Fresh Loaf

The opening day for qualifying is always the most exciting because it brings out the serious challengers and candidates for open seats. The idea is to get your name down ASAP in order to scare away potential opponents. There are usually a handful of stragglers who wait until the last moment – which in this case is Friday at noon – but most of the serious contenders use qualifying as a way to serve notice that they now want your money.

That said, let’s see who picked up opposition on Monday, starting with the state Senate:

• We gave Sen. Jeff Chapman, R-Brunswick, a coveted Arnie award for courageously fighting a losing battle to keep developers from turning Jekyll Island into a floating strip mall. He’s being challenged by a fellow Brunswick Republican, Terry Carter, who is – surprise! – a developer.
• Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, has picked up opposition from 72-year-old Betty Aaron, a Palmetto Democrat who served a few years in the House during the ’80s.
• Sen. Nancy Schaefer, R-Turnerville, has apparently adopted a strategy of confusing potential opponents. First, she was going to run for Congress, then she announced her retirement, then she gave word she was running for re-election to her Senate seat. Her website still says she’s running for Congress – or maybe she’s changed her mind again. Anyway, it appears the strategy hasn’t worked; she now has two GOP challengers, Jim Butterworth of Cornelia and Terry Rogers of Clarkesville.
• Sen. Dan Moody, R-Alpharetta, has Democratic opposition from Akhtar Sadiq, a Roswell business consultant.

Lots more activity on the House side:

• Rep. Ron Forster, R-Ringgold, won a Golden Sleaze award for penning the dumbest bill of the past year, a measure to rent out state inmates to military contractors in Baghdad. We hear conflicting info on whether he’s re-upping, but so far, he has two GOP challengers, Bob Jenkins of Dalton and Tom Weldon Jr. of Ringgold.
• GOP Rep. Matt Dollar, East Cobb’s own good-time party boy, is being challenged by Democrat RuthE Levy of Marietta, an Air Force veteran and grandmother last seen running for state Senate.
• Rep. Joe Wilkinson, R-Sandy Springs, has opposition from Democratic physician Chris Cameron of Atlanta.
• After serving 32 years in the Statehouse, Rep. Bob Holmes, D-Atlanta, is finally retiring. Seeking his seat are Democrats Ralph Long III, a real estate broker; Tony M.L. McCann, a teacher; and the feisty Keisha Waites, who has unsuccessfully run for both the Atlanta City Council and Fulton Commission.
• Rep. Sharon Beasley-Teague, D-Red Oak, who also earned a Golden Sleaze award for claiming a suspiciously large mileage reimbursement, has three Democratic challengers: 71-year-old community activist Sandra Hardy and retiree Woody Holmes, both of Fairburn; and businessman Charles Sharper of Atlanta.
• Lining up to succeed Rep. Stan Watson, D-Decatur, who’s running for DeKalb CEO, are teacher Rita Robinzine and businessman Byron Wilson, both of Ellenwood; and real estate broker Rahn Mayo of Decatur. All are young Democrats and, we believe, first-time political candidates.
• So far, two of DeKalb’s three House Republicans have Democratic opposition. Rep. Mike Jacobs, who last ran with a “D” behind his name, faces businessman Keith Gross, and Rep. Jill Chambers faces businesswoman Cecilia Hailey.
• Surprisingly, Rep. Ron Sailor’s career move into prison has only brought forth one potential successor so far, psychotherapist Jim Sendelbach of Conyers, who is running as a Democrat, although he previously ran for Congress as a Libertarian.
• Rep. Bobby Reese, R-Sugar Hill, is another recent Golden Sleaze laureate for his resolution urging Congress to repeal the 14th Amendment. We can only hope we served in some small way to encourage his GOP challenger, businessman David Hancock of Suwanee.

Bookmark It

From the Gainesville Times:

Those being mentioned as possible successors to Evans include Chris Riley, chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Gainesville, and state Sen. Eugene “Chip” Pearson of Dawsonville. Pearson has reportedly told legislative leaders that he would not seek re-election to his Senate seat this year.

Pearson, as you may recall, was one of this year’s distinguished recipients of a Golden Sleaze award. He got the nod for blocking Jekyll Island legislation, pushing a bill that would exempt the DOT from forcing contractors to pay soil erosion fines, and other pieces of past legislation that would’ve placed the environment at risk.

(Photo courtesy of the Senate Press Office)

Bookmark It

During the legislative session, Rep. Bobby Franklin, R-Marietta, blogged for The American View, a conservative Christian web site whose organizers aim to create “Christian America, and a Christian world, a Christian galaxy and a Christian universe.”

But since there is no area of life outside of the Lordship of King Jesus, all votes cast are religious in nature and must be based on what the Bible says is the proper function of the civil government.

— Franklin, on Jan 31, explaining how he decides his legislative votes.

By a vote of 154-1 the House approved HB 1088, a bill to provide state central planning of “agricultural tourism.” The last time I checked, I could not find any Biblical role of the civil government in the function of tourism, agricultural or otherwise.

— Franklin, on Feb. 18.

HB 1043 amended an already bad law, the “Childhood Lead Exposure Control Act” by allowing the state to enter your property if some state agent thinks that your kid has been exposed to lead. Whatever happened to the Supreme Court’s “Roe” and “Casey” right to privacy?

— Franklin rails against a bill aimed at protecting children from lead-contaminated structures.

You are a person while in the test tube. But the state then can deny your personhood the moment you are implanted in a uterus. With so called right to life organizations promoting this type of abomination, no wonder roughly 40,000 babies are still being slaughtered in their mother’s womb’s each year in Georgia.

— Franklin criticizes a bill proposed by Georgia Right to Life that would designate embryos in test tubes as “people.”

