have been a year, or probation? Who knows?
What I do know is that well-to-do public and private schools have kids having sex outside of the current two-year window far more often than anyone might imagine.
Just this week I learned of a prominent school where a certain STD had broken out from sexual relations between ninth graders (some who could be fourteen) and 11th graders (some who could be 17). Could these youngsters be charged with “aggravated child molestation” and spend ten years in jail? You bet.
But instead the brunt of these cases have fallen to the disadvantaged and often African-American males. Whether that’s a demographic fluke or a difference in prosecutorial “interest,” or simply the result that many of these kids come from homes where there may be no father figure or the privileges and inability to be monitored by the family unit due to financial burdens, I don’t know.
As for the fix, compromise should be in the air. Whether or not it is wise to extend the “Romeo and Juliet” provisions of the bill out to four years is questionable.
But providing review by the courts of only those cases in which the 10-year sentence resulted from age of consent matters prior to the law being changed in the last few years—well that seem a no-brainer.
The arguments against it are that it would cost too much and clog up the court system. Well, that’s just absurd. We already have sentencing review boards that look at every case in Georgia—why couldn’t they isolate the relatively few cases where the earlier version of the law applied and turn them over to the courts for review of sentencing?
That sounds to me like a sound and reasonable compromise given the fact that even one young person in jail serving ten years or a negotiated plea with ten years as the threat to enter such a plea only for violation the age of consent conversion to “aggravated child molestation” is one person too many.
Georgia’s state motto includes “wisdom and moderation.” We may have lacked wisdom in trying to do something good in 1995. But we certainly can find both wisdom and moderation in 2007.
If nothing else, I owed it to Tom Murphy to speak out on this matter, as he is not in the position to be able to speak out on his own. As he went through the immediate aftermath of his second stroke, I sat with his son Mike and held Tom’s hand.
I knew that his life would be incredibly frustrating—such a brilliant mind trapped by the limits the stroke had placed upon him. I vowed to Mike Murphy, a Superior Court Judge of whom Speaker Murphy was so proud, that I would be his voice if ever one was needed.
So I write this not just as my explanation and plea that some reasonable solution be passed, but for Tom Murphy. After all, he was smart enough to know this day would come.
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.
Eric Johnson and Genarlow Wilson: The prequel
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Before Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson and radio talk show host Neal Boortz went at it over Genarlow Wilson this morning, there was the CNN piece.
It aired last Saturday. Johnson wrote a long defense of himself the next day, which became the heart of an AJC story written on Tuesday.
On today’s ajc.com, former lawmaker and current commentator Matt Towery said the law that put Wilson in prison was broken.
But back to Saturday. A Typical Joe has gone to the trouble of posting a partial transcript of the CNN piece. Here it is:
EDDIE BARKER, DOUGLASVILLE PROSECUTOR: From what we’ve seen on the videotape and heard from the victim ourself, we do not believe there was any physical force used.
[CNN CORRESPONDENT RICK] SANCHEZ: No physical force? Doesn’t matter. Nor does it matter that it was consensual sex between two teens. Ten years, mandatory, no way around it.
The law that ensnared Genarlow is so illogical that if he’d had intercourse with the 15-year-old instead of oral sex, his punishment would only have been a misdemeanor.
Back to the Georgia legislature, which recently changed the law but didn’t change Genarlow Wilson’s punishment. Why not?
State Senator Eric Johnson took the floor.
ERIC JOHNSON, GEORGIA STATE SENATOR: Mr. Wilson participated in multiple sexual acts with a minor while she was unconscious.
SANCHEZ: Wrong. The girl was not unconscious. The senator also said she was raped. That’s not even what the prosecutor thought.
So we called the senator and asked for an interview.
(on camera) Do you feel bad about the fact that you characterized this as a rape when you were talking yesterday in the Senate?
JOHNSON: No.
SANCHEZ: You don’t have any problem with that?
JOHNSON: No.
SANCHEZ: Because it wasn’t a rape.
JOHNSON: It’s a rape in my mind.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Here’s what it was in the minds of the jurors. We know; we talked to them.
MARIE MANIGAULT, JURY FOREPERSON: When we viewed the tape, there was absolutely nothing in there that showed us that he in any way encouraged this person, even invited the person to come.
SANCHEZ: So for now, the Georgia legislature has done nothing, leaving Genarlow Wilson behind these walls, hoping some day for justice.
Wonk alert: Study says the heavier the voter ID requirements, the lower the turnout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Rutgers University study, in cooperation with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, has turned up evidence that tighter voter identification rules indeed result in lower voter turnout, particularly among minorities.
Look for this to be brought into the Georgia debate, where the argument has focused on photo ID. Suits are pending in both federal and state courts, though the issue is dead in the Legislature this year.
The study also looked at the effects of other ID requirements. Download the entire (very thick) academic paper by clicking here.
But this is the nut of the report:
These effects translated into reduced probabilities of voting of about 3 to 4 percent for the entire sample, with large differences for specific subgroups.
For example, the predicted probability that Hispanics would vote in states that required non-photo identification was about 10 percentage points lower than in states where Hispanic voters gave their names.
The difference was about 6 percent for African-Americans and Asian-Americans, and about 2 percent for white voters (the gap widened to 3.7 percent for white voters when comparing photo identification to simply stating one’s name.
