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Tuesday, April 10, 2007
About those Obama tickets: Here’s where to get ‘em
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Democratic presidential campaign of Barack Obama has this link at its web site for those who want tickets to the Saturday rally in Atlanta.
The location is Yellow Jacket Park on the Georgia Tech campus, at Atlantic and Fourth streets.
The campaign also listed a dozen metro area locales that will also be doling out tickets. But first, you’re probably asking why a campaign is handing out tickets to a free event — which so far as we can tell, is the first major ‘08 presidential event in Atlanta.
From what we’ve heard, this is an extremely smart tactic that kind of harkens back to Ralph Reed on the Republican side of grass-roots organizing. The only thing required to get your ticket is your name, mailing address, e-mail address and phone number.
You get the ticket, and Obama gets a massive mailing list that identifies people most enthusiastic about his candidacy.
Here are those other ticket pick-up points:
Georgia Democratic Party Headquarters
Monday-Friday: 9 AM-5 PM
1100 Spring St. NW, Ste. 408, Atlanta, GA 30309
Chapter 11 Books - Ansley Mall Location
Monday-Saturday: 10 AM-9 PM
1544 Piedmont Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA, 30324
Chapter 11 Books - Emory Commons Location
Monday-Saturday: 10 AM-9 PM
2091 N. Decatur Rd., Atlanta, GA 30033
Chapter 11 Books - Sandy Springs Location
Monday-Saturday: 10 AM-8 PM
220 Johnson Ferry Rd. NE Sandy Springs, GA 30328
Outwrite Bookstore and Coffeehouse
Monday-Sunday: 10 AM-11 PM
991 Piedmont Ave., Atlanta, GA, 30309
Charis Books
Monday-Tuesday: 10:30 AM-6:30 PM, Wednesday-Thursday: 10:30 AM-7:30 PM, Friday-Saturday: 10:30 AM-8 PM
1189 Euclid Ave., Atlanta, GA 30307
Acapella Books
Monday-Thursday: 11 AM-9 PM, Friday-Saturday: 11 AM-10 PM
484-C Moreland Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA 30307
Tall Tales Book Shop
Monday-Thursday: 9:30 AM-9:30 PM, Friday-Saturday: 9:30 AM-10 PM
2105 LaVista Rd., No. 108, Atlanta, GA, 30329
Sports Avenue
Monday-Saturday: 10 AM-5 PM
Located in the Underground Mall, 50 Lower Alabama St. SW, Atlanta, GA 30303
Gladys Knight and Ron Winan’s Chicken and Waffles
Monday-Thursday: 11 AM-11 PM, Friday-Saturday: 11 AM-4 AM
529 Peachtree St. NW, Atlanta, GA, 30308
Gold Star Café and Bakery
Monday-Saturday: 7 AM-8 PM
903 Peachtree St., Atlanta, GA 30309
Wax ‘N Facts Record Store
Monday-Saturday: 11 AM-8 PM
432 Moreland Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA 30307
Bernie Marcus on Rudy Giuliani
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Shannon McCaffrey with the Associated Press may have gotten the first public pledge of support from Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus to GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.
“I will do anything I can to help him,” Marcus said. “He is unlike most political candidates in that he doesn’t say what everybody wants to hear. I think people will connect to that kind of candor.”
We found the full story here, at the Newsday web site.
On Wednesday, Marcus hosts an Atlanta fund-raiser for Giuliani, which you know about — because we told you last week. Marcus’ association with Giuliani dates back to that campaign memo the Giuliani staffer lost last year, later published. Marcus was penciled in as Southern campaign chairman.
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Lobbyist alert: Click on these documents, and join in the budget negotiations
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With tempers running short, the budget fight in the Legislature, which was conducted behind closed doors yesterday, has broken into the open.
The office of House Speaker Glenn Richardson has released Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s first two compromise proposals on the $700 mid-year budget — and the speaker’s formal rejection.
Clearly, the intention of the release is to show the lieutenant governor to be less pure on the issue of pork-barrel spending than his rhetoric has indicated.
Jaillene Hunter, a spokeswoman for Cagle, said the correspondence reveals no contradiction.
“We have reached out in good faith to the House with offers to accept some of the projects its leaders insist on having, in return for significant cuts in spending and returning funds to the reserve, recognizing that no agreement will occur if both sides get everything we each want,” Hunter said.
Here’s the first offer from Cagle, in Excel format, and the more formal second offer, in a PDF. And here’s the Speaker’s response, in a Word document.
The last offer from Cagle, dated April 6, indicated a willingness to split nearly $60 million in projects between the House and Senate. Another $30 million would be returned to reserves.
