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Thursday, February 12, 2009
Cobb County GOP chairman ‘violated’ election law by listing false home address in 2006
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
According to an investigator with Secretary of State Karen Handel’s office, the chairman of the Cobb County GOP “violated” state election law by listing a false home address when requesting an absentee ballot for the November 2006 general election.
Anthony-Scott Hobbs, who served as chairman of the Cobb Republican party from 2003 to 2007, also “may have violated” state law by indicating a false address on his voter certificate for the July primary that year, the investigator concluded.
That sigh you just heard was the breath escaping from dozens of Democrats, who wish they’d been aware of this during debate over the state Capitol debate over voter ID. Cobb County is one of the most treasured sources of Republican votes in the state.
Read the investigation summary here.
Hobbs has agreed to a $100 fine that will be made official at the April meeting of the State Election Board, his attorney, Douglas Chalmers, confirmed.
Chalmers described the fine as “minimal,” and said it reflected the fact that Hobbs was acting on bad advice from the Cobb County Board of Elections.
According to the investigation summary, Hobbs:
….claimed that between Jan. 1, 2006 and Jan. 24, 2007, he lived with friends and in extended-stay hotels to save money to purchase a home.
Mr. Hobbs claimed that prior to the elections in question, Mr. Hobbs contacted an unknown person at the Cobb County elections board to question what he should indicate as his address when he voted. He stated that this unknown representative of the board advised him to use his previous address….
Apparently, this has been kicking around for some time. According to the report: “Identical allegations were brought forth in June 2007, and the charges were investigated by the GBI.”
A Cobb County jury refused to indict Hobbs in December, 2007. The current complaint was filed anonymously to the State Elections Board shortly afterwards.
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The power of stimulus: Senate Democrats hold hearing, and officialdom takes it seriously
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Friday, an ad hoc committee of Senate Democrats will hold a hearing in the state Capitol to discuss what money might be available for Georgia from the federal stimulus package just consummated in Washington.
The committee is a formalized version of a system that House Democrats have established.
Speaking at the Senate hearing will be the chancellor of the university system, the head of the state Department of Human Resources, the state labor commissioner. Gov. Sonny Perdue has indicated he will send a representative, said Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon).
There was a time such an event would have been ignored. Department heads whose administrations fall under Republican control would have been barred from participating.
But this is what happens when power trickles down via the $789 billion economic recovery package. Democrats are eager to establish themselves as point men in the hunt for federal dollars.
“We want to try to position ourselves for a smart recovery,” Brown said.
Earlier this week, state Sen. David Adelman (D-Decatur) one of Barack Obama’s key supporters in Georgia during the presidential campaign, introduced legislation that would require the state’s energy providers to increase — over the next 20 years — their reliance on renewable sources, such as biomass and solar.
Adelman cited $70 billion that the federal stimulus package contained for energy initiatives.
Next Thursday, a dinner hosted by the Legislative Black Caucus will feature U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, the southwest Democrat who has emerged as the Georgian closest to both Obama and the federal stimulus package.
Bishop is also to speak before both the House and the Senate. “He’ll have to address the stimulus, because that’s what’s on everybody’s mind,” said state Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur), chairman of the black caucus.
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Thurmond: ‘We’re witnessing the emergence of a Darwinian job market’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Department of Labor announced today that 120,139 laid-off workers filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance benefits in January, an 81 percent increase over January ‘08.
“We are witnessing the emergence of a Darwinian job market,” said State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond in the press release announcing the barren statistics. This afternoon, Thurmond will address a joint meeting of House and Senate committees charged with overseeing employment in Georgia.
“The growing number of layoffs has created a surplus of jobseekers who are talented, experienced, educated, and well-trained. In this challenging environment, the most successful jobseekers will be those who demonstrate the highest levels of persistence, determination, and above all, flexibility when looking for work,” Thurmond said.
Thurmond did not say if it made any difference whether, in a Darwinian job market, an unemployed person disputed evolution theory.
The worst places in Georgia to find a job are now Dalton, where unemployment claims were up 165 percent; Brunswick, up 164 percent; and Rome, up 153 percent.
Cities doing the best, within the new definition of the word: Columbus, up 21 percent; Valdosta, up 35 percent; and Savannah, up 39 percent.