Georgia Senate condemns Iran, Syria: Surrender expected within days
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the instigation of state Sen. Judson Hill (R-Marietta), the state Senate today unanimously passed a resolution condemning Iran for its nuclear ambitions, as well as Syria for its disreputable acts in the Middle East.
So far as is known, no troops were committed in the process. Before its passage, state Sen. George Hooks (D-Americus) asked the most salient question of Hill: “Do you expect the ayatollah to fly directly to New York and surrender to the United Nations?”
Check out the audio here.
Boortz vs. Johnson on the imprisonment of Genarlow Wilson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s the rough audio on the confrontation between Neal Boortz and Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson on WSB radio this morning. Johnson handled himself well, and in fact had pushed Boortz into neutral by the end of the conversation.
See the beginnings and details of this in the post below.
Johnson agreed to go on — Boortz had taunted him as a “vile pig” and “candy ass” — but made it clear his cooperation came with a price. Boortz committed to some air time discussion next week of S.B. 10, Johnson’s bill that would permit school vouchers for disabled students.
Dear Eric Johnson: If your phones are ringing today….
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) is getting slammed this moment on the Neal Boortz show on WSB radio.
“Vile pig” and “candy ass” are some of the kinder phrases Boortz is using.
Johnson has come out in opposition of S.B. 37, a bill to adjust the state’s sexual offender law to address the sentence of Genarlow Wilson, the star football player from a Douglas County high school, who at age 17, had consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl.
A jury convicted him of aggravated child molestation, and a judge sentenced him to the maximum 10 years in prison. Wilson was one of six arrested after a night of partying.
“This was not two star-crossed lovers on a date,” wrote Johnson in an article this week. He noted that Wilson and other male partygoers videotaped their acts, and that the girl was “semi-conscious.”
This time next year, Georgia’s presidential primary could be over
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Republican leaders have introduced a bill to let Georgia join the stampede of states toward an early presidential primary in February next year.
The same bill would — just in time for a special congressional election in June — change election rules so that a candidate would only have to receive 45 percent of the vote to be declared the winner
H.B. 487 was introduced Tuesday by state Reps. Austin Scott (R-Tifton), Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island) and Berry Fleming (R-Harlem). Earlier this week, Fleming bowed out of the race to replace the late U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood of Augusta in Congress.
The bill would let Georgia move next year’s primary from March 4 to Feb. 5.
Arkansas, Delaware, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arizona and Utah are already planning primaries for Feb. 5. And California, New Jersey, Illinois are among other states looking at moving up to early February.
The Associated Press was the first to report on the bill. “We do not want Georgia left out of the process,” said Keen, the House majority leader. “We want Georgia to be in play.”
The portion of the legislation dealing with run-offs could have immediate impact. Gov. Sonny Perdue is to order a June 19 election to replace Norwood. The rare open seat is likely to attract several candidates — Republican state senators Ralph Hudgens of Comer and Jim Whitehead Evans of have already formally announced.
Blogwatch: Except for some paternity matters, a knock-out blow for U.S. Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a relatively dismal wrap-up of Democratic candidates in the ‘08 race for U.S. Senate in Georgia, Daily Kos plants this gem: Former heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield. Sayeth the blog:
Holyfield has given money to the Democrats before (and, according to newsmeat, only to the Democrats), would probably have the ability to self-fund (in addition to his boxing career he owns a record company, a piece of The Black Family Channel, and I’ve heard that he is co-owner of the Atlanta cable system).
But there might be one problem, the blog says.
Having said that, I believe Holyfield has been found to have had a large number of illegitimate children which would probably hurt him.
Possibly, but not if they’re registered to vote.
McCain and Chambliss: Talking about Iraq, separately but together
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saxby Chambliss and John McCain are both U.S. senators. Both are Republican, both intend to be on the ‘08 ballot, and both crossed paths at the state Capitol on Tuesday.
Each is tied closely to President Bush and the conduct of the war in Iraq. And when asked why things aren’t going well in Baghdad, each brought out his own whipping boy.
Put the two senators together — one running for president, and the other for re-election — and they exemplify the problem that Iraq presents for Republicans, even in a solidly, pro-military state like Georgia.
It’s difficult to defend oneself without striking a sitting, Republican president.
McCain began the public part of his day shortly after sunrise, with a brief address to the House GOP caucus. Among Republican candidates for president, the Arizona senator has been the strongest supporter of Bush policy in the Middle East, and the loudest voice for sending more troops to contain Shi’ite and Sunni bloodshed.
State lawmakers found themselves part of a conversation that began the day before in South Carolina, where McCain had called former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfield “one of the worst secretaries of defense in history.”
McCain repeated himself in Georgia. Rumsfield was responsible for doing too little, too late in the war zone, he said. According to those who heard the remarks, McCain said the fruits of Rumsfield’s policy were on display at Walter Reed military hospital in Washington.
“It’s well chronicled that the war was mismanaged,” McCain said afterwards in the hallway. “The president has stated that. We made many mistakes. You make mistakes in war.”
McCain toned down his remarks even more when he met his next group of reporters, outside Gov. Sonny Perdue’s office. “I am being critical of everybody including all of us who are responsible for mistakes that we’ve made in the war,” McCain said. “Including myself.”
At nearly the same time, Chambliss was in the middle of an address to the state Senate — usually an occasion for friendly banter and stale jokes. But not when the topic is Iraq.
“I don’t like what’s happening over there,” said Chambliss, who as a member of the Sen