In the Speaker chase, several new . . . → Read More: Moving Targets]]> 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.

Not only do you have the Speakership officially up for grabs, but there are also movements to replace Mark Burkhalter as Speaker Pro-Tem and even Jerry Keen as Majority Leader – positions which aren’t up for election until 2011 unless some drastic things happen. Into those cauldrons, names such as David Ralston, Rich Golick, Jan Jones, and Clay Cox have been thrown – which Golick and Cox officially in the races. I already said my piece on Ralston, but let me note that Jan Jones is Mark Burkhalter’s closest ally. Any advance she makes would give Burkhalter a back-door influence, particularly if she replaces him as Speaker Pro-Tem.

On Cox, I take issue with the closing line of the email he sent out announcing his candidacy for the job. He, a Representative from Gwinnett County (barely 30 miles away from the Gold Dome), said “You also know that I go home at night to my wife and children- and that will not change.” That’s all well and good, but what about the rural legislators from down here in South GA – or even parts of North GA – who can’t go home to their wife and children every night, because it is literally a 3+ hr drive? Do you honestly think you are somehow better than they, Mr. Cox?

With all the names being considered for these jobs, it potentially opens up other jobs down the line, and we will see where the dominos continue to fall in this era of such rapidly moving targets.

But here’s the thing to remember, going back to the over-reaching aspect I mentioned in connection to Loudermilk above: Politically, it is very important to play agressive yet conservative here. The biggest danger any of these or others face is in over-playing their hand and losing big. It could very well remove whatever levels of influence they currently have, and that will take time to rebuild – if it is even possible. For some of these unknowns, rather than going for one of the top jobs in the House/Caucus, why not try to move up the ladder by angling for a Chairmanship or higher-ranking Chairmanship if you’re already a Chairman? Instead of going for Speaker, cut the deal with someone else to throw your support to them for Speaker in return for them supporting you for Majority Whip or some slightly lower position. Play the game well, and you could win big – if you’re patient. Play too aggressively too early, and become the next Bobby Franklin in a real big hurry.

My final note on this is the same one I mentioned yesterday: Remember, whatever happens in the coming weeks, this coming Session it is important to rock the boat enough that voters don’t rock you out, but politically the next few months are all about not rocking too hard and losing what influence you have right now.

Because the real battle within the Caucus and the House is not right now. It is 2011, when all positions are open for re-election, including committee chairmanships and assignments. At the very least, the game right now must be played with that simple fact in mind.

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 . . . → Read More: The Fallout Continues]]> 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)

Of course, House Minority Leader and Democratic Party Governor Candidate DuBose Porter called for his resignation nearly three years ago when rumors of the affair first started, which he reiterated again Tuesday night now that the allegations of threatening behavior have surfaced.

I’m now being told conflicting reports about the exact timing of Richardson’s resignation – some say that if it doesn’t happen today, the petition to remove him will go out tomorrow. Others say that he has until tomorrow to resign or the petition will go out Monday.

I’m also now hearing that more resignations may be forthcoming…

Right now, current speculation is that Richardson will no longer be Speaker of the House – though that speculation is currently divided on whether it . . . → Read More: Its Too Quiet For Something Not To Be Happening]]> 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.

The problem for the Republican Party of Georgia is that every bit of this involves Republicans, and prominent Democrats are already starting to capitalize on this fact, with House Minority Leader DuBose Porter already tossing around the phrase “culture of corruption”. Some GOP activists and operators want to try to deflect this by pointing out the corruption that ran rampant under Democrats as well, but the thing these people need to always remember is this: for the average voter, attention spans are EXTREMELY short. Meaning that unless it happened in the last couple of years – if that long – your average voter typically won’t remember it. So the Democratic corruption is ancient history to them – but the Republican corruption will be dead center in their minds come next July and next November.

But right now all of Georgia Politics is scrambling. Some – such as Richardson and others within the GOP – are scrambling on the defense, trying to figure out a way to contain the current situation. Others, such as Porter and other Democrats – as well as some Libertarians and even some within the GOP – are scrambling on offense, trying to find a way to fan the flames without getting burned in the process. All of this is a slow boil right now, a raging fire being contained in a single room waiting for the door to be opened to explode out and consume the entire house.

Will the door be opened? Who will be consumed in the ensuing flash fire? Will the fire be contained, and will there be anyone left unscathed?

These are the types of thoughts on many political minds in Georgia tonight, and every single one of them knows one thing:

Its too quiet for something not to be happening.

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 . . . → Read More: [UPDATED] Waiting For The Other Shoe To Drop]]>

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.

