Fresh Loaf

Georgia Public Service Commission Democratic candidate Jim Powell — who faces Republican Lauren “Bubba” McDonald in the Dec. 2 runoff — has a new online-only ad up on YouTube. (If YouTube ain’t your thang, Grift has it on Vimeo.)

Gotta love the floating “Bubba” heads coming out of smokestacks.

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Former President Jimmy Carter yesterday endorsed Democrat Jim Powell in his Georgia Public Service Commission runoff against Republican candidate Lauren “Bubba” McDonald.

“I am impressed with Jim Powell’s knowledge of the issues that will be addressed by the Georgia Public Service Commission in the coming years,” President Carter said. “His vision of energy policy for our state reflects the forward-thinking approach we need, both in the near future and in the long term.

“With Jim Powell, the people of Georgia have a unique opportunity to elect a Public Service Commissioner with solid professional experience for this important position. I support Jim Powell in the December 2 runoff election.”

President Carter made the endorsement following a meeting with the candidate Thursday afternoon at the Carter Center.

“I am most honored to have the support of this great Georgian and American, President Jimmy Carter,” Powell said. “During his term in the White House, President Carter foresaw the importance of managing our energy resources and established the U.S. Department of Energy. He understands what is at stake in this election, and I am humbled that he would endorse my candidacy.”

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STAR POWER Former president stumps for U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Martin

In the quickening cold on Wednesday evening, Augustine Smith, a wide-grinning middle-aged man from Duluth by way of West Africa, leaned against a railing in the crowded Arnett Quadrangle at Clark Atlanta University, Barack Obama hat perched atop his head, and waited for the man many of these people came out to see.

Not U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Jim Martin, although the event was in his honor and Smith said he’d vote for the former state lawmaker again, but former President Bill Clinton. The president had visited Atlanta to stump for Martin in his runoff race against incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss before zipping off to a local fundraiser.

“This country does not need to build a firewall,” Clinton told the energetic crowd of 1,500 people, referring to how Chambliss has described his role in a Democrat-controlled Senate under Pres.-elect Barack Obama. “It needs to build a bridge to the future. Martin’s the bridge, Chambliss is the firewall.”

Clinton repeated this mantra over and over as he attempted to enthuse supporters to do what Republicans know best and Democrats have historically proven unable — the tricky task of getting the voters back to the polls in a runoff.

(more…)

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Just two weeks before the Dec. 2 runoff, the Georgia Conservation Voters’ political action committee has slammed Georgia Public Service Commission Republican nominee Lauren “Bubba” McDonald on a website called “The Truth About Bubba.”

The site brands McDonald as a “special interest puppet” who consistently voted in favor of industries — the same ones who’ve contributed “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to his campaigns — when he previously served on the commission. The site includes specific instances where it says McDonald pushed for helping out the utilities more than Georgians.

“Having Bubba McDonald serve on the Public Service Commission is like letting the fox guard the hen house,” says Chris Osborne, Executive Director of Georgia Conservation Voters. “During his tenure holding public office, Bubba McDonald has proven to be nothing more than a puppet of the special interests. He has consistently voted against middle class ratepayers in favor of his campaign donors.”

McDonald is running against Democratic candidate Jim Powell. CL endorsed Powell in its General Election issue.

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Public Service Commission Republican nominee Lauren “Bubba” McDonald just can’t seem to catch a break.

After a narrow July 15 primary win over energy consultant Pam Davidson and a nail-bitin’ General Election that must be decided in a Dec. 2 runoff, McDonald now has to attend a big-name fundraiser at Atlanta law firm Hall Booth Smith & Slover. The invitation promises the Bubba we know so well will do outlandish and wacky things if he gets elected. Like pursue renewable energy! The gall of these political patrons!

From a fundraiser invitation slipped to us by a tipster:

Friends,

I know this election season has been very, very long and folks have gotten inundated with calls, letters, emails, etc., but I’d like to reach out to y’all for this run-off race which will be watched all over the country and urge you to get back out and vote for Saxby and Bubba on Dec. 2nd or by Early or Absentee ballot. A Saxby win will allow the Republicans to at least have a voice in Washington DC and a Bubba win will be bring us one step closer to Energy Independence with his focus on biomass, clean coal, and nuclear energy.

