Your morning jolt: ‘The best people aren’t always elected’
No doubt you’re scratching your head over the last-session timing of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s decision to pursue a makeover of state government.
So are we.
The governor wants a November statewide referendum on whether to make four constitutional offices – commissioners of agriculture, labor and insurance, plus school superintendent – appointed positions rather than elected ones.
More than one wag has already pointed out that the governor in essence is arguing that we should have had to put up with campaigns by John Oxendine all these years. Oxendine has been the insurance commissioner since 1994, and is now looking to replace Perdue.
Not on the list of positions that Perdue thinks should be wrapped into a cabinet is secretary of state, a position recently held by Karen Handel – another GOP candidate for governor.
The Perdue effort is being worked in the House by Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons) and in the Senate by Bill Heath (R-Bremen). My AJC colleague Aaron Gould Sheinin reports this:
Heath and Keen also said that the most qualified candidate for the job is not always the candidate who gets elected.
“Those offices are offices that require or deserve expertise,” Heath said. “In the election process it’s not always the most qualified person who wins the election.”
Which may not be the argument one should press very hard in an election year, lest people think on it too much.
Denis O’Hayer of WABE (90.1FM) reports that state Rep. Al Williams (D-Midway) will resume his pursuit of a formal state apology for slavery with H.R. 295. Other states have done so, Williams said. “There can never be reconciliation until there is some sorrow,” he told O’Hayer.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving today will spotlight legislation proposed by state Rep. Tom Knox, a Forsyth County Republican, to require that all first-time convicted drunk drivers to use an ignition interlock – and prove their sobriety before starting their cars.
The late Thursday afternoon gathering of the Senate Transportation turned into a woodshed party, with Republican senators spanking members of the state transportation board for returning to accounting practices that no one — except my AJC colleague Ariel Hart — can quite explain.
But the senators know the dangers of a rebellion conducted in the middle of the shipwreck that has been transportation in Georgia.
Amid all the condemnations was a note of election-year worry struck by state Sen. John Douglas (R-Social Circle):
The people of this state have very little patience with government right now. Not just in the state, but the whole country. Very little patience. They see the turmoil, and they see the problem. They’re not going to put up with it very long.
Don’t look for the turmoil to stop. InsiderAdvantage reports the following this morning:
Four of the five Republican candidates for governor at Thursday night’s debate sponsored by Beacon Media sided with the state Department of Transportation board over Gov. Sonny Perdue in the dispute over what kind of accounting method the DOT should use.
The fifth candidate, former Secretary of State Karen Handel, sided with Perdue, but only on a technicality.
House and Senate Democrats entered the transportation picture on Thursday with their own stripped-down proposal, intended to compete with the governor’s plan. The big differences?
The Democratic plan makes allowance for the extra penny that residents of Fulton and DeKalb counties spend on MARTA. So far as has been seen, the governor’s plan doesn’t. Perdue also wants to push a statewide referendum to 2012. Democrats want a vote this year.
Look for major elements of the Democratic plan to be picked up by Republicans. This note – very close to an endorsement — was immediately issued by Jeff Mullis, the GOP chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee:
“I’m glad to see the Democrats have come out with a similar plan to what the Senate offered the House last year, which still remains active in the Transportation Conferee Committee. Transportation is not a partisan issue. We should all come together, as we did in the Senate, to work on solutions that are best for all Georgians.”
Just in time for budget negotiations, an angry former Gov. Roy Barnes – we know he’s angry because the video says so – has come out with this 30-second Internet spot declaring the furlough of teachers to be short-sighted and unnecessary:
For his part, House Minority Leader DuBose Porter was apparently pleased with his performance during the Democratic gubernatorial debate held up in Athens earlier this week. He’s pushing out this link of the entire confrontation, posted by CBS Atlanta.
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47 comments Add your comment
GoOx
February 5th, 2010
9:09 am
My man Ox is the best person for the Governor’s job and he will be elected.
