Sure, they can do this in Atlanta. The question is whether it will fly in Cobb County. From Channel 2 Action News:
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Here’s the quick recap from the Associated Press:
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Jack Kingston and his beat-up station wagon are out with a new TV ad this morning, highlighting his demand that able-bodied welfare recipients get a job. No mention of the Republican Senate candidate's corollary that school kids should push brooms in order to earn their free lunches:
Kingston, in the script:
"That's why my plan requires able-bodied adults on welfare and food stamps to work for their benefits. It's good for them and for taxpayers."
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It's clear now that despite Gov. Nathan Deal's support for an overhaul of the ethics commission, no help for the agency he called "broken" is on the way until next year.
We asked him why he took executive action on a range of other issues after the legislative session but chose not to intervene in the dysfunctional commission. His response:
"To arbitrarily and unilaterally intervene by the executive branch and try to tell them what to do would be inappropriate. It goes too far and it fails to respect their independence. And everyone who is talking about wanting ethics reform, they want them to be even more independent. And the proposal I have made will make them more independent. It's a balance you have to reach. But if you try to overstep your authority into an independent agency, that is just cause for criticism. And I have tried to avoid that."
In other words, never mind what that Fulton County jury verdict suggested.
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The data miners at Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight are up with an interesting analysis of what President Obama's approval rating means for Democratic candidates in key Senate races across the country. The answer: Not as much as early polling suggested.
Michelle Nunn, they reckon, right now has a 44 percent chance of winning, with or without Obama’s overt backing.
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Our AJC colleague Jeremy Redmon dug deeper into the campaign finance reports of U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, and former DeKalb County Sheriff Tom Brown, who are locked in a competitive Democratic primary in the Fourth Congressional District.
He found that most of Johnson’s money came from political committees. He received contributions from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and PACs for Home Depot, United Parcel Service and Wal-Mart.
All of Brown’s money came from individuals, including the Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church; former Georgia House Speaker Terry Coleman, now a government consultant; and Billy Dahlberg, former CEO of the Southern Company, the Atlanta-based parent company for Georgia Power. Dahlberg has donated in the past to Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Rep. Charlie Norwood.
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Washington-based Roll Call visited Marietta the other night for a look at the Georgia Senate race and, like seemingly every national publication, focused on Rep. Paul Broun. Reporter Kyle Trygstad found a subdued firebrand:
Broun, known widely for his controversial comments on evolution and other topics, sat stoic and expressionless on the dais as four other Georgia Republican hopefuls professed their conservative credentials. Each time the moderator called on him, Broun took a slow, deep breath before calmly — though sometimes haltingly — laying out his views and record on a range of issues.
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Alan Abramowitz, the Emory University political scientist, in a post at a blog run by the London School of Economics and Political Science, writes that national politics on this side of the water has entered a period of extreme stability. Summarizing the future of presidential elections:
The nonwhite share of the electorate, and especially the Latino share of the electorate, will continue to grow. States with large and/or rapidly growing Latino populations will show continued movement in a Democratic direction as Latinos gain citizenship and are mobilized into the electorate.
Unless the Republican Party finds a way to substantially increase its share of the nonwhite vote, Republican candidates will be at an increasing disadvantage in future presidential elections. This means that Republican candidates will only be able to win these elections if short-term factors tilt strongly in their favor.
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Both the Republican and Democratic state parties have settled on next Thursday, April 24, as a day for massive fundraising dinners.
Republicans will hold their Georgia Victory 2014 bash, featuring Gov. Nathan Deal, GOP chairman John Padgett and U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, at 103 West in Atlanta. Entry will cost a minimum of $1,000.
Democrats will be housed at the Georgia World Congress Center. But they're moving to a bigger room. From an email sent Wednesday:
Since we have the extra space, we are selling a limited number of general admission tickets for $150.
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