Right now, Georgia Politics – particularly as far as the Gold Dome is concerned – is focused squarely on one man, and what he must be going through right now as a man truly breaks my heart. I don’t have the history with Richardson that Jason or Erick or many of my friends do. I just began watching politics this year, and Richardson appeared to be a very competent leader from what I saw. I met him a few weeks ago at State Rep Ed Rynders’ fundraiser in his first public appearance since the suicide attempt, and he genuinely impressed me, even with everything else that was going on in his life.

Tonight, the first Republican Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives in nearly a century and a half faces the battle of his life. He has already lost his family, the bank he is part owner of is in major trouble, and now the one thing he probably once thought of as a sure thing is on the brink of destruction as well. He needs his friends now more than ever, and I think right now he may be finding out how elusive true friendship really is in politics.

Retaining his Speakership may well prove to be Richardson’s grand finale, his perfect game in the very last game he ever pitches.

And while he struggles, others are waiting for the other shoe to drop. Will Richardson pull this off and thus the power structure remains relatively unchanged, or will he fall and thus create massive upheaval in the power structure from top to bottom?

Only time will tell, and right now only one man can truly answer that question.

[UPDATE] Literally as I finished typing this post, I saw this come through on my twitter feed from Creative Loafing’s primary political reporter saying that Dick Pettys of Insider Advantage is now saying that Glenn Richardson will resign as Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives.

But I ran into . . . → Read More: Are GA Leaders Costing Georgians Jobs?]]> 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.

You see, OCGA 48-8-2, subsection 3 part E states that a “dealer” in the State of GA can be defined as anyone who “Maintains or has within this state, indirectly or by a subsidiary, an office, distribution center, salesroom or sales office, warehouse, service enterprise, or any other place of business”.

What this means is that any store that has pretty much any physical presence in Georgia must charge Georgia sales tax on its sales – whether from a brick and mortar store or from online sales. There may be some caveats within there, but none that I saw in about 20 minutes of searching.

This gives a competitive advantage to some sites, such as Amazon.com, which is who got my business after I learned that my preferred store, BestBuy.com, had the exact same deals as Amazon.com but had to charge me sales tax due to this law, while Amazon.com did not.

This also costs Georgians jobs, because retailers who get a significant amount of business from online sales are not going to want to have any form of physical presence in Georgia – not even so much as a two-person office. For example, a major retailer – Cabela’s Outdoors – was actively working to build a new store in Adairsville, GA barely 5 miles from the school I graduated HS from just a few years ago. I’m now told that the primary reason they did NOT build was directly because of this law. That was to be a combined retail/warehouse site, and would have meant something along the lines of 100-200 jobs at a bare minimum, not to mention the economic impact on an area of Bartow County that could really use the money. For those that are unaware, one of Cabela’s biggest competitors -and one who I’m told Cabela’s physical stores are most similar to – is Bass Pro Shops. This Cabela’s would have been the only one in a 3 state radius – the next closest store would have been outside Baton Rouge! The physical store alone would have generated a LOT of sales tax money for the State and the County, but our leaders got greedy with this code section above, and we lost out on potentially hundreds of jobs just from this one retailer.

Furthermore, let’s look at the border cities issues, which are major areas of concern in areas such as extreme northwest GA, Columbus, Valdosta, Augusta, Savannah, Rome, and even in South GA along the FL and AL lines. Assuming our border states do not have similar clauses in their own laws, this means that a company – whether it be a mom-and-pop operation that employs a handful of people or an operation such as Cabela’s that employs a few hundred people per site – could locate just across the border in any of these areas and utilize the Georgia population to drive its profit from the physical store while still enjoying its tax-free online sales due to the other state’s tax laws! In other words, more jobs and tax revenue LOST because of Georgia lawmakers!

A final note on this topic, for now: One person tried to call me a “tax dodger” on Facebook over this issue. He said that I could take advantage of in-store pickup from a store located in Georgia, and thus this made up for the additional unnecessary tax burden. But Best Buy was the store in question, and the closest physical store they have to Albany is roughly 100 miles away. Even at my parents’ house in Cartersville, the closest Best Buy store is about 25 miles away, and I own a full-size pickup truck and a small SUV right now. This means that either way, if I go to Best Buy physically – even just to pickup an item I ordered online – I’m going to spend a minimum of roughly $5 in gas to get that item – in addition to paying the sales tax! Meanwhile, I can go to Amazon.com, but that exact same item and have it delivered to my door with NO sales tax! As a consumer, why would I want to pay more for the same item??? This is just one example – as we all know, there are quite a few stores that fall into this same problem for us here in Southwest Georgia!

This next session, Georgia lawmakers including both Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson and many State Representatives and a few State Senators have said that jobs and the economy are one of the top – if not THE top – priority they have. I have a potential solution I’d like them to consider:

Repeal OCGA 48-8-2, subsection 3 part E.