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Tuesday, April 24, 2007
In the meantime, store up your energy for the sequel to “You and Your Legislature.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s been a delight to serve you during this session of the Legislature, and we’d like to personally thank you for the ride on that particular rollercoaster.
No matter how rickety it turned out to be.
But now we’ve got sweaty palms and thumping hearts, and we need some rest.
Use this space to argue amongst yourselves. We’ll be back sometime next week, but we’ll be checking the e-mail occasionally. If you’ve got an important tip, tell us.
What’s the price of a session that does nothing? Two rumors
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dunwoody didn’t happen, Peachcare didn’t change, and the House hung together, Democrat and Republican, on the veto override.
These three things may have nothing directly to do with each other, but they’ve been the grist for a lot of rumors we’ve heard since the legislature adjourned - in real terms, temporarily - Friday night. The rumor that either Dunwoody or Peachcare was the price for Democratic cooperation on the budget veto seems to be making the rounds in both parties.
The speaker’s office has specifically denied the Dunwoody rumor, and there may be better reasons than a short-term deal to explain why in the end there was no serious effort to perform radical surgery to perform radical surgery on Peachcare. But like all good rumors, these speak to the insecurities in both parties.
Rep. Fran Millar (R-Dunwoody) said he couldn’t verify either report. But he noted again that one of the oldest Republican areas of the state was being stalled in its drive to incorporate while some Democratic areas of South Fulton were steaming ahead.
“To me, that’s rather unconscionable,” Millar said.
Quick. Somebody call Hillary. And Rudy, too.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State employees at the Capitol are back at work today, so we can start sorting through what passed, and what didn’t.
Yes, the Legislature agreed to move Georgia’s presidential primary to Feb. 5, 2008, and the bill has been sent to Gov. Sonny Perdue.
As we thought, the vehicle turned out to be S.B. 194, according to Vicki Gavalas, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Karen Handel. The agency had someone tracking the bill, Gavalas said, and the primary move was tacked on in the last hours of the Friday night session.
The current, web site version of the bill doesn’t mention the primary, and should be updated later. But the measure is interesting in and of itself. The bill permits the early counting of absentee ballots on election day — if the person counting the votes is sequestered like a bird flu victim.
Says the bill:
All such persons shall have no contact with the news media; shall have no contact with other persons not involved in monitoring, observing, or conducting the tabulation; shall not use any type of communication device including radios, telephones, and cellular telephones; shall not utilize computers for the purpose of electronic mail, instant messaging, or other forms of communication; and shall not communicate any information concerning the tabulation until the time for the closing of the polls.”
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