Your morning jolt: Macon Mayor Robert Reichert narrowly re-elected
For the moment, middle Georgia’s most racially polarized contests are at an end. From the Macon Telegraph:
Macon Mayor Robert Reichert eked out victory Tuesday night, winning a seesaw fight for a second term against former Mayor C. Jack Ellis.
Unofficial returns gave Reichert 10,307 votes to 9,770 for Ellis, a difference of about 500 votes out of more than 20,000 cast.
Former Macon City Council President Miriam Paris ended former state Rep. David Lucas’ 37 years of political service with an unofficial 12,950-10,220 vote victory in Tuesday’s runoff in the special election for the District 26 state Senate seat formerly held by Robert Brown.
Paris took 55.9 percent of the vote, well ahead of Lucas’ 44.1 percent.
***
Here’s the Channel 2 Action News assessment of Democratic reaction to the GOP effort to seize control of the Fulton County legislative delegation:
Republicans we’ve talked to say that a new Milton County would still be difficult to achieve. What’s more likely, they say, would be the reduction of Fulton County government to a skeletal operation – whose main responsibilities would be court functions, and the county jail.
***
Bibb County is also catching on to the Republican effort in the state Capitol to seize control of the legislative delegations that oversee urban Georgia. The Senate map passed by the chamber’s reapportionment committee on Tuesday gives three Bibb County boxes to Sen. Johnny Grant, R-Milledgeville, making him part of the county’s delegation. It also gives the GOP a 2-1 edge when it comes to local legislation.
[State Sen. Cecil Staton, R-Macon] acknowledged that people might say it looks like packing Bibb with Republicans, but he dismissed the idea.
“In this business, people are going to say a lot of things. The beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose,” he said. For Bibb County as a whole, he argued, there’s a fairly even split between Democrats and Republicans.
Voting records for the 2010 gubernatorial election show that 56.7 percent of Bibb voters cast a ballot for Democrat Roy Barnes. Forty percent chose Republican Nathan Deal. The party split was very similar in the 2008 presidential vote.
***
U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston apparently knows something you don’t – that the GOP effort to push his Democratic colleague John Barrow out of Savannah is very much alive. From the Valdosta Daily Times:
The new map will give Rep. Jack Kingston’s district all of Savannah and none of Lowndes.
Kingston said he will be in Atlanta today to lobby to keep what he has worked so hard for, and hopefully many others will also argue on his behalf. Considering that he is the only congressman who visits Lowndes County, it would be a tremendous loss to the community to lose his oversight.
***
The technologically talented arm of the AJC has offered up this fine interactive map of proposed state House districts. Check it out.
***
Roy Barnes wants back in the Legislature. But not that Roy Barnes.
Roy C. Barnes, an 81-year-old real estate agent, is one of five candidates – all Republican who have qualified for the Sept. 20 special election to fill the Cobb County seat of the late state Rep. Bobby Franklin of Marietta.
Qualifying ends today. Others in the race include former state Sen. Robert Lamutt, former Cobb GOP chairman Don Hill, banker John Carson, and physician Geraldine Wade.
The former governor, by the way, is Roy Eugene Barnes – named after Herman’s daddy.
***
On Monday, after a long fight, the Atlanta City Council voted to rename Harris Street in downtown Atlanta after architect John Portman. One of those who argued before the council on Portman’s behalf was Andrew Young – who opened with this curious observation:
”I didn’t come to the council often when I was mayor, because I had confidence in them doing the right thing most of the time. And they did. And when they didn’t, some of them went to jail.”
Apparently, the council took no offense.
***
Politico.com says that GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, during a question-and-answer session with supporters Tuesday night, endorsed the impeachment of President Barack Obama:
“That’s a great question and it is a great — it would be a great thing to do but because the Senate is controlled by Democrats we would never be able to get the Senate first to take up that action, because they simply don’t care what the American public thinks. They would protect him and they wouldn’t even bring it up,” Cain said, citing the administration’s position on the Defense of Marriage Act as an impeachable offense.
***
The AJC’s Poltifact Georgia today takes a look at GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain’s July remarks on whether a community has a right to ban a mosque.
***
GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann celebrated the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death this week by wishing him a happy birthday.