Cutty
February 5th, 2010
9:19 am
Let Perdue just sit in his office, and not touch anything til January. He’s worried more about politics, as this state circles the drain.
Georgia Whig Party member
February 5th, 2010
9:24 am
“The best people for the job don’t always get election” …Lets be honest the best people for these jobs don’t even run because to even throw your name in the hat means compromising just about all your principles. It’s totally a flawed election system because we have two parties who control the system who are corrupt all the way through…
When our elected officals have to first be hand chosen by party handlers then sent through a primary season on party voters you get… mechanical machine politicans, no soul, no heart, no loyality, just a machine. And every year we get to choose between one parties machine or the other. We are suprised when we don’t get the “best”? The best got out when they realized they had to give up on everything genuine to run.
ps…thats why I am a modern whig. Methodology over Ideology.
Red Clay
February 5th, 2010
9:28 am
Roy Barnes for Governor.
WestsideATL
February 5th, 2010
9:34 am
I agree that the election process is probably a waste of funds for those positions but the quote “Those offices are offices that require or deserve expertise” is a crock.
Let’s take GDOT as an example. Even though the commissioner was appointed, he’s currently a politician with a business degree whose only background in transportation was politial – serving 3 months/yr for 5 years as the chairman of the House Transportation Committee. That’s hardly “expertise” especially when considering the past commissioners were all civil engineers.
WestsideATL
February 5th, 2010
9:37 am
Let me correct that – The commissioner is elected by other appointed officials (the GDOT board) but is essentially an appointed position.
JohnD
February 5th, 2010
9:45 am
Go back to sleep Sonny.
You are way too late to any credibility on this, or virtually any issue.
The GOP should be proud of Sonny — when it comes to the “do-nothings” — Sonny is the leader of the pack.
A Realist
February 5th, 2010
9:47 am
Heath and Keen also said that the most qualified candidate for the job is not always the candidate who gets elected.
Not many truer statements than the one above have ever been uttered. Folks, getting elected to an office is almost never about serving the people who elected you…..it’s almost always about the perks that go with the office and being able to have an influence on issues that will enrich the person elected…….oh, and I forgot…..some people are just power hungry. Voting for a person just because he/she sounds like a honest-I-will-serve-you type does not always work out the way you expected. Elected officials are hard to get rid of…..appointees can be fired…..
Robert
February 5th, 2010
9:55 am
Having recently discovered that Georgia has urgent needs in water, mass transit, and mortgage fraud prevention, it seems Perdue’s hindsight is nearly perfect.
woodshed guy
February 5th, 2010
9:56 am
Is it true that the beginning of the end is in sight for fOXendine?
Paddy O
February 5th, 2010
10:01 am
Anybody else notice that the prime character exhibited by Mr. Perdue has been an egomaniac? The man has an endless lust for power and control. The sad part is, when he has it, he fails to exercise it, except to give study money to whom? Buddies of his? The Repubs in Georgia are universally addicted to power for the purpose of power and control, and obviously have NO RESPECT for the citizens of this state – especially those who exercise their right to vote.
goox-and take handel with you...
February 5th, 2010
10:02 am
With the budget in crisis, Perdue wants to rearrange the chairs on the deck of the Titanic? When will he ever start being a leader and make the hard choices that have to be made now? Someone needs to have priorities in line… I may be a conservative republican and disagree with his ideologies on some issues, but our state needs Roy Barnes’ competence ASAP.
G advocate
February 5th, 2010
10:05 am
You’ve got to be kidding me? “appoint” these people – why so they too can be forced to be in the hip pockets of our politicians? NOT A CHANGE….And, by the way, SONNY should KNOW…not always to be “best people” get elected…..
d.
