SWGA Politics

Battle Brewing In 8th Congresssional District DOT Race[ July 29, 2009 – 7:08 pm]by Jeff Posted in » State

There will be a called meeting tomorrow in the Senate Chambers to elect a new DOT Commissioner from the 8th Congressional District after the current Commissioner from that seat resigned a few weeks ago. Why is this important? Due to the geography of that particular district, it can swing to help either metro Atlanta or rural Georgia. Its northern edges are in the southern metro Atlanta area, and its southern edges are in the Cordele/Tifton area.

The candidates include former US Congressman Mac Collins, former state Representative David Graves, former GOP Congressional candidate Calder Clay, and Sydney Ross from Irwin County.

Apparently, Graves resigned his House seat 4 yrs ago after a failed attempt to use legislative immunity did not keep him from getting arrested a couple of times for DUI. Collins, being a former Congressman from the area, has a great deal of political connections. Clay and Graves, both hailing from Macon, are expected to split the Macon delegation, and Ross is expected to have the support of newly elected House Transportation Chairman Jay Roberts (R-Ocilla).

This race could get particularly interesting if no one achieves the required 50% + 1 votes to outright win on the first ballot, and candidates begin to throw their support behind other candidates on the race. At that point, alliances could shift in interesting and potentially unexpected ways, allowing a dark horse to emerge the winner.

With the new House Transportation Chairman having been named earlier this month as a man from South GA, will we now see another South Georgian elected into another key role in state Transportation leadership?

We should find out sometime tomorrow afternoon!

Lee Ferrell Doesn’t Have a Clue[ July 29, 2009 – 6:05 pm]by Jeff Posted in » State

The following is an email Kyle Constable received from Lee Ferrell yesterday in response to the ongoing saga of who in the GOP will challenge Sanford Bishop for the 2nd Congressional District seat.

Negative,
I said I would run it by my people and some people that asked me to run again. Then I would pray about it and let him know. In the closing prayer, which was lead by Don Cole, he thanked the Lord that the problem would be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. That is a bald faced lie that I agreed to withdraw for Mike OR him. . I said Dylan Glen was the game changer and I would step aside for Dylan. Then he goes and and posts on 2010 Georgia Race Tracker than he and Mr. Keown are considering running? So, I posted and referenced my announcement at the April 15th Lee County Tea Party being published in the Albany Herald. I’m sure that has probably been removed by now. Then he tells Cyle, I agreed? And Cyle doesn’t even check with me to see if it is true? The Thomasville paper is aware I had a sit down with Mr. Keown and Don Cole in Americus, Sunday but I did not and would not comment on what transpired. Cyle is young, inexperienced and being played like a fiddle. I forgive him but a shot has been fired across my bow and I will respond to the volly. I hearby FORMALLY announce to South West Georgia Politics that I AM running for the 2010 United States House of Representatives, GA 2 and my thanks to Mike Keown and Don Cole for making me THE major player. “Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead” I am not and will not be intimitdated by politicians. Their bullets are metaphorical. I have looked literal death in the eye many times and I am still here. I could care less about a political death. While I am firing vollies; I was offered a position as Mike Keown’s military adviser if I joined his team. That sir, IS an ethics voilation and not permissible by Federal Election Commissions regulations. He could have offered the position unconditionally but not in exchange for political favors, support, aid, assistance or money. That may be why Don Cole thinks I accepted the offer. Now, ask Don how he thinks his ambush turned out?. If Don had been a combat vet he would have remembered; “Your Kill Zone is also My Kill Zone.”

DEFENSOR FORTIS
Lee R. Ferrell,
SSGT, USAF, PDRL
Republican Candidate 2010
US Congress, GA 2

Kyle has his own comments on this email, which is certainly worth a read, but I’d like to talk about it from my perspective here.
[My Thoughts on Lee Ferrell]

Buie Gone![ July 29, 2009 – 10:55 am]by Tom Posted in » Albany Dougherty County

Sources contacted SWGA Politics indicating that Don Buie has not resigned…he has been fired. I’m not sure how accurate this actually is though, so we will update this as more information becomes available.

UPDATE: Read More …

Task force off to an awesome start…and they haven’t even met yet[ July 29, 2009 – 8:00 am]by Tom Posted in » Albany Dougherty County

The sign ordinance task force is hoping for public comment to help shape a sign ordinance that will create a “best of both worlds” scenario, one where businesses can compete freely but we still have the beautiful city that’s the hope of all who support the sign ordinance. The first meeting, which will be on August 6, is open to the public and the City is saying that they want public comment.

Of course, if they really wanted the public there, perhaps they shouldn’t be holding the damn meeting at 3:00 on a workday. Read More …

[CORRECTED] Daytime Meetings Subvert the Principles of Democratic Republics[ July 29, 2009 – 7:08 am]by Jeff Posted in » Local, State

“There should be a law…” is something that I tend to avoid. Quite frankly, we have too many laws as it is, and most of the time when you hear that phrase, what comes next is something that will curtail civil or economic liberties to some degree.

Of course, with that opening paragraph, there is bound to be a ‘but’, and here it is:

From looking at the Official Code of Georgia as available on LexisNexis online, it appears that there is no law requiring local government meetings to be open to the public. This, to me, is despicable. While there may be SOME reason for closed door sessions in certain extremely limited situations, by and large local government meetings should be open to the public.

But there is an equally important issue here, one that I’ve never seen addressed – and the one that resulted in me doing that search of OCGA. You see, I’ve lived in several cities in Georgia spread across each of the State’s lateral zones (north, central, south). In each of those, I’ve noticed the same things happening in every town: local commission meetings are advertised as ‘open to the public’ but are held at times during the workday when John Q. Public is at work and therefore cannot attend. Local media coverage is often spotty, at best, and therefore John Q. Public may or may not be truly informed of the decisions his local leaders are making – decisions that affect his day to day life far more drastically and severely than any decision made at the State or Federal level.
[Continue Reading]

On the cusp of understanding[ July 29, 2009 – 5:30 am]by Tom Posted in » National

Representative John Conyers (D-MI) from Michigan sort of gets it. You see, Conyers asked recently what good was reading the bills before Congress when they’re 1,000 pages and it takes two lawyers to understand them. Now, he was actually mocking those people in this country who have this silly idea that Congressmen should actually do their jobs, but he’s right. What is the point? Read More …