While Georgia is throwing the book at people that use alcohol vaporizing devices, the butchering of the unborn continues[.]

— Franklin writes about a House bill that would ban alcohol-vaporizers.

This bill allows the commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources (why there is such a department is another story) to prohibit all commercial and recreational fishing for blue crabs.

— Franklin questions the importance of an agency charged with protecting the environment.

Why is the Georgia House of Representatives concerning itself with any sport when tens of thousands of babies are slaughtered in the womb each year here in Georgia?

— Franklin expresses disgust with a bill that would urge the NCAA use a playoff system to determine a national college football champion.

First, individuals do not have any natural rights — which transitions to the second point: rights are given by God and are not privileges handed out by the state. It is very dangerous when those elected to office begin to believe and govern as if the State is God.

— Franklin states his views on basic rights.

Does it surprise you that the question never lets the voter know that if the Governor so chooses that not a dime of the tax could go toward transportation? Republicans - gotta love’um [--] NOT!

— Franklin channels Wayne’s World in his final post of the legislative session.

Rep. Franklin then said that the folks that wanted to end slavery were called “crazy” and “radical”, but they were doing “what was right”, so he didn’t mind being called crazy because he’s doing what’s right.

— Andre Walker in a Jan. 2007 GeorgiaPoliticsUnfiltered blog post after he asked Rep. Franklin about pro-choice groups labeling him as “crazy.”

Bookmark It

The Helping Marta Is Smarta Award

[One in a series of accolades doled out to the legislators who managed to do good -- or at least try to -- during this year's legislative session. View the other winners, as well as their more poor-minded colleagues, in this week's CL or online here.]

With lawmakers eyeing reelection in November, many were hesitant to pass any solution to Atlanta’s transportation mess that might remotely sound like a tax increase. So Sen. Curt Thompson, D-Norcross, had the clever idea that counties hugging MARTA’s service areas be allowed to contract for the transit agency’s services and live up to its connectivity potential in the auto-oriented region. His bill made it through the Senate and was struggling at press time to get to the House floor.

(Photo courtesy of the Senate Press Office)

Bookmark It

The 19th annual Golden Sleaze Awards, our annual serving of the knuckleheaded misdeeds of the state Legislature, has now gone live. The awards cross party lines and recognize our state’s politicos for a variety of offenses — be it pushing legislation whose benefactors contributed to your campaign, or just plain playing nasty politics.

Let us also not forget that there are saints among the sinners. Click here to view the recipients of the illustrious Arnie Awards.

If we missed someone, fret not — the General Assembly still has a couple of days left to hash out some mischief. But please also feel free to chime in and let us know who we overlooked.

Enjoy!

Bookmark It

The Long Train Coming Slowly Down the Track Award

[One in a series of the 2008 Golden Sleaze Awards. View the rest of this legislative session's winners in this week's CL or online here.]

Rep. Steve Davis, R-McDonough, needs to spend less time on his Doogie Howser-esque blog and more time researching the merits of commuter rail. The representative, who is so dead-set on building roads that he plugs his ears anytime he hears the word “rail,” just plain hates trains. When a House bill that could infuse much-needed cash into the state’s transportation projects was discussed in committee, Davis dragged the meeting into a four-hour affair and made a case for waiting out funding until the DOT’s new commissioner could whip the agency into shape.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

Bookmark It

The Doing His Career No Favors Award

[One in a series of online awards for Georgia lawmakers. You'll find the rest in CL's Golden Sleaze issue Wednesday both in print and online.]

Rep. Robbie Mumford, R-Conyers, spends so much time outside the GOP fold that you wonder if it wouldn’t be easier on him simply to switch parties. Then again, he might not be as valuable a voice in challenging some of the really bad policy that his fellow lawmakers propose. Again this year, Mumford was one of a lonely few Republicans who spoke out against a bill to allow a divided jury to impose a death sentence. And he was the only GOP member of a House committee to sign on to a minority report on Rep. Jerry Keen’s reworked bill to establish residency restrictions for sex offenders. As such, Mumford offered not only his lawyerly opinion that the bill is unconstitutional, but he also criticized the House majority leader’s legislation on well-documented grounds that it actually could make Georgia’s children less safe from sexual abuse. He also introduced a bipartisan bill to strengthen rights for victims of sexual assault. Let’s hope Mumford isn’t shooting his political career in the foot.

(Photo: Courtesy of Georgia House)

Bookmark It

[One in a series of the 2008 Golden Sleaze Awards. View the rest of this legislative session's winners Wednesday in the paper or online here.]

The Watch Out for Those Shovels and Pitchforks Award

It’s a shame the video of Matt Dollar presenting his much-ridiculed billboard legislation, which would place cities and counties at the mercy of the owners of massive signs and potentially hamstring local zoning decisions, is oddly listed as “not working” on the House’s Web site. News reports said the baby-faced Republican legislator from Marietta had difficulty defending his bill to colleagues; witnesses said he gave such a cringe-worthy performance that people were waiting for a trap door to open. The bill Dollar stammered about, which thankfully failed in a House vote, was a billboard owner’s dream. Essentially, if a road had to be widened and a billboard stood in its way, cities or counties would have to recoup the owner of the roadside monstrosity for any lost revenue incurred while its loud advertisements were silenced – stretching on into the future ad infinitum. According to one estimate, a stretch of I-75 would cost Marietta and Cobb County – Dollar’s stomping grounds – up to $75 million. Who helped put Babyface in his place? The Garden Club of Georgia, the soft-spoken band of well-connected ladies who wield power as handily they do spades. Dollar’s bill worked in Florida, but thankfully, this ain’t the Sunshine State.

(Photo courtesy of the House of Representatives)

Bookmark It