Fresh Loaf
Atlanta news and views, one slice at a time
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle drops governor bid
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
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)
State of the City, people-watching edition
Thursday, January 8th, 2009OK, I’ve covered Franklin’s speech. Now for the dish, Peach Buzz-style.
Former mayors Sam Massell and Andy Young were both seated at the front table. Ex-jailbird Bill Campbell, however, freshly released from his stint in a Florida halfway house, was nowhere to be seen — probably because the Omni doesn’t have craps tables.
Norwood harshes Shirley's buzz
Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens and new DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis were also present, as was former CEO Liane Levitan. Ellis told me he’d received a surprise message from his predecessor, Vernon Jones, apologizing for missing his swearing-in ceremony this past Monday. (Apparently, Vernon was out of town and didn’t want Ellis to take his absence as a dis.)
Of course, the event was packed with movers and shakers from the business community, from Coke CEO Muhtar Kent to Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce President Sam Williams and all the usual suspects.
The mayor even took a moment to acknowledge her adult children, son Cabral and younger daughter Kali, adding that for all her supposed power and authority, they still treat her like “just mom.”
Finally, all of this year’s mayoral candidates were working the Omni ballroom like bears in a salmon spawn. Sighted were Sen. Kasim Reed, attorney Jesse Spikes, and Council members Ceasar Mitchell and Mary Norwood, as well as Council President Lisa Borders, who has dropped out of the race, but you never know…
Ever the omnipresent gadfly, Norwood had just come from Grant Park and the pre-dawn vigil for slain Standard bartender John Henderson, where she publicly implied that the murder was a result of Franklin’s budget-driven cutbacks in police man-hours.
As soon as she got back to City Hall, Franklin e-mailed out a response:
Councilmember Norwood has never sought to discuss the budget recommendations with me and I find her remarks today to be ludicrous and irresponsible.
And thus was the mayor’s good mood irretrievably squashed.
