Fresh Loaf

Using the same logic that brought Poochie the Dog into the world, Ralph Reed — the man with more attempted resurrections than Jesus Christ Himself — vows to rejuvenate the now-moribund and heavily tarnished Christian Coalition, using a handy checklist of things that he’s been told are trendy:

“This is not going to be your daddy’s Christian Coalition. It has to be younger, hipper, less strident, more inclusive and it has to harness the 21st century that will enable us to win in the future. … It’s the political analog to the iPod and the iPhone. It would be cool. It would be transformative. It would transform our politics and bring younger people to our ranks. All of those are critical imperatives.”

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When Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle announced on April 15 that he decided to drop his bid for governor, rumors started flying that the reason he gave — complicated back surgery — was a white lie, and that Cagle had actually been confronted with damaging evidence that would’ve hurt his campaign.

People pointed fingers at Cagle’s opponent for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, Georgia Insurance and Fire Safety Commissioner John Oxendine. Others whispered it was Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, another challenger. Some said it was those pesky Democrats, kicking up dirt and slinging mud. But these rumors were never reported by the press because they were just rumors.

Around that time, I searched Oxendine’s campaign reports to see if there were any odd expenses. I noticed one for Investigative Consultants International, an Alpharetta-based private eye firm. Its founder, T.J. Ward, rose to the national spotlight for his involvement with the search for Natalee Holloway, the coed who disappeared during a spring break trip in Aruba.

Jim Galloway yesterday morning reported that James Salzer and Cam McWhirter contacted the Oxendine campaign for clarification about the item. All Tim Echols, the commissioner’s campaign manager would tell the reporters was “campaigns routinely hire investigators.”

That might be all Echols, who took on the role of campaign manager two weeks ago, will say. But Jeff Breedlove, Oxendine’s chief strategist, was a bit more open with CL a few months ago.

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State Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, says he’s dropping out of the lieutenant governor race. He will instead seek re-election in the Senate.

From Shafer’s campaign:

Today I am fully suspending my campaign for Lieutenant Governor with the intention of seeking re-election to the State Senate.

I will always be grateful to those who have so generously supported my candidacy. I am especially proud of the endorsements from my colleagues in the Georgia General Assembly and our strong showing in the various Republican straw polls.

I was relieved to learn that the Lieutenant Governor’s surgery went well and that his doctors are optimistic about his ability to actively campaign for re-election. He has been a friend for many years, and I wish him a speedy return to full health.

I would not have entered the race had it not been an open seat, and there is no point in remaining in it as long as the Lieutenant Governor is well enough to be a candidate for re-election.

Public service is, by definition, about serving others, not the positions or titles that we want for ourselves.

Dr. Bill Sheals and Matt Reeves have agreed to serve as honorary co-chairs of my re-election campaign.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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EJ and a pretty lady

Proving himself to be a man of character — 136 of them, to be precise — state Sen. Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, announced his candidacy for governor moments ago by way of Twitter. Johnson had been running for guv lite, but those plans were upended when that job’s current occupant, Casey Cagle, abandoned his own campaign for governor a couple of weeks back.

Here’s Eric’s full text:

I have decided to run for Governor. Leadership is about trust. I hope to earn the trust of the people of Georgia. Keep me in your prayers.

He came in four under par and still managed to get in a religious reference. Nice.

Anyway, the senator’s news isn’t a big surprise. He’d put himself in a bit of an awkward place by resigning his position of Senate President Pro Tem before the beginning of the 2009 General Assembly, saying he wanted to devote his time to running for lieutenant governor.

From all appearances, the move backfired: Johnson’s visibility dropped and potential rivals found it easier to undercut his effectiveness. His school voucher bill — the vehicle on which he hoped to ride into the Governor’s Mansion — went nowhere.

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Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle has announced he will drop out of the 2010 governor’s race for health reasons.

“Often times we’re dealt certain cards we have to face,” Cagle told reporters today at a press conference at the Capitol before choking up and leaving the rotunda.

