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Thursday, July 31, 2008
‘Two-for-one’ says Jones, as he pairs himself — again — with Obama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Despite what Joe Lowery may say, DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones hasn’t given up on selling himself and Barack Obama as a pair in Tuesday’s Democratic run-off for the U.S. Senate race.
In what looks like to be Jones’ final mailer to voters, there’s no funny stuff with photos. But Jones does put himself in a line of African-American senators that include Edward Brooke, Carol Moseley Braun and — of course — Obama.
“Let’s make it a 2-for-1!” shouts the latest Jones mailer, with a check by his name and the fellow from Chicago.
Click here for a larger version of the Jones flyer.
Jones’ rival, Atlanta attorney Jim Martin, is attempting to put out the contrary message — that Jones’ presence on the ballot would harm Obama in November.
But the Insider has caught hold of none of Martin’s literature. If you have anything, send it in.
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On the Republican topic of public schools and vouchers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you put your finger to the wind, you can sense a looming fight within the Georgia Republican party over the issue of school vouchers, involving the top two leaders of the state Senate.
There’s this article in today’s AJC, of course, about the entrance of pro-voucher groups into statehouse races.
But also consider the following, fresh report from the Gainesville Times, offered up by Harris Blackwood. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who is expected to announce a 2010 bid for governor shortly, was up in his home county today, speaking to a group of newly hired, public school teachers.
Wrote the Times:
While he hasn’t announced his candidacy, Casey Cagle told Hall County educators on Thursday that if he was living at the governor’s mansion, his children would still go to school here.
“People ask me, ‘Casey, if you’re at the mansion, are your kids still going to be in the Hall County school system?’” Cagle said. “I want you to know right now, absolutely yes. Even if we have to bring a helicopter.”
He might reconsider jokes about using state helicopters — the topic has been a dicey one in many administrations. But his pledge of support to public schools was pretty clear.
On this same day, Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson of Savannah, who may or may not be running to replace Cagle as lieutenant governor, delivered a talk to the Georgia public Policy foundation, a local and conservative think tank.
Johnson’s topic was school vouchers, and two polls that he said show overwhelming public support. A statewide poll from late June, of 400 voters, showed that 68 percent believe that all children “should be able to obtain scholarships to attend the public or private school of their parents choice.”
A separate, metro Atlanta poll showed that 69 percent of voters want vouchers accessible to children in failing schools. “Vouchers are no longer something to run from in Georgia politics,” Johnson announced.
And yet.
The questions contained in one of those polls — the statewide poll — always contained the phrase “if there were no new costs to taxpayers.”
The caveat should serve as a warning to Republicans. If they’re to tackle this topic, the money issue will be paramount, especially in these times. Legislation to offer vouchers to students in failing Clayton County sparked a near-panic in neighboring Fayette County this spring — as many lawmakers, and their secretaries, well remember.
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InsiderAdvantage poll: Georgia remains within Obama’s reach
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Matt Towery’s InsiderAdvantage has put up some paragraphs on another poll of Georgia voters, this one taken July 29, that puts the presidential race thusly:
— Republican John McCain, 45 percent;
— Democrat Barack Obama, 41 percent;
— Libertarian Bob Barr, 5 percent;
— And undecided, 18 percent.
The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percent.
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Chambliss grills a sugar official, and is grilled in return
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss is getting some blowback for his harsh questioning of a whistle-blowing Imperial Sugar official who said, during a Senate subcommittee hearing, he warned the company of the hazardous situation at the plant — two weeks before it was ripped by an explosion.
In today’s Savannah Morning News, Larry Peterson reports this:
Near the end of the Tuesday session in Washington, the Georgia Republican lit into Graham H. Graham, Imperial’s vice president of operations.
“I believe Chambliss was espousing the company line in an effort to discredit and blunt Mr. Graham’s testimony,” the attorney, Philip Hilder, said Wednesday.
Chambliss denied that, saying he spoke on behalf of the families of the 13 people killed as a result of the Feb. 7 explosions and fire at the Port Wentworth refinery……
Hilder said he thinks Imperial suggested questions for Chambliss to ask Graham and accused the senator of a “cheap shot” against his client.
“He’s more interested in discrediting Mr. Graham than discovering the facts, and I think he’s the one who’s being insincere,” Hilder said.
Chambliss rejected Hilder’s claims.
“I ask my own questions,” the senator said. “That’s what lawyers are paid to say.”
….Imperial spokesman Steve Behm said the company suggested questions to subcommittee members, but none to Chambliss for Graham.
Tom Barton, editorial page editor of the local paper, weighed in with this criticism of Georgia’s senior senator.
We understand Chambliss has taken issue with portions of the column — including a reference to a $1,000 campaign donation to Chambliss made by Imperial Sugar last year, months before the explosion. The company has given $2,000 to Democrat John Barrow — half in 2007 and another grand in 2008. The list of Imperial contributions can be found here.
You can go here to see the video of the testimony. The exchange between the Scotland-born Graham and Chambliss begins almost exactly at the 2:00 mark.
