Fresh Loaf

Yay! The new issue of The Beacon, the North Fulton weekly newspaper that made headlines for its Obama-in-the-crosshairs cover, has been delivered to my computer screen!

What’s this? A profile of Georgia Secretary of State and 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidate Karen “Bring It On” Handel? I wonder how it’ll start.

“I’ve had to fight for everything my whole life,” says Georgia Secretary of State and GOP gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel. “So this is no different.”

And so begins perhaps the most glowing profile you will ever read about Karen Handel, from now until the day you die.

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It hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for Atlanta Councilman H. Lamar Willis, who stands for reelection in a little more than three weeks. First, the AJC reports that he owes nearly $44,000 in back taxes. Then, Secretary of State Karen Handel trumpets the fact that Willis just got socked with a $25,000 court fine due to his squirrely scholarship foundation.

The most recent AJC story mentions, for good measure, that the state filed yet another lien against Willis in late August to recover about $1,500 in unpaid sales taxes relating to a car he bought four years ago.

So today Willis released a statement trying to put his many financial missteps into, um, context. Here’s a taste:

The [$25,000] fine is related to a failure to properly register as a charity as required by Georgia law. The Court specifically found that there was insufficient evidence that the Foundation had used any artifice or scheme to defraud contributors. The Court also found there was insufficient evidence that the moneys’ [sic] raised were misappropriated. In fact, not a single contributor was called as a witness by the Secretary of State in support of the allegations put forth in her complaint. I did not use any contributions for my personal benefit.

Certainly, it should come as a big relief that “there was insufficient evidence that the monies raised were misappropriated.” Doesn’t that make you breathe a little easier?

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Lamar Willis

Last Monday, the AJC reported that Atlanta Councilman H. Lamar Willis owed the state about $44,000 in back taxes and fines.

Today, Secretary of State Karen Handel sent out a notice alerting the press that Willis has been hit with a $25,000 fine by a Fulton Superior Court judge for misrepresenting his scholarship foundation as a nonprofit charity when it was not.

I’m guessing none of this is going to help Willis get reelected next month.

You may recall that, two years ago, an AJC investigation indicated a number of financial improprieties on Willis’ part, many of them centered on his foundation. If the article’s allegations were correct, Council observers mused at the time, then Willis could end up being charged with tax fraud by the feds.

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Back in May, I used the word “ghetto” in a headline to describe an impoverished,  crime-ridden stretch of road in central Atlanta. As a result, I learned the hard way that the word carries so much baggage that readers are turned off merely by seeing it in print, no matter how technically accurate its usage seems to be.

But, as the AJC’s Jim Galloway points out, when a white Georgia Congressman uses the word “ghetto” in a casually dismissive reference to folks who are poor, elderly and presumably black during a campaign stop before an overwhelmingly white audience — well, you’ve got the makings of a Macaca moment.

Congressman Nathan Deal

Just as in the case of now-ex-Virginia Sen. George Allen, who was videotaped making a casually dismissive taunt aimed at the Southeast Asian man holding the video camera, Rep. Nathan Deal was recorded by his opposition telling a Cherokee County crowd about his approach toward requiring proof of citizenship for federal or state health care benefits:

“We got all the complaints of the ghetto grandmothers who didn’t have birth certificates and all that. We wrote some very liberal language as to how you can verify it. My mother was born in 1906 and she didn’t have a birth certificate. They didn’t give birth certificates back then. But we got her one, because you can do it under the proper procedures of your state.”

A video of Deal’s bone-headed statement has been posted to YouTube by the campaign of Secretary of State Karen Handel, who’s running against Deal for the GOP nomination for governor. On Galloway’s blog, the clip has attracted nearly 300 comments, many from readers who characterize Deal’s choice of words as bigoted.

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Good morning, John Oxendine, Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate. What bad ideas do you have for us this morning? Oh, you think we should talk about building a “parallel downtown connector” that could plow through most of East Atlanta! OK. Lemme just first clean up all this coffee I spit all over my desk.

