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DEL.ICIO.USTowery: If this were World War II, Perdue would be Britain, and the Legislature would be Dresden
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A legislative session book-ended by scandal, with noisy but obscure power plays by House and Senate leaders in between, has given Gov. Sonny Perdue a heavy advantage when lawmakers reassemble for an encore this month.
Voters didn’t like the way lawmakers conducted themselves. Republican voters were especially displeased.
So says a statewide poll about to be released by Matt Towery of Insider Advantage. We’ve been given an early look at it.
The survey underscores the political benefit of Perdue’s decision to disappear during most of the spring, while the General Assembly produced little of note — then reappear just in time to veto a $700 million spending bill that included a $142 million property tax rebate.
The veto is the reason for the upcoming, but still unscheduled, special session.
Perdue’s approval rating stands at 53 percent — 83 percent among Republicans voters. But House Speaker Glenn Richardson and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle can hardly say the same thing.
Asked if they approve of the job performance of the state House of Representatives, 53 percent of voters said no. The judgment was even harsher among Republicans — 77 percent of GOP voters disapproved.
Statistically, but not politically, the Senate faired better. Overall, 54 percent disapproved. The number jumped to 63 percent among Republican voters.
Lumped together, “the leadership of the state Legislature” was well thought of by only 17 percent of voters. Voters were not asked what they thought of Richardson and Cagle individually.
“The Legislature has made the governor look good. By staying in his hole, sort of like the groundhog, the governor has remained much more popular, particularly with Republicans,” Towery said.
The poll of 500 registered voters was conducted April 30 and May 1, and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points. Cross-tabs can be downloaded here.
For 236 lawmakers in the House and Senate, the problem with public perception lies in the details. Policy is a complicated thing. Tax policy is doubly so.
The $700 million spending bill for 2007 began with a demand by Cagle, the leader of the Senate, that pork-barrel spending be stripped away. He was trumped by House leaders, Richardson included, who wanted the money be given back to homeowners.
Perdue questioned the wisdom of the rebate in his veto — which the House quickly voted to override. Cagle sided with Perdue and refused to entertain a veto vote. Whether a second attempt at overriding the veto will be made is open to question.
Here’s the point: the InsiderAdvantage poll says voters don’t know enough about the dead budget package to care about this. Only 24 percent said they were aware of any benefits contained in the budget proposals made by the House, the Senate — or the governor.
“Republicans in the House say we can’t possibly go back on a tax cut. Well, the public doesn’t even know there’s a tax cut,” Towery said.
Towery did say it was significant that the January start of the Legislature was overshadowed by ethics charges (later dismissed) alleging that the House speaker engaged in an improper relationship with an AGL lobbyist. And that the coda for the session was a bloody, 2 a.m. brawl between two lobbyists at a Sine Die party in downtown Atlanta.
“All [voters] know is that everything they’re reading and hearing is negative,” Towery said. “If things were to stay as they are, Republican senators and representatives would be in severe danger of being defeated in primaries.”
Based on these same numbers, we’ll offer two predictions of our own. First, this special session of the Georgia General Assembly will be over long before voters even know lawmakers are in town.
And secondly, nothing but lemonade and cookies will be served at the Sine Die party.
Comments
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By My Name is Crazy Insance Earl
May 2, 2007 6:00 PM | Link to this
OMG, Earl Ehrhart has lost it again on Peach Pundit…
http://www.peachpundit.com/2007/05/02/so-when-will-it-be/#comments eehrhart // May 2, 2007 at 2:45 pm Once again little coward; come out from behind your psuedonym.
That’s just the start. He goes off on even more posts. He’s gone lococrazynuts. This guy is supposedly one of the floor leaders for the hallowed Georgia House of Representatives? Only in Georgia…
By Amy Morton
May 2, 2007 7:19 PM | Link to this
You have one thing wrong. There will be no party at all.
By Bill Kecskes
May 2, 2007 7:22 PM | Link to this
Dear Prior Post:
You are quite wrong in your hysteria. Rep. Erhart was rationaly explaining the position of House Members in defending the $142,000,000 tax refund. Congratualtions to Rep. Erhart and all House Members who have shown integrity and consistency in holding to a core value and not negotiating it away in secrecy.
Wht’s amazing is Washington DC has just embarrassed Atlanta in modeling how government can function efficiently. Last night, the President vetoed the Iraqi war funding bill (+ Peachcare funding) at 6:00PM and by 10:00AM this morning (16 hours later) the official veto letter was delivered to Speaker Pelosi. Governor Perdue “vetoed” HB 94 two weeks ago but he still is playing hide and seek with the “official veto document” and he’s only across the hallway from Speaker Richardson while the President had to courier his veto document at least 16 or 17 blocks to Speaker Pelosi.
QUIT PLAYING GAMES GOVERNOR!
SENATORS: OVERRIDE THE VETO!
By ROAD SCHOLAR
May 3, 2007 9:18 AM | Link to this
The token tax cut is good theater. Will someone publicize the inequity of the refund based on what each county/homeowner would receive? Will the legislature ever get to the big ticket items (ie transportation, education, tax code (compositely examined),etc.. Does anyone have a constructive vision for these items? or does the threat of not being re-elected cloud their vision?
It’s always nice to get a refund, or to get something for free, but these issues need fixing immediately, and it will cost money! You have to pay for services and improvements…something lost on most republicans.
Also there is a disregard for state employees. With the price of gas, food , housing etc increasing, the small pay increases (coupled with benefit cuts or cost increases to the employees) has most job compensation not only less than the private sector, but even less than county and local government compensation. While I’m against piecemeal tax breaks (see aquarium, Delta, Gulfstream, etc.), why not remove the requirement to pay state taxes from state employees for their salary and benefits? that would provide a 6 % income infusion.
I know some folks will laugh at the role of state employees, but from my experience, most are hard working, professional, and possess skills that most private sector employees desire esp since the Private sectoer hires them away after trainning. one office had a 77% turnover rate of non managerial positions in 3 years!
By Nancy
May 3, 2007 12:57 PM | Link to this
If people truly understood what was going on they would not support Perdue.The GOVNENOR is WRONG and will be BOOED!! at the Gergia Republican convention if he does not get over his POWER RANT!!!. To keep money from coming back to Georgia tax payers no matter how small just to get a tax break to RICH SENIORS is wrong. The poll taken show that the people of georgia don not know what the issues are.