Archive for the ‘DuBose Porter’ Category

It may be time to start wondering if Roy Barnes can win the July 20 Democratic primary for governor without a cash-consuming runoff.

For the second time in less than a month, a statewide poll has shown the former Georgia governor with an overwhelming lead.

In late May, it was a WSB-TV/InsiderAdvantage poll, which showed Barnes leaping to a 64 percent lead. On Monday evening, a SurveyUSA poll showed Barnes with the support of 63 percent of Democratic respondents, with Attorney General Thurbert Baker, his closest competitor, at 13 percent.

See the details here. Crosstabs can be found here.

The poll was sponsored by group of three media outlets – 11Alive News and V103-FM in Atlanta, and 13WMAZ-TV of Macon.

The same poll shows that, on the Republican side of the race for governor, state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine holds a commanding lead of 34 percent, with former secretary of state Karen Handel (18 percent) and former congressman Nathan Deal (17 percent) in a tight race …

Continue reading Can Roy Barnes win without a Democratic runoff? »

Jekyll Island — In 1990, an unknown Democratic political strategist named James Carville convinced Zell Miller that church-going, middle-class voters in Georgia were ready to back a lottery aimed at putting their kids through college.

The lottery became the centerpiece of Miller’s winning campaign for governor, and was credited with staving off a Republican takeover of the state for yet another eight years.

Last week, Attorney General Thurbert Baