State Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens said Tuesday that health care policies that will be offered in Georgia through federally created insurance exchanges will include heavy increases – especially for young participants.

He’s sent a a three-paragraph letter to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, demanding that she grant a 30-day delay in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, to give him more time to examine proposals made by six insurance companies that will offer coverage through the exchanged – aimed at currently uninsured Georgians.

From his letter:

In complete contradiction to every promise made by the President with regard to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("PPACA"), insurance companies in in Georgia have filed rate plans increasing health insurance rates up to 198 percent for some individuals.

Georgia consumers cannot afford these massive rate increases. For their protection, I am requesting that you grant an emergency 30-day delay of the JuIy 31 deadline for our department to approve these increases. In addition, I am requesting that your Department show cause why these massive requested rate increases ate not justified under PPACA.

Hudgens writes that he intends to stay at work until 7 p.m. this evening to field Sebelius’ call.

In a follow-up interview, Hudgens said the 198 percent increase mentioned above was “the highest one,” and other premium increases would be lower -- but still hefty.

“Generally, for the younger, it’s going to be better than a 100 percent increase. You have to comply with the Affordable Care Act that demands coverage of pre-existing conditions,” he said.

Seven companies submitted policies for coverage, Hudgens said, and his department – after they were examined by an outside auditor – accepted six.

The insurance commissioner acknowledged that he has the power to disallow the above requested insurance rate increases if he doesn’t believe them justified – but said in the interview that he believes he would be on “shakey ground” if he did.

So he has put the onus on Sebelius: “I’m saying, ‘You tell me why these rates are not reasonable, because our actuaries don’t think they’re excessive,” Hudgens said.

Ranking Republicans were quick to back Hudgens’ move this morning. From David Shafer of Duluth, president pro tem of the state Senate and a close ally of Hudgens:

"The President repeatedly promised his legislation would make health insurance coverage more available; but massively increasing rates will have the opposite effect.  Coverage will become unaffordable for most Georgia families, and the ranks of the uninsured will grow.

 "I applaud Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens for his efforts to protect Georgia families from the catastrophic consequences of these rate increases.   I call on the United States Department of Health and Human Services to grant his emergency appeal to delay implementation of the Obamacare rate increases."

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People are noticing U.S. Rep. Paul Broun’s early push in the U.S. Senate race. A letter to the editor in today’s Marietta Daily Journal starts like this:

Someone would have to be blind not to see all the Paul Broun for U.S. Senate campaign signs that appeared almost overnight several weeks ago throughout Cobb.

However, I believe his campaign signs are posted in yards way too early for an election in 2014. This raises the question, how soon should political yard signs be allowed in peoples’ yards prior to Election Day? Many states and cities already limit posting political yard signs earlier than 90, 60 or even 30 days before Election Day.

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The National Republican Senatorial Committee this morning sends notice that it intends to pester female Democrats to weigh in on their misbehaving male colleagues – Anthony Wiener, for instance:

[N]ow that Democrats across the country are caught in the midst of multiple scandals involving sexual harassment, assault, and predatory actions against women, their colleagues - including Michelle Nunn - have little to say.  In fact, just yesterday, the White House claimed that President Obama has no opinion about Anthony Weiner.  There's a reason for their silence: Bill Clinton.

Bill Clinton will barnstorm across the country in 2014, no doubt working to help elect  Michelle Nunn and other Democratic candidates as they use the manufactured "War on Women" to score political points. Remember: This is the same Bill Clinton whose own predatory behavior destroyed lives, hurt his wife, and embarrassed his colleagues (and our country). Yes, the same Bill Clinton who other Democratic Senators admittedly said they would not trust alone with their daughters.

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The Savannah Morning News has these biographical tidbits of Branko Radulovacki, another Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate:

Radulovacki emigrated with his family to the United States at age 7 from the former Yugoslavia. Before graduating medical school, he earned degrees in economics and business management and worked as a Wall Street banker.

Those experiences along with his career in medicine, he said, have shaped his belief that he could make a very positive impact on a “gridlocked” U.S. legislature “in crisis.”

Here’s what he says about immigration:

“By the time I was 8 years old I’d lived on three continents (Europe, Africa and North America) and it really made me realize just how important our differences are and how we need to understand and be inclusive of those differences … Many immigrants here are folks who only want to make a difference and be productive members of our society, and we need a program that allows those individuals to make a home here in the United States.”

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A GOP push in favor of immigration reform has been launched, according to the New York Times:

More than 100 Republican donors — many of them prominent names in their party’s establishment — sent a letter to Republican members of Congress on Tuesday urging them to support an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws.

The letter, which calls for “legal status” for the 11 million immigrants here illegally, begins with a simple appeal: “We write to urge you to take action to fix our broken immigration system.”

The effort was organized by Carlos Gutierrez, who was secretary of commerce under President George W. Bush and was a founder of a “super PAC,” Republicans for Immigration Reform.

Other signers included GOP strategist Karl Rove and former Vice President Dan Quayle.

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The AJC’s Politifact Georgia today takes a look at immigration lawyer Charles Kuck’s claim that “a provision of the Senate immigration bill would require you to have government permission to get a second job.”

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Delta Air Lines has put Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on the cover of its Sky magazine – an editorial decision that underlines how much of a non-event Reed’s re-election campaign is likely to be this fall. The magazine lists Reed’s favorite songs – topped by these:

"Fall Again" by Michael Jackson

"Put On  (edited version)" by Young Jeezy

"Started From the Bottom (edited version)" by Drake

"More" by Usher

"Tonight" by Jessica Sanchez ft. Ne-Yo

"You Are" by Charlie Wilson

"Don’t You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds

"Hustlin’ (edited version)" by Rick Ross

"Viva La Vida" by Coldplay

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On Monday, the Washington Post printed another installment of staff writer Dan Balz’ account of the 2012 presidential campaign – this one focused on the Obama campaign’s use of voter data.

That afternoon, Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz created a chain of responses from the world of pundits with this emailed critique:

Yes, it was Obama's sophisticated data mining and voter turnout operation that won the election for him.  It must be true because Dan Balz says it's so.  But I have one question.  In the words of David Plouffe himself, "Where's the proof?" 

 The answer is, there is no proof because Obama's sophisticated data mining and voter turnout operation had little or nothing to do with his winning the election.  Because if it did, the proof would be in Obama's better results in the key battleground states where all of the campaign effort was concentrated.

But Obama did no better in the battleground states than anywhere else in relation to his performance four years earlier.  He did exactly as well as one would have predicted.  Yes, overall turnout was a little higher in the battleground states, as it always is, but this did not benefit Obama.  So evidently the Romney campaign's efforts were just as effective as the Obama campaign's efforts in the swing states.

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Bob “Action News” Barr, Republican candidate in the 11^th District congressional race, on Monday went to the site of the Waffle House where an off-duty security guard – that same day – had thwarted an armed robbery. Barr recorded this YouTube video in praise of the Second Amendment and “stand your ground” laws.

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Augusta businessman Rick Allen, a Republican candidate in the 12^th congressional district, sends word that he has a new website and 35,000 followers on Facebook. It’s a new emphasis. Last year, he reported having only 400 followers – and lost in a primary