Fresh Loaf

One of the other less-publicized fights amidst all the November election brouhaha has been between Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel and Michelle Conlon, an independent candidate for state House District 80. In late July, the secretary threw out a petition Conlon circulated to be considered eligible to face Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-DeKalb, the incumbent. Conlon then appealed Handel’s decision in Fulton County Superior Court.

And now, according to her press release, she’s won. You’ll see her name on the ballot come November against Jacobs.

From a campaign release:

Michelle Conlon, Candidate for House District 80, has prevailed in her lawsuit to compel the Secretary of State to place Ms. Conlon on the ballot in November.

“This is exciting news not only for me but for the voters in the district who deserve a choice on the ballot. I am looking forward to moving past this distraction,” said Conlon.

…“It is unfortunate that it took a lawsuit to get the Secretary of State to abide by her statutory responsibility to review the petition, but we are pleased with the result,” said Ms. Conlon. “I look forward to campaigning on the issues that matter to residents of House District 80.”

Conlon will be listed on the ballot as an Independent Candidate; however, she plans to officially announce her victory at an Obama Acceptance Speech event Thursday evening at Galla’s Pizza. Conlon hopes her message will appeal to Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike.

“Mike Jacobs needs to be fired. This is not the guy we elected. And he has not given us the representation that we were promised. He switched parties’ mid-term, voted for predatory lending, to cut public education funds and for guns on MARTA. When your representative cannot decide who he is or want he wants, he is ineffective in representing you,” said Conlon.

Now that she is on the ballot, Conlon is optimistic regarding her chances in November. She notes: “More people signed my petition than voted for my opponent in his July Primary.”

Click here to visit her campaign website. The full release from the Conlon campaign is pasted after the jump.

(more…)

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 — It’s convention time: balloons, big speeches, inspiring video bios. Bernita is in Denver and blogging for Blog For Democracy. The first thing she does is piss off the Secret Service. Uh-oh.

— Amy Morton from Georgia Women Vote is also in Denver. She has steered clear of aggravating the Secret Service, and managed to have breakfast with Heath Shuler, the former college quarterback turned Congressman.

— Everyone knows John McCain was a prisoner of war, partly because he keeps reminding us. At Politits, the question is asked: Is McCain POWing it into the ground? Perhaps Saxby Chambliss should run against McCain since he could put McCain’s war record into perspective, just like he did with Max Cleland.

— A federal judge ruled in favor of Jim Powell last week, saying Secretary of State Karen Handel wrongfully tried to remove him from the ballot in the Public Service Commission race. But DriftGrift says Democrats shouldn’t gloat just yet.

— Over at Chicken Fat, Edwin has a bigger fish to fry: world peace.

— And finally, Mother Time pays a visit to the Wren’s Nest to claim the Ouija Board she left there decades ago.

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The ball was back in her court and she played it like we thought she would.

Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel — whose spokesperson said she was disappointed by last week’s Fulton County Superior Court ruling that put Public Service Commission candidate Jim Powell back on the ballot — is now contesting that decision in the Georgia Court of Appeals. She filed an appeal this morning, the candidate said.

“I’m going to continue fighting this in court,” Powell said. “Looks like we’ll take it all the way to the state Supreme Court if we have to.”

No word yet on when the appeal will be heard. To read CL’s coverage of the never-ending PSC brouhaha, click here.

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No word yet from Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel if her office will appeal yesterday’s ruling in Fulton County Superior Court that Public Service Commission candidate Jim Powell is indeed eligible to run for office in his district.

After the jump, Powell’s statement regarding the legal ping-pong match.

(more…)

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— Sad news from Decatur. Andy Peters at the Deal Watch blog reports that the company that owns the Crescent Moon diner filed for bankruptcy protection. Although the diner, which has two other locations, has remained open, Peters reports the diner’s Decatur landlord wants to start eviction proceedings.

— The United States is on the verge of becoming majority minority, and Reporter Cub celebrates our diversity.

— Over at Politits, Dcup strays from politics to discuss some real-life adventures in parenting three kids.

— But politic junkies, fear not. At Tondee’s Tavern, Mcantone looks at Karen Handel’s quest to have Jim Powell disqualified from the Public Service Commission election.

— Doug Richards at Live Apartment Fire has dug up a 15-year-old “inside the newsroom” video produced by WAGA-TV. For those who have been in Atlanta that long, it’s a fun trek back in time to really bad haircuts, including Amanda Davis doing her best Sheila E.

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Public Service Commission candidate Jim Powell’s court case against Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel has been rescheduled for Friday, Sept. 5 at 9:30 a.m. in Fulton County Superior Court. His case will be heard by Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore in Courtroom 4-E.

Moore’s name may sound familiar — her recent ruling that the state must consider carbon dioxide when issuing air permits slammed the brakes on Georgia’s first coal plant in 20 years. That ruling is being appealed.

