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Thursday, January 3, 2008
Wayne LaPierre and the NRA come calling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last year, Republicans in the state Senate were torn apart by a bill backed by the National Rifle Association, demanding that employees be permitted to keep handguns and such in vehicles parked on corporate lots.
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce fought the organization to an ugly standstill, protesting what it called an infringement upon private property rights.
Round 2 will commence Monday, a full week before the Legislature convenes.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA and the organization’s biggest gun, will head down to Atlanta for a day of pre-emptive meetings with “key legislative leaders,” said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam.
LaPierre will be pushing H.B. 89, the current vehicle for the parking lots bill — though that’s open to change.
On LaPierre’s schedule is a noon press conference and an evening banquet. And no, he doesn’t do this often. “Him coming down to Atlanta to meet with state legislators is an indication that this is a very important bill for the association,” Arulanandam said.
Chamber spokesman Joe Fleming lays out his group’s objections in this AJC op-ed piece today.
Your daily Dale Cardwell update: He was feeling a bit warm
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Finally, we hit Dale Cardwell at a time when the cell phone and his webcam were operating at the same time.
The former TV journalist and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate is well into his third day on top of that smokestack near the state Capitol. And he had a complaint.
The temp hit 16 degrees this morning, and he was too hot. “The electric blanket was burning me up,” Cardwell said.
Yes, he has current. Workers pulled a 220-volt line from the anti-aircraft lights, to allow him to operate his electric blanket, keep his cell phone charged, and work the laptop.
He gave us a small tour of the place with the camera. Terrific view, of course. The camp toilet is behind his tarp, out of camera range. But yes, he’s had to use it.
He’s tethered to a safety harness in case things go awry. One scaffold worker is up there with him round the clock, on eight hour shifts — with Cardwell footing the bill.
Cardwell said he’s enjoying a little success. He did three drive-time radio shows this morning. If you think about it, he’s well positioned for traffic-spotting.
And he says he’s seen an uptick in the $20-$30 donations from real people who he says have been cut out of the political process. Which is why he doesn’t want to say when he’ll come down.
“There’s no way I’m coming down as long as the arc is going up,” he said.
Cardwell also said he’s picked up some interest from NBC’s “Today Show.”
The news from Iowa — via Georgia foot soldiers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Heard this morning from three Georgians — two Democrats and a Republican — who have spent the last three days or so trudging through Iowa snow for their candidates.
All seem to be concentrating their efforts around suburban Des Moines, where the votes are.
Steve Leeds, a Democratic committee member and close associate of Max Cleland, is up there on behalf of John Edwards — mostly around Indianola on the south side.
“I think it’s going to be close. There’s been a tremendous amount of voter contact,” he said. Amy Morton, the blogger from Macon, has been out there as well for Edwards, sending regular reports.
State Sen. David Adelman of Atlanta and his wife Caroline have been working the northern Urbandale area, but for Barack Obama. It’s an upper middle-class area that has begun trending Democrat. Not unlike Adelman’s senate district.
Adelman says he’s had a helluva good time knocking on doors — and being commanded by Obama’s crew of young volunteers. By young he means late 20s and early 30s — not college kids.
“It’s been a lot of fun. Serious voters. Very serious voters,” Adelman said.
Polling shows a higher turnout for the caucuses — which require an entire evening of commitment from voters — than normal. All along, Obama has talked of bringing new voters into the process.
“In a few hours we’ll know whether he has or not,” Adelman said.
Both he and Leeds plan on attending caucuses as observers this evening. So will Joel McElhannon, the Georgia GOP political strategist. He’s been up in Iowa since Christmas, working for the Fred Thompson campaign.
McElhannon said the Thompson campaign — a latecomer to Iowa, remember — has been relying less on door-knocking and more on events and phone banks. He’s been acting as an advance man for many of the events.
Today, he’s also been been combating the aftermath of an article in The Politico which says Thompson is close to bowing out of the race, and will throw his support to John McCain.
Thompson’s people, McElhannon included, are denying it.
On top of that, which McElhannon didn’t tell us: the Wall Street Journal reports today that the Des Moines Register made a decision not to staff the Thompson campaign in Iowa. It’s letting the wires bear the load.
The newspaper’s poll shows Thompson fourth in the Republican field.
Thompson has to finish at least third, says conventional wisdom, to stay in the hunt. McElhannon has pitched this for his bar bet tonight: Mitt Romney at 32 percent, Mike Huckabee at 27 percent, and Thompson at 15 percent.
Romney’s organization has been taking a toll on Huckabee’s understaffed surge, he said.
On Wyche Fowler, Barack Obama, and Iowa
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sat down with Wyche Fowler, the former U.S. senator, over the holidays.
The details of the conversation will have to come later, but Fowler mentioned that he’d just gotten back from Iowa, where he was doing some campaigning for his candidate in the Democratic primary — Chris Dodd of Connecticut.
Dodd was a neighbor of his in Washington, he explained.
In any case, this thought occurred to Fowler in the middle of the conversation:
We’ve had many African-Americans in Georgia debate whether to support Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in the contest. Michael Thurmond, the state labor commissioner, famously pitched the decision as a competition between racial optimists and racial realists.
In other words, those who think America is ready and willing to elect a black man for president support Obama. Those who don’t support Clinton. Perhaps they remember Andy Young’s run for governor in Georgia in 1990.
The man polled well, but in the end the Democratic vote broke down along racial lines. Young, as we all know, is supporting Clinton.
Several days have passed since that lunch with Fowler, which means the Democratic lead in Iowa has changed hands seven or eight times. But Fowler’s observation remains:
If Obama should win or place well in lily-white Iowa tonight, will this constitute proof of the Illinois senator’s appeal to white America, and does this change the debate within the African-American community?
Von Spakovsky says good-bye to that job at the FEC
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hans von Spakovsky threw in the towel on New Years Eve, in an e-mail sent out to supporters.
The former Fulton County GOP chairman became the centerpiece of a tit-for-tat shutdown of the Federal Elections Commission — forced out for lack of U.S. Senate confirmation.
The six-member FEC now has just two commissioners — and four votes are needed for any official business.
“Today was my last official day as a Commissioner on the Federal Election Commission,” he wrote. “The Senate officially adjourned today without acting on my nomination… I wanted to thank everyone for their support over the past two years while I was going through this confirmation battle. All of the telephone calls, emails and notes I received from people were great encouragement for me.”
Von Spakovsky attached an endorsement by the Wall Street Journal, though he added that “it did not help in the end in convincing the Democrats to vote to confirm me.”
Democratic senators blocked von Spakovsky’s appointment, over concern about his tenure in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, where he sided with efforts of Georgia Republicans to require that voters present a photo ID.
Republican senators retaliated by blocking the appointments of two Democrats to the FEC.
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