There’s probably a Chinese symbol that explains Georgia’s position now that a key chairmanship on Capitol Hill is opening. It would depict dread over potential loss, with sprinkles of opportunity.
U.S. House Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen's announcement that he will go home to New Jersey and not seek re-election sets up a contest for the job, and the leading contender at this point is the next Republican in line in seniority, U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala.
That could give Alabama extraordinary power over spending in Washington because the state’s senior U.S. senator, Richard Shelby, is in position to take charge of his chamber’s Appropriations Committee if its current chairman, ailing Mississippi U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, steps down.
Such a success by its neighbor could mean big trouble for Georgia, particularly in the tri-state water war that generally pits the Peach State against a partnership of Alabama and Florida.
Only one member of the committee, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, has announced intentions to compete with Aderholt for Frelinghuysen’s throne.
But here’s where opportunity kicks in.
What U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, lacks in seniority — about a half-dozen members of the committee have logged more time than he has in Congress — he has in cachet, at least for the moment. He scored a huge success last year by gaining House passage of an unorthodox 12-in-one spending package meant to increase the chamber's hand in negotiations with the Senate on spending.
Graves has given no indication he will seek the chairmanship. But if he were to succeed, it would bring much-needed clout to a Georgia congressional delegation that has watched its power trickle away after several of its longtime members — such as Tom Price and Lynn Westmoreland — left Capitol Hill.
Trash talk, GOP-style: It's becoming clear the Republicans running for governor don't care much for each other.
The past week saw the candidates — or their surrogates — saying plenty, little of it complimentary.
It started when Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp's spokesman, Ryan Mahoney, criticized the immediate antidote that Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle's task force recommended for the state's health care problems, which tended to be more bureaucratic than Hippocratic.
In a tweet, Mahoney took issue with Cagle’s claims of being “opposed to big gov’t solutions … while proposing another council & commission.”
Cagle’s campaign manager, Scott Binkley, responded by taking aim at problems that arose involving the Secretary of State’s Office under Kemp: the errant release in 2015 of compact discs containing the personal data of about 6 million registered voters and the wiping of a server at a Kennesaw State University election center that contained voting information.
Binkley said that while Cagle was standing firm against Obamacare, “Kemp was handing out our SSNs and wiping servers.”
Then another candidate, state Sen. Michael Williams, decided during a speech on the Senate floor to mock Cagle's campaign slogan, "Cagle Lead," which has nothing to do with pencils.
“Mr. President, before you get your panties in a wad or get your cabal after me, I’m just merely reciting a slogan,” Williams said. “There is really no leading when it comes to ‘Cagle Lead,’ there is only intimidation, bullying and coercion.”
Cagle did not respond, but state Sen. John Albers did. Calling the Senate "sacred ground" — his way of saying cut the panties talk — Albers said: "It's time to all be senators and rise above political rhetoric."
It should be noted that Albers donated $1,000 to Cagle’s campaign.
Following a different game plan: Recent statewide elections have shown Georgia Democrats to be the political equivalent of the Cleveland Browns, so it shouldn't be a big surprise that Stacey Abrams is throwing out the party's playbook in her bid to become governor.
The former state House minority leader has worked hard to woo progressives when predecessors aimed for the center of the field.
As part of that strategy, she just made a considerable effort to court the LGBTQ vote during what The Georgia Voice dubbed her “big gay weekend.”
First, she appeared at an Atlanta Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce event. The next day, it was her turn to play host to dozens of LGBTQ elected officials and leaders at her campaign headquarters in Kirkwood.
It’s nowhere near the path Jason Carter followed in 2014, during his unsuccessful run for governor as the Democratic nominee.
Patrick Saunders pointed out in a Georgia Voice article that “Carter stayed mum on LGBTQ issues, skipped marching in the Atlanta Pride parade, refused interviews with LGBTQ media and quietly came out for same-sex marriage a day after a Georgia Voice editorial criticized him for not already doing so.”
Saunders added that Democrat Michelle Nunn, during her unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate that same year, ran the same pass routes as Carter.
Abrams isn’t the only Democrat making a pitch to LGBTQ voters. Her rival for the party’s nomination for governor, former state Rep. Stacey Evans, is also courting the gay community.
Memo finds fans and critics: The U.S. House Intelligence Committee won praise from some of Georgia's most conservative lawmakers when it voted to release a memo written by its chairman casting doubt on the methods used by federal law enforcement agents during the early days of the Russia investigation.
U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, said the memo written by U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes shows “that gross violations of individuals’ constitutional rights were knowingly committed at the highest levels of the (Department of Justice) and the FBI, for political reasons.”
It wasn't a popular move, however, with Christopher Wray, who was an Atlanta lawyer before President Donald Trump tapped him to become the FBI director.
Wray went public Thursday with a request that the White House block the release of the classified memo.
He had tried a more private route earlier, but when that failed the FBI went on the offensive Wednesday, saying in a statement that it has “grave concerns about the material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”
Tainted money, good cause: A Cobb County-based nonprofit will receive $2,700 following recent allegations of sexual assault against casino mogul Steve Wynn.
Wynn, who stepped down as the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, had donated the money to the campaign of U.S. Rep. Karen Handel, R-Roswell.
But after The Wall Street Journal revealed the allegations against Wynn, Handel announced plans to give the money to liveSafe Resources, which is dedicated to aiding victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and elderly abuse.
Democrats have pressured Republican lawmakers to donate the money they received from Wynn, just as Republicans pressured their Democratic colleagues to do the same thing months ago following the allegations of sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein.
Education tests well in poll: Public education should be receiving more money, even if it costs other government programs some funding, a new poll of Southern registered voters found.
The Education Poll of the South — conducted for seven nonprofit, nonpartisan groups — found 84 percent of 2,200 respondents in a dozen states, including Georgia, thought their home states needed to adjust funding to level the field between rich and poor communities.
Fifty-seven percent even said they were willing to pay more in taxes to support education, said Alan Richard, a consultant who coordinated the poll for the nonprofits, known collectively as the Columbia Group.
The Georgia Department of Education says the state, on average, pays more than $9,000 per pupil in local, state and federal money. Ben Scafidi, who teaches economics at Kennesaw State University, said the figure rises above $11,000 per pupil once you throw in big categories such as capital expenditures.
Georgia placed 38th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2015 for per-pupil spending.
Candidates, endorsements, etc.:
— The Georgia Federation of Teachers has endorsed Evans in the governor's race.
— DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston will lead Evans' effort to reach out to female voters.
Capitol Recap
Here's a look at some of the news that broke this past week at Georgia's General Assembly, with some other political and government news on the side. Find more by subscribing to Politically Georgia.
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