Oxendine pitches the idea — along with a Western Bypass, a new Northern Arc, and a couple of other projects that will most likely never get built — in this campaign video.

Building a massive asphalt artery through some of the city’s most vibrant neighborhoods isn’t going to win Oxendine any support inside the perimeter.

But this pie-in-the-sky idea, which will most likely never happen, could win the gubernatorial hopeful points with the North Fulton crowd, a tried and true Republican enclave that’s thought to most likely favor Karen Handel. The Ox says that people who live in the Ga. 400 and I-85 corridors — unlike potential voters in Cobb County — don’t have the luxury of bypassing the city.

But anything to get Georgia out of gridlock, right?

(H/T to Jim Galloway)

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A scant 10 months out from next year’s GOP primary, state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine is touting a new Rasmussen poll that shows him with a “commanding lead over all other Republican gubernatorial hopefuls.”

Here’s what Rasmussen says:

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Georgia shows Oxendine with 31% support among those likely to vote in the state’s open Republican Primary. That gives him a (sic) 18-point advantage over his closest competitors. Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel and Congressman Nathan Deal each attract 13% of the vote.

And here’s what the Ox’s team makes of it:

“John is humbled by these results and he will continue to work very hard to earn the trust and support of Georgia,” said (campaign manager Tim) Echols.

Hmm, perhaps they didn’t read the next paragraph, in which Rasmussen concludes:

However, it’s clearly a very open field. Thirty-one percent (31%) of potential voters are not sure which candidate they prefer.

Well, so much for the Ox’s “commanding lead.”

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You may recall that Secretary of State Karen Handel tried to implement a last-minute citizenship verification hurdle before last fall’s election that might have resulted in thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of newly registered, likely Democratic voters being turned away from the polls.

She had her hands slapped by a federal three-judge panel, who said she needed Justice Department approval to carry out her scheme, and then by the Justice Department itself, which said her plan would be a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Here’s the department’s conclusions, from a letter sent to AG Thurbert Baker:

The state’s proposed procedures for verifying voter registration information are seriously flawed. This flawed system frequently subjects a disproportionate number of African-American, Asian, and/or Hispanic voters to additional and, more importantly, erroneous burdens on the right to register to vote. These burdens are real, are substantial, and are retrogressive for minority voters. As such, an objection based upon the state’s failure to establish the absence of a discriminatory effect is warranted.

That seems pretty cut and dried. And remember, that was before Bush left office.

But Handel is one partisan gal who doesn’t give up easily! On Wednesday, she asked the DOJ to reconsider its decision. Does that mean she made an attempt to rectify “the state’s failure to establish the absence of a discriminatory effect?” Pshaw!

From her press release:

“I do not believe there is anything discriminatory in verifying voter information and citizenship,” Secretary Handel said. “I strongly disagreed with the Department of Justice’s decision to deny preclearance. It is my hope that the Department of Justice will review this request, with the information and data provided, and grant preclearance to the State of Georgia for these verification processes.”

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Laura Douglas-Brown of the Southern Voice points our attention to Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s rather blunt stance on gay marriage, expressed several months ago in her “bring it on” campaign video.

Surprise! The GOP gubernatorial candidate opposes the idea and will fight efforts to show respect to gay men and women who’d like to enjoy the same legal rights as straight people! Including divorce!

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On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over whether touch-screen voting — those controversial courtesy of Diebold that were ushered in after the 2000 presidential election clusterfuck — should be used in the state.

Early voting in downtown Atlanta, October, 2008,

The case stems from a 2006 challenge brought by Garland Favorito, who says the machines don’t produce a recorded ballot — you know, with results — and are open to tampering. (You can read about the plaintiffs’ concerns at Voter GA.)

After the jump, the case summary from the state Supreme Court communications office:

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Erick Erickson, editor of Peach Pundit and RedState, has gotten all Lawnmower Man up in this and rappelled into the darkest depths of the Internet to do some good-ole fashioned sleuthing.