The more eclectic New Yorker revived (online) a 1997 article by David Brinkley that recounted Jimmy Carter’s experience with the singer:
“When I was first elected President, I got a call from Elvis Presley,” Carter told me recently. “He was totally stoned and didn’t know what he was saying. His sentences were almost incoherent.” It was the summer of 1977, and Elvis, in a rage fuelled by barbiturates, had telephoned the White House from Graceland (among the two most visited residences in America) seeking a Presidential pardon for a sheriff he knew was in some legal trouble.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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57 comments Add your comment
GaBlue
August 17th, 2011
9:05 am
“Were they barrel-shaped?”
Beth Merkelson
August 17th, 2011
9:09 am
“In this business, people are going to say a lot of things. The beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.”
That’s something my poor sick mama used to tell me
Alex Hamilton
August 17th, 2011
9:09 am
Congrats to Mayor Rob.
On the Milton County idea. Criminey. How is the creation of new government entities, “less gov’t? In the last 6 or 7 years, the ruling party has created what now -4 or 5 new governments and talk of ADDING a county? Georgia doesn’t need less government. It needs less governments – say 100 counties instead of 159 and 200 or 300 cities instead of 600. How many unneeded councils, mayors police departments, commissioners, fire departments, sheriffs, courts are there?? Consolidation would save millions. But the ruling class allow it? Not likely. It would give more control to those fewer local jurisdictions and threaten the honey pot now in the clutches of the general assembly and the impotent office of governor.
td
August 17th, 2011
9:21 am
I think Herman is starting his push for VP.
Centrist
August 17th, 2011
9:48 am
Not sure why this ATLANTA based blog leads off with a Macon election result for our “Morning Jolt”. I heard they had a Wisconsin recall election last week that stopped Democrats chances of reversing their Governor’s and legislature new law limiting future public sector collective bargaining – but that issue with national impact didn’t rise to newsworthy status here.
Any idea when we will see the first U.S. Congressional Representative maps?
The internal State Senate and House redistricting is pretty much a done deal.
Coastal Cavalier
August 17th, 2011
9:50 am
We have too many counties now. NO to a new county and I am a Republican..Go figure.
Ghost Rider
August 17th, 2011
9:50 am
Macon is a dead town. Gangs, crime and political corruption have driven away the tax base. The current mayor is merely the priest administering last rites.
Ghost Rider
August 17th, 2011
9:54 am
Coastal Cavalier:
I agree. There should be no more than about 50 counties in the state. Consolidation of services would decrease the tax burden. I don’t foresee that ever happening, though. Every county politician would fight tooth and nail to hold on to their “power”.
clem
August 17th, 2011
10:03 am
herman needs a brain transplant
GaBlue
August 17th, 2011
10:03 am
Alleged Centrist,
Here’s some more news for you: there was another recall election in Wisconsin yesterday in which Republicans challenged two sitting Democratic state senators and failed. Bless your heart.
honested
August 17th, 2011
10:04 am
On the redistricting maps:
During the public meetings, there were always numerous comments relative to ‘communities of interest’. Apparently, the Joint Committee has no interest whatsoever in the Communities. Why else would they have drawn Dekalb Co. (which had relatively stable districts for the last couple of decades) in such a way that the new 81st District looked like a grape sqashed by a fist and the rest of the county looked like squirts spewing out from the grape?
During the public meetings there were always chest thumping comments about ‘getting out from under the Justice Department’. If that was important, why did they make such an effort to GUARANTEE there would be a JS suit?
honested
August 17th, 2011
10:05 am
Has cain announced the end to his race for second place yet?
DannyX
August 17th, 2011
10:06 am
Somebody should explain to Herman Cain how the impeachment process works. The Senate has nothing to do with impeaching a president.
He should be blaming the Republican controlled House for not impeaching the president. Republicans are all in favor of impeaching the president right? Prove it.
honested
August 17th, 2011
10:11 am
How can one be a ‘centrist’ and support policies that denigrate the middle class?
