Fresh Loaf

— The election is less than a week away and, somewhere, the real housewives of Atlanta are plotting “strategery” to protect their Benjamins from being spread around. But after last night’s fund-raiser fiasco, let’s hope their plans don’t include an A-List party to raise last-minute cash for Johnny Mac. At Politits, Dcup tells them where they, and those like them, can go.

— Spread the wealth … Joe the plumber wasn’t happy with that idea either and neither is Jason Pye. However well intended, he writes, it is a socialistic concept. Pye would rather see spending cut across the board.

— My favorite J-Mac quote from 2000, back when a maverick was really a maverick: “Sooner or later, people are going to figure out if all you run is negative attack ads, you don’t have much of a vision for the future or you’re not ready to articulate it.” Hmmm. Jill Chambers, a Republican in good standing, should take note. DriftGrift discusses her desperation tactics to keep her House seat.

— Halloween is near. People create ghoulish scenes. And … please keep the politics out of it. Amy at Georgia Women Vote is no fan of Caribou Barbie. But a noose around the neck of the clothes queen? Definitely not cool.

— Want a summation of the difference between J-Mac and “that one”? The lovely Sara at Going Through The Motions puts things into perspective with the tale of two Ashleys. I remember the Ashley moment. It’s when I began to swing towards “that one.”

— Another national tragedy that the pols seem to relish is the slow death of traditional journalism. And it’s not just newspapers. As Live Apartment News notes, WSB radio just laid off two of its most experienced news reporters. Has anyone noticed that Atlanta is a town teeming with unemployed, award-winning journalists?

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DeKalb is one of the few counties in Georgia that actually feature a couple of competitive races this year for state legislative seats.

Most state House and state Senate contests in the county — like elsewhere in Georgia — aren’t competitive at all. State lawmakers did too good a job gerrymandering their own districts so that challengers would find it nearly impossible to unseat them.

But there are challengers who stand a chance in two North DeKalb House districts that fall along a jagged boundary of aging suburbs — inside or straddling the Perimeter — where demographics are changing quickly enough to give Democrats a chance to win Republican seats.

One of the vulnerable incumbents is Rep. Jill Chambers of District 81 (Chamblee and Doraville), the only Republican incumbent in a district that voted for John Kerry in 2004.

Chambers faces additional hurdles this time: She’s been the focus of attacks by the Dunwoody Crier newspaper for her stance against Dunwoody cityhood; a DeKalb man told police earlier this month that she confronted him at his home after he filed an ethics complaint against her (the complaint accuses Chambers of violating campaign finance rules by accepting more money than allowed from a business on whose behalf she later introduced beneficial legislation); and her opponent, Chris Huttman, is an experienced Democratic activist.

We appreciate the fact that Chambers has been among the most independent Republican voices in the General Assembly. Her willingness to buck GOP orthodoxy on issues ranging from education to transportation to Dunwoody cityhood has been refreshingly practical.

But her behavior at times has been erratic and high-handed. Earlier this month, Huttman — a bright young blogger who’s articulate on the issues — was the subject of a shamefully misleading flier from her campaign. It’s the kind of nasty politicking that all voters should be wary of, regardless of their ideology.

It also makes sense for the middle-class, aging suburbs that make up the 81st District to elect a candidate from a party that will represent middle-class interests. Huttman fits the bill.

In the neighboring District 80 (which runs from Druid Hills to Brookhaven), formerly Democratic Rep. Mike Jacobs has an unfair advantage in his first re-election campaign as a Republican.

Challenger Michelle Conlon, a solar energy consultant, has been forced to run as an independent instead of as a Democrat. That happened because Republican Secretary of State Karen Handel refused to reopen campaign qualifying for Democrats after another Democratic candidate was disqualified for residency reasons. Appearing on the ballot as an independent is almost certain to harm Conlon’s chances, even though she has Democratic Party support and promises to caucus with the Democrats in the House.

Jacobs has been a diligent representative. He knows the district, stays in touch with civic groups and works hard on constituent service. But his switch to the GOP, after winning re-election under the Democratic banner, was troublingly opportunistic — particularly because it was accompanied by craven support for such harmful ideas as House Speaker Bill Glenn Richardson’s irresponsible tax plan.

Residents of this highly educated district deserve a more thoughtful voice on the big issues that confront the Legislature. We side with Conlon in her uphill battle.

For more posts from CL’s 2008 Voters’ Guide click here. Come back next week to download our Voter’s Cheat Sheet.

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We’ve been hearing for several years that energetic state Rep. Jill Chambers, R-Dekalb, is a rough-and-tumble, down-and-dirty campaigner. Now that we’ve seen her latest flier, we know what people mean. It’s a case study in out-of-context innuendo. But if it proves to be effective, the lesson will be that anyone who aspires to elective office should stay away from blogging, mySpace and perhaps the Internet as a whole.

Chambers’ opponent is twentysomething Chris Huttman, a longtime Democratic activist better known to local Netizens by his blog name, Chris is Hardcore. Beginning in 2003, Huttman’s blog offered his own commentary on political happenings of the day, apparently intended for consumption by fellow political junkies. One might have taken issues with Huttman’s political outlook, but there was nothing offensive or outrageous about his site, which he dropped a couple years back.

So it was a surprise to learn from Chambers’ flier that “Chris frequently asked people to send photographs of themselves” and that “his commentary is peppered with vulgarity and crude references to body parts.”

Huttman, she says, “has been lurking around the internet.” Well, yeah, the guy’s a prominent local blogger. That’s like accusing a taxi driver of “lurking around streets and alleyways.”

On the flier is a distorted, close-up photo of some guy with a goatee, but it isn’t Huttman, and it doesn’t look like anything that would have appeared on his blog site, which typically didn’t use photos.

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State Rep. Jill Chambers, R-DeKalb, concedes that her upcoming bill to strengthen penalties for open-records scofflaws will probably not make it to the House floor in as tough a form as it is now. As proposed, the bill, which CL wrote about here, would make intentional violations of the state open-records laws a felony. That’s likely wishful thinking, Chambers announced today at a work session for the bill that attracted a collection of news reporters, state lawyers and representatives from the GBI, the League of Women Voters and Common Cause.

“The felony provision probably won’t survive the legislative process,” she said. “But it served to get people’s attention.”

Chambers would like to shoot for making violations at least a high and aggravated misdemeanor, but she said she wouldn’t sit by and watch her bill gutted by lawmakers who want to preserve the status quo of wrist-slaps for state departments and elected officials who brazenly defy sunshine laws. Currently, the highest fine the state imposes for withholding public information is $500.

“If this bill gets hijacked or weakened too much, I’ll pull it and kill it,” Chambers said. “We want to err on the side of open records.”

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We’re barely into November, but already some folks can’t wait for the festivities to start. We’re talking, of course, about the General Assembly, and the folks in question are lawmakers touting their legislative agendas. We haven’t seen any pre-filed bills yet, but one DeKalb House Republican is already showing her hand a good two months before the beginning of the session.
Rep. Jill Chambers wants to ratchet up the penalties for those who knowingly violate the state’s Open Records Act. What a capitol idea! She hasn’t drafted her bill yet — in fact, she’s announced that she’s throwing “parties” to solicit ideas on how to overhaul the act — but she wants to increase the charge from a misdemeanor to a felony.
In blog posts and e-mails, Chambers explains that she’s been frustrated with politicians who willfully flout the law because the penalties are so meager. She cites the illegal, closed-door meetings in August by the Doraville City Council, during which three members tried to oust the police chief.

She’d like to see potential fines of a flagrant Open Records violation increased from $100 to $5,000.

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