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DEL.ICIO.USHow to solve Georgia’s gas crisis and protect certain House Republicans in one fell swoop
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Speaker Glenn Richardson, who has kept a lower-than-low profile lately, on Tuesday announced the formation of a seven-person special House committee on “future infrastructure and petroleum needs for Georgia and the East Coast.”
One of the seven, Gerald Greene of Cuthbert, is a Democrat who thus allows Richardson to call the effort bipartisan.
“The recent gas shortage left many Georgians, including me, frustrated by the lack of fuel and long lines at the pump,” Richardson said in a press release. “This panel will look at the various options available to the state that will prevent a situation like this from occurring again.”
But consider that there might be a dual purpose here, given that the Legislature doesn’t convene for another three months.
Until the Wall Street crash, Republicans viewed energy as their ace-in-the-hole, a can’t-miss topic that connects them with voters of all stripes.
It remains a volatile issue, and should help any Republican lawmaker who can boast — on his or her direct mail — that he/she is on the spear’s edge of the effort to solve “future infrastructure and petroleum needs for Georgia and the East Coast.” (Who new the speaker had such a long reach?)
Four of the six Republicans on the committee — chairman John Heard of Lawrenceville; vice-chair Steve “Thunder” Tumlin of Marietta; Jill Chambers of Atlanta; and Mike Jacobs of Atlanta — all have significant, well-funded opposition. All are threatened by a Barack Obama surge of Democratic voters.
Heard faces Democratic attorney Lee Thompson. Tumlin is in a rematch against former state lawmaker Pat Dooley. Chambers faces Democratic operative Chris Huttman. And Jacobs, in his first election as a Republican, is opposed by Michelle Conlon.
Conlon is an independent, but is expected to announce soon that she intends to caucus with Democrats, who have been assisting her campaign.
Greene, the only Democrat on the committee to address the nation’s oil addiction, is unopposed. He can turn the appointment to no advantage come November.
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Comments
By ohbwotha
October 15, 2008 9:27 AM | Link to this
Just to clarify: Heard is from Lawrenceville. House District 104.