Or you can click here for a rough, five-minute sound clip.
A partial transcript of the exchange appears on the jump.
And you can click here for Graham’s entire testimony.
Saxby Chambliss: You had this meeting with employees at the Port Wentworth plant in which you, Mr. Graham, had gone into this facility, and identified a shocking and dangerous facility in Port Wentworth. You made recommendations to the company which they followed.
You told these folks if they didn’t take some corrective action immediately, you told some of these folks they wouldn’t be back — they’d be in the morgue.
Why didn’t you, Mr. Graham, go to the management of Imperial Sugar Company and say, ‘By golly, if you don’t shut this plant down now and clean this up, you’re going to have a dangerous situation to occur — which did occur, two weeks after you said you made that statement.
Graham: I…
Chambliss: Why didn’t you do that?
Graham: I did do that. I told Mr. Sheptor that I was surprised we hadn’t killed anybody already, because the plants were so dangerous. I was told that my passion was extreme, and I had to temper it.
I was told to prepare a board presentation for the end of January, during which I was going to recommend asking for a significant change in the way were were operating the plant. And I was prevented from doing so.
Chambliss: Mr. Graham, here we are six months after the incident occurred and you’re still working for the same company that you say you gave that kind of mandate to. It gives me cause to question your sincerity and what you’ve had to say about this.
This has been a very emotional, tragic situation that occurred in south Georgia. And it’s one in which we want to get to the bottom of, obviously, from the standpoint of what happened. The ultimate result needs to be safety measures put in.
And I respect what you say about the fact that you made recommendations to them, but I really have reason to question your sincerity in that.
Because if you were, I can’t imagine — after what did happen and you said you made the statements you did — why are you still working for this company? Thank-you madam chairman.
(U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who chaired the subcommittee hearing, offered Graham an opportunity to reply to Chambliss.)
Graham: All of the conditions I described pre-existed my appointment. My objective today was to bring forth the facts laid out before me so that we can collectively decide what needs to be done to prevent this sort of tragedy from happening again. The employees of both refineries and indeed in the industry deserve a safe working environment.
And the reason I’m still there is that I believe I can continue to contribute to achieving this goal. And I will be taking OSHA’s findings and moving forward to continue fixing deficiencies so we can bring these people into an environment that is safe and clean….
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Don’t you hate it when they give you what you want before you even ask for it?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a sign that the general election is nearly upon us, the state Democratic party this morning called on U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss to return $10,000 he’s received from his recently indicted Republican colleague Ted Stevens of Alaska.
“Senator Stevens’ indictment puts every penny he has raised or contributed under a cloud of suspicion,” pronounced chairman Jane Kidd.
In an even bigger sign that the general election is nearly upon us, the Chambliss campaign said the matter has already been taken care of.
Yesterday, 24 hours after charges were leveled against the longest-serving U.S. senator, the Chambliss campaign wrote two checks — $5,000 to Camp Sunshine, which offers a summer vacation to kids with cancer, and another $5,000 to the Georgia chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.
“Always one step behind, aren’t they?” said Chambliss spokesman Michelle Grasso.
But Martin Matheny, spokesman for the Democratic party, was not to be denied his pound of flesh. “Sorry, I guess we’re so used to Senator Chambliss taking care of his friends on the Republican side that when he does the right thing for once, we’re all a little surprised,” he said.
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What Obama and McCain are spending in Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Politico.com is reporting that Democratic presidential presumptive Barack Obama has spent $1.6 million in advertising in Georgia.
The article was focused on Obama’s ability to use his surplus of cash to do battle in states that ought to belong to Republican John McCain:
A Politico analysis of the candidates’ spending in Georgia — not including advertising — since January 2007 found that overall, McCain has spent $441,895 to Obama’s $335,671.
But half of McCain’s cash, $220,613, has gone to three people, all of whom are fundraising consultants.
In the most recent financial disclosure reports released last week, McCain lists 13 Georgia-related expenses for June, which total $46,723.
Almost all of the payments were related to a Savannah campaign stop in May. McCain hasn’t hired any full-time field staff in Georgia and he’s not running any commercials on television there.
Obama listed 22 Georgia payments in his June financial disclosure form totaling $11,503. Of them, 13 were staff payroll costs. Since June 20, he’s aired $1.6 million in positive, biographical advertisements on Georgia stations, according to Evan Tracey, founder of the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
“They are treating the money they spent in the primaries as organizational investments and relying on them to form the foundation for the general election,” said Anthony Corrado, a nonpartisan campaign finance expert.
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Isakson on the housing bill and energy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Click here to see a CNBC interview of U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson that’s been making the rounds. This was taped Tuesday — most of the discussion is on the just-signed housing bill. Isakson was a chief advocate.
But in the video, Isakson also pumps up this bipartisan, “Gang of Ten” effort at a compromise oil exploration bill. He and Georgia colleague Saxby Chambliss are two-fifths of the Republican side of the energy gang.
On Monday, Chambliss — the Republican driver — said he expects to have a first draft of a proposal by the end of this week. Don’t know if that statement is still operative.
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