Centrist
August 17th, 2011
10:18 am
@ GaBlue – the “news” is/was that Democrats LOST their attempt to get a majority in the Senate. They are already the minority in the House with a Republican Governor who signed the new legislation which prompted the recall elections. Democrats would have had an impossible task of reversing the law even if they had won a majority of the Senate. The new law is now a template being introduced around the country. This sort of news (like the District Appeals Court striking down mandatory private insurance) is generally ignored by the AJC.
Centrist
August 17th, 2011
10:26 am
@ honested – once again, please define “middle class”. I’d say it reaches up to the professionals and small business owners who pay the largest percentages of their incomes.
Funny (to me) cartoon has Obama saying: “I won’t allow the half of Americans who pay no taxes to bear the burden of the other half who aren’t paying their fair share.”
P.S. I am once again on track to purposely stay in the 15% tax bracket this year by keeping my taxable income below $69K. The largest marginal tax rate jump of all is in place at $69K.
Frederick Douglass
August 17th, 2011
10:28 am
Well at least Herman has his money. Maybe he’ll make himself useful at the RNC convention by springing for pizza for everybody.
GaBlue
August 17th, 2011
10:38 am
Alleged Centrist,
Sooooo… what constitutes “news” is what YOU decide is important, right? Got it. Have you applied for the editor’s position at the newspaper? Clearly you think they could use someone like you, and will not doubt make a convincing argument to that end.
I think I understand you a little better now, though. You think that I, as an American citizen, should not have the right to organize or attend meetings with other people who do what I do for a living, for the purpose of protecting my own interests and those of people like me. After all, this IS a free country, unless you think “freedom” means taking an active role in your own self-determination, when that determination in any way challenges the decisions of your manager at the plant, docks, station, or office. Am I right?
Jimmy
August 17th, 2011
10:39 am
Enter your comments here
Jimmy
August 17th, 2011
10:41 am
The “insider” blog has become the Onesider blog and is being moved to the editorial page where it’s advocacy belongs. It’s a sham to keep it anywhere else in the paper.
Centrist
August 17th, 2011
10:46 am
@GaBlue – At least after you state what I think, you ask if that is right.
Your diatribe about what I think is WRONG.
I get my news from a variety of sources. Anyone who relies on just the AJC gets a very leftist slant on the news, and that was my point to which you replied. I do get a kick out of pointing it out on this blog that has mostly leftist AJC subscribers. The majority who post here are in the minority of the Georgia electorate (so we hear how stupid the electorate is).
I am a centrist – as I have often pointed out where I break from Republican issues and sometimes vote for Democrats, even though mostly for Libertarians.
td
August 17th, 2011
10:48 am
GaBlue
August 17th, 2011
10:38 am
“You think that I, as an American citizen, should not have the right to organize or attend meetings with other people who do what I do for a living, for the purpose of protecting my own interests and those of people like me.”
In the public sector NO you should not have that right. You should have civil service protection that does not allow a politician to come in and fire you because they want to change things up and bring in all of their friends. The politician has no real skin in the game in the public sector and the employees have no skin in the game (nothing happens but taxes get raised to pay for the money and benefits packages). In the private sector peoples jobs and profits are on the line.
td
August 17th, 2011
10:54 am
Jim,
You are really showing your strips today with what you are not doing a blog about. Why are you not doing a blog about the child poverty rates in the state? This is a real issue that the peoples voice should be heard and debated.
MiltonMan
August 17th, 2011
10:56 am
Obama joy riding around the rust belt touting jobs in a bus built in Canada.
Man the pres is such a dufus.
findog
August 17th, 2011
10:58 am
packing county’s for the ability to spin off the richer enclaves is just returning to smaller government which is a founding principal of the new GOP
GaBlue
August 17th, 2011
11:01 am
Alleged Centrist,
The “Am I right” question followed my summary of your feelings about the rights of workers to organize, not where you get your news. I note that you made no move to dispute that. I vary my sources as well, relying on nor trusting no single entity.
td,
Is this your strategy? Treat public workers like garbage, then complain that public workers aren’t worth a stink. You are aware that people who work for taxpayer-funded paychecks put their money back into the economy in the form of private-sector spending and taxes, right? It’s not like the money paid to cops and teachers EVAPORATES from existence. (BTW, the “skin in the game” metaphor is boring, overused, and icky. Why not just say what you mean?)
