SWGA Politics

SpeakerSaga and the 2009 Legislative Term[ December 11, 2009 – 6:12 am]by Jeff Posted in » State

I actually found a way to cover SpeakerSaga, my style. In this first post, I look at the three bills many Georgia bloggers fought tooth and nail on in the 2009 General Assembly session. These three bills were SB 31 (Nuclear Power Regulatory Act, aka Georgia Power Advance Profits), HB 614 (Prescription Drug Monitoring Program), and HB 160 (Super Speeder).
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Moving Targets[ December 9, 2009 – 6:08 am]by Jeff Posted in » State

Quite a few new developments came out yesterday in the continuing saga of the fallout of Glenn Richardson’s political collapse, and I want to get y’all caught up, for the moment, on where things currently stand – at least as best as possible, given the currently available information.

In the Speaker chase, several new names cropped up. Erick Erickson, in an endgame I knew had to exist, went forward endorsing Tom Graves for the job late last night. Earlier in the day, a Facebook group to get Barry Loudermilk the job was created, and Bill Greene, a recent candidate for Mayor of Braselton, GA, wrote an article on the Campaign For Liberty site about this. The Facebook group was created by Jenny Hodges, Ray McBerry’s campaign manager, and quite a few of its current 22 members are people associated with Ray McBerry’s campaign, including the man who openly called for war against the US Government a month ago, State Rep Bobby Franklin. Quite frankly, while Loudermilk is well regarded, he simply doesn’t have the influence to pull this move off, and it is a VAST over-reach, which we’ll talk about in a moment.

Also placing his name in the Speaker chase was Tommy Smith, whom AJC’s Political Insider Jim Galloway credits as being the first entrant. Smith, an unknown who had many questions of “Who??” and “What????” erupting (even though he has been in the House for 30 years, much of that time as a Democrat) is running for the job on the promise of ending the hawk system I still need to get a chance to write about, but which DuBose Porter has made some great points against.

Others who have been named as possible contenders include Larry O’Neal of Warner Robbins (currently the chairman of the very influential Ways and Means Committee) and David Ralston.
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The Fallout Continues[ December 3, 2009 – 12:34 pm]by Jeff Posted in » State

And the fallout from Speaker Richardson’s ex-wife’s interview continues today.

Last night, Governor Sonny Perdue, Speaker Glenn Richardson, Speaker Pro-Tem Mark Burkhalter, and House Majority Leader Jerry Keen met in a much publicized meeting that is speculated to have been about crafting a method for Speaker Richardson to resign the Speakership with as much grace and as little damage to the Georgia GOP as possible.

This morning, Karen Handel – widely seen as the Governor’s hand-picked successor – would have liked you to believe that she was the first GOP GAGOV candidate to call for Speaker Richardson’s resignation. The problem for her is that she wasn’t – Austin Scott was. (Scott was featured in the original 9:21a article, Handel was in the 9:41a update)
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Its Too Quiet For Something Not To Be Happening[ December 2, 2009 – 8:01 pm]by Jeff Posted in » State

For those who are unaware, it appears that the drama with Glenn Richardson, the Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, may be just the tip of the iceburg.

Right now, current speculation is that Richardson will no longer be Speaker of the House – though that speculation is currently divided on whether it will be voluntary or from being forced out. Along with the speculation about Richardson, certain bloggers are trying to drive speculation about a number of other decently high ranking Representatives, Senators, and even the Lt Governor. Honestly, some of that is stuff even I heard about back when next to NO ONE knew me or this site – meaning it isn’t a well kept secret at all.
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[UPDATED] Waiting For The Other Shoe To Drop[ December 1, 2009 – 7:44 pm]by Jeff Posted in » State

Above is the Fox 5 Atlanta report from last night titled “Her Side of the Story”. In it, Susan Richardson, the ex-wife of Speaker of the Georgia House of Reprentatives Glenn Richardson, makes some very serious allegations – specifically that Speaker Richardson recently threatened to beat her and use the Georgia State Patrol to track her down and that the “inappropriate relationship” that was the center of an ethics complaint against him a few years ago was actually a full-blown affair that she knew about.

Suffice it to say, the Speaker has not exactly had a good day today. Erick Erickson has said that the text messages in question are real, and even GriftDrift has begrudgingly said that Erick is probably right. State Rep DuBose Porter (D-Dublin), the House Minority Leader and a current candidate for Governor, has already called for the ethics investigation to be re-opened, and there have been many calls among various Representatives about what is going on and what will happen next. Indeed, I’m told that the “damage control” phone call Erick said occurred around 5p wasn’t so much “damage control” as trying to figure out what happens next – after all, this story is barely 24 hours old.
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Are GA Leaders Costing Georgians Jobs?[ November 29, 2009 – 6:41 am]by Jeff Posted in » Legislation

Georgia leaders like to talk about how they are bringing jobs to Georgia, especially under this economic climate. DuBose Porter has one plan and Republicans in the General Assembly consistently talk about how proud they are of their own efforts this past session with the passage of the JOBS Act.

But I ran into a dirty little secret over the past few days, one which State Rep Jeff Mays was kind enough to point out to me was part of Georgia Law.

You see, I like to do most of my Christmas shopping online. Quite frankly, I’m not such a fan of the crowds on Black Friday or pretty much any day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and most stores offer the same deals online as you get in the physical store. So I get the same price with nowhere NEAR the hassle. As an added bonus, if I shop online I don’t have to pay sales tax. But that is where the dirty little secret comes in.
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