From our perch in the nosebleed section, it looked for a while Tuesday like the bell had rung for Round 1 of the next battle for the chair of the Gwinnett Commission.

Commissioner Lorraine Green is widely considered a presumptive challenger to Chairman Charles Bannister in 2008. Although she won't confirm or deny she's running for the job, she came out swinging Tuesday in the first commission meeting of the new year.

Here's the blow by blow:

First, Green hits Bannister with $6 million in last-minute cuts to the chairman's 2007 budget proposal. Rather than spending the money, she says, the county should leave the cash in the bank.

Bannister, appearing blindsided, swings back. He calls her plan "a shell game" and objects specifically to her proposed $2 million cut in jail inmate housing and health care spending.

Green counters she's being fiscally responsible.

Bannister says he is.

Green prevails. The board votes 4-1 in favor of Green's cuts to Bannister's $1.68 billion budget proposal. Bannister casts the sole dissenting vote.

Looking back, the skirmish may have been more theater than fisticuffs.

Green can't promise her cuts will be permanent. Every July, the board adjusts the budget, largely because the actual totals for revenue collections and spending don't match the amounts projected in January.

So the board could restore any or all of Green's cuts.

That also means Bannister doesn't have to worry about county jailers housing inmates in Quonset huts or giving them Band-Aids after knife fights.

But, stealing a few words from Muhammad Ali, it's just politics. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand, and candidates beat each other up.

NOW FOR ROUND 2

One day later, Green gave reporters an unsolicited heads up on some property the county's looking at buying for a new park.

That's because a couple of e-mails were circulating and raising questions about the deal. The parcel's owner, real estate tycoon Wayne Mason, is asking in the neighborhood of $4.5 million for the land. Green is pushing the deal. Bannister is flat opposed to it.

One e-mail came from community activist Butch Poss, who launched an unsuccessful challenge against 4th District Commissioner Kevin Kenerly. Bannister gave money to Poss' campaign.

Green thinks Bannister probably leaked the information that led to the e-mails. "Since this matter had only been discussed in executive session, that would be a reasonable conclusion," Green said.

Executive sessions are closed meetings during which board members can discuss land purchases, pending legal actions or personnel matters without opening them to the public.

Bannister denied having anything to do with the e-mails.

"I don't do that kind of stuff," Bannister said.

SO, ON TO ROUND 3?

Friday, Bannister took exception to something Green said in an article in AJC Gwinnett News about the deal for the Mason property.

Noting that the tract is the subject of a lawsuit, Green warned, "If we lose [that suit], you'll have 300 apartments there."

A year ago, Green and her commission colleagues voted down a request from Mason to rezone the property from a commercial designation to a zoning use that would allow high-density apartments.

If the county doesn't buy the property and Mason prevails in court, which Green thinks is a definite possibility, she expects him to restart his apartment project.

Bannister thinks that's not reason enough to buy the land. "I don't think we should make it a practice of buying ourselves out of a lawsuit," he said. "That's not the way the game is played."

SOMETIME ROCKY WINS

Last summer, Rep. Bobby Reese seemed to be on the ropes (to continue the boxing metaphors). The GOP legislator from Sugar Hill was facing a re-election challenge from political heavyweight Wayne Hill, the former Gwinnett commission chairman, and some folks thought Reese didn't have a chance.

They were wrong. Reese won. And last week, Reese's Gwinnett House colleagues capped his victory by electing him chairman of their delegation. The delegation, which elected Lilburn Rep. Clay Cox as its secretary, heads to downtown Atlanta for the start of the General Assembly on Monday.