On behalf of the Governor, Lt. Governor, Speaker, the Republican members of the Public Service Commission, Sen. David Shafer (Chairman of the Senate Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee), Rep. Mike Jacobs, and our terrific Host Committee, I would like to invite you to the following Reception (please print the attached .pdf invitation for directions and campaign contribution info):

Please join Governor Sonny Perdue, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, Speaker Glenn Richardson, Chmn. Chuck Eaton, Comm. Stan Wise, Comm. Doug Everett, Sen. David Shafer, and the members of the Host Committee at a Campaign Fundraiser for Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, Jr.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2008
5:00 PM — 7:00 PM

AT THE OFFICES OF

Hall Booth Smith & Slover
1180 West Peachtree Street NW
Atlantic Center Plaza, Suite 900
Atlanta, GA 30309

Please RSVP to [redacted] at [redacted] or [redacted] by Monday, November 17, 2008

- [redacted]

Let it be noted that McDonald’s campaign contribution list reads like a summit gathering of powerful utility lobbyists and lawyers. Biomass was — and still is — one of the issues Jim Powell, a 35-year veteran of the U.S. Department of Energy and McDonald’s Democratic opponent in the  runoff, has pushed the hardest.

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Usually the Libertarians end up siding with Republicans. Not so in the Public Service Commission Dec. 2 runoff between Republican Lauren “Bubba” McDonald and Democratic nominee Jim Powell.

Brandon Givens, the Libertarian challenger for the seat who received the strongest showing by a third-party candidate in the Nov. 4 General Election, has announced his endorsement for Powell in the Dec. 2 runoff.

From the Powell campaign:

“After speaking with Mr. Jim Powell I’ve discovered that he too has the vision for a new system that would allow for both a free market in energy and a growth in green technology,” Givens said in a news release. “Mr. Powell also shares my strong opposition to ex parte communications, the behind-closed-doors dealings between PSC members and the industries they are charged with regulating. He will stand up for transparency in government. I strongly encourage all voters, Libertarian and fiscally conservative to vote for Jim Powell.”

…

“I congratulate Brandon Givens on the strong race that he ran and bringing attention to many of the important issues in this campaign,” Powell said. “I am honored to have his support in the runoff election.”

Powell has also been endorsed by incumbent Public Service Commissioner Angela Speir, former Republican candidate Pam Davidson, and four of the state’s major daily newspapers: the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Savannah Morning News. the Rome News-Tribune and the Waycross Journal-Herald.

Powell won the popular vote in both the Democratic primary and the Nov. 4 General Election. He also fought a long and tiresome battle with Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel over his residency. Just one week before the General Election, the state Supreme Court  ruled he was eligible to run.

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The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that Public Service Commission Democratic nominee Jim Powell can stay on the ballot.

UPDATE: Grift has some discussion on his site about the ruling, plus the actual opinion. You can also download it here.

Here is the release from the court:

STATE SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS POWELL’S RUN FOR PSC

Atlanta, Oct. 30, 2008 – The Supreme Court of Georgia today upheld James R. Powell’s right to run in Tuesday’s election for a seat on the Public Service Commission.

Secretary of State Karen Handel had appealed a Fulton County Superior Court ruling that sided with Powell and overturned her decision finding Powell ineligible to run based on where he lived. In June 2008, Handel first challenged Powell’s qualifications a month after he filed his intent to run as a Democrat against Republican Lauren McDonald for the PSC District 4 post. She argued that a homestead exemption Powell had on his Cobb County property established an irrefutable presumption of legal residence and proved Powell did not live in the North Georgia district he seeks to represent. In her appeal, Handel argued that under state law, the trial court should have given deference to her interpretation of the law on residency that she is in charge of enforcing.

But in today’s unanimous decision, written by Justice Robert Benham, the Supreme Court disagrees. “It is the role of the judicial branch to interpret the statutes enacted by the legislative branch and enforced by the executive branch…, and administrative rulings will be adopted only when they conform to the meaning which the court deems should properly be given,” 8-page opinion says. The facts of the case are not in dispute, merely the interpretation of the law, the opinion points out.

In 2006, Powell purchased a second home in Towns County, which is in District 4. In 2007, he attempted unsuccessfully to transfer his homestead exemption from Cobb to Towns County, but he missed the filing deadline. Evidence shows Powell spends more than 60 percent of his time in Towns County, where he has voted three times, attends church and pays taxes.

The residency law, which is Section 21-2-217 in the Official Code of Georgia, lists 15 rules for determining a candidate’s legal residence. At least seven apply to Powell, the Supreme Court has found, “but the Secretary’s decision did not take into account any of the applicable rules other than the homestead exemption rule.”