Clinton "Skink" Tyree
August 17th, 2011
11:01 am
The Republican/Tea Party has done such a good job running the state legislature I think they should eliminate every democrat district.
They should be singled out for commendation in our education system and the way we value and care for our children’s wellbeing.
As good Christian folks, we remember what Jesus said about little children and we’ll catch up with him as quick as we can. Maybe.
Centrist
August 17th, 2011
11:01 am
There have been those few Republicans on this blog who have chastised centrists like me for being responsible for Obama’s election. Sorry, but my Libertarian votes were because Republicans put up weak Presidential candidates like both father and son Bush, Dole, and McCain. This year doesn’t look any better. I understand the theory of voting for the lesser of two evils, but I have had a hard time figuring out which one that would be.
td
August 17th, 2011
11:06 am
Clinton “Skink” Tyree
August 17th, 2011
11:01 am
The Republican/Tea Party has done such a good job running the state legislature I think they should eliminate every democrat district.
Sorry but the voting rights act gets in the way, so I guess they will just have to get rid of as many white democrats as possible.
Centrist
August 17th, 2011
11:08 am
@ GaBlue – I merely stated that what you claim I think is wrong – I chose not to debate it. td got it right. Government workers have a monopoly and job protections, and such unions often blackmail the leaders and the public with job actions crippling safety and transportation.
td
August 17th, 2011
11:09 am
Centrist
August 17th, 2011
11:01 am
There have been those few Republicans on this blog who have chastised centrists like me for being responsible for Obama’s election.
Well I am not a Republican but I will chastise you as well if you help Obama get re elected next year by throwing your vote away on a Libertarian candidate. We MUST at all cost get rid of this socialist currently in office that is destroying our country.
GaBlue
August 17th, 2011
11:13 am
Alleged Centrist,
I see what you’re saying, but I still don’t get it. The unions in Wisconsin conceded to Gov. Walker EVERY financial demand he made upon them, allegedly in the interest of balancing the budget. How does that equate to blackmail? He then set upon removing their right to organize.. to reward them for their cooperation… not quite getting the logic.
Are you saying that organizing equates to blackmail? IF SO, then how do you feel about Chambers of Commerce? Aren’t they just unions for owners and management? Does their existence equate to blackmail as well?
Travis McGee
August 17th, 2011
11:13 am
The GOTP’s motto for 2012: Facing the Challenges of the Twentieth Century!
td
August 17th, 2011
11:14 am
GaBlue
August 17th, 2011
11:01 am
“Is this your strategy? Treat public workers like garbage, then complain that public workers aren’t worth a stink.”
How would government workers be treated like “garbage” if they had civil service protection? They would have more rights then 80% of private sector workers and could still be held accountable for their work. Surely you can see that those teacher union rubber rooms in NYC are horrible and show just how much the unions really care about the children.
Centrist
August 17th, 2011
11:16 am
td – I get a LOT of that from friends and family. I also get a lot Obama campaigning from friends and family. Our country is split, and I’m stuck in the middle where it is pretty lonely except for all the slings and arrows coming from both sides. It just happens to be coming mostly from the left on this leftist blog.
Deb A
August 17th, 2011
11:18 am
Please tell the “The technologically talented arm of the AJC” that they are wrong. I know for a fact that I will have a new Rep and yet this wonder map shows that I don’t.
findog
August 17th, 2011
11:18 am
td, the representation public safety personnel use is to provide sufficient manpower and equipment
they should have the right to bargain, but not the right to strike
honested
August 17th, 2011
11:20 am
centrist
I enlightened you to the vile organization known as ALEC.
The anti-worker bill in WI is an ALEC ‘model’ as are it’s disgusting replicants in other states.
This has nothing to do with ‘public sentiment’ it merely reflects the interests of the owners of ALEC who also happen to the funders of the various teapottie groups.
I’m sad that you have such disdain for policemen, firefighters, ambulance drivers, teachers, game wardens, and working people in general.
Civilization has it’s costs and I don’t often talk to many who really want to roll back civilization.
honested
August 17th, 2011
11:21 am
Travis,
Aren’t they really attempting to rewrite the 19th Century. With a different ending?
yuzeyurbrane
August 17th, 2011
11:22 am
It is also designed to get rid of white liberals. Look at new shapes of districts including Morningside and Druid Hills. Just what we need, more racial polarization.
Centrist
August 17th, 2011
11:24 am
GaBlue – the Wisconsin unions only started to negotiate when they saw the legislation was going to pass. There was no sense in withdrawing it just to have it happen again down the road with monopoly strike threats. Their right of organizational representation was not threatened – just some economic blackmail was removed.
Chambers of Commerce don’t negotiate contracts and strike with crippling public sector monopolies.
P.S. You mostly debate politely – how about dropping the “Alleged”?
honested
August 17th, 2011
11:24 am
GA Blue
Of course the CofC is just a large business union.
And they could care less about small business (not enough dues to pay the lobbyist).
All the while our school systems are jumping through hoops for SACS, a for-profit tentacle of the CofC!!
GaBlue
August 17th, 2011
11:25 am
td: “Surely you can see that those teacher union rubber rooms in NYC are horrible and show just how much the unions really care about the children.”
Actually, no. I live in Georgia, where there are no teacher’s unions, where half a million kids live in poverty, and where our schools are near the bottom of the list in graduation rates, grades, and test scores. I know a cop who works three jobs 70 hours a week just to eek out $50K/year — putting his very life between me an criminal scum, wearing hot, uncomfortable clothes and having his sandwiches spit on at the drivethru, for little, if any appreciation.
I won’t argue that union abuses do not exist. I will say that anyone who thinks people have no right to organize is a damn liar if he says he believes in freedom, and a damn hypocrite if he doesn’t waive benefits and volunteer to work weekends without overtime pay.
GaBlue
August 17th, 2011
11:35 am
honested,
Good point. The Chambers of Commerce hire lobbyists to “persuade” legislators to write laws and tax codes that favor big (but not small) business owners. Where’s the outrage? When cops & teachers hire union leaders to do the same thing, suddenly they’re THE problem.
“Centrist” alleges that CoCs don’t negotiate contracts for public money. Seriously? Governments pay no money to private businesses that belong to CoCs? They don’t hire their friends with “no bid” contracts? Since WHEN?
Centrist
August 17th, 2011
11:39 am
@ honested – Thanks again for pointing me towards ALEC. I agree with them. Your name calling does not help your case.
Your statement that I “disdain policemen, firefighters, ambulance drivers, teachers, game wardens, and working people in general” is patently false. I have them as family members and deeply respect what they do. I don’t respect the politicized NEA or police/firefighter/ transportation worker strikes. The public gets behind them when they have legitimate issues and negotiates with Governors, Mayors, Commissioners, etc.
td
August 17th, 2011
12:26 pm
GaBlue
August 17th, 2011
11:25 am
I think workers have the right to organize in the private sector but not in the public sector and I love freedom. Does that make me a “damn liar”? I did say public sector workers need civil service protections but they should not have the ability to negotiate for wages and benefits. If $40,000 or $50,000 is unacceptable wages then do not take the job. If we do not have enough protection then the voters will demand more and the politicians will use market principles an raise wages. I actually saw that debate in the city of Smyrna several years back and wages were raised.
honested
August 17th, 2011
12:30 pm
centrist
Why am I surprised you agree with ALEC.
How is it that it is bad for business to be ‘regulated’ but it is ok for workers to be ‘owned’?
td
August 17th, 2011
12:38 pm
honested
August 17th, 2011
12:30 pm
Public sector unions are wrong on so many levels. In states that have strong teacher’s unions the unions have say so in the the curriculum at what is being taught to the children. This is wrong to have a non elected, not accountable group to determine what our children are learning. Like I have already said: Public sectors workers should NOT be allowed to unionize. They should have civil service protection so that politicians can not just come into office and bring all their own friends with them. Private sector workers should be allowed to organize.
honested
August 17th, 2011
12:46 pm
td
Since we have no teachers unions in GA, what is it in the curriculum that keeps us at the bottom?
Could it have something to do with the gazillions poured into the coffers of testing companies?
ZaVon
August 17th, 2011
12:51 pm
“…ended former state Rep. David Lucas’ 37 years of political service…”
Now THERE is a little piece of good news. That particular individual should have been put out of State government years ago.