February 5th, 2010
10:11 am
Oh yeah, that’s good one. I am sure that’ll pass, (not!) he already controls Kathy Cox. That’s all we need-to have a guv to control everything else. God, I wish he go back to Bonaire, Please Perdue just GO FISH, If a guv like Perdue takes over the other post- he will ruin it, short-change it, and come up with stupid ideas for them to implement. Oh wait, I forgot, somebody like Perdue creates a commission, then they come up with stupid Ideas to pass to the different departments. Remember his solution to the water crisis-low flowing toliets. Can you imagine what his solutions would be for the other departments, And why 2012-Is he thinking that he can run then. Doesn’t term limits only apply to two consecutive terms? He will be off a term then he can run again. OH, God please have mercy on Georgia.
LISTEN UP, SONNY!
February 5th, 2010
10:11 am
Transportation
Education
Unemployment
Water
FOCUS ON THE ISSUES THAT MATTER AND STOP WASTING TIME!!!
BPJ
February 5th, 2010
10:21 am
Don’t most states appoint these positions?
d.
February 5th, 2010
10:34 am
BPJ that may be true, But the mess we have here-I don’t won’t to be like most states.
Mr. Grumpy
February 5th, 2010
10:38 am
This is a blatant move by Governor Do-Nothing to bring as many Republicans to the polls as possible to be sure a Republican is elected Governor. Hopefully, this will also be an opprortunity for Democrats to get to the polls in huge numbers and Vote this Constituional amendment down, and send a lot of Republicans back home where they belong. Sonny Do-Nothing needs to go back to Bonaire and count all the money and propeerty he’s managed to enrich himself with since becoming Guv. He’s a sworthless as t _ _ s on a boar hog.
lmno
February 5th, 2010
10:42 am
“BPJ
February 5th, 2010
10:21 am
Don’t most states appoint these positions?
”
Thats a GREAT question!
tc
February 5th, 2010
10:48 am
why should we listen to the gov after 7 unremarkable years under his and republican leadership?
General Sherman
February 5th, 2010
11:09 am
He wants unqualified politicians to appoint another unqualified person to a position.What a joke!Sonny take your to do list and get the hell out of dodge.
thomas r cooper
February 5th, 2010
11:11 am
The Gov., St Rep. Keen, & St.Sen. Heath are engaged in an overt consolidation of power & cash flow into which-ever political party controlls the Gov Office.These type of shenanigan use to be attempted covertly. This overtness(thank God its out in the open) reveals the hubris of many politicians. When undulation dictates their party’s loss of this office they will cry,”Foul, Favoritism, Fiscal Restraint.”
The founders of the sovereign state of Georgia experienced the abuse which consolidation of power entails. By means of arms they threw down abuse and established a more democratic form of fiscal/power accountability. Lives and fortunes where lost to acheive a dispersion of powers answerable to the electorate.
Political party dictatorship is too abhorrent for consideration. Republicans think back to when you couldn’t get elected for dog catcher. It is our current system which allowed you to gain the positions you now hold. Protectionism disquised as cosolidation is dangerous thinking.
The Republican Party might think on this: Sometimes the best qualification for a candidate is the abscence of (Incumbent) by their name. Oh, I do hope the people will “think on it too much”.
Army Brat
February 5th, 2010
11:23 am
so the guvnor now wants to take over the rest of the agencies in goverment.
Oxenswine,The Pig For Georgia
February 5th, 2010
11:46 am
Oxenswine 2010 — I’ll will sell Georgia to the highest bidder. Please elect Oxenswine so the corporate takeover of Georgia will be official.
wtf?
February 5th, 2010
12:12 pm
Sounds to me like The Guv and Jerry Keen don’t think the voters are smart enough to elect those positions (and although I might tend to agree) weren’t the voters “smart enough” to vote for them? Hypocracy at it’s finest.
Confused Voter
February 5th, 2010
12:16 pm
Regardless of the fact that most of the other states allow the Governor to appoint these department heads, one important fact is:
THE APPOINTEE IS A GOOD CHOICE ONLY IF APPOINTED BY A GOVERNOR WHO WAS A GOOD AND HONEST CHOICE.