“Based on our latest discussions, I believe the best way to reconcile our differing positions is to agree on basic spending parameters and then allow you and your leadership to prioritize projects internally. The Senate would then be willing to agree to the projects by the House within that overall spending cap,” Cagle wrote last Friday.
Continued the lieutenant governor: “As you know, on next Wednesday, the state will host representatives from the three major bond-rating agencies for an unusual joint visit to Georgia. It would be an exceptionally positive and fiscally responsible move for both chambers to be able to announce an agreement to return a significant portion of the surplus to the reserve fund in advance of that visit.”
Replied Richardson: “At this point, in light of the suggestions contained in your letter, it appears that you and I may somewhat be circumventing the conference committee process. While clearly we could continue along this path, I do not believe that such action is wise, prudent, or in the best interests of the House, the Senate, or the people of this State.”
It’s April 20 or bust.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Speaker Glenn Richardson threw down a gauntlet of his own on Tuesday, declaring that Day 40, the final day of the session, would be April 20. That’s Friday week.
A statement like that is intended to pressure the other side — i.e., the Senate. And that means the two chambers probably still have some distance to close before they reach agreement even on the first — and smallest — of two budget bills.
“Time is starting to run very, very, very short,” Richardson warned. “I believe next Friday is it. I see no reason to continue to perpetuate this session.
We’re told that Gov. Sonny Perdue has informed both sides that, should they gavel down without the proper budget agreements, he’ll call a special session for the next Saturday, requiring the attendance of all 236 lawmakers.
The pipeline company answers — and there’s a map
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you’re a House member in the state Capitol, one of your bigger decisions this session will be which way to vote on S.B. 173, the bill that Colonial Pipeline Co. says it needs to put a third petroleum line from Baton Rouge, La., to Powder Springs in Cobb County.
The bill that would remove the eminent domain requirements the Legislature slapped on in 1995 to punish the company for misbehavior.
You saw our earlier post on an anti-pipeline mailer that went out last week, directed at House Speaker Glenn Richardson of Paulding County.
Colonial answered this morning with a packet of its own — aimed at legislators, but also shared with us. Most helpfully, the company provided a map. But Colonial also included its talking points for the coming debate, and the letter the firm sent to House members.
“If this bill passes, federal and state oversight will more than adequately protect citizens’ property rights and…protect our state’s environment. Indeed, Colonial Pipeline’s ability to condemn property will remain the most restricted of any utility in Georgia,” writes Norm Szydlowski, Colonial president and CEO.
Digest, and enjoy.
Better Know a District: Meet Terry Holley, beleaguered Democrat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Democrat Terry Holley, who’s running for the 10th District congressional seat in east Georgia, suddenly finds himself on the defensive with his own people.
State party strategists are attempting to unite behind a single candidate in the special, formally non-partisan election on June 19. And that single candidate is not Holley, who was thumped last November by the late U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood.
James Marlow of Lincolnton, an Internet businessman, has been endorsed by a majority of county chairmen in the 10th, and the state’s labor leadership has done the same.
Holley responds today with a YouTube address to district voters. His message? He’s the hometown guy, and Marlow — never mentioned by name — is not.
“I’ve been to your churches spoken at your meetings and traveled the length of your district many times over,” Holley says. “I’ve lived here, I’ve worked here, and I’ve raised my family here.”
Just in time for the resumption of hostilities
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Legislature reassembles today, and the only matter of importance is the state of budget-oriented tensions between House Speaker Glenn Richardson and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
Blogger Jason Pye figures the fire could use a little more gasoline. He’s got a new web site, still being tweaked, called Georgia Porkbusters.
Just one suggestion: On the list of inappropriate pork-barrel spending, it might be wise not to lead off with a $24,064 expenditure for “the relocation and continuation of the Anne Frank in the World exhibit and for the operational costs of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust.”
The details on Obama: 20,000 tickets for Saturday, on the Tech campus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Barack Obama presidential campaign plans to distribute 20,000 free tickets to the event, which will be held at Yellow Jacket Park on the Georgia Tech campus, said Kirk Dornbush, vice chairman of the Illinois Democrat’s national finance committee.
Dornbush said an organizational meeting for rally volunteers will be held at 7 tonight in the Regency V room at the Hyatt-Regency Hotel.
From the looks of things, this is part of a Southern swing for the candidate. On Friday, Obama is in South Carolina, speaking at a fund-raiser for that state’s legislative black caucus. So says The State newspaper of Columbia, S.C.