Erick Erickson

For several days, Erickson’s had a sneaking suspicion that someone close to state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine has been vandalizing Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s Wikipedia entry. Handel and Oxendine are considered front runners in the race that’s still more than a year away.

A few readers — some of whom it’s safe to assume are supporters of Das Ox — questioned Erickson’s motives. (It’s worth noting that he’s a fan of Handel.) But now he’s uncovered some more evidence.

So while I realize the Oxendine supporters will use this as a forum to go after me again for daring to speculate based on the circumstantial evidence at the time, as the Oxendine campaign seems intent on doing, the Oxendine campaign is not out of the woods by a long shot.

I now have the IP address from which RomneyGingrich12 made the changes to Karen Handel’s biography.

That IP address is a State of Georgia IP address that, I understand, connects from the Sloppy Floyd building. Unfortunately, it is also my understanding that it is pretty difficult to tell from there which computer, in fact, uses that particular IP address or it may rotate.

Read a list of more clues over at Peach Pundit.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Christopher Barber, who wants ballot access eased, said we could use this awesome photo of him and one of God's most poetic creatures

For decades, most third-party candidates in Georgia who wanted to gain ballot access have had to circulate petitions and gather signatures. The process has been derided as unfair, unnecessary and an obstacle to public service.

And now, a Libertarian Party of Georgia member has asked Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel — who’s also a gubernatorial candidate — to ease third-party ballot access in the Peach State.

In a letter sent last Friday to the Secretary of State’s office, DeKalb County resident Christopher Barber — who’s allowed me to reveal his identity as the mysterious “man in the Hawaiian shirt” from previous posts — asks Handel to embrace the Internet and TEAR DOWN THIS WALL.

Barber says allowing potential candidates to petition via e-mail for ballot access would save her department — and in turn, Georgia taxpayers — money.

Judging that Handel has been gung-ho on cutting her department’s waste and keeping elections fair — and considering the allure of winning the kind graces of the burgeoning number of residents who identify with the Libertarian platform — this should make for some interesting theater.

More from the letter — and a copy of the letter itself — after the jump.

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Forgive the Yogi Berra-ness of the following statement, but Libertarian Jason Pye is the person I disagree with most often with whom I agree most often.

Ex. Last night, Pye asked his readers to stop judging Republican Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel through our usual “elephant vs. donkey” filter. Instead, he wants us to consider Georgia’s restrictive ballot rules; rules that protect the duopoly of Democrats and Republicans against challengers. He’s got a great point.

Pye:

You cannot truly have a fair and open election process until all parties are given the same access to the ballot that Democrats and Republicans enjoy. For those of you who don’t know, Georgia has some of the most restrictive ballot access laws in the United States, behind Oklahoma and West Virginia, with the latter taking steps to improve ballot access this year [. . .] a relaxation of ballot access laws must be passed by the legislature, an endorsement of the idea from the supervisor of elections in the State of Georgia could go a long way and possibly could even open up some dialogue with legislative leaders.

If ballot access and election verification are subjects you find interesting, I recommend you journey into the Pye-hole for a couple minutes.

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Erick Erickson at Peach Pundit (who, on Friday, celebrates his fifth consecutive week of not calling anyone a goat-fucking child molester) has called-out Rep. John Lewis for a bizarre quotation appearing in an AJC story about the U.S. Department of Justice’s rejection of a Georgia voter law.

Lewis describes the rejected election law as:

“an attempt to take us back to another dark period in our history when people were denied access to the ballot box simply because of their race or nationality.”

A slight problem, Rep. Lewis.

We’re supposed to discriminate by nationality at the ballot box.

We don’t vote in foreign elections and foreigners don’t vote in ours. The problem with the state law isn’t that Lithuanians should be allowed to vote in Georgia. The problem, according to the DOJ, is that Georgia’s citizenship filter is inaccurate and unreliable.

