Fresh Loaf

Aaron Gould Sheinin of the AJC has details on the 911 call that alerted Paulding County authorities to House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s Nov. 8 suicide attempt:

House Speaker Glenn Richardson called his parents in Douglas County last Sunday and told them he had taken sleeping pills and that it “was too late to do anything,” according to the 911 recording of the call.

Richardson’s mother, Merty, called 911 on Nov. 8 and aid her son was conscious and breathing but said he purposely took the pills. According to a police report issued late Monday, Richardson was found in his bathroom with a “silver revolver sitting on the counter in front of him.” Richardson was semi-conscious and did not respond to verbal commands.

There was also a suicide note on yellow paper and another note “related to the suicide,” although details were not included in the report released by the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheinin say the police report listed Mary Ann Burdette of Acworth as a witness. Burdette told reporters she was a family friend but declined further comment. Check out Sheinin’s post for more details.

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“This place is for sale,” muttered the disgusted Democratic state representative a few minutes after one of the strangest episodes in recent Gold Dome history.

The lawmaker had walked out of the House chamber last Wednesday following a much-watched vote on Gov. Sonny Perdue’s pet bill to snatch road-building authority away from the state Department of Transportation — a vote that Speaker Glenn Richardson held open for nearly five breathless minutes while his henchmen worked the room to persuade a handful of pliable pols to switch their votes.

When Richardson, whose podium houses a private voting scoreboard, saw that enough legislators had flip-flopped, he called for voting machines to be locked and cast the deciding vote himself to pass the hot-potato measure to the Senate.

No one said sausage-making is pretty. But in addition to looking ugly and smelling worse, much of the sausage produced of late by Georgia lawmakers is chock-full of legislative salmonella.

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He’s got the funny sounding first name (á la Newt, Zell, Bubba, Saxby, et al.). And he’s got the down-state accent. So it’s little surprise that House Minority Leader DuBose Porter, D-Dublin, would decide it’s time to get into the 2010 governor’s race. We got this notification late Monday afternoon:

I realize a Democrat will have a hard time in what is seen as a red state. However I believe Georgia will look at the issues and if they find a candidate that represents their core values they will be willing to vote for a change in the Governor’s office. My work on the issues will carry me in Atlanta, but according to the pundits from the far right to the far left, it will take a candidate with my core values to connect with those outside of Atlanta.
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This session was a final straw. The infighting in the majority party dominated the session. I realized at the state’s Chamber of Commerce breakfast that when the three Leaders at the top could not be on the stage together long enough to take questions, the needs of this state had taken the back burner while the quest for power had become their goal. If you walk yourself through what happened this session, it is clear egos trumped policy. It is time for someone to be in the Governor’s office that doesn’t play into ego driven politics. It is not about power for one – but for all. (more…)

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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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Christa at Pecanne Log says I say someone else says Bill Murray is loose in Atlanta. One night he’s at Loca Luna buying drinks for strangers. Another night he’s watching the Hawks play the Cleveland Cavaliers. Supposedly, he’s filming this flick. I’m still waiting for him to get a pedicure with me.

Buzz Brockway at Peach Pundit says the site’s bloggers won’t retaliate against state lawmakers who voted for Senate Bill 31, a controversial piece of legislation they adamantly opposed. The complex bill would allow Georgia Power to recover financing costs in advance for two proposed nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. The Punditeers got into a tiff with the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a free-market think tank, about the issue. No hard feelings, the bloggers say, but they’d still like a clear explanation of the foundation’s stance on the issue. (Just one more: Jason Shepard at the site finds Georgia’s facebook page shows an unexpected “friend.”

Remember #atlgas? Grift links to a Nightline report in which the Twitter hashtag that saved Atlanta’s ass is mentioned.

Decatur’s wi-fi cloud is “complete,” Decatur Metro reports.

Jim Galloway at the AJC’s Political Insider sneaks a peek at preliminary numbers which show Georgia’s rush of newcomers — aka the growth industry, the state’s bread and butter — might be slowing. He writes a powerful post about the subject.

Want solid political commentary recorded here in Atlanta? The new Kudzu Vine podcast is posted and available for download.

Doug at Live Apartment Fire points us to a recent piece by Tom Jones, the WSB-TV reporter who won’t work for nobody but you. Jones covered the search for a man who’s allegedly been flashing children in the Grant Park area. The suspect’s ripped a page from afterschool specials and is offering candy to the tykes.

Travis Fain wants the old Speaker Glenn Richardson back. I second that.

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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.

(more…)

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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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Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders and a former member of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s staff have been named, along with a South Georgia construction firm, in state ethics complaints for unregistered lobbying at the Gold Dome.

Neill Herring, a longtime Sierra Club lobbyist, filed the complaints with the State Ethics Commission last week. (To view Herring’s statement of facts, click here.) The grievances center around alleged unregistered lobbying for SB 200 and SR 309, two pieces of legislation that dealt with the testy issue of  “infrastructure development districts.” The initiative passed both chambers in the General Assembly and was signed into law by Perdue in 2007.

Commonly called “private cities” by their critics, the districts allow developers to issue tax-exempt bonds and levy assessments on property owners to pay for roads, sewers, or even amenities like golf courses. The practice is legal and used in 17 other states. The districts often begin as greenfield projects in cash-strapped counties and offer developers an incentive to pursue a project. Environmentalists, however, say private cities are catalysts for sprawl and grant government powers to a private entity.  The Sierra Club has been at the front of the fight against the concept. Voters will be presented with a referendum on the general election ballot that asks whether such districts should be legal in Georgia.

(more…)

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Some early-morning speculation on my part, fueled by caffeine and a post from InsiderAdvantage’s Dick Pettys. The George Harrison doppelganger tapped his sources who attended a business community fundraiser yesterday for House Speaker Glenn Richardson:

Richardson told the group he intends to focus on transportation, water and the state’s budget problems if re-elected as presiding officer.

Maybe the state’s current economic woes convinced Richardson he shouldn’t tackle his greatest nemesis, property taxes, as he promised he would during an April press conference he held with Gov. Sonny Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle?

Speculate! It’s just like daydreamin’, only it leeches off reality and you’re doing it out loud!

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House Speaker Glenn Richardson has been criticized for having his divorce decree sealed from public view, but that censure is somewhat misplaced. That’s because the speaker is not actually divorced — or at least wasn’t when the court documents were sealed.

The explanation we heard from a knowledgeable House member is that the documents in question do, indeed, relate to divorce proceedings. But the Richardsons’ divorce has not yet been finalized.

It’s not uncommon for parents to ask a judge to seal divorce proceedings in order to protect their children, as may have been the Speaker’s objective. But rather than take his chances at persuading a randomly assigned judge — as you or I would have to do — Richardson apparently used his clout to steer his case to a former law partner who was inclined to give him a friendly ruling.

In legal circles, that’s called “judge shopping” and while it may not be, strictly speaking, illegal, it would certainly be considered an ethical violation on the part of both the shopper (Richardson) and the shoppee (Paulding Superior Court Judge Jim Osborne).

It will be interesting to see the result of a motion filed by ethics watchdog George Anderson claiming that the Richardsons’ file was improperly sealed. Even if a court sides with Anderson — and, to us, this seems a no-brainer — the case would likely be reassigned to a new judge who could well decide to keep the documents under seal.

Inquiring minds may have to wait a while longer to inspect the Speaker’s dirty laundry.

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The sun finally shines on state House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s face. The plan passed the House 166-5. From InsiderAdvantage:

If approved by the Senate and then by the voters in November, the bill would eliminate the car tag tax in two steps – half next year and the remainder in 2010. It would eliminate the state’s quarter-mill property tax, and it would freeze property tax assessments at 2008 levels except for increases of up to 2 percent for residential property and 3 percent for commercial.

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Dick Pettys at InsiderAdvantage reports that state House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s tax reform plan will be getting a second vote today.

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State Rep. Tom Dickson, R-Cohutta, was the lone Republican in the House to vote against Speaker Glenn Richardson’s GREAT Plan. A lot of folks expected retribution to come down — bills getting tossed, committee shuffling, etc. — but is cybersnobbery the way Richardson works these days?

Notice below Dickson’s online bio from 2005-2006:

And here’s a screenshot of his most recent bio taken about, oh, 10 minutes ago.

According to the Wayback Machine, the page was last updated on April 3. But it only lists results as late as Sept. 2007, and I couldn’t find Dickson’s 2006-2007 bio. Quelle scandale!

But seriously … Glenn, baby, come on. Hack the guy’s MySpace account. That’s where you can really have some fun.

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State House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s quickie divorce has raised the ire of folks of all political stripes, and a self-proclaimed government watchdog named George Anderson has filed a complaint with the Joint Legislative Ethics Commission.

Oh, Mr. Speaker. This ain’t Vegas. You should know that what happens in Paulding County doesn’t necessarily stay in Paulding County.

Click here to read the complaint.

Hat tip to That Other Paper’s Political Insider for the document.

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In light of the AJC’s Political Insider report that a plane carrying several of state House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s close friends crashed in North Carolina, I’m changing the headline on the previous unrelated post. Click here to read more about the crash.

Today’s been a tough day for the speaker, and I’m sure the loss of his friends trumps all things political.

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Dick Pettys has the results for the most hotly contested seats in the DOT Board elections: Mike Evans and Raybon Anderson both won. Click here for a rundown of the races. Who did state House Speaker Glenn Richardson want? Not those chaps.

Great, now that that’s settled, we can deal with those transportation issues that have plagued us since before I was even born.

Oh, and the speaker just endorsed John McCain. Note to John McCain: Glenn Richardson’s endorsements are looking more and more like curses. You may want to use good ol’-fashioned strategury and tell the speaker to click here.

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A man calling himself Rudy Giuliani astounded Marietta citizens yesterday by swooping down on the suburb and crashing a well-attended rally organized by supporters of presidential candidate Ron Paul.

Operating under the guise of a “campaign stop,” Giuliani took the The Good Doctor’s peaceful foot soldiers by surprise. While the followers of Paul’s dark horse campaign rallied in the park, Giuliani holed up with fellow Republicans Sen. Johnny Isakson and state House Speaker Glenn Richardson in the Brumby Chair Co., hoarding media that had surely intended to cover all things Ron. Supporters were aghast at how a guy who used to be the mayor of some city in the upper corner of the country could steal the media spotlight.

“I don’t know who this guy thinks he is,” said Marvin Finkelstein, a nonexistent ham radio enthusiast from Mableton, referring to Giuliani. “We wanted to visit the Square on a Sunday and rally up some supporters. Then ‘America’s Mayor’ — what does that mean, anyway — decides it’s time to check out rocking chairs. The gall!”

OK, so there was no Marvin Finkelstein, and it was really a Giuliani campaign stop that the Paul supporters crashed. But judging from the turnout, it was easy to get confused.

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