“It is a degenerative spinal condition and treatment will entail significant recovery,” spokesperson Jaillene Hunter later told reporters. She did not elaborate on the name of the condition or the course of its treatment.

In other words, the treatment — which involves surgery — would likely require Cagle to stay off the campaign trail.

Dick Pettys reports Cagle told members of the Senate Republican Caucus that he would run for another term as lieutenant governor in 2010. If so, he’ll face Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, and Sen. Eric Johnson, R-Savannah — assuming they remain in the race following this news.

Cagle, a Gainesville Republican, was considered the front-runner to become the GOP nominee for governor. Remaining Republican candidates now include Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, state Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, and Ray McBerry. Possible candidates include Cobb County Chairman Sam Olens, whom Jim Galloway reports is expected to make an announcement on Friday.

(File photo by Joeff Davis)

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Save your energy, gents — the 2010 governor’s race is going to be a long and tiresome slog.

From the AJC’s Gold Dome Live:

In a post-General Assembly session interview with the AJC this week, Oxendine, who holds a law degree, took some pointed shots at the way Cagle, who doesn’t have a college degree, thinks.

“The Legislature and the presiding officers, and more so with Cagle, would rather have the status quo than have somebody else get their way,” Oxendine said. “If change means somebody else’s idea, he (Cagle) would rather have the status quo.

“The status quo is the easy way to govern. It doesn’t take a lot of thinking, it’s not brain surgery. To do things differently requires intellectual thought and sometimes he may prefer the easy way out. I think sometimes he just prefers the easy way out, of saying, ‘I’ll stick with the status quo, that way I don’t have to think hard.”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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In other words, nothing was accomplished.

Last night, Scott Henry and I embedded ourselves in the Gold Dome, risking life and limb to chronicle the final night of the legislative session. Thanks to the House press box’s Internet service acting screwy, we weren’t able to offer you minute-by-minute updates on the shenanigans.

That might’ve been a good thing. If you’re a fan of transit and getting around, you would’ve been disappointed with the news.

Despite piss-poor travel times and a mountain of studies that show the state needs more cash to build roads, bridges and transit, the General Assembly — for the second straight year — failed to pass a transportation funding bill. The Metro Chamber’s Sam Williams pointed the blame at the state’s “lack of leadership.”

The bill that would’ve allowed MARTA to have control over the one-cent sales tax in Atlanta, Fulton County and DeKalb County — its main source of funding — to fund daily operations? Failed. MARTA officials, who looked like they were at a wake after they heard the news, said drastic cuts to bus and train service were on the way. Veteran lobbyists called the move “irresponsible.”

Yet the lawmakers still had something to smile about, and as is the tradition, tossed shredded paper in the air as Speaker Glenn Richardson and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle gaveled the legislative session to a close at midnight. CL shutterbug Joeff Davis noted it earlier — lawmakers made a mess that someone else will now have to clean up.

We’re gonna let this one soak in and pore over what passed and what failed. More to come later.

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If you thought the debate over whether school boards should participate in redevelopment projects ended with a Constitutional referendum on the November ballot, you were sorely mistaken.

Last Thursday, a state Senate finance committee quietly amended House Bill 63, a piece of legislation meant to iron out details about tax allocation districts, or TADs. TADs use bonds, which are later paid off by increased property tax values in the redeveloped area, to pay for roads, bridges, sewers and schools. They were the go-to option for redevelopment projects in Georgia — think Atlantic Station — until last year’s state Supreme Court ruling that said their use of school taxes was unconstitutional. In November, voters approved an amendment that would allow school systems to participate in TADs.

The Senate committee added an amendment to the bill, which has already unanimously passed the House, which would allow Atlanta Public Schools to circumvent a vote and automatically opt back into the Beltline, the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit proposed to circle Atlanta’s urban core. If so, the school system would contribute an estimated $850 million in school tax dollars to the project over the next 20 years, as it agreed to do in 2005. (Atlanta Unfiltered’s Jim Walls, the first blogger to jump on the story, has the language posted.)

The Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation, which fought the Beltline TAD, lashed out at the amendment, calling it an “outrageous abuse of the Atlanta taxpayers.” and casting Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle as the author of the language.

