Home > Political Insider > Archives > 2007 > March > 20
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Gone at 11:54 p.m.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The House ended its longest day just before midnight. Last bill of substance was a bill to allow teachers in start-up charter schools to join the state teacher retirement system.
The sponsor, a newbie, was duly roasted.
Good night.
Payday lending fails with an 84-84 tie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s approaching midnight, and after an exhaustive debate in the state House, the bill to revive payday lending in Georgia failed on Tuesday in an exciting 84-84 tie that broke party lines.
Earl Ehrhart, chairman of the House Rules Committee, immediately announced he’d seek to revive the measure next week when the Legislature next gathers.
The debate ate up precious time on the longest day of a start-and-stop session, and saw both Republicans and Democrats doing the unexpected. Among the last to speak in favor of the bill was long-time community activist “Able” Mable Thomas.
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Counting sonogram votes: Three Republicans say ‘no,’ but 14 Democrats say ‘yes’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Christian conservatives were cheered on Monday by House passage of a bill to require women seeking an abortion to be offered a sonogram of the fetus.
H.B.147 had some of its rough edges smoothed out in the final version, but the 116-54 margin was still impressive. Even more impressive was the list of 14 House Democrats who voted for the bill.
Sadie Fields, leader of the Georgia Christian Alliance, provided her supporters with the names. The list included House Minority Leader DuBose Porter of Dublin and four members of the Legislative Black Caucus: Carl Von Epps, Mike Glanton, Randall Mangham and Keith Heard.
Three Republicans voted against the bill: Jill Chambers and Ed Lindsey of Atlanta; and Bobby Franklin. We weren’t able to catch up with Chambers or Lindsey while the House was in session.
Franklin, a vociferous opponent of abortion, said he voted against the measure because it was too soft. “We’re just saying, ‘If you do this, this and this, then murdering the baby is okay,’” Franklin said.
Jim Gilmore and Georgia’s move to the Feb. 5 presidential primary
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On the same day the House was to take up a bill to move the Georgia presidential primary to Feb. 5, one of the movement’s possible victims trolled the state Capitol for supporters.
Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore describes himself as “a mainstream, Reagan conservative in this race, someone who can attract people from the right to the center.”
Gilmore had paid an early morning visit to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, met with a gathering of House and Senate leaders, and had his eye on a meeting with Gov. Sonny Perdue when we caught up with him.
Coincidentally, Gilmore came only days after state GOP lawmakers held an informal meeting to gripe about their dissatisfaction with the top current candidates for the White House — John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in particular.
Gilmore’s got substantial military experience. He was chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism. “I was the governor of Virginia during the 9/11 attack. Virginia was attacked, you know,” Gilmore said.
You can go to his web site for more biographical details. It’s gilmoreforpresident.com.
The immediate question is whether Gilmore — or second- and third-tier candidates like him — will be hurt by the country’s stampede toward a national primary.
“It’s fair to say that it will make American democracy very unpredictable. This is unprecedented,” Gilmore said. He was careful with his comments. It is a candidate’s job to soldier on, regardless of obstacles thrown up. Anything else looks like whining.
“One scenario is that the advantage goes to the richest person, or the person the press supports — which means the American people will not really have an opportunity to decide this based on philosophy or issues,” Gilmore said.
His other thought? Nobody has enough money to run a campaign in every state in the Union at the same time. The system might fracture, he said, and who knows what might result from that.
House Majority Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island) is a big proponent of moving Georgia’s primary. Efforts to reach him Tuesday afternoon, while the House was in session, were unsuccessful.
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All is explained: Larry O’Neal presides as reporters barred from floor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is what it’s all about. House Speaker Glenn Richardson is at the well, explaining the ban on reporters on the House floor.
But the presiding officer is Larry O’Neal, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who was tied to the midnight-hour change to legislation that gave Gov. Sonny Perdue his tax deferral on his Oakie Woods land purchase.
O’Neal didn’t like his press clips.
The rule change has now passed, 132 to 29.
It must be Sunshine Week! House GOP leaders decide they want to bar reporters from chamber floor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They haven’t cast the floor vote to put it into effect yet, but members of the state House are about to adopt new rules barring all reporters from their chamber while the place is in session.
The new restrictions would put reporters in much the same class as lobbyists, who depend on adolescent pages to carry requests for interviews to legislators. Naturally, the House will take up the new rules during a week celebrating the virtues of open government.
House Majority Leader Jerry Keen said an end to access for journalists was necessary for good decorum in the chamber. Rumors that plaid sports jackets formed the basis for this opinion were unfounded.
Outside of the chamber, a Republican bird told us that certain high-ranking House leaders were concerned that reporters who wandered onto the floor were eaves-dropping on high-level strategy sessions. Or reading lips.
We only have two points. The first is this: Directional mikes.
Secondly, we predict that House members will see a great deal of the following phrase in the next few weeks: “Efforts to contact state Rep. Joe Somebody (R-Wherever) were unsuccessful. But state Sen. Somebody Else (R-State Your City Here) said…..”
Coming next: How ol’ Gene Talmadge whupped up on FDR and became the first president from Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To win the war is to write the history. Or rewrite it.
Once Republican Sonny Perdue had ousted Democratic incumbent Roy Barnes from the governor’s mansion in 2003, he immediately cut hundreds of millions of dollars from public schools in his effort to balance the budget.
Democrats railed against those cuts right up until last year’s elections.
Perdue, meanwhile, bragged during his 2006 re-election campaign about his fiscal management, his ability to navigate the state through the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression.
But never mind. All that history is now history.
Our colleague James Salzer tells us that a House appropriations subcommittee this morning recommended the restoration of $7 million worth of cuts to elementary schools made in 2003.
In a document handed out to subcommittee members, the budget item is described thusly: “Restore Barnes’ reductions to Classroom Operations.”
“This is revisionist history,” said Rep. Kathy Ashe (D-Atlanta).
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Someone needs to explain this one to us
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sometime today, the state Senate will debate S.B. 123. We don’t know the background, but it would require local school boards to put twins (and triplets and quadruplets, etc.) in the same classroom if the parent asks.
The bill’s lead sponsor is Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), but other signers include David Shafer (R-Duluth) and Nancy Schaefer (R-Turnerville). All three have reputations for dwelling, to put it mildly, to the right of center.
So we have to ask, what’s so conservative about the state of Georgia dipping this deeply into a local school board’s business? And will the Legislature provide a guiding hand when it comes to deciding between chalkboards and dryboards as well?
Alabama has passed similar legislation, by the way. It mandates that school authorities place fathers and sons in the same class, if the wife/mother demands it.
In any case, the Georgia bill has one of the more interesting legal definitions you’ll ever see: “For purposes of this Code section, the term ‘higher order multiples’ means triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, or more.”
That’s enough to give an inferiority complex to anybody who came out of the womb by his lonesome.
ADDENDUM: Just ran into Rogers on the Senate floor, who gave this defense of his bill:
First, he said, in his book, parents are at the top of any public school hierarchy, followed by teachers and school boards. In that order.
But specifically, the senator said the legislation grew out of some trouble that one of his constituents was having with a specific school in Cobb County. He didn’t say which one.
Rogers said that putting twins in the same classroom — “a teacher can put them on opposite sides, it doesn’t matter to me” — makes a parent’s life much easier. “Same textbooks, the same homework, the same gifts for the teacher,” the senator said.
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