Horse-racing crowd concedes defeat -- but just by a nose
Just before dawn on this Crossover Day, horse-racing enthusiasts conceded defeat for the year. From the press release:
The Georgia Horse Racing Coalition ran out of time to bring SR 135, a Senate resolution to allow for a constitutional amendment to allow Georgians to vote on the legalization of horse racing with pari-mutuel wagering and bring one of America’s oldest sports to Georgia.
Needing to secure just two more Senate votes to win the 38 votes required for a two-thirds majority in the Senate, time ran out to bring the resolution to the Senate floor by the March 13th crossover date. Your daily jolt on politics from the AJC's Political insider blog
“The two votes we needed to pass the Senate were clearly in reach … we just needed a hundred more yards to cross the finish line,” says Carl Bouckaert, GHRC Chairman. “Unfortunately, we just could not finalize them before the deadline.”
“We want to thank all the senators who showed their bipartisan support for bringing the great American sport of racing to Georgia,” said Dean Reeves, GHRC President. “Horse racing would bring thousands of jobs and over $25M in revenues for education to Georgia and become another marquee tourist destination for the state.”
Just wait’ll next year.
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Erick Erickson of Redstate.com and WSB Radio is pointing his followers to one particular leverage point in the fight for S.B. 129, now before the House Judiciary Committee:
This comes on the heels of a public interview where the Speaker told Georgia Public Broadcasting, "My question is, and the questions I've asked, is if a constitutional guarantee is not sufficient than what is this bill, this statute, going to do that our constitution doesn't do?"
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Late Thursday, state Rep. Pat Gardner passed to members of the Fulton County delegation the two new city of Atlanta annexation maps intended for discussion next week. (Local legislation isn't bound by today's Day 30 deadline.) Here's the one for North Druid Hills, covered by H.B. 586:
And here's the one for south Fulton, covered by H.B. 587, which would carry the city to the Chattachoochee River:
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The email chain we saw included this reaction from state Rep. LaDawn Jones, D-Atlanta:
"This new map looks very dangerous and reckless. I'm very disappointed."
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We've still 10 working days to go in this session of the General Assembly, but we're already betting that this will be on its menu next year. From the Washington Post:
Freeze-dried, powdered alcohol has been approved by federal regulators, meaning the controversial novelty — once called "the Kool-Aid of teen binge drinking" — could hit liquor-store shelves across the country by the summer.
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Dale Russell, the veteran investigative reporter at WAGA-TV, drills into a Paulding County administrator who used county funds to conduct background checks on his critics -- in particular, a local blogger.
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Over at WABE (90.1FM), Michelle Wirth points to S.B. 76, passed by the chamber on Wednesday, which addresses the problem posed by weight-triggered traffic signals:
Before going through an intersection, riders would have to come to a complete stop and make sure there are no other vehicles within 500 feet. But they could only go if they believe their bicycle or motorcycle wasn't triggering the stoplight. Currently, like cars, bicyclists can turn right on red, but they're not supposed to go straight or turn left.
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And over at GaPundit.com, Jim Kingston, son of former Savannah congressman Jack Kingston, offers a retrospective on his fathers unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign and ponders the acumen of the voters they sought. A taste:
For reasons unknown to me, people care more about who George Clooney is dating or who gets kicked off American Idol than who is going to help lead the free world. In my case, I still have a lot learn about the issues and the people running. Several adults even asked me if my dad was running for North or South Georgia Senator.
About the Author
Jim Galloway, the newspaper’s former political columnist, was a writer and editor at the AJC for four decades.