Can someone who knows tell Confused Voter who will be the right choice to vote
for this November?
retiredds
February 5th, 2010
12:27 pm
Amid all the condemnations was a note of election-year worry struck by state Sen. John Douglas (R-Social Circle):
“The people of this state have very little patience with government right now. Not just in the state, but the whole country. Very little patience. They see the turmoil, and they see the problem. They’re not going to put up with it very long.”
Oh, my could this mean that a Democrat upset like that Republican upset in MA could happen in GA? Wouldn’t it be interesting. How would the Republican/Tea Party/Conservative spin-meisters deal with that one?
gussguss
February 5th, 2010
12:44 pm
Voters outside of Metro or the “political rodeo” don’t know what these agencies or their “elected heads” do anyway.
GW
February 5th, 2010
1:03 pm
If these jobs become appointed it will be a revolving door. 18-24 months will be the max time any person could please a governor. We already know statewide elections put the person with the most campaign cash in office. Appointment means that cash would go to political cronies.
Base
February 5th, 2010
1:11 pm
Another power grab by Sonny and his henchmen Keen and Heath. Let the people vote! No appointment!
NG
February 5th, 2010
1:24 pm
Hey, GW, when you say “statewide elections put the person with the most campaign cash in office”, you must be thinking of somewhere OTHER than Georgia. The campaign disclosure reports for the 2002 election – when Perdue unseated Barnes – are still up at the Secretary State’s web site. Go check it out.
As for putting the best person in office, I have no confidence that EITHER the republicans or democrats will put the best qualified people in office, unless by ‘best qualified’ you mean the one best able to do the guv’ner’s bidding. Traditionally, at least in the last 15 – 20 years, but probably forever, most appointed commissioners get their job b/c they know / support the governor: political favoritism, plain and simple.
But here is the big problem, and I’m surprised Mr. Whig didn’t mention it more explicitly: until the voters have other political parties consistently contesting more positions, from local to statewide [and national for that matter], we are stuck in the political monopoly held by the Democrats and Republicans. So if you really want the best qualified person in these elected offices, use the underlying principles of capitalism: competition is good for the ‘market’. Easier ballot access laws give the voters more competition.
d.
February 5th, 2010
2:05 pm
Hey gussguss, we, in the rural areas, do know who these officials are. We know what they do. We are also voters. We aren’t dumb hicks. We also have running water.
td
February 5th, 2010
2:05 pm
Remember, Sonny was a democrat 2 years prior to running for Governor as a republican. There is not any difference between him and Roy except on a few social issues. I am ready for the RINO to go home too and let us elect a real Republican to office.
ACC Booster
February 5th, 2010
2:12 pm
“In the election process it’s not always the most qualified person that wins the election.”
Why, you don’t say?
Been Around-Done That!
February 5th, 2010
2:33 pm
“Its not always the most qualified person who wins the election.\?” Truer words were never spoken! The polittical hogs and their “special interest owners” always seem to have their snouts in the public trough…regardless ot their party affiliation. Now is the time for the disgusted voters to hit the street and put “real independents” on the ballott for Congressional and state legislative seats. Otherwise it will just be more of the same until the taxpayer’s back is broken and the country collapses under the weight of those who only serve themselves! Probably too late but gosh I hope not!
MT
February 5th, 2010
3:12 pm
This must mean that Keen intends to run for governor. Be afraid, be very afraid.
aaron humes
February 5th, 2010
3:16 pm
BARNES – why didn’t YOU improve education?
Aaron Burr V. Mexico
February 5th, 2010
3:16 pm
To any Republican who has ever whined about Earmarks.
Let us hear you call our senators and demand that they stop Senator Shelby’s HOLD via filibuster of all executive appointees until Alabama gets part of an Airbus contract that steals American jobs.
Crickets Chirping?
Good. I thought so.
Hypocrits.
Intown Lib
February 5th, 2010
4:12 pm
Dear GoOx: unleashing a hoard of losers to get to blog comment boards first does not elect your guy for the post. Just ask Mary Norwood.
Galloway: good catch. curious why Sonny did not propose appointing the Attorney General since that was the first constitutional officer he picked a fight with and lost when he first took office.
NG
February 5th, 2010
4:18 pm
Regarding the comment by “Been Around-Done That”: Just to make sure the readers here understand the significance of your comment about hitting the streets and putting real independents on the ballot, it takes over 40,000 petition signatures for a statewide candidate to get on the ballot. Since the rate of throwing out signatures often results in the disqualification of a high rate of signers, effectively, you need over 80,000 signatures and possibly 100,000 to get on the ballot. Although you could probably hire folks for peanuts in the current economy, the average voter cannot afford to be out of work to do this with themselves and volunteers. Plus, why go to all that trouble for an independent when every other independent will have to do the same thing? So a new political party or two or three, is the only way to make this huge of an investment is to have something after this particular election is over. So this is why many folks band together in political parties. We just need some parties who have a spine other than one propped up by dollars. Absent a new political party with a whole lot of money, which we don’t need and is part of the problem to begin with, the monopoly on political participation will continue. Has anyone here who is dissatisfied with EITHER republicans or democrats stopped and thought about competition? Even if you don’t vote for these new parties, if you don’t have a viable alternative to switch to, you have no leverage with elected officials running for re-election, which is why the Citizens United decision was so devastating to democracy. Just more big money drowning a market that is awash in money but shows a dearth of ethics, human rights, help for the little business folks who keep some of our local economies afloat.
woodshed guy
February 5th, 2010
5:28 pm
The cess pool theory says the big ones usualy float to the top. The recent political news support it. Now that corporations can pay into the system we should have enough money to buy a better quality politician.
NG
February 5th, 2010
6:06 pm
Hey, woodshed guy, when you say ‘we’ should have enough money to buy a better quality politician, I’m wondering who the ‘we’ in this picture is. We, the People, don’t get these funds, just the folks already bought and paid for. Of course, your comment could be an attempt at humor, albeit dark humor.
TP4U
February 5th, 2010
10:10 pm
Power and control forget about the real issues. until Georgia voters educate themselves on the candidates we will continue to get the elected officials that raise the most money. Get off this blog and go educate someone. I’m talking to myself too!!
woodshed guy
February 6th, 2010
11:41 am
@NG Yes it was dark humor. Or least an attempt. It seems that it takes a lot a lot of $$$ to buy good CEOs etc.With more $$$ we should get a better quality politician. They can be bought you know and most are.
Been Around-Done That!
February 6th, 2010
11:53 am
To NG…I am well aware of the difficulty of putting an independent candidate on the ballot in Georgia…be it statewide or in a Congressionaql district.. I was a county chairman and one of the state advisors to the Ross Perot petition drive in 1992. It wasn’t easy but we did it in spite of the lousy state law that attempts to keep independent candidates off the ballot in Georgia by making it so hard to qualify. But then giving the reins of government back to the people who are supposed to hold them never is easy. It is either “hit the streets with petitions for qualified independent candidates” who will work to stop the nonsense or just continue to howl about the problems we face like a bunch of kennel fed houinds and keep on putting up with more of the same from both parties. The choice is ours and the time is now.
Novel Ideas
February 7th, 2010
7:26 am
Our record of electing state officials who put the states interest above their own is pathetic.
Our options seem to be either keep letting the two parties dictate who we vote for (regardless of their qualifications) or let the Gov pick his own cronies (regardless of their qualifications). Either option is bad for the state.
I propose some new wrinkles:
1) Place an education and/or experience standard for all state wide elected positions.
SET IT HIGH! Yes we may exclude some good people but our ballots will look a lot better and those good people will find opportunities in local governments. Which may qualify them in the future.
2) Let the Gov appoint but ONLY from people who apply from out of the state. He won’t be able to use the positions for his cronies and therefore may be more inclined to pick people who know what they are really doing.
Sonny Perdue knows best? « Woody Bass’s Blog
February 8th, 2010
9:21 am
[...] Which is why I have a bruise on my forehead from it meeting my desktop when I read that Sonny Perdue said ‘The best people aren’t always elected’. [...]