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Gov. Sonny Perdue, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson today announced their appointments to the group that will play a vital role in determining just how much water the state has and how to best manage the resource.

We’re still going through the list, which we’ve posted after the jump. If you know any of these men and women, feel free to give ‘em a shout out.

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As you may have read, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is now on Twitter, joining the likes of state Sen. Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, and state Rep. Steve Davis, R-McDonough. (What’s with the Republicans and Twitter? Are any Georgia Democrats using the service?)

Once you follow the bright-eyed lawmaker — who’s considered one of the frontrunners for governor in 2010 — he’s really quick about returning the favor.

Muwahaha! Prepare to be bombarded with 140-character accounts of my visit to the taxidermist and confusion about where I should dine tonight, Mr. Lieutenant Governor!

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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BUDGET BUDDIES Richardson and Perdue at this morning's legislative breakfast.

Tuesday morning, Gov. Sonny Perdue, Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and state House Speaker Glenn Richardson, speaking before a banquet room filled with business heavies, lobbyists and fellow lawmakers, outlined their legislative agendas for the session at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s annual “Eggs and Issues” breakfast at the Georgia World Congress Center.

There, over plates of eggs, sausage, and some hashbrown-stuffed tomato concoction, the elected officials said that, even with the state nearly $2 billion in the red, progress would take place.

After the jump, what Perdue, Cagle and Richardson said, in fancy bulletpoint style, about the upcoming legislative session.

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Polling organization Rasmussen Reports says:

The majority of voters in Georgia (53%) say Republican Governor Sonny Perdue is not doing enough to help them through the economic recession, though he still earns fairly positive reviews.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state found that one in four voters (25%) say the governor is doing enough for Georgians, while another 22% remain undecided.

…

Still, more than half of voters (57%) approve of the way Perdue is handling his job as governor, while 39% disapprove.

The menz like duh govnuh. The ladies say “meh.” Also:

The early frontrunners among Republicans for the 2010 governor race in Georgia are Casey Cagle and John Oxendine. Cagle is currently serving as lieutenant governor, and Oxendine is the state insurance commissioner. Both men are favored by 14% of Republicans.

Among Democrats, former Governor Roy Barnes leads the pack of 2010 contenders with 28% support. Twenty-two percent (22%) of Democrats would consider voting for Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin for governor.

Check out the full rundown of responses. Among them: Barack Obama will do a better job as president than George W. Bush and native son Jimmy Carter.

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Lawmakers learn from their failures, right?

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle yesterday told a crowd of 400 mobility-minded businesspeople, politicians and lobbyists at a luncheon sponsored by the Get Georgia Moving coalition and the Council For Quality Growth that a regional sales tax for transportation fixes — or T-SPLOST — would be given priority consideration when the General Assembly convenes in January.

The tax would be similar to a local option sales tax and allow Georgians — if the measure passes and is approved as a constitutional referendum on the 2010 ballot — to vote on a list of predetermined projects such as road, rails and bridges. Cagle said stakeholders in the coming weeks needed to reach a consensus for the proposal to be considered at the start of the legislative session.

Georgia Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle
(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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“Atlanta is not going to be running on bottled water by Christmas like some people might think. They are not going to be going thirsty in 90 days.”
— Maj. Daren Payne, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Mobile, Ala., in the Oct. 18 Tallahassee Democrat

“We estimate about 100 days before we get to what we call bottom of conservation pool. When you reach bottom of conservation pool, there is still almost 40 percent of the water in the lake.”
— Col. Byron Jorns, commander for the Mobile District of the Corps of Engineers, in the Oct. 20 AJC

“Lake Lanier has enough water to supply the needs of Atlanta for over 260 more days. We believe that Georgia has overstated the severity of the crisis in the Atlanta region.”
— Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, in an Oct. 22 letter to President Bush

“There’s no question that the Corps of Engineers has a very strong bias to protect endangered species over human consumption. That is very, very clear.”
— Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, at an Oct. 25 news conference

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