Fresh Loaf

The electoral process is a beautiful thing. A virtual unknown with no name recognition or family connections can say he or she wants to serve the public, and then go on to do so, often times with little or no money. It’s happened before, it’ll happen again.

In Georgia, a part-time barrister from Mableton has decided he’d like to be governor. Sure, he doesn’t have much experience. Sure, he’s running against some big-name candidates. But Bill Laimbeer said it best: “Everyone should run for Georgia governor at least once in their lifetime.” Damn right, Bill. Damn right.

The dark horse candidate today launched something called a “World Wide Web site” and even posted this adorable video showing he doesn’t have a real campaign office or telephones. So cute!

(H/T to Gold Dome Live, a small blog operated by a community newspaper.)

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Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine took to the Twitterverse earlier to announce he’d raised about $420,000 in his quest to become the GOP gubernatorial nominee. His campaign says he’s raised a total of $1.45 million to date and has “slightly over one million” cash on hand.

“John Oxendine’s positive message offering real solutions for the issues facing Georgia is clearly resonating with people all across the state,” said Tim Echols, campaign manager. “John Oxendine’s Contract with Georgia offers specific policy solutions the people of Georgia are looking for from a leader.”

Hmmm. Positive messages.

Last Thursday, Oxendine’s supporters heard a little bit of that positivity. In an email to fellow members of the Ox Army, the candidate asked supporters to scrounge up whatever coins they had in their couches, seal them in an email, and fax them to his campaign. The deadline for fund-raising reports was drawing near, Oxendine wrote, and he wanted to frighten his fellow elephants fighting for the nomination.

Sure, Oxendine touted the “Contract with Georgia” you’ll be hearing a lot about. But he also looked into the future, saw that former Gov. Roy Barnes had won the Democrat nomination, and decided it was time for some scare tactics!

(more…)

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Actually, with bags under his eyes, the former governor didn’t look all that rested at his afternoon press conference today. Nor did he look like he’d been getting a lot of sun lately (although InsiderAdvantage chief Matt Towery, who was in the audience, was tan enough for everybody).

But Roy certainly seemed ready. Smiling, surrounded by his family, taking questions, cracking jokes — here was a guy who makes political campaigning look like fun. And the press corps was eating it up. Because now we’ve really got a race to cover.

Barnes’ entrance into the guv’s race will shake things up in a big way. Not immediately, mind you. All three announced Democratic candidates — state Attorney General Thurbert Baker, state House Minority Leader DuBose Porter and former this-and-that David Poythress — quickly sent out terse announcements saying they weren’t stepping aside. But come on. For months now, polls have shown that the front-runner’s slot was Barnes’ if he wanted it.

Now, after all the waiting, we know he wants it.

(more…)

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As Thomas “gluten-free” Wheatley and others noted earlier, Democrat Roy Barnes is running for governor.

Barnes held the governorship from 1999 to 2003. His re-election bid was thwarted in 2002 by a then-obscure raindancing fisherman from central Georgia named George Perdue. Please, call him Sonny.

Metro Atlantans have some good reasons to be excited about Barnes.

He’s smart. He’s experienced. He’s won statewide office already.

And perhaps most importantly, he’s more likely than anyone seeking the governorship to break the militant, city-hatin’ Georgia GOP’s chokehold on metro Atlanta.

But before we get our hopes up too much, let’s remember: Barnes four-year governorship wasn’t just bad. It was tragic.

Barnes began his governorship with astonishing promise.

From consumer-friendly healthcare reform, tax cuts, open-government rules, Roy had it goin’ on.

The most impressive of his early accomplishments was the creation of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, a metro-wide agency that promised to at last impose sanity on Georgia’s unsustainable, sprawling growth.

Here’s what the Economist said in July 1999:

No other governor in the country has anything approaching [GRTA]—but then few cities have built new roads with anything approaching Atlanta’s abandon.

Under the GRTA (widely translated as “Give Roy Total Authority”), Mr Barnes can exercise complete control over transport and development in the 20 counties that make up the Atlanta metropolitan area, as well as in any other part of the state that falls out of compliance with anti-pollution requirements. This bill also contains a political masterstroke: it gives the governor the right to veto actions by the state Department of Transportation, which has been a law unto itself for much of this century.

So what happened?

Like in any good tragedy, it was Barnes’ strength that did him in. He over-reached.