To read CL’s coverage of the PSC brouhaha, click here.

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Just yesterday, we noted what a sorry effort DeKalb Democrats seem to have made to reclaim the House seat lost when former Democratic up-and-comer Mike Jacobs switched parties last year. They began the election season with two potential challengers, but looked to be throwing in the towel with both their candidates disqualified.

Not so fast, says Michelle Conlon, one of the two would-be candidates. (more…)

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Among Georgia counties, DeKalb is the acknowledged Democratic stronghold. So it’s astonishing that the Democrats have failed even to get anyone on the ballot to challenge the county’s most notorious (OK, only) party-switcher.

State Rep. Mike Jacobs, who turned Republican last summer, looks to be home-free following the recent disqualification of Keith Gross on residency grounds. An administrative law judge determined last month that Gross, an openly gay businessman, hadn’t lived in Georgia for two years, as required by law. Last week, Secretary of State Karen Handel agreed; Gross did not appeal her decision.

But wait, that’s not all. (more…)

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Public Service Commission candidate Jim Powell says his appeal that was originally scheduled for today at 3 p.m. in Fulton County Superior Court has been postponed. Judge John Goger has recused himself because he’s a former law partner of Powell’s attorney. Powell says a new judge will be assigned later today and the appeal should be heard sometime later in the week.

Powell is contesting Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s removal of his name from the July 15 primary ballot. He was granted a stay the day before the election and garnered 85 percent of the vote.

To read CL’s coverage of the PSC brouhaha, click here.

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Jim Powell’s appeal has been scheduled for Monday, Aug. 4 at 3 p.m. in Fulton County Superior Court.

The Public Service Commission candidate was thrown off the July 15 primary ballot in an eleventh-hour disqualification Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, who overruled a decision by an administrative law judge that deemed he met residency requirements. A Fulton County Superior Court judge granted him a stay and he managed to pull in 85 percent of the votes in his race against Bob Indech. (Click here to view CL’s rundown of the events.)

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Jim Powell yesterday said he’s not going to let the legal issues hanging over his head taint the buzz of winning Tuesday Democrat primary for the Public Service Commission’s District 4 seat.

Powell bested opponent Bob Indech 85-15, a surprising feat for someone who’d not only been disqualified the day before, but also reported signs were still hanging at polls on Tuesday wrongly advising voters his race was essentially over.

“I’ve got a lot of folks I need to talk to,” Powell said during a phone interview. “I won the primary. So obviously, I’m going to run my campaign as if I’ll be [on the ballot] in November.”

(more…)

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Here’s a quick rundown on the July 15 Georgia primary results. The big news was generated by high-stakes runoffs:

* U.S. senator: The two experienced Democrats — Vernon Jones and Joe Martin — vanquished three first-time candidates and will face each other in an Aug. 5 runoff. With 91 percent of precincts counted, DeKalb CEO Jones won 40 percent of the vote, while Martin got 35 percent. Martin — who entered the race late and has been criticized for a lackluster campaign — may have a slight edge in the runoff: He has more money in the bank, he seems more likely to pick up support from supporters of other candidates, and his largely white base historically shows up for runoffs better than does Jones’ base of black voters. What does Jones have going for him? A runoff in the contest for who will replace him as DeKalb CEO could spur turnout in his home county. The winner takes on Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss in November.

* DeKalb County CEO: The contest for the most powerful local government post in the state heads for a runoff as well, although DeKalb Commissioner Burrell Ellis turned out an impressive showing with 46 percent of the vote. No surprise that he’ll face well-liked state Rep. Stan Watson in the runoff. But a 20 point head start has gotta give Ellis the edge. (more…)

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Public Service Commission candidate Jim Powell says voters from all over the state are telling him signs noting he was disqualified and votes for him would not be counted were still hanging at the polls as late as 1 p.m. today — almost a full day after a judge told Secretary of State Karen Handel she could not boot him off the ballot.

So far, Powell says he’s heard from voters in DeKalb, Fulton, Bibb, Wayne and Gwinnett Counties. He says someone who was working the polls told him that Handel’s office sent an e-mail last night saying the signs should not be posted. Problem is: No one checked their e-mail before heading out in the morning before they manned the polls. This one location only received a phone call at 12:10 p.m. telling them to take down the signs, the worker told him.

Handel determined Powell did not meet eligibility requirements on July 10. Click here to read Handel’s July 10 ruling. Powell says he was not able to confirm her ruling until yesterday morning.

“I spent over 35 years with the U. S. Government and I have seen a lot of things, I would have expected someone at Karen Handel’s level to have conducted herself more professionally,” Powell writes in an e-mail. “The citizens of Georgia should be outraged. Handel didn’t seem to have any problems getting my name off the ballot; it is unfortunate that she had so much difficulty getting my name back on the ballot.”

If you have any photos of this or hear anything, send it our way.

