Archive for the ‘2012 redistricting’ Category

Just in time for his debut this evening as a top-tier candidate for the GOP presidential nomination. From the Washington Post:

Businessman Herman Cain has surged into the top tier of presidential candidates in Virginia, according to a new poll of the state, moving into a tie in the Republican nomination contest with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has faded considerably.

The Quinnipiac University Poll of Virginia released Tuesday shows Romney and Cain at 21 percent apiece among Republican voters, while Perry sits at 11 percent–less than half the support he registered in the same poll a month ago.

At today’s 8 p.m. Bloomberg/Washington Post debate in New Hampshire, Cain will be required to provide a sound defense of his “999” plan, the most sensitive part of which is a 9 percent national sales tax. The WP’s Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake reached out to Atlanta GOP consultant Paul Bennecke for this advice to Cain:

“He needs to provide substance and …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Herman Cain tied with Mitt Romney in Virginia »

The National Republican Congressional Committee has taken aim at 51 House Democrats – including Savannah’s John Barrow – for their support of a loan program included in the stimulus package that made the Solyndra solar debacle possible.

As Barrow pointed out in this space last week, the New York Times notes that the Georgia congressman is blaming the GOP abandonment of earmarks:

“Congress has not been as good a custodian of the people’s money in the past and as a result of past abuses of the earmarking process, with highly placed members of Congress abusing their incredible influence at the closing stages of the appropriations process,” Barrow said. “The political repercussions of that have been to forswear all earmarks, which is basically Congress abandoning its responsibility to decide how the people’s money gets spent.”

One other argument you’re likely to hear Barrow make: The loan program that allowed Solyndra is the same one that is guaranteeing $8 billion for the …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: GOP tries to paint John Barrow with Solyndra debacle »

Some people were apparently very pleased with the job that state Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, did as chairman of that chamber’s reapportionment committee. This just in:

Gov. Nathan Deal today announced that Steve McCoy will become Georgia’s state treasurer and that state Sen. Mitch Seabaugh of Sharpsburg will succeed McCoy in the role of deputy state treasurer.

The Office of the State Treasurer is responsible for receipt and disbursement of state funds and lottery funds, management of the state’s cash resources, Georgia Fund 1 and the Georgia Extended Asset Pool.

Deal today will issue a writ to set the date for a special election for Senate District 28 on Nov. 8.

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

For instant updates, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on Facebook.

Continue reading Nathan Deal names Steve McCoy state treasurer, Mitch Seabaugh as deputy »

A weekend piece from Shannon McCaffrey of the Associated Press:

NORCROSS, Ga. — Despite explosive growth in the past decade, Georgia Hispanics have barely made a dent in the state political scene.

Georgia Hispanics now make up 8.8 percent of the state population, according to new U.S. Census figures. The population nearly doubled in the state in the past decade.

But just two of Georgia’s 236 state legislators are Latino. At the local level, Hispanics haven’t fared any better, holding only two city council seats, according to the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.

“Hispanics are going to be a force to be reckoned with in Georgia,” said state Rep. Pedro Marin, a Democrat from Duluth. “But it’s still a new community that is not as engaged in politics as some of those that are more established.”

The state’s tough new law cracking down on illegal immigration law could change that. Critics of the law are hoping it will drive up Hispanic voter participation.

Sensing …

Continue reading Georgia’s Hispanic population booms, but clout lags »

Democrat John Barrow made his way to Atlanta this week to argue for his own survival – to explain why he and other people of the middle in Washington don’t intend to follow Tyrannosaurus Rex and the passenger pigeon into oblivion.

“I’m not at all in danger. I can tell you that wherever I go, there are people who approve of my approach to the issues,” said the Georgia congressman who, for the moment, lives in Savannah.

U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Savannah/AP file

As of two years ago, Barrow – simply by his survival – became a man worth a series of capital letters: The Last Surviving White Democrat in Congress from the Deep South.

In August, the Republican-controlled Legislature made yet another attempt to end Barrow’s political career, by redrawing his 12th District in southeast Georgia so that it no longer includes Democrat-laden Savannah – and creating a largely rural district packed with Republican voters.

