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Friday, January 25, 2008
Lanier joins race against Chambliss
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There’s another Democrat in the race to unseat Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss this fall.
Josh Lanier of Statesboro, a Vietnam vet and former staffer to Georgia political icon Sen. Herman Talmadge, said Friday that he’s joining the Democratic primary race in hopes of taking on Chambliss in the fall.
Lanier said in an interview that he wouldn’t formally announce his candidacy until after Georgia’s Feb. 5 presidential primary.
“I figured that if I don’t do this now, I’ll regret it,” said Lanier, who has had an exploratory out scouting the political terrain over the past three months.
Lanier spent about 30 years working in Washington, first for the Army, then Talmadge’s office. He worked for several associations and then as a private consultant before he helped found LightStream Technologies, which developed water and air cleaning technologies.
Lanier faces at least three other candidates in the July 15 Democratic primary: DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones, former TV reporter Dale Cardwell and environmental scientist Rand Knight.
At a time when voters are expressing frustration bordering on contempt for Congress - and Washington in general - Lanier will bill his campaign as a referendum on the corrupting influence of money on politics, particularly campaign finance reform.
“We’re going to lead by example,” he said. “There’ll be some very unique and unusual things we’re going to be doing in this campaign.”
One of the key decisions Lanier made about his campaign is that, unlike any other contenders, he will raise money according to restrictive campaign-finance proposal that, because Congress hasn’t passed it yet, no other candidates will held to.
“What we want to do is make Georgia ground zero for campaign finance reform,” he said. I won’t play the money game. I have spent exactly zero hours dialing for dollars.”
The proposed law, the Fair Elections Now Act, would require Lanier to test his support by generating $5 contributions, first from 500 people and then 4,000 statewide. His largest contributions would limited to $100.
Meanwhile, Chambliss has $4 million in the bank as of last September, the latest campaign-finance documents available.
“I may have to have a sign on the back my car that says, ‘Will campaign for gas money,’” Lanier said.
DOT chairman: House speaker offered him a job to quit race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mike Evans, the chairman of the state transportation board, said Friday that House Speaker Glenn Richardson offered him a state job to tempt Evans out of an upcoming race for another term.
Evans said state Rep. Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain), chairman of the House Transportation Committee, first delivered the offer last week on Richardson’s behalf.
Evans said the offer was to replace Jimmy Benefield, the retiring legislative lobbyist for the state Department of Transportation. As a DOT board member, Evans’ expenses are paid but he is paid no salary.
“The speaker would put his arm around me and say what a great job he thought I would do, and based on my experience at DOT and my experience in the General Assembly, that I would be welcomed with open arms — in exchange for dropping out,” Evans told our AJC colleague Ariel Hart.
Evans said he encountered Richardson later, the same day that Smith approached him with the offer. “[Richardson] made a comment that he thought this would be an easy way out for everybody,” the DOT chairman said.
Clelia Davis, a spokeswoman for Richardson, didn’t confirm Evans’ account, but didn’t deny it, either. “The speaker does not control the hiring of DOT staff. All he could ever do is offer to help,” she said.
Evans got cross-ways with Richardson late last year, when he voted to make Gena Abraham the new DOT commissioner. Abraham’s candidacy was put forward by Gov. Sonny Perdue. Richardson had backed Smith.
Evans’ term as a DOT board member is set to expire, but his reelection by state House and Senate members in his district has not yet been scheduled.
On Thursday, in a speech to the Atlanta Press Club, Richardson declared that members of the DOT board need to be held accountable for a $7 billion funding gap for state roadways.
“Hundreds, thousands of projects that have been promised to communities have no money,” Richardson said. “We have a new commissioner. But under our constitution, those transportation dollars and all those projects were approved by that board. And it’s time for accountability. Someone on the state board of transportation needs to be held accountable.
“I want to know why someone didn’t say something about this before two weeks ago. Why has it been hidden, and why didn’t the board in charge of that know that?” the speaker asked.
Evans is punching back, arguing that he is part of the reform wing of the DOT board, and has been sounding the alarm for two years. Part of the reform effort, he said, was bringing Abraham on board.
On Friday, Evans released copies of two letters he sent to Richardson, detailing the funding shortfall and the coming crisis. One was sent in December 2006. It included a list of threatened projects in the speaker’s House district. Here’s a copy.
“The fact is, Georgia is in a transportation crisis. Dramatic increases in construction and right-of-way costs over the last 12 to 18 months…[have] made the predicament unavoidable,” Evans wrote.
A second letter can be seen here.
McCain grabs his share of Thompson leftovers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And now John McCain steps up to claim his share of Fred Thompson’s abandoned spoils in Georgia.
The Republican presidential candidate’s campaign just announced the following Thompson supporters have jumped on the McCain bandwagon:
— Steve Croy of Richmond Hill, who was Thompson’s money man in Georgia;
— State Rep. Buddy Carter, the former mayor of Pooler;
— Former state House minority leader Bob Irvin of Atlanta;
— Joel McElhannon of Atlanta, formerly Thompson’s regional political director;
— David Gellatly, Chatham County commissioner;
— and Bill Knowles, Bibb County commissioner.
