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Sunday, July 27, 2008
On the challenge to House Speaker Glenn Richardson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Blue Ridge, Ga. — David Ralston is a 54-year-old attorney and state representative, a beefy guy with a deep and reassuring voice.
His kids are well-adjusted and success-bound. He’s healthy, happily married, and has a home in the mountains. Politically, he’s doing well — no opposition in November.
In other words, Ralston exhibits no predilection for suicide. No sign of depression that might cause him to slip a noose around his neck and ask a passer-by to kick the stool from underneath.
But there are those who say the north Georgia Republican has done just that. A few days ago, Ralston announced he would challenge House Speaker Glenn Richardson, the mercurial man from Hiram, for the leadership of the 180-member chamber. Five GOP colleagues have signed onto the coup.
Modern Georgia political history has witnessed only two similar uprisings, the last in 1993. Both failed, and were followed by harsh punishment for the conspirators.
“Everybody has asked the question, ‘Do you know what the price will be if you’re not successful in November?’ I’ve said, ‘How can you not know that?’” Ralston said last week.
Presumably, the lawmaker has already sacrificed his chairmanship of the powerful House committee that oversees criminal law.
Friends of Richardson say the speaker already has commitments from more than enough Republican members to guarantee a third term.
They argue that Ralston would be a flawed replacement — pointing to the lawmaker’s problems with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. (Which Ralston says stem from an embezzling bookkeeper.)
But some of the bravado expressed by Richardson stalwarts might also be read as concern.
Last week, Rules Chairman Earl Ehrhart of Powder Springs, Richardson’s closest ally, suggested that the House Republican caucus shift from its tradition of secret ballots and conduct the election for speaker in public — which would have the advantage of exposing any dissidents.
Ask Ralston why he thinks he has a chance, and the north Georgia lawmaker will tell you that the last two attempts to dethrone a House speaker (both aimed at the venerable Tom Murphy) were the result of intra-party squabbles about which voters neither knew nor cared.
But Richardson’s feuds with Gov. Sonny Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle have been very public. The broken relationships — unlikely to be repaired, says Ralston — have thwarted action on important issues ranging from transportation to tax relief.
The north Georgia lawmaker also gave voice to frustration privately expressed by many House Republicans — that they had little input into Richardson’s failed campaign to eliminate property taxes in Georgia, which pitted state lawmakers against county, city and school board officials across the state.
That courthouse crowd is his targeted constituency, Ralston implied. Over the next three months, he’ll attempt to stir bottom-up sentiment for regime change in the Capitol that — he hopes — will equal pressure that Richardson will place on 100 or so House Republicans from above.
And about that noose. It’s more like a loose necktie. “There is a life beyond this. We’ll all live, and there will be another day,” Ralston said.
Photo credit: Ben Gray/AJC
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Seabaugh’s running for No. 2 job in the Senate, which raises certain questions about Eric Johnson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Got a call on Saturday night from Mitch Seabaugh, the Republican state senator from Sharpsburg.
He was mixing politics and what some people would define as pleasure. Seabaugh was attending his 30th high school reunion in Cape Girardeau, Mo., which also has served as hometown to Rush Limbaugh.
But earlier that day, Seabaugh had also sent an e-mail to his GOP colleagues in the Senate, informing them that — come November — he planned to run for president pro tem of the Senate.
He promised to keep things low-key until after the election, so as not to distract Republican senators with Democratic opposition.
The president pro tem is the No. 2 position in the chamber, under the lieutenant governor. And it’s currently held by Eric Johnson, a Republican from Savannah.
So what about Johnson? Seabaugh says Johnson is running for lieutenant governor in 2010. “He’s contacting people, asking them to be a part of his steering committee,” Seabaugh said. (The Insider hasn’t heard this from Johnson himself.)
And according to the Sharpsburg senator, Republican caucus rules say you can’t hold the position of president pro tem while running for another office.
The Insider will try to snag some of the e-mail traffic that’s going around on this.
Seabaugh, who serves as majority whip, had been looking at the lieutenant governor’s race himself. “But somebody’s got to fight the battle of Bedford Falls,” he said. That’s a reference to “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Look it up.
Seabaugh isn’t the only one in the pro tem contest. Word is that Majority Leader Tommie Williams of Lyons may also be seeking a promotion.
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Pro-Martin blog: Jones wrote a check to the state GOP
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Amy Morton, the Democratic activist, blogger and Jim Martin supporter, has linked to Federal Election Commission entries documenting a check that Vernon Jones wrote to the Georgia Republican party in early 2001.
The FEC links put the amount at $1,232.34. Jones listed his occupation as CEO of DeKalb County. Here’s one.
A pro-Jones response on Morton’s blog included this: “This money was payment for tickets to the President’s Inaugural Ball. As CEO/Mayor Mr. Jones is expected to attend these events.”
Look for the topic to come up at 7 p.m. tonight during the Internet-only debate between Martin and Jones, the two remaining Democratic candidates in the U.S. Senate race, on the Kudzu Vine.