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— Griftdrift returns from a snorkeling adventure in the Gulf of Mexico to weigh in with a spot-on analysis of Secretary of State Karen Handel’s decision to remove PSC Commission candidate Jim Powell from the ballot, and a judge’s subsequent decision to put him back on the ballot.

—Lori posts a pictorial tribute to Fire Station No. 7, which was closed yesterday due to the city’s budget crisis, on Mingaling. There’s nothing there about Shirley Franklin going “Philadelphia” on the protesters who don’t want to lose their fire station — and almost needing her own fire put out — but there’s some pretty pictures.

— Over at Jason Pye’s blog, he passes along info that Bob Barr, former CL columnist and now presidential candidate, has opened up an on-line store where you can pick up campaign t-shirts and hats. They’re spiffy.

— In a campaign of a different sort, there’s a long back and forth on ATLmalcontent regarding a fellow blogger’s tome on the requirements for a male to be a feminist ally. Which is something we should all aspire towards, no?

— A new trend in Atlanta television news is called “backpacking.” No camping involved. Just news reporters doubling as camerapersons. Doug Richards at Live Apartment Fire explains how WXIA is trying to get a bigger bang for the buck. And essentially telling viewers: Expect less.

— Over at the Wren’s Nest, someone has discovered that the family of Joel Chandler Harris sued Coca-Cola for copyright infringement in 1932. Br’er Rabbit didn’t win because Br’er Coca-Cola out-foxed him.

— I’m still trying to figure this one out, but the ladies at Pecanne Log seem to have this inexplicable crush on our own Thomas Wheatley, to the point they appear to gush over him with every post. Today, there’s no Thomas-gushing going on, but there is a nice sigh of relief that the Crum and Forster building has been saved from the clutches of demolition by those ramblin’ wrecks over at Georgia Tech.

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Last post regarding the 2000 Florida recou–I mean, Jim Powell disqualification situation.

From an email received from the Secretary of State’s office, with emphasis added:

As provided for in Georgia law (O.C.G.A. 21-2-5(e)), Mr. Powell has the right to appeal the Secretary of State’s final decision. Mr. Powell filed a petition in Fulton County Superior Court, and the Court granted a stay of the Secretary of State’s final decision. The election will proceed as planned, and Mr. Powell’s name will appear on the ballot. Votes for Mr. Powell will be tallied and votes may or may not be counted based on the outcome of the appeal.

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For you legal eagles who like one-page documents with funny signatures, you’re in luck. Here it is.

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Just as soon as I spoke with Jim Powell about the eleventh-hour disqualification he believed was a game of political chess orchestrated by Secretary of State Karen Handel, this comes in via e-mail:

I am still a candidate. A Fulton County Superior court Judge just issued a Stay.

We’ll continue to watch. Waiting on a call from Handel’s office to see if his votes will indeed be counted. We’ll update when we know.

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UPDATE: As mentioned in the comments and this post, a Fulton County Superior Court judge has ruled Jim Powell is still a candidate for the Public Service Commission District 4 Democratic primary.

Big news coming from Dick Pettys at InsiderAdvantage. Secretary of State Karen Handel has booted Jim Powell, one of the Democrats vying for the District 4 Public Service Commission race, off the ballot because of residency concerns. Odd judging that just a few weeks ago a judge ruled he had met the requirements.

From Pettys:

In a statement issued by her press office shortly before noon, Handel said James R. Powell does not meet the residency requirements for PSC District 4, a seat now held by retiring Commissioner Angela Speir.

Handel said notices of his disqualification will be placed at the polling places tomorrow, and votes cast for Powell will not be counted.

She said she found that Powell owns a home in Towns County, which is within District 4, but that at the time he qualified, he received a homestead exemption and continued to receive mail at a home he owns in Cobb County, which is not within the district.

The ruling leaves Bob Indech the only Democratic candidate in the race while Lauren McDonald and Pam Davidson are competing for the GOP nod. The winner will compete with Indech and Libertarian Brandon Givens in November.

UPDATE: Blog for Democracy has an interesting post up about Powell’s disqualification.

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On May 28, the Democratic Party of Georgia challenged Georgia’s voter ID in Fulton County Superior Court. State Republicans say a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling settled the voter ID issue in their favor. State Democrats say the opposite is true.

“We think there are close to half a million people who are registered voters but won’t be able to vote.”

-Emmet Bondurant, lawyer for the Democratic Party of Georgia, as quoted in the Fulton County Daily Report on May 28.

On Friday, May 23, millions of Georgians were busy planning their Memorial Day weekends, writing letters and making phone calls to loved ones serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, and remembering family members and friends who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. That same day, the Democratic Party of Georgia (DPG) was busy on a different matter: filing a fourth lawsuit against the State attacking the voter ID law.

-Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, responding to the suit in a letter appearing on the Peach Pundit blog May 29.

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