Newt finds a reason to like the New York Times
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just got an email from an excited Newt Gingrich.
The former Georgian and ex-House Speaker, who has written - oh, 600 or 700 - books, has a new one hitting the shelves, “Real Change: From the World that Fails to the World that Works,” about the benefits that could be reaped tomorrow by forcing real change in Washington today.
It’s already a “Main Selection” of the Conservative Book Club. Not exactly a shock.
But “Real Change” is also going to debut on the Feb. 3 New York Times Bestseller List. It’ll be No. 6, Newt said in an email thanking friends for boosting book sales by talking it up among their friends.
On the literary scene that’s an impressive showing.
Still, two other Georgia politicos-turned-authors, Rep. John Linder, a Duluth Republican, and radio talk show host Neal Boortz, in 2005 wrote “The FairTax Book” about a national consumption tax that would replace federal income taxes. It debuted on the Times Bestsellers List, too. At No. 1.
So, if Newt starts getting snickering phone calls in the middle of the night we’ll have at least two suspects.
Obama, Edwards in Georgia on Sunday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It looks like middle Georgia will be something of a Democratic battleground on Sunday, the day after the South Carolina primary.
We told you earlier this morning that John Edwards will be in Dublin. Details are here. Now we’ve gotten word that Barack Obama will be in Macon, speaking at the 11 a.m. service of the Harvest Cathedral.
No word on any local activity by Hillary Clinton.
The visits come as a new Rasmussen poll of Georgia has Obama up by six percentage points over Clinton: Obama, 41 percent; Clinton, 35 percent; and Edwards at 13 percent.
Among Republicans, Rasmussen says Mike Huckabee has retained that fat lead that an AJC poll gave him last week. Rasmussen says: Huckabee, 34 percent; John McCain, 19 percent; Mitt Romney, 16 percent; Ron Paul, 12 percent; and Rudy Giuliani, 11 percent.
Rasmussen says the same GOP voters see McCain as the most electable Republican. “Seventy percent believe he would be at least somewhat likely to win the White House if nominated,” the polling firm reports.
And that’s why they call it puppy love
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As other Republican candidates reach into Georgia to scoop up survivors of the Fred Thompson campaign, it’s helpful to review the steps some presidential operations are willing to take in order to tap into a local figure’s network of political contacts.
Last May, Secretary of State Karen Handel had a leisurely, get-to-know-me session with a visiting Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.
As the more weighty aspects of the conversation tailed off, the subject of Romney’s time in Salt Lake City, as savior of the 2002 Winter Olympics, rose up.
Handel wondered out loud if Romney knew Donny Osmond, who was rumored to live in Utah. The candidate said, yes, he knew the family.
Politicians often wear their frailties on their sleeves. For some it is sex. Others have a weakness for booze or cocaine or dice.
For Karen Handel, an otherwise intelligent and mature, 45-year-old woman of serious accomplishment, it is a lifelong crush on a boy pop singer. She still suffers from puppy love.
She has “The Best of Donny Osmond” on her iPhone. She has dragged her ever-tolerant husband to Donny Osmond concerts filled with squealing women who bring with them the Donny Osmond lunch boxes they scored during their training-bra-and-“Tiger-Beat” years.
“It is a specific age group. It’s for those of us who are between 40 and 48,” Handel explained. Older women have to be satisfied with Ricky Nelson or Elvis or Davy Jones. Those younger — well, who knows?
With Romney and Handel that particular day in May was Eric Tanenblatt, former chief of staff to Gov. Sonny Perdue and Romney’s man in Georgia. Tanenblatt can recognize an opportunity when he sees one.
How well do you really know the Osmonds? the operative asked the candidate after they left Handel’s office.
Well enough, Romney replied.
The next month, Handel found a follow-up conference call with Romney on her calendar.
“The phone rings, and it was ‘Hi, Karen, this is Donny,’” Handel recounted.
“Donny who?”
“Donny Osmond.”
“The real-for-real Donny Osmond?”
The same, replied the real-for-real Donny Osmond.
Handel confirmed widespread reports that teenage-style screaming echoed through the state Capitol. But the Georgia secretary of state says the conversation itself was a blur.
Witnesses identified topics of discussion as the Osmond 1970s venture into Saturday morning cartoons, and an upcoming concert marking Donny Osmond’s 50th birthday.
And there were witnesses. After Handel and her idol hung up their phones, so did a half-dozen, satisfied Romney operatives in Boston, who had been monitoring the call.
It is important to note here that Handel, whose job it is to supervise state elections, hasn’t made an endorsement in the 2008 presidential race. Mike Huckabee dropped by on Tuesday, but she has no plans to pick sides.
“I’m really just not on fire about any one candidate at this point,” she said.
Edwards to be in Dublin on Sunday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We have few details yet, but we’ve got a first report that Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards will be in Dublin on Sunday afternoon, pressing his rural South strategy.
This will be the day after the Saturday primary in South Carolina. Which means that regardless of where he finishes, the candidate plans to continue.
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