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By Publius, on January 6th, 2010%
This is the press release we were sent earlier today from the Scott campaign:
In response to allegations of corruption by a fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Austin Scott (R-Tifton) issued the following remarks:
“Mrs. Handel’s comments were misguided, because in fact she accepted more money from lobbyists in 2009 than I have accepted over the past five years combined. I am not corrupt, nor are the vast majority of my colleagues. Furthermore, she has one of the most entrenched lobbyists in the state heading up her campaign fundraising efforts. As for me, I have already returned every contribution made by lobbyists to this campaign, and I respectfully submit that Mrs. Handel and all candidates for governor should join me in doing so. The Georgia taxpayer should be the first priority of every candidate for governor.”
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By Jeff, on January 6th, 2010%
I know it is rare, but the Ox camp actually did something I found humorous in a good way, and I figured I would share.
A few weeks ago, Tim Echols asked me for my address so he could send me a Christmas card. I’m not a complete asshole even to the Ox camp, so I gave it to him. Outside of work, Tim really is a nice guy as far as our interactions have gone, and I had no reason to doubt he was just being a nice guy.
Earlier this week, I got a card. On the back of the envelope it said “The Oxendine Family” with John Oxendine’s personal address.
Inside was the Ox Family Christmas card – I assume a public version, as it was completely generic and besides, outside of politics, I would never know John Oxendine.
But what makes all of this humorous, at least to me, is the fact that given everything I typically write about The Ox, the running joke between Tom and myself has been that I wouldn’t exactly be on his Christmas card list.
Well, I guess I am after all.
So Tim, thanks for the chuckle.
By Jeff, on January 6th, 2010%
Maybe it was just a slow news week over at the Albany Journal and Kevin needed to kill a full page somehow, but for whatever reason, he decided to run elements of our 2009 Year in Review via a full page spread in the Journal this week. Honestly, I pick up a Journal every week and the first thing I do is check to see which, if any, of our posts got picked up. Seeing the full page 2009 Year in Review spread, and particularly the very kind editor’s note, was a very pleasant surprise – which I promptly showed to several friends!
This was in addition to picking up a regular column from both Bill and myself, though to find out which columns I’ll help out Kevin a bit and tell you that you need to go pick up a Journal if you haven’t already subscribed.
Thank you, Albany Journal, and publisher Kevin Hogencamp in particular, for recognizing our hard work as the premier political news source in SWGA.
By Jeff, on January 6th, 2010%
Earlier today, I got a call from Clint Murphy, Karen Handel’s campaign manager, instructing me not to come to the “private fundraiser” she is at right now on Dawson Rd.
This, despite the fact that I had previously attended her event back in September that had also been billed, to me at least, as a fundraiser. (Murphy said it was a “meet and greet”.)
Apparently, in the months since, the Handel campaign has come to view this site, and me in particular, as genuine “media”, as all other media outlets in Albany were also told that this was a “private fundraiser” and barred from attending it.
So thank you, Ms. Handel, for your most gracious endorsement of our work here in getting the news out about political happenings both across our region and across our State. I look forward to interviewing you at a later date, and I look forward to seeing you at any public events you attend here in the SWGA area.
By Bill Waller, on January 6th, 2010%
We live in an exciting time in politics. I saw a picture of President Obama yesterday at Wal-Mart and under it was the words “Change.” People in our nation have longed for change for many years, but I think that few were expecting the hostile take over of our nation that our president has delivered. In yesterday’s posting entitled “2010: The Year We Fight Back,” Jeff mentioned that the Libertarian party is the clear alternative to the Democrat and Republican parties which he described as being sides of the same coin. I beg to differ. While the Republicans have given in to compromises and pragmatism in an effort to reach across the isle, I have never seen a Republican enact an agenda similar to what is being forced on the American public. No Republican has ever reached so far so fast to grow the government. The very fact that many of the votes have come down to party line (with the exception of a few RINOS) shows that there is a difference.
Continue reading Reviving the Elephant
By Tom, on January 6th, 2010%
Here at SWGAPolitics.com, we can see who links to us. I have checked out the vast majority of those links, and have seen some interesting posts and discovered some interesting blogs that way. Yesterday afternoon, a new one popped up. At first, I read a fellow blogger’s take on the Obama effigy. No surprise, he saw it as a symptom of racism, rather than an extremely tacky display of displeasure at Obama’s policies. Now, until or unless we find out who actually put up the effigy and ask them, we will probably never find out exactly why.
But then this guy goes on to talk about the July 4th Tea Party in Plains. The writer, Bruce Gourley who has a Phd. in history, makes all kind of links to racism at the Tea Party. Here’s a quote. Continue reading How many times do we have to say it?
By Jeff, on January 6th, 2010%
Yesterday, Karen Handel had what has been described as a very successful event with more than 500 women in attendance (it was a “Women for Handel” event).
From the report:
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Karen Handel on Tuesday said the culture of “sex, lies and lobbyists” at the Gold Dome has to end, but said the men running against her can’t clean it up because they “created the mess.”
In a speech to more than 300 women at a fund-raiser at the Westin Atlanta North, Handel said the atmosphere at the Capitol is one “where legislation passes or fails based on the size of the contribution, the lavish dinner, luxury trip. This is not public service.”
“If we are going to end this cycle of abuse and corruption … if we’re going to get real progress on the issues our state is facing, it’s going to take radical change and reform,” said Handel
…
Handel campaign spokesman Dan McLagan would not identify the person who told her to hire a “hottie” as a legislative aide, but said Handel has a clear record of fighting for tighter ethics rules whether as a member of the Fulton County Commission or as secretary of state.
There’s several issues here though, and I’ll tackle them in no particular order:
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By Publius, on January 6th, 2010%
As usual, if we get a press release on a recent issue, we will post it… This one is from Democratic candidate for Secretary of State Michael Mills.
Secretary of State Appointment Places Politics Before Georgia Citizens
Poll-after-poll and trend-after-trend shows Georgians are increasingly cynical about politics and resentful of government. The latest partisan power grab that was the appointment of a new Georgia Secretary of State will only reinforce these disturbing trends. Citizens must take the power back and make their voices heard – at the ballot box in 2010 and every day in-between.
While an abdication of her sworn responsibility, Secretary of State Karen Handel’s decision to resign to better serve the office being vacated and her campaign for governor seemed innocent enough. At face-value, we could support the decision because it ensured Georgians had someone in the Secretary of State’s office fighting for their rights instead of advancing personal and partisan agendas. But scratch the surface, and it smacks of politics.
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