“We agree with the superior court that the Secretary committed an error of law that authorizes reversal of the Secretary’s decision,” today’s opinion says.

More to come.

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U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Jim Martin is touring Georgia in a final push to convince undecided voters. Today, Martin and Public Service Commission Democratic nominee Jim Powell make several stops during the former state lawmaker’s “Road to Change” bus tour.

After the jump, the full list of stops.

(more…)

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For you political junkies out there **cough**Grift, sara**cough**, here’s the state Supreme Court case summary of the Jim Powell and Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel residency slugfest. These excellent write-ups are penned by Jane Hansen, the court’s public information officer. She’s a former AJC reporter and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Monday, October 20, 2008

10:00 A.M. Session

HANDEL V. POWELL (S09A0074)

This appeal stems from a dispute between Secretary of State Karen Handel and James R. Powell, who is running for a seat on the Public Service Commission. Handel is appealing a Fulton County Superior Court ruling that sided with Powell, overturning Handel’s decision that Powell was ineligible to run based on his residency. The Supreme Court agreed to expedite oral arguments in the case.

(more…)

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A source sends word that the Georgia Supreme Court will hear arguments in the Jim Powell residency kerfuffle on Monday, Oct. 20 at 10 a.m.

Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel started fighting Powell — the Democratic nominee for the Public Service Commission’s Northern District — shortly before the primary. Even with that cloud hanging over the race, Powell still walked away with 85 percent of the vote. The nominee’s had a tough time raising funds and campaigning because of the legal challenges, but he’s pushed on regardless. (To read CL’s coverage, click here.) No telling if the justices will issue a ruling before the Nov. 4 General Election.

Powell faces Republican nominee Lauren “Bubba” McDonald and Libertarian Party nominee Brandon Givens.

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Write the correct name of the office you seek.

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Jason Pye of Peach Pundit reports the residency of Public Service Commissioner Doug Everett has been questioned by Libertarian Party nominee John Monds, the lone challenger in his re-election bid.

Pye writes:

The complaint alleges that Everett lives in Clarkesville and Atlanta, but not at any of the addresses provided in official filings to the State Ethics Commission.

The Atlanta residence is rented, though paid for with campaign funds since 2006. The home in Albany that Everett has used in filings is actually owned by his son, Michael C. Everett. A homestead exemption has been filed to this effect as well.

Monds writes, “It is very reasonable to ask Mr. Everett to come forward and provide evidence of his residency. I ask that you use all means within your power to expeditiously resolve any questions that exist concerning this matter.”

As Pye notes, it may be too late to file a residency challenge.

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It continues.

Yes, and that “Lauren W. McDonald III?” He’s the son of Bubba McDonald, the former state lawmaker who’s running as a Republican for the Public Service Commission.

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Something to keep in mind when you go into the voting booth. The pro-conservation nonprofit organization gives its seal of approval to the following candidates:

UPDATE: An eagle-eyed viewer reminds me via e-mail that Jacobs is no longer a Democrat.

Senate
District 6 – Doug Stoner (D)
District 29 – Seth Harp (R)
District 42 – David Adelman (D)
District 46 – Bill Cowsert (R)

Public Service Commission
District 4 – Jim Powell (D)

House
District 8 – Charles Jenkins (D)
District 11 – Barbara Massey Reece (D)
District 13 – Katie Dempsey (R)
District 28 – Jeannette Jamieson (D)
District 34 – Rich Golick (D)
District 44 – Sheila Jones (D)
District 80 – Mike Jacobs (D) (R)
District 81 – Jill Chambers (R)
District 85 – Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D)
District 177 – Mark Hatfield (R)

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At Manuel’s Tavern on Tuesday night, there were chicken wings, some hummus, lots of beer, and a roomful of residents who were tired of Georgia’s reputation as a coal-dependent embarrassment when it comes to energy. In other words, it was a typical night at Manuel’s. But on this night, the crowd was talking with someone who says he can change the state’s filthy energy ways.

Jim Powell, the Democratic nominee for the Georgia Public Service Commission — the quasi-judicial state agency that helps determine how much it costs to keep your lights turned on and your house toasty warm — was amongst nearly 50 well wishers at the Tuesday night fundraiser held in his honor at the political pub in Poncy-Highland.

Organized by some of the city’s leading environmental activists, the benefit was one of several scheduled around the state to give Powell, a former executive with the U.S. Department of Energy, a financial advantage over his well-financed opponent on Nov. 4, Bubba McDonald.

Powell, in contrast to McDonald, has pledged not to