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Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton

Remember how sad it was to watch Sen. John McCain grovel for right-wing votes during the presidential race, such as when he made nice with Jerry “Agent of Intolerance” Falwell? Well, get ready for more of the same here in the State that Time Forgot. Georgia is so far behind the political curve that Republicans running for statewide office feel they’ve got to act like the ink is still drying on the Contract for America in order to make it through the GOP primary alive.

And maybe they do, but it’s still sad to watch. Take Secretary of State Karen Handel. She apparently felt as if her responsible, reasonable stint as Fulton County Commission Chairwoman didn’t effectively position her to compete with fellow Republicans for higher office, so she’s behaved like a partisan harpy ever since — trying to kick Democrats off the ballot, attempting a wholesale voter purge in clear violation of the Voting Rights Act, publicly reassuring Republicans that a surge in Obama-friendly voters was “a myth, ya’ll.” Yow.

The latest GOP soul-seller is Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, another gubernatorial hopeful who reminded attendees of the state GOP convention this past weekend that he was the one who caused the big ruckus the last week of the General Assembly by blocking a resolution by black Democrats to make Pres. Obama an “honorary lifetime member of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus.” Said Scott:

In the House, I was proud to lead the charge to kill the Obama Resolution that proclaimed him as a man of unimpeachable character. We are still one nation under God and no Resolution saying the president has unimpeachable character is going to pass as long as I have anything to say about it. In this race our party must be the party that offers the next generation of voters a governor that they believe in.

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Political junkies will recall Horlacher as a former press secretary to then-Gov. Roy Barnes. Horlacher, a partner with the Atlanta law office of Adorno & Yoss, is a longtime Democratic operative who usually moves behind the scenes. He considered running for Secretary of State four years ago, but passed.

He’ll hold a formal announcement on Wednesday, but in a press release he’s already taking aim at the legacy of the current SoS, Karen Handel:

It will be my top priority to immediately eliminate the partisan shenanigans that have crept into this office over the last few years.

Horlacher’s campaign platform seems to rest partly on a renewed call for a voting-machine “paper trail” to reassure voters that Georgia elections are on the up-and-up. By contrast, he says, Handel spent her time in office “resurrecting firewalls to make it more difficult for some to register to vote, using flawed techniques to try and purge selected voters lists, and even trying to inappropriately prevent a qualified candidate (from the other party) from seeking public office.”

Sad, but true, as we reported last October. (We also used the word “shenanigans.” Interesting.)

Horlacher has the connections and the political savvy to run a statewide campaign, but will that be enough to overcome low name recognition?

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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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Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel makes it official:

Handel announced she’d filed the paperwork to begin raising money for the race. Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, two other Republicans, started raising money for the 2010 governor?s race last year.

“Our next governor will face many difficult challenges,” Handel said. “I look forward to meeting those challenges with exciting new ideas and a vision that will put us on the path to growth and prosperity.”

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Did I mention that already? In Decatur, where I voted an hour ago, there were no lines; poll workers said people had been filing in all morning long.

The obvious big contests are Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat, Georgia Public Service Commission District 4 and the state Court of Appeals. There are several county elections still undecided, as well.

To find out where you need to go to vote, visit Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s poll locator. Don’t forget to bring photo ID. If you have any questions, contact your county’s election office. Polls close at 7 p.m.

After today — unless we have a recount — all this will be over. We’ll come out holding hands and happy.

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This has been a grueling election cycle. Not only have we been burdened with the impossible task of writing about abstract things like “hope,” “change” and “drilling for oil,” we’ve had to slog through an extra four weeks of attack ads and endorsements long after the rest of the country (except for Minnesota!) had declared their winners.

But the candidates ask you to please — please — return to the polls tomorrow, Dec. 2.

If you didn’t vote on Nov. 4 — or during early voting — you can still vote in the runoff. To find out where to cast your ballot, visit the Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s poll locator. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close to 7 p.m. And be sure to bring one of the six following forms of identification:

• Any valid state or federal government issued photo ID, including a FREE Voter ID Card issued by your county registrar’s office or the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS)

• A Georgia Driver’s License, even if expired

• Valid employee photo ID from any branch, department, agency, or entity of the U.S. Government, Georgia, or any county, municipality, board, authority or other entity of this state

• Valid U.S. passport ID

• Valid U.S. military photo ID

• Valid tribal photo ID

Enjoy! Let us know if there are any shenanigans.

