Archive for September, 2010

The National Federation of Independent Business on Thursday said it is backing Republican Nathan Deal for governor of Georgia.

The endorsement is not considered a surprise as NFIB leans Republican, but the announcement nonetheless is a boost to Deal’s campaign against former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes and Libertarian John Monds.

“Small businesses are the engine that drives our state’s economy. I believe it will be the entrepreneurs who own our small businesses that will lead us out of the economic downturn, and I am committed to creating a business climate where they can thrive,” Deal said in a statement.

Deal’s latest television ad touts his economic plan, which includes tax exemptions for start-up businesses and a one-third cut in corporate income taxes.

Continue reading Small business group endorses Deal for governor »

Georgians who want to make their voice heard in the Nov. 2 election have until Monday to register to vote.

Nearly every statewide office is up for grabs this year, along with a historic number of open seats, making this an election not to miss. This year’s ballots will also include all 180 state House seats, all 56 Senate districts and the entire 13-member congressional delegation, not to mention myriad judicial and local races.

But you can’t vote if you don’t register.

To register, visit your local county registrar and fill out an application. You can find your registrar’s office on the Secretary of State’s website.

Or, you can download a voter registration application off the website, fill it out and mail it in. Applications must be postmarked no later than Monday to meet the registration deadline.

If you mail in your application, and it is the first time you’ve registered to vote in Georgia, you must include a copy of a current and valid photo ID, a copy of a current …

Continue reading Registration deadline approaches for November elections »

Democratic candidate for governor Roy Barnes on Thursday unveiled his plan to boost Georgia’s economy, proposing $300 million in tax credits for businesses that hire more workers or raise salaries in Georgia.

Barnes also proposed expanding access to high-speed Internet and spending $25 million to create a biomedical research park in Georgia similar to the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.

“It is time to create our own research triangle and we will call it InVest Georgia Biomedical Research Park,” Barnes said at a news conference in Midtown Atlanta Technology Square.

Also among the ideas on Barnes’ 17-page “Jobs Plan” are:

• Eliminating all Georgia capital gains taxes for two years for people who invest their gains in community banks, businesses and properties in the state;

• Starting a Georgia Capital Access Partnership to promote lending to small businesses;

• Investing in mass transit, including high-speed rail, and improving and expanding the …

Continue reading Barnes unveils plan to boost state’s economy »

Georgia House Speaker David Ralston and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle today announced the creation of a 14-member joint committee on immigration reform.

The panel will seek to draft legislation that “stems the flow of illegal immigration activity in Georgia,” say a Statehouse news release.

“The creation of this joint committee was inspired by the federal government’s continued failure to deal with the problem of illegal immigration and its drain on taxpayer resources in Georgia,” Ralston said in a prepared statement.

“I expect this committee to look at every legislative solution available to the General Assembly that picks up where Washington D.C. has let us down.”

Rep. Matt Ramsey, R-Peachtree City, and Sen. Jack Murphy, R-Cumming, will serve as co-chairmen of the Special Joint Committee on Immigration Reform.

“A respect for the rule of law is one of the basic founding tenets of our state and nation,” Cagle said. “If the federal government continues to neglect its …

Continue reading Statehouse GOP leaders announce immigration reform panel »

Republican gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal said today that a federal judge’s decision to reopen his daughter and son-in-law’s 2009 bankruptcy case does not expose him to more debt and will not affect his political campaign.

“I think you see from the polls that the public is not paying any attention to these issues because they know they are not essential to the issue of who can govern this state and who can lead us in the direction of where we need to go,” Deal, a former congressman, told reporters after speaking at a candidates’ forum at The Commerce Club in downtown Atlanta. “They want to hear us talk about issues and that is what I am doing.”

The bankruptcy stems from a failed sporting goods business started by Carrie Deal Wilder and her husband, Clint Wilder, that Deal invested in and that left him with $2.1 million in debts. A U.S. bankruptcy trustee sought to reopen the Wilders’ case after it was revealed that Clint Wilder was not eligible for a …

Continue reading Deal says bankruptcy case has no effect on his debt, campaign »

Expect to see a lot more of your representative in the days ahead as Congress finishes work on a temporary budget plan to keep the government running after the current fiscal year ends on Thursday, says Washington political blogger Jamie Dupree:

[B]arring some last minute hangup, it is possible the Congress could skip town as soon as today, as lawmakers are more than ready to get home and start the final stretch run to November 2.

Get those engines running.  Your lawmaker might be hustling down the Capitol steps and looking for a quick ride to the airport, as the most dangerous place in America today could be the parking lot just down the steps from the House and Senate wings.

Continue reading Incumbents warming their engines to leave D.C. for back-home battles »

Political Insider blogger Jim Galloway noticed this item from Roll Call  about a letter GOP Rep. Phil Gingrey wrote requesting a certain earmark:

On April 1, 2008, Rep. Phil Gingrey paid Mitchell Hunter, his former chief of staff, $6,000 for campaign consulting fees. That payment came one day after the Georgia Republican signed a letter to the Appropriations Committee requesting an earmark for the National Center for State Courts, which had recently hired Hunter as a lobbyist.

Galloway expects more on this to break throughout the day. Gingrey faces Democrat John Barrow in November.

Continue reading Phil Gingrey backed earmark for consultant’s client »

UPDATE: More than 37,000 Georgians have already cast ballots during the early voting period ( registration to vote in November ends Monday). An opinion piece in the Savannah Morning News, however,  suggests “there is a troubling side of early voting, especially when it starts more than a month outside the day of the election, and this year, of all years, we might just see it come back to haunt us.”

Even if you’re a straight-ticket-voting Republican or a straight-ticket-voting Democrat — as in, come hell or high water — voting early can have repercussions, especially when last-minute news about a candidate may come out that pulls back the veil on an issue of major importance and has the potential to sway an election.

Continue reading A troubling side to early voting »

With little more than a month before the Nov. 2 election, opposition research is in full, wierd flower.

On Tuesday, a PDF arrived detailing a report that state Rep. Austin Scott of Tifton, now a Republican candidate for Congress, with the Tift County Sheriff’s Department on Sept. 2, 2004.

Wrote a deputy:

Mr. Scott advised that on the morning of 090204, at 0830 hours, he discovered that his “Norton” subscription had expired on his computer that was located in his residence. When he later attempted to upgrade his P.C., he noted that there was 3 Window accounts on his computer. 1 was titled “administrator,” #2 was titled “Austin Scott” and the [third] was titled “Craig.” Mr. Scott advised there was no one named “Craig” that had legitimate access to his computer. He feels as though someone may have either hacked into his computer via remote access or by entering his home. He took photographs of the screens displaying suspicious data.

The Insider talked to …

Continue reading Campaign opposition research out in full force »

A U.S. bankruptcy court judge is reopening a 2001 case involving the daughter and son-in-law of  GOP gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal. According to AJC reporters J. Scott Trubey and Aaron Gould Sheinin:

The bankruptcy stems from a failed sporting goods business started by Carrie Deal Wilder and her husband, Clint Wilder, that Deal invested in and left him with $2.1 million in debts.

A U.S. bankruptcy trustee sought to reopen the Wilders’ case after it was revealed that Clint Wilder was not eligible for a discharge of his debts, including those from the sporting goods store, because he did not divulge a prior bankruptcy in 2001.

Continue reading Bankruptcy case ordered reopened for Deal’s daughter, son-in-law »