Fresh Loaf

Last Wednesday, anti-crime advocate Kyle Keyser made the Atlanta mayoral race — which has seen its fair share of drama the last few weeks — much more interesting when he announced his candidacy.

One problem: Keyser didn’t have the $4,425 to get his name on the ballot. Another problem: the Little Five Points resident had only 48 hours to raise the cash. Either that or gather 2,300 signatures in the same amount of time.

So Keyser, the co-founder of the 10,000-member strong Atlantans Together Against Crime and who’s well-known among the city’s more social, younger crowd, asked for help from friends and strangers via Twitter, Facebook and DailyKos. It paid off. Here are the numbers.

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Says Kos himself:

Guys, we can make a difference in this one. With little money, but with a lot of gumption, energy, and a truly progressive message, Jim Martin has closed to a dead-heat in this race. He is pro-choice, pro-gay rights (supports ENDA and LLEA), a consumer advocate, committed civil libertarian (with ACLU awards for his efforts), opposes FISA telecom immunity, opposes the war in Iraq, is a strong environmentalist, a strong labor guy, a strong supporter of affirmative action, and so on. He is also a Vietnam vet, so perhaps he’s destined for a Chambliss Special, but we can get his back. This is the kind of Democrat we can’t even get in some Blue states, yet running on an explicitly progressive agenda, has a chance to represent the great state of Georgia while ousting the odious Chambliss at the same time.

Yes, this seems like it’s too good to be true, but it’s for real. Let’s give Jim Martin a hand turning Georgia Blue.

(Hat tip to Kiana)

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Since the U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Jim Martin bested his fellow donkeys in the primaries and runoff, he’s shown increasing gains in polls that pit him against his opponent, incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss. Just last week, polls showed Martin trailing 2-3 points behind in what undoubtedly has become a tight race.

Today, a new poll conducted by Research2000 — and paid for by left-wing site Daily Kos — shows the soft-spoken lawmaker trailing Chambliss by just one itty bitty point and within its margin of error. The poll was conducted Sept. 29-Oct. 1 before the Wall Street bailout package plan passed the Senate. (Chambliss voted for the $850-zillion package, to the ire of pretty much everyone in the world. The incumbent Republican doesn’t want to talk about the economy anymore and would prefer we focus on the gas shortage issue. Old news, senator!)

You can deride the source of the poll if you want. But the larger issue remains: Georgia is showing telltale signs of a large Democratic electorate this year. And what’s even a little good for Barack may be GREAT for Martin.

(Photo from some site found after Googling “democrats kick ass”)

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The controversy swirling around the firing of city arborist Tom Coffin is now being discussed on Daily Kos. A member on the left-leaning website posted a PDF of a e-mail communication between city Planning Commissioner Steve Cover and Ibrahim Maslamani, the director of the city’s bureau of buildings and Coffin’s former boss.

In it, Maslamani asks for marching orders after support for the former arborist started pouring into City Hall. In his response, Cover tells Maslamani to “stick to our plan” and to “give Luz a heads up.” (Click here to read the e-mail thread.)

The poster on Daily Kos suspects “the plan” refers to a permit streamlining strategy suggested by the Bains Group, a consulting firm that conducted a pro bono evaluation of city operations in 2004. Mayor Shirley Franklin followed their suggestions; Borrero led the effort. The changes to the permitting process were completed in June 2007 and included tinkering with the tree ordinance.  (The ordinance has been a sticky issue in the city, both praised by eco-minded residents as a way to preserve Atlanta’s urban forest and derided by developers as a bothersome and unfair obstacle to building. Property owners, even ones who want to preserve trees, have expressed frustration with it, saying it’s prevented them from removing trees they feel pose a danger to person and property.)

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Online environmental news site Grist partnered with Outside and produced a succinct rundown of where the 2008 presidential candidates stand on global warming, energy and the environment. Grist also hosted a global-warming debate with the Democratic candidates on Saturday. Well, with three of ‘em — John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Dennis Kucinich. They’re the only ones who accepted the invitation. I’m looking for a link to the debate but am coming up short — if anyone has it, please post it in the comments.

Here’s a LiveBLOG (Part I, Part II) from DailyKos detailing what went down.

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