(more…)

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Former Gov. Roy Barnes at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner

Last night’s installment of the annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner was a sell-out despite the absence of a headliner. No Hillary, like last year, or John “Pretty-Boy Pariah” Edwards, like two years ago. Nor was it the cigar-chomping, wine-sloshing bacchanal I’d hoped it would be, following the Obama election. Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond didn’t even break out his James Brown dance moves.

Not that anyone expected those things. Most folks came simply to bask in the good feeling of the successful national elections — and to see if former Gov. Roy Barnes would tip his hand regarding a possible bid for his old job. Roy was there, of course, and he made the rounds, but the best he could offer his well-wishers was that he hasn’t yet decided whether he’ll run.

The official gubernatorial candidates — Attorney General Thurbert Baker, House Minority Leader DuBose Porter and former state labor commissioner David Poythress — all took a turn onstage, but most folks in the Hyatt ballroom likely are waiting to see what Barnes will do.

(more…)

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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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This week seems to have gone by in a whirl, so let’s recap recent developments in various state political races, shall we?

The week began with buzz over an AJC article suggesting that former Gov. Roy Barnes is weighing a bid to reclaim his old office. Certainly, Barnes, a Marietta Democrat with a thriving private law practice, has been dropping hints in recent weeks that he’s eyeing the race. But doubters, who include many Democrats, guess he’d be unlikely to get back into a contest he lost so badly eight years ago, despite an overwhelming financial advantage. One theory has it that Barnes is pulling a Mario Cuomo – enjoying the attention that his Hamlet act is bringing, but will ultimately stay out.

That feeling was reinforced for some with the surprise announcement Thursday that Democratic state Attorney General Thurbert Baker is planning a run for governor. Some political observers believe Baker wouldn’t have entered the race without first clearing the move with Barnes. (more…)

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The rule of thumb when looking at a political poll is to consider who paid for it. That’s because every successful pollster knows that, besides providing useful information, a poll is a campaign marketing tool – and the folks writing the check expect to get their money’s worth. In short, you never see a candidate release a poll that shows he’s getting his butt kicked.

With that in mind, we turn to a recent poll released by Atlanta Councilwoman Mary Norwood which indicates that – surprise! – Mary Norwood is leading the 2009 mayor’s race.

Last month, Norwood’s campaign disclosure showed she had raised more cash in 2008 than her opponents – just over $500,000, compared to $423,000 in contributions to state Sen. Kasim Reed (although Reed had more cash on hand as of Dec. 31).

Now, the poll by Washington, D.C.-based Lake Research Partners shows that, as of early February, Norwood has far better name recognition than Reed or the other two major candidates, Councilman Ceasar Mitchell and attorney Jesse Spikes. All three men are lawyers.

Not a surprising outcome, given that Norwood has been informally campaigning across the city for the past couple of years. More significant, perhaps, are the candidates’ favorable ratings. Among the 400 Atlantans who took part in the telephone poll – and who had opinions – Norwood’s score was 61 favorable to 9 unfavorable. Reed scored 21 to 5; Mitchell was 21 to 8; and Spikes was 8 to 4 – although many more people either had never heard of the trio or had no opinion.

(more…)

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For the past several years, a lawsuit by an education watchdog group has hung like a sword of Damocles over Sonny Perdue’s head. Basically, the suit by the Consortium for Adequate School Funding in Georgia maintains that the state has shortchanged its schools to the tune of about $1 billion a year by willfully under-finding the Quality Basic Education program created by Perdue’s predecessor, Gov. Roy Barnes.

The Consortium, which is made up of more than 50 small and rural school systems, want the state to make up the difference – a proposition that could take quite a bite out of the state budget. Last year, the group – whose executive director is former Atlanta School Board President Joe Martin (brother of failed Senate candidate Jim Martin) – withdrew the suit from federal court after the case was transferred to a judge it deemed unfriendly to its cause.

That’s a very controversial move by any plaintiff because it invites the accusation of “venue-shopping” which is frowned upon in legal circles when it’s undertaken in such obvious fashion.

Now the group has bigger problems. On Tuesday, the AJC reports, Georgia’s not-so-esteemed Attorney General Thurbert Baker issued the opinion that it’s illegal for school systems to use taxpayer funds to sue the state. In other words, the Consortium itself isn’t supposed to exist, according to Baker.

What does this mean? Baker’s opinion doesn’t kill the lawsuit outright, but it will certainly make a court think twice about taking up a re-filed case without first reviewing the group’s legal standing.

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