SWGA Politics

Attorney General Candidate Ignores Basic Principles of Justice[ December 31, 2009 – 6:51 am]by Jeff Posted in » 2010 Campaigns

In the American judicial system, we have a presumption of innocence until a prosecutor successfully proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury of our peers. We have things like due process, probable cause, and warrants. We have a Constitutional protection AGAINST illegal search and seizure. Heck, we even have a basic right to privacy.

Rob Teilhet wants to do away with all of this though, in an attempt to keep us “safer”. He wants you to be forced to provide your DNA to cops when they arrest you, with no warrant and no probable cause. It is scary when ANYONE does this – but an Attorney General candidate???
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Mandate for 2010 Legislature: Sweeping Ethics Reform[ December 19, 2009 – 6:26 am]by Publius Posted in » 2010 Campaigns

The following is written by Rob Teilhet, a Democratic Candidate for Attorney General, about his ethics proposal.

The scandal among the House Republican leadership that unfolded at the state capitol over the last several weeks has crystallized a mandate for the 2010 Georgia General Assembly.

We must pass sweeping ethics reform during the 2010 legislative session, and restore the public’s trust in state government.

Currently the legislature polices itself on ethics charges. Allowing this is like letting a criminal preside over his own court hearing. The resignation of Speaker Richardson and election of new officers to the majority party are not enough. We must address the underlying culture of corruption that allowed self-dealing and conflicts of interest to run rampant at our state house.

Georgia needs an Attorney General who will make restoring the public’s trust in government a top priority. When citizens think their elected officials are ripping them off, and stealing, and acting for all the wrong reasons, they will never trust government to do the things that are hard and complicated that we have to do together. If people think the government is full of crooks, why on earth would they trust them with health care, or water or transportation?

Sadly, as I write this op ed, public officials are meeting in secret across Georgia. Regular citizens have not been invited to this meeting. In these secret meetings public policies are being planed. These policies are designed not to advance the public interest, but instead the public officials’ own private financial interests, or those of their special interest contributors.

That’s why I will sponsor legislation in January to overhaul Georgia’s conflict of interest laws for the General Assembly. My bill will place the enforcement responsibility for conflict of interest complaints with the State Ethics Commission, rather than the legislature.

If my proposal sounds familiar, it should. It was a centerpiece of Governor Sonny Perdue’s ethics proposals in 2005. Eventually an ethics bill passed in the waning hours of the 2005 session, but the conflict of interest provisions were removed at the insistence of the Georgia House Republican leadership.

Governor Perdue was right in 2005. But his legislation was gutted, and the result was an ethics bill with no teeth on conflict of interest. The conflict of interest scandal we’ve endured over the last several weeks is a direct result of the lack of any meaningful action by the General Assembly on ethics.

I believe Georgia needs stronger ethics laws and a government as good and honest as its people. It is high time we strengthen Georgia’s ethics laws and get our public officials back to the business of serving constituents, rather than themselves.

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Rob Teilhet (pronounced tuh-lay) is a candidate for Attorney Genera in Georgia. He has represented Smyrna and Marietta in the Georgia House of Representatives since his election in 2002 at the age of 28. He is the Chief Deputy Whip of the House Democratic Caucus and serves on the Judiciary, Education, and Industrial Relations Committees. He is a partner in the Marietta law firm of Rogers, Strimban & Teilhet. More information about his campaign can be found at his website, www.robforgeorgia.com.

SpeakerSaga Fallout: Ethics and 2010 Campaigns[ December 10, 2009 – 6:34 am]by Jeff Posted in » 2010 Campaigns

First off, let me just admit that the SpeakerSaga – the fallout from Glenn Richardson being accused of threatening to beat his wife and abuse his political power – is simply too much for me to track while still working a full time job. To that end, for SpeakerSaga updates, I recommend the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Gold Dome Live and Political Insider, as well as Jason Pye and yes, Peach Pundit. I’ve already said my piece on it, which is essentially that the members of the House need to be extremely careful not to play their hands too early and cost them down the road.

That said, there has been one issue that has arisen out of it that I want to spend more time looking at: ethics, and specifically how the issue affects the various 2010 statewide races.

This post will be a more shotgun style introduction, with future pieces to examine each candidate’s positions in more detail. If any candidate I don’t point out here has a proposal out, PLEASE let me know about it! (Facebook, Twitter, Email)
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Closing the Consent “Loophole”[ November 30, 2009 – 9:19 pm]by Jeff Posted in » Legislation

Last Friday, I wrote about State Rep (and Attorney General Candidate) Rob Teilhet saying he wanted to close the loophole in regards to teachers having sex with students being able to use the fact that it was consensual as a defense when charged with sexual assault of a person in custody.

I said then and I maintain that I have ZERO problems with the teacher in question losing their license to teach. I’m even willing to allow – though I’m not completely sold on this – that it should be a crime to begin with. ALL I am saying is that if a person is charged with sexual assault under this statute, the fact that the sex was consensual SHOULD be a valid defense that SHOULD be allowed at trial – as the Supreme Court of Georgia said last summer.

I just wanted to get my position on the matter crystal clear before going into the meat of this post. You see, there is already a bill that attempts to close this “loophole” – State Rep Kevin Levitas’ HB 886 pre-file.

Also please remember that, as always, this commentary is SIMPLY opinion-based commentary from a “civilian” with absolutely no legal training whatsoever. If you need legal advise on the subject matter at hand, PLEASE contact a member of the State Bar of Georgia!
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Do Teachers Not Deserve Equal Protection Under the Law?[ November 27, 2009 – 11:00 am]by Jeff Posted in » 2010 Campaigns

This past Sunday, the Marietta Daily Journal had an article about a Supreme Court decision that came down over the summer than I’ve already written about a couple of times – the decision that said that consent WAS a defense for teachers accused of sexual assault of a person in custody.

The article addressed both a local case up there potentially impacted by the decision as well as two State Representatives’ efforts to change the law – one of whom is Rob Teilhet, who is running for the Democratic Party’s nomination for Attorney General.

Per the article,
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Assorted Campaign Updates[ August 6, 2009 – 6:30 pm]by Jeff Posted in » 2010 Campaigns

I’ve gotten a few campaign updates over the past week that I really haven’t had time to do a detailed post on, so here’s a shotgun-style update on them:

Tom Knox has indeed filed to run for State Insurance Commissioner, as I reported would happen more than a month ago. I didn’t get any campaign emails, and I don’t know if he has a website or any other contact information (facebook, twitter, email, heck, even a phone number) available. No quick Google search turns up any site, but in related news the post where I first reported this would happen is the second result in Google on a search of ‘Tom Knox insurance’. Pretty cool!

Speaking of the Insurance Commissioner race, Mary Squires’ campaign found that post and emailed me earlier this week this link to a press release they issued late last week with a list of legislative endorsements. Just from a quick glance, it appears that all named are Democrats – which is reasonable, since she is a Democrat. Two SWGA area names are on that list – State Rep Gerald Greene (D-Cuthbert) and State Senator Freddie Sims (D-Albany). Probably the most politically significant name on the list is State Sen Emmanuel Jones (D-Savannah), the head of the Legislative Black Caucus.
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