Fresh Loaf

State Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, says he’s dropping out of the lieutenant governor race. He will instead seek re-election in the Senate.

From Shafer’s campaign:

Today I am fully suspending my campaign for Lieutenant Governor with the intention of seeking re-election to the State Senate.

I will always be grateful to those who have so generously supported my candidacy. I am especially proud of the endorsements from my colleagues in the Georgia General Assembly and our strong showing in the various Republican straw polls.

I was relieved to learn that the Lieutenant Governor’s surgery went well and that his doctors are optimistic about his ability to actively campaign for re-election. He has been a friend for many years, and I wish him a speedy return to full health.

I would not have entered the race had it not been an open seat, and there is no point in remaining in it as long as the Lieutenant Governor is well enough to be a candidate for re-election.

Public service is, by definition, about serving others, not the positions or titles that we want for ourselves.

Dr. Bill Sheals and Matt Reeves have agreed to serve as honorary co-chairs of my re-election campaign.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Jim Galloway reports state Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, was contacted by constituents early Sunday morning about the slow-moving bill that would allow cities and counties to decide whether stores could sell alcohol on the Sabbath.

Shafer said a half-dozen slurred messages were left on his office voice mail at 1, 2 and 3 a.m. Sunday. “They were clearly on the cell phone in the beer aisle, drunk and unable to buy beer, and angry with me,” the senator said.

Shafer says the phone number to his Gold Dome office was listed on fliers placed in the booze aisle of a Wal-Mart, Galloway reports. The distinguished gentleman from Gwinnett County — who’s also a 2010 lieutenant governor candidate — chairs the committee that will discuss the legislation tomorrow.

The editorial employees of CL urge all Georgians to get involved with local politics and speak out on issues near to their hearts. Especially when those issues involve not allowing people to purchase alcohol in stores on Sundays. Sounds like Socialism to me!

Should you ever want to talk to Shafer about life, love, baseball or giving cities and counties more local control, you can always reach him at

(Courtesy ICanHasCheezburger)

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The 2009 General Assembly doesn’t start until next week, but already the infighting has begun. This time, it isn’t the lop-sided Richardson/Ralston showdown-that-wasn’t. It’s a smashmouth tussle between state senators Eric Johnson and David Shafer, who both plan to run for lieutenant governor in 2010. Ho hum.

Here’s the story – yawn – so far: Johnson stepped down as senate president pro-tem in November to devote himself to running for guv lite. Over this past weekend, Shafer told a crowd of Cobb Republicans that he, too, is seeking the post, and added that he has never given money to Democratic state Rep. Alicia Thomas Morgan – something that Johnson has done, leading to much controversy within the GOP.

Johnson – zzzzz – responded by taking offense and releasing a statement that essentially called Shafer a poopybutt:

“I am saddened by such early, petty comments. I am afraid that this is what Republicans will have to hear from my opponent for the next 18 months.”

Shafer has most recently released a list of 100 supporters, including a goodly number of Republican state legislators.

If the two carry their catfight over into next week’s legislative session, I may need to scream. The election is a year-and-a-half away, for Christ’s sake and it’s for lieutenant governor! Moreover, by the time the winner – assuming, for argument’s sake, that it even is one of them – is positioned to run for governor, Georgia might well have flipped back to being a blue state.

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Just received from state Sen. David “Border War!” Shafer, R-Duluth:

With Casey Cagle’s decision to run for Governor, Georgians must elect a new Lieutenant Governor in 2010. I wanted to let you know that, with the support of my family and the encouragement of my colleagues in the General Assembly, I will seek this office.

I have filed paperwork creating a campaign committee so that we can prepare for the effort. Chuck Clay will serve as chairman of the committee, and Bartow Morgan will serve as treasurer. Chuck is a former Senate Republican Leader and past State Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party. Bartow is the CEO of The Brand Banking Company, Gwinnett County’s oldest and largest community bank.

Shafer says the campaign will formally launch after the legislative session ends. He’s holding a start-up fundraising event, however, on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on the 49th Floor of One Atlantic Center. If you want to help with his campaign, send him an e-mail.

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Received an e-mail from state Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, about his comments on the Senate floor regarding Chattanooga’s “ha-ha-why-don’t-you-try-conserving-before-you-gank-our-agua” shipment of bottled water. Big Chief say:

There is an ancient Indian proverb. Give a man a cup of water and you quench his thirst for an afternoon. Share in the waters of a great river and you quench his thirst for generations to come.

Today the City of Chattanooga delivered a pickup truck full of bottled water to the State Capitol. On behalf of the State Senate, I graciously accept this water as a down payment on the billions of gallons of Georgia water that feed the Tennessee River from the creeks and streams of Northwest Georgia.

I remain confident that border dispute between our two great states can be resolved in a neighborly fashion.

We’re all for cherry-picking ancient words of wisdom uttered by civilizations the White Man devastated, so here are some of our favorites, culled from a trustworthy and never-wrong source.

• “A good man does not take what belongs to someone else.” (Pueblo)
• “The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.” (Sioux)
• “We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.” (Dakota)
• “When a man moves away from nature his heart becomes hard.” (Lakota)
• “Only when the last tree has withered, the last fish has been caught, and the last river has been poisoned, will you realize you cannot eat money.” (Cree)

And my personal favorite:

• “White men have too many chiefs.” (Nez Perce)

Love ya!

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The New York Times weighs in with a hilarious take on state Sen. David Shafer’s and Rep. Harry Geisinger’s twin resolutions calling for the citizens of Georgia to rise up and reclaim our God-given land, dammit.

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I may have been a bit harsh Wednesday when I wrote about the General Assembly passing a resolution that called for a commission to investigate whether Georgia was robbed, thanks to the surveying foul-up of a UGA mathematician in 1818, of a claim to the Tennessee River. (Save me your “should’ve used a techie” jokes — this blog is not affiliated with any institute of higher education.)

In fact, yesterday on the Senate floor, after I handed my Creative Loafing card to state Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, one of the authors of the border-dispute bills, he said, “Yeah, one of your bloggers was having some fun with my resolution.” He called the post a “nasty-gram,” which I love.

“That was probably him,” said Greg Bluestein, a damn fine chap from the Associated Press who was standing nearby, referring to yours truly.

“Yep, that was me!” I said. “How are ya?”

(more…)

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Proving that there is no fighting in the war room, the state Senate huddled up together and unanimously passed a resolution that would effectively make Georgia look like a bunch of fools and piss Tennessee off at the same time.

The resolution, introduced by Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, calls for a committee to study whether a 190-year-old surveying error mislabeled the border between the two states, and if so, what legal claims Georgia has to annex it. Why do we suddenly care? Legislators say the error robbed us of access to billions of gallons of rich water flowing through the Tennessee River.

State Rep. Harry Geisinger, R-Roswell, introduced a companion resolution in the House, which has yet to hear a vote. Word around the Capitol and in my gut says that’ll pass just as easily.

So there you have it. Solving the water crisis the General Assembly way: Committee your way into someone else’s land and stick a straw in their river.

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