Home > Political Insider > Archives > 2008 > March > 12
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Pressed to support Martin for Senate, Democratic lawmakers have one demand: ‘No more Mr. Nice Guy.’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Democratic candidacy of Jim Martin for the U.S. Senate is rapidly moving from a possibility to a virtual certainty.
But there is a certain tug-and-pull with Washington that must be settled before Martin takes the final step.
Martin has been up to D.C. to chat with Chuck Schumer, senator from New York, and Harry Reid of Nevada, the senate majority leader. They’re the two top recruiters for the chamber’s 2008 Democratic field.
There have been negotiations over what how much funding the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee would be willing to provide Martin, should he make it out of a Democratic primary that already features five candidates.
The SDCC is now applying pressure to Democratic leaders in the state Legislature, demanding that they be at Martin’s side when he announces.
In the House, that includes Calvin Smyre of Columbus and Dubose Porter of Dublin. In the Senate, Robert Brown of Macon, Tim Golden of Valdosta, and Kasim Reed in Atlanta are among those being approached.
These legislators have an interest in seeing a strong U.S. Senate candidate come out of the July primary. Momentum at the top of a Democratic ticket is likely to boost candidates for the House and Senate in November — particularly if Barack Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee.
A meeting was held at the state Capitol this morning, to discuss the issue. And this is where things get sticky.
Martin’s candidacy would be a direct challenge to that of DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones, who is African-American. Martin is white. And the entire state has just seen black voters strip the bark off U.S. Rep. John Lewis for his initial decision to back Hillary Clinton over Obama.
That puts some African-American legislators at the Capitol in a difficult position. State Rep. Stan Watson (D-Decatur), for instance, is running to succeed Jones as DeKalb CEO.
At Wednesday’s meeting, some black legislators said they would be willing to step out on a limb — but only if Martin promises to run a hard-hitting, aggressive campaign. In the primary and, if things go well, in the general election.
In 2006, when he thought his Republican opponent in the race for lieutenant governor would be Ralph Reed, Martin conceived a nice-guy, above-the-fray strategy that won him 42 percent of the November vote.
And Martin is, by all accounts, a nice fellow.
That’s not what Democrats in the Capitol are looking for this time around.
Martin battled polio as a child and yet still chose to serve in Vietnam. That’s a story line that many Dems would like to see used to hammer Chambliss, who didn’t serve in Vietnam — and won his seat in 2002 by defeating Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in that war.
A particular TV ad comes up over and over again in conversations.
At least in the state Capitol, Democrats are looking for a candidate who’s willing to get down and dirty.
Voter ID from a Democratic perspective
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In Washington, the Senate rules committee on Wednesday held a hearing on whether or not the state-by-state movement toward requiring a photo ID to vote is part of a Republican effort to dampen minority turnout in elections.
The point of view was reflected in the title: “In-Person Voter Fraud: Myth and Trigger for Disenfranchisement?”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) cited a former Republican political operative who claimed voter ID laws gave the GOP a 3 percent edge in elections.
Georgia had two players in the hearing, both defending voter ID laws.
One was Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a committee member. “If have somebody who is deceased, who is found to have voted, it’s pretty easy to see that a photo identification at the ballot box would have prevented that type of thing from happening,” he said.
Rob Simms, deputy secretary of state, was the other. Read his complete testimony here. You can try the Senate on-line video here, but we couldn’t get it to work all that well.
Simms testified that the high turnout in the Feb. 5 presidential primary was evidence that Georgia’s voter ID law doesn’t discourage minorities from casting ballots.
Here’s a taste of what Simms said:
“Opponents of the law are eager to argue that even one vote lost because of the law is one too many, but they never have any proof of why the voter failed to return with an acceptable ID. It is important to consider that there are potentially many reasons why a voter may not return to verify his or her identity, not the least of which is the voter may not have been who he or she claimed to be.
“Furthermore, as neither of the outcomes of the primaries was in dispute, these voters have have decided to not return because their votes were not going to change the outcome of the election.
“In short, the predictions of mass disenfranchisement simply did not come to fruition. A very small number of voters showed up at the polls without a photo ID and an even fewer number chose not to return with one in order to have their provisional votes cast, a decision for which no one knows the reason.”
Southern Gothic: South Georgia judge admits he’s target of a federal investigation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
From time to time, we’ve tried to keep you up-to-date on the travails of Brooks E. Blitch III, chief superior court judge of Alapaha Judicial Circuit. That’s near Valdosta.
Charges of corruption against the judge have raised memories of the courthouse power structures that dominated Georgia decades ago.
Last week, we told you that the FBI had copped to bugging the judge’s chambers as part of an investigation. Blitch, whose wife Peg is a former state senator, also faces an inquiry from the Judicial Qualifications Commission, the state authority that oversees judicial conduct.
Blitch’s attorney, former Gov. Roy Barnes of Marietta, had asked to postpone Blitch’s deposition before the JQC, to avoid violating the judge’s Fifth Amendment rights in the federal case. In his request, Blitch asked that proceedings be delayed “until….resolution of the federal investigation[,] of which he is a target.”
This week, the attorney’s acting as prosecutors in the JQC case — one happens to be former state attorney general Michael Bowers — issued a blistering rebuttal, declaring that the judge had already waived his right against self-incrimination. Read the entire document here.
Here’s just a portion of the response to Blitch’s request:
Judge Blitch fails to acknowledge, however, that the Notice contains numerous paragraphs detailing a pattern of conduct that demonstrates at best his professional incompetence and at worst his utter disregard for the law applicable to the function of his court and his own actions.
Moreover, deposition testimony in this matter shows that Judge Blitch manipulated various monetary funds over which he had control, imposed an illegal “tax” on criminal defendants, used his title to garner influence for both his and his family’s personal gain, exploited judicial resources provided to him by the state to serve his personal interest and his wife’s gain, employed the prestige of his judicial office to intimidate others, and wielded the power associated with his position to make appointments, to file false documents prematurely releasing inmates, to deny criminal defendants basic due process rights by issuing blank arrest warrants and to acquire further control within Clinch County specifically and the Alapaha Judicial Circuit generally.
There’s a strong hint in the document that prosecutors want Blitch to go back to every case since the 1980s to determine how many illegal fines he imposed. They want him to give the money back.
Shut-off valve activated on a bill that might have created water rival for Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Certain people at Atlanta City Hall are smiling today.
Shortly before the House adjourned at 10:30 p.m. or so on Tuesday, a bill to make it easier for local governments to build water and sewer systems was yanked from the floor, without a vote.
Atlanta had lobbied heavily against the measure, charging that H.B. 1145, sponsored by state Rep. Wendell Willard (R-Sandy Springs), was designed to rob the city of revenue generated by its water system, which serves north Fulton County.
Atlanta officials said the bill jeopardized the city’s $3 billion, court-mandated plan to repair its aging sewer system.
“This bill is a positive opportunity for your local areas to come together and work together where there are needs addressing their water systems and sewer systems,” Willard said.
State Rep. Bob Holmes (D-Atlanta) was one of many who lined up to speak against the legislation.
“You’re going to take hundreds of thousands of customers, and hundreds of millions of dollars from the bonds that must be paid in order to clean it up,” Holmes said. “We will have chaos in this state.”
But Willard was getting tough questions from Republicans as well. He consulted with Speaker pro tem Mark Burkhalter, who is from Alpharetta. And Burkhalter moved to postpone action on the bill indefinitely.