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Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s website shows more recent results.

as of 11/19/08

Number of ballots cast :33,555

Number of ballots voted in person: 33,523
Number of mail-in ballots returned: 32

Turn out Demographics:
Black Female 4,548
Black Male 3,565
White Female 11,343
White Male 13,093
Asia-PI Female 69
Asia-PI Male 51
Hisp-Lt Female 59
Hisp-Lt Male 57
Native AM Female 1
Native AM Male 1
Other 768
Total 33,555

Fulton County’s now fourth in turnout. Forsyth is off the list.

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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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Has Fulton County become the GOP’s election scapegoat or is some ulterior motive at work in Secretary of State Karen Handel’s call for a state investigations and threats of possible criminal prosecution?

As the AJC has doggedly been reporting, Handel has expressed outrage that Fulton took three days to count its absentee ballots, long after all other counties had turned in their results. Under state Elections Board rules, counties are supposed to keep ballot-counters on the job until they’re finished – or unless the Secretary of State’s office give them permission to break for the night.

Fulton officials called Handel’s office early Wednesday morning to see if the counters go home to get some sleep. She said no. They went home anyway.

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UPDATE: Bah, semantics! Received word that I garbled some of the terminology on the post. It’s been corrected.

Were you one of the 2 million Georgians who enjoyed his or her early voting experience? The long lines, the new friends, the chance you may have ended up as a “missed connection” on Craigs List?

Good news! Absentee and early voting will be available for the Dec. 2 runoff.

After Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel certifies election results next week, state election maestros and county election officials will start coordinating the runoff.

Matt Carrothers, Handel’s spokesman, told me these details over the phone a few minutes ago:

Early voting is anticipated to begin Nov. 17. According to Handel’s office:

Counties can begin early voting. While it is a county-by-county decision, there should be consistency state-wide.

Advance voting will be held Monday through Wednesday (Nov. 24-26) during the week of Thanksgiving. County election offices are closed Thursday and Friday because of the holiday.

If you voted by mail-in or absentee ballot in the General Election, you’ll have to re-request a ballot. You can download an application at the Secretary of State’s website or pick one up at your county election office. (Or just click here.) To find your county election office, click here. Applications can either be dropped off, mailed, or faxed as well.

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A story recently posted by the AJC says the unimaginable: that statewide voter turnout for this election was lower than it was in 2004. Although there are nearly a million more potential voters than there were four years ago and the actual number of ballots cast was higher, the turnout was only 74 percent, compared to 77 percent in 2004. How could that be, when election officials were predicting a 85 percent turnout?

Well, UGA political science professor Charles Bullock, an expert on voting issues, admits it’s a surprise to him, given that voter turnout across the country was the highest it’s been in a century. However, Bullock says that if state officials based their Election Day expectations on early-voting numbers, it’s no shock that the reality fell short.

“Early voting has been shown not to increase overall turnout,” he says. “It’s often simply a reallocation of votes.”

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Georgia Democrats are calling for Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel to extend advanced voting on Saturday and Sunday after computer glitches caused a reported 500 people to wait two hours in line at a Fulton County polling place.

State Rep.-elect Rashad Taylor, D-Atlanta, says poll workers at the Adamsville Recreation Center in Southwest Atlanta told him voter check-in machines couldn’t access the Secretary of State’s system shortly after 7 p.m. on Thursday night. When he arrived at the rec center to assist poll workers, Taylor — who was joined by Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders, Councilmember C.T. Martin and City Council Clerk Rhonda Johnson — says he saw an estimated 500 people still waiting to cast ballots.

“A few days ago, there was a problem connecting to the system,” the representative-elect says. “This time, there was a problem with the system.”

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