SWGA Politics

Karen Handel: Atlanta Dominant[ July 15, 2009 – 6:41 pm]by Jeff Posted in » 2010 Campaigns

Continuing to look at campaign disclosures, I found a couple of good things and a couple of not so good things when looking at Karen Handel’s.

Ms. Handel reported bringing in $431,179 overall, and had the highest total ‘working man’ unitemized contributions, at $29,313. Of the remaining $402,026 in itemized contributions, only $24,600 of that was for any election other than the Primary (specifically, that entire number was for the General Election), and even better than that, only $2,250 was from out of state. Meaning that Ms. Handel actually accepted less out of state itemized contributions than the campaign billing itself as ‘Georgia First’!

Getting into some of the slightly more troubling news, $11,575 was from lobbyists and PACs, while only $4,200 was from elected officials/campaigns – and it should be noted here that the campaigns that donated to Ms. Handel were strictly at the City and County levels. Not a single campaign for a General Assembly position or higher donated more than $101 to Ms. Handel, though it is certainly possible that a few gave her under that amount and therefore did not have to be itemized. PeachPundit.com commenter Doug Deal is listed as giving Handel $250 – not disturbing really, just something I wanted to note here, just for transparency purposes.

But the most disturbing part of this report, at least for this South Georgia boy? 48% of Handel’s total itemized contributions, $196,035, came from within the City of Atlanta itself, and if the Atlanta Metro area is considered, that number bumps up to $346,810 – or 86%.

I have heard that it is possible to at least win the GOP nomination with nothing more than extremely strong support in the North Fulton County area and something like 10% of the vote in the entire rest of the State, and if that is accurate, based on these numbers it appears that testing that theory will be absolutely imperative for Ms. Handel’s campaign, unless she can figure out how to draw more support from throughout the State.

Healthcare Town Hall in Leesburg on Thursday[ July 15, 2009 – 4:11 pm]by Bill Waller Posted in » Uncategorized

A bill to reform healthcare was introduced in the House and a similar bill was introduced in the Senate this week. What does it all mean, and how will these changes affect you?
We have scheduled a town hall meeting for southwest Georgia, Thursday, July 16 to allow citizens to ask questions and learn from knowledgeable people on the subject of healthcare reform. The meeting will be at Fire Station 1, 342 Leslie Highway, in Leesburg from 7:00 until 9:00pm. This meeting is being sponsored by FreedomWorks.org and TeaPartyPatriots.org.
Read More …

Response to WALB Viewpoint[ July 15, 2009 – 12:00 pm]by Tom Posted in » Albany Dougherty County, Editorial

I tend to watch most of my WALB news in the morning. It’s early and not much else is on, and the noise of the TV not only helps break up the silence of 4:30 in the morning, but I also get a run down on local news. It has stories from the 5:30 and 6:00 reports, as well as newer information from during the night. It also has Jim Wilcox’s Viewpoints from time to time.

Now, occasionally I agree with the Viewpoints, and occasionally I don’t. But today’s really got under my skin. Read More …

A good start, but more needed[ July 15, 2009 – 8:00 am]by Tom Posted in » Albany Dougherty County

WALB is reporting on a city employee being reprimanded for using a city vehicle for personal use. While this is a good start, it’s just a drop in the ocean of problems I’ve come across lately. While what Kieth Wingate has admitted to doing is wrong, and the punishment seems appropriate to me, there’s still a lot more that needs to be done in this town.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve slowly been hearing a lot of stories. Tales of favors being exchanged between powerful people of different stripes in in town. Stories of corruption, the likes of which one person described as sounding like it came from a Gresham novel. What’s worse, long-time residents confirm that this is hardly new. Read More …