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Thursday, August 21, 2008
Barr: ‘McCain wants me off the ballot in Pennsylvania’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr says GOP rival John McCain is behind an attempt in Pennsylvania to drive him off the ballot.
“This move is certainly one of the more brazen attempts to lock me out of the political process,” Barr said in a press release this evening. “I challenge Senator McCain to forcefully and publicly instruct his agents to drop the lawsuit.”
Here’s the one of more detailed accounts of the challenge against Barr’s candidacy.
Recent polls in Pennsylvania, which place Barack Obama in the lead, may help explain GOP motivation.
Barr pointed out that McCain himself fought similar attempts to force him from the New York ballot in 2000, and pulled out a quote that the Republican used eight years ago:
“Let’s not have the kind of Stalinist politics that the state of New York, the Republican Party, has been practicing.”
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Thurbert Baker: Delegate switching in Denver isn’t his problem
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the Democratic blogosphere, there’s been some chatter about a provision in the Georgia Code (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-196) that requires delegates to political conventions to stick with the candidates what got them there for two votes, or until the said candidate gets less than 35 percent in a round of voting, or until said candidate releases delegates from their pledge.
Delegates sign an oath, by the way, that is on file with Secretary of State Karen Handel. The statute requiring the pledge dates back at least to the mid-1970s.
Last week, an inquiry was sent the way of Attorney General Thurbert Baker, complaining that the Barack Obama campaign had been pressuring Georgia delegates pledged to other candidates to switch their votes. Baker, you’ll recall, was a Hillary Clinton supporter during the Democratic primary.
The originator of the letter, whom the Insider is attempting to contact, does not appear on a list of Democratic convention delegates.
In any case, Baker has declined to get involved. Here’s the reply issued on Wednesday by Dennis Dunn, deputy attorney general:
Your August 15, 2008, letter to the Attorney General has been referred to me for response. You have complained that supporters of Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States have been, both nationally and in Georgia, seeking to encourage delegates pledged to support other candidates at the Democratic National Convention to instead vote for Senator Obama’s nomination.
You have indicated that such individuals advocating this position are encouraging delegates to violate O.C.G.A. § 21-2-196, a statute providing that delegates file with the Secretary of State an oath that the delegate will vote for the candidate to which they are pledged. You have asked for our office to take “appropriate action” to ensure that Senator Obama’s campaign supporters act in accordance with this Georgia law.
In Georgia, the Attorney General may provide legal advice and representation to our clients within state government. We cannot provide those services to private citizens so I cannot advise you regarding any actions which you might take to address your concerns.
Additionally, the Georgia Election Code does not provide the Attorney General with any enforcement authority in relation to this issue. Therefore, this office cannot assist you in this matter.
In other words, said Baker spokesman Russ Willard, the crime of casting one’s vote for an unauthorized candidate at a convention doesn’t fall within Baker’s job description.
Prosecution for false swearing, after the fact, would be a matter between Secretary of State Karen Handel and Fulton County authorities. Perhaps a lawsuit. Willard couldn’t say if it had ever happened before.
Whether the above means anything is open to debate. After all, Clinton’s name will be placed in nomination, and a state-by-state vote will be called on Wednesday.
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The mayor of Athens to Sonny Perdue: ‘You mind your budget, we’ll mind ours’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Consider the plight of the poor mayor, county commissioner or school board member.
Throughout the entire winter and into the spring, they had to worry about the assault by House Speaker Glenn Richardson, who was out to eliminate property taxes in favor of a hike in the sales tax. Local governments were
Cash for local governments was to be funneled to the hinterlands through an enlightened state government.
Local officials beat back that idea, only to find themselves under attack this week by Gov. Sonny Perdue. To meet a building state budget deficit, the governor has suggested eliminating a $428 million property tax credit offered since the late ‘90s, worth about $200 to $300 to an average homeowner.
Perdue has suggested that this can be accomplished with no pain to homeowners if only county and city governments, and school boards, would oblige him and cut their spending to absorb the loss. The governor knows they have fat in their budgets, and says he’s prepared to prove it.
Now, as you might imagine, this isn’t going down well with some hinterland officials. Heidi Davison, mayor of Athens-Clarke County, was on WGAU (1340AM) in Athens this morning. If she were a porcupine, the governor would be feeling a few quills right now.
Here’s the sound that host Tim Bryant sent.
Said Davison:
“If he wants to come and look at our budget, and then show us how we’re being wasteful, that’s fine. But I don’t think the governor’s job is to fix local problems and to tell local people how to spend their money.
“Local citizens have the right to expect a certain level of services and to pay for those — and that’s what they do. It’s the governor’s job to focus on the state. State income tax has also been growing, as incomes have gone up, but I haven’t seen any effort on the part of the state to limit the amount of money that they’re taking ….
“Yet he wants to come in here and take money out of our property taxes and tell us we’re spending too much money. It might be nice if the Legislature would focus on their spending, and where their funds are coming from…”
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More about that fellow who flew into Atlanta with McCain on Monday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Turns out that this week’s appearance by Democrat-turned-independent Joe Lieberman at an Atlanta fund-raiser for John McCain may have been a trial balloon.
This is from the Washington Times:
Officials with John McCain’s campaign made a series of conference calls Monday and Tuesday with supporters nationwide to say that Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman may be named as the Arizona senator’s vice presidential running mate, immediately sparking a frenzied effort by some state Republican officials to come up with a strategy to head off such a move….
One of the concerned state GOP officials told The Washington Times that he talked with two “high-level” campaign officials who said “Lieberman is a very real possibility.”
Currently, Lieberman is scheduled to take on the role of Zell Miller next month, addressing the Republican National Convention on Sept. 1.
Photo credit: Associated Press
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So says a poll: Race and religion hurt Obama in the South
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Both race and religion have helped give Republican presidential candidate John McCain a substantial lead over Democratic rival Barack Obama in the South, according to a poll of 11 states in the region.
Twelve percent of Southerners say the race of a candidate is important to them. But nearly a third of working-class whites say most of their close friends would have problems voting for a black person for president.
Forty percent of white evangelicals said that, even if a candidate were a practicing Christian, the fact that he had a Muslim parent would affect their willingness to vote for him.
The survey was conducted by Winthrop University and ETV, the public television arm of South Carolina. The poll has a margin of error of under 3 percent. The only caveat : The poll of 1,088 likely voters was conducted Aug. 1 to 17, a broad smear that can make it difficult to measure shifts that occur over a matter of days.
Download the details of the survey here.
McCain leads Obama in the South by 51 to 35 percent. The margin increases in the Deep South states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina.
Among working-class whites, McCain pulls 60 percent of the vote. Among evangelicals, 71 percent.
Among all Southerners, McCain ties with Obama on the issue of health care, but the Republican bests the Democrat when it comes to gas prices, the Iraq war, taxes, illegal immigration, moral values and terrorism.
A vast majority of Southerners give poor grades to President Bush and say the country is on the wrong track. Yet when asked who has “a clear plan for solving the country’s problems,” a third of Southerners say neither candidate. Just under 30 percent say McCain, and 26 percent say Obama.
Forty-seven percent of Southerns say the age of a candidate is important. And, when asked when a candidate is “too old,” 70 years old is the most common answer — though the average of the age limit placed on presidential candidates by those in the survey was 74 years old.
McCain turns 72 next week.
