Fresh Loaf

Looks like this sucker’s starting to get a little more competitive:

The race for the Atlanta mayor’s office got a little tighter in the last week, according to a new poll released Friday.

The new WSB-TV Channel 2/InsiderAdvantage poll shows that Mary Norwood still leads the race with 33 percent, but her lead over Lisa Borders slipped to just six percentage points. Last week Norwood led Borders by eight percentage points.

Although she is still second in the race, Borders actually dropped in percentage points, going from 34 percent to 27 percent this week.

The big gainer was Kasim Reed. He remained in third place, but jumped from nine percentage points to 15 percent.

There are still plenty of folks to convince. Twenty-three percent of the poll’s respondents are still undecided.

(more…)

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President Sonny Perdue. It’s got a nice and rather frightening ring to it, dontcha think?

An Insider Advantage piece that says the governor’s rumored to be lining up a post-office position as  University of Georgia president recently caught the eyes of those rapscallions at the Marietta Daily Journal. Here’s some of what the MDJ cribbed from the IA article, which is now available only for subscribers:

As the storyline goes, Perdue — who is joined at the hip with UGA President Michael Adams — would consider being named by the Board of Regents as president of the University of Georgia at the end of his term. In exchange for the creation of an open seat via the resignation of Adams, Adams would then be in strong consideration to become the system’s new chancellor. Sound crazy? Well … so did borrowing $21 million in the middle of a world financial meltdown. But Perdue pulled that one off didn’t he?

A commenter at the AJC’s Political Insider column speculates that Perdue’s recent appointment of former House Majority Leader and Georgia Department of Transportation board member Larry Walker to the Board of Regents could help the governor transition from one mansion to another. The two are old buddies.

Perdue’s a UGA alum and would probably be delighted to be one of the few university graduates lucky enough to find a job in the Classic City after throwing his cap in the air. Even if it’s 40 years after the fact.

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According to the tirelessly self-promoting pollsters over at Insider Advantage, Council President Lisa Borders has moved up in the estimation of registered voters, while Councilwoman Mary Norwood is maintaining her lead. Here’s the lowdown:

An InsiderAdvantage survey conducted the evening of Monday August 17 among registered voters who said they were likely to vote in the November race to replace outgoing Mayor Shirley Franklin showed City Council Member Mary Norwood continuing to lead the race, with 30% saying they would vote for Norwood. But statistically tied with Norwood was City Council President Lisa Borders with 28%.

Lagging behind the two women were state Sen. Kasim Reed with 8% and attorney Jesse Spikes with 2%. The rest said they were undecided.

Borders was quick to send out a press release:

“We’ve almost tripled our support in just three months. That’s tremendous,” Borders said. “Everywhere that I’ve gone in the City, Atlantans have been eager to hear solution-based answers to how our next mayor will get Atlanta back on track. They want a plan for enhancing public safety, and they want to know where the funds will come from. I hear the need for a budget that gets our money’s worth and responsible government that cares for our community. Atlantans want a city that works. I welcome this news and look forward to speaking with more citizens about solutions to the challenges that we face.”

(more…)

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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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Ain’t no better time to replace the general than in the middle of battle, right? Uh, right?

Dick Pettys of Insider Advantage reports:

A palace revolt is brewing among members of the state Board of Transportation, and sources say it is poised to try to dump Commissioner Gena Evans on Thursday.

The board has a called meeting that day to take up budget matters. If it goes into closed session, a vote to remove Evans will likely be conducted.

…

If she is voted out, look for the governor and likely the lieutenant governor to argue that is exactly the reason why DOT should be relegated to a maintenance agency status and a new State Transportation Authority given power over policy and funding.

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Gary Reese, one of the pixel-stained wretches at InsiderAdvantage, pulls back the curtain on a piece he’s researching about the state Department of Transportation’s vote to kill a Ga. 400 project. He says it’s a “blockbuster” and one to watch.

Reese offers a lengthy 1,551-word teaser. Essentially: There’s a bigger story behind the DOT board’s decision late last year to kill a deal proposed for the “Hospitality Highway.”

He says there are a bunch of e-mails and potentially ghostwritten press releases, too. CL readers might recall a story I wrote last year about Gov. Sonny Perdue’s trip to Spain, and rumors that the jaunt would include a sit-down with executives from Cintra, everyone’s favorite private toll road company. (Perdue did indeed sit down with the firm.) Reese says Cintra — along with some other big names in finance and transportation — will play a role in his story, as well.

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Gold Dome sentinel Dick Pettys of InsiderAdvantage provides an excellent rundown of 2008’s state political stories, complete with links that give you a rare glimpse behind the online news service’s subscription firewall. If you want a good take on what happened this year, it’s all right there.

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The elections are over, so Georgia’s politicians have returned to jockeying for position before the start of the next session.

Sen. Eric Johnson

Dick Pettys with InsiderAdvantage reports that House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, R-St. Simons, has decided not to run for gubna. Praise be — Keen is the slickest, wiliest, most dangerous guy down at the Gold Dome. If his proudly unconstitutional sex-offender law is any indication of how Rep. Keen — a former state Christian Coalition head — would govern, then heaven help us all.

And the Savannah Morning News reports that Sen. Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, has officially thrown his hat into the ring for guv-lite. In recent months, he stepped down as Senate president pro tem to get ready for his run. Apparently, his preparations have also involved shaving off his trademark Van Dyke beard (commonly confused with a goatee). I scarcely recognized him and I’m not sure that losing the facial hair doesn’t paradoxically make him look older somehow.

Here’s what he looks like with the fuzz.

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In September, Gov. Perdue asked state agencies to give him three prospective budget plans for their departments — reflecting a 6-percent, 8-percent and 10-percent decrease in appropriations — so that he’d be prepared to deliver a state budget early next year that best reflects the current economic conditions.

Well, according to InsiderAdvantage’s Dick Pettys, Sonny has already dashed the hopes of optimists who had hoped Georgia could skate through the recession with minimal belt-tightening.

Gov. Sonny Perdue said Wednesday that upcoming state budget cuts may be nearer the 8 percent mark next year than the 6 percent he’s been holding back from state agencies.

(more…)

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