Republicans have forced him to call the movers before. In 2006, state …

Continue reading Marked for extinction, John Barrow begins his fight for survival »

U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Savannah, on Tuesday said the state Legislature, whose members include at least one Republican opponent, acted in a short-sighted manner when it approved a measure to require businesses – including farmers – to use a federal data base to screen out illegal immigrants.

U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Savannah/AP file

The most salient points of H.B. 87 have been placed on hold by a federal judge while the right of a state to enforce federal immigration laws is hashed out in court.

In a series of interviews with Capitol reporters in Atlanta, designed to shine statewide attention on his south Georgia effort to survive in a newly drawn, heavily rural district, Barrow declared that he could support a federally mandated E-Verify program – but only if it applied to all states. Several are now moving through Congress, he said.

Barrow has already picked up one Republican opponent, state Rep. Lee Anderson of Grovetown, a farmer who supported passage this spring of H.B. …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: John Barrow says Georgia immigration law has left crops ‘rotting in field’ »

Coca-Cola’s top dog on Monday told the Financial Times that, thanks to an antique tax code and political infighting, the United States is becoming a more hostile place to do business than China:

Muhtar Kent, Coke’s chief executive, said “in many respects” it was easier doing business in China, which he likened to a well-managed company. “You have a one-stop shop in terms of the Chinese foreign investment agency and local governments are fighting for investment with each other,” he [said].

And Washington gridlock? “There’s too much comfort. We need more needles to stick in politicians.”

Kent made his remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative conference. See the FT video here.

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Apparently, a certain former political figure has no plans to return to elective office. Bloomberg reports that former Democratic attorney general Thurbert Baker has been hired by the debt collection industry to help fight new restrictions in several states:

DBA International, the debt-buying industry’s …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Coke chief says U.S. becoming more hostile to business than China »

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain addresses delegates at the Republican Party of Florida Presidency 5 Convention and Straw Poll at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/MCT

Herman Cain spent Monday morning relishing his startling Saturday victory in Florida’s GOP presidential straw poll, but stopped short of citing his 37 percent showing as a guarantee of future success.

Cain won 37.1 percent of more than 2,500 votes cast in the straw poll conducted at the tail end of a three-day convention of activists in Orlando. Conducted off-and-on since 1979, the winner of the Florida straw poll has gone on to win the Republican nomination.

“I think it means we have picked up some substantial momentum,” Cain said in an interview with Scott Slade on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB – where Cain once served as a night-time talk show host.

“I don’t think that the past is necessarily a predictor of the future, although I like the fact that this has …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Fla. win no guarantee, says Herman Cain »

You’ll remember that after U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens, won his congressional seat in 2007, the GOP establishment in east Georgia made a pair of unsuccessful attempts to remove him.

That same GOP establishment may have been listening these last few weeks when, after the debut of Georgia’s new congressional maps, rumors abounded that Broun – whose 10th District was vastly changed – might run in the new 9th.

Where certain prominent Republicans had already identified their candidate.

Broun ultimately decided to stay put. But you have to wonder if Roll Call, the D.C. newspaper, might have stumbled upon one of the factors that kept Broun in place. From an assessment of Georgia’s congressional contests:

There’s considerable buzz about Broun facing a primary challenge. He is gaining a substantial amount of new territory under the redrawn lines, but the doctor will probably diagnose and dispatch any GOP rivals without too many complications. Broun has one of the better grass-roots …

Continue reading A Nathan Deal promise to defend Paul Broun »

I met Jerry Shearin at a Starbucks in west Cobb County this morning.

Shearin is the former chairman of the Paulding County Commission. He’s considering a Republican challenge next year against U.S. Rep. Tom Graves of Ranger, who has found himself in a vastly redrawn district – now called the 14th.

Graves, a tea party favorite who ran five races last year to secure his seat in Congress, finds himself a stranger (at least on the ballot) to 52 percent of his new district.

Among Graves’ new counties, Paulding will provide 25 percent of the vote in a GOP primary. Floyd would add another 13 percent. That’s a tempting start for anyone on the southern end of that district.

Shearin, a businessman, said he’s still weighing his options. “I’m talking to all the people I need to talk to right now,” he said.

But he added this thought. “It is my dream job,” Shearin said.

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

For instant updates, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on Facebook.

Continue reading Jerry Shearin weighs a 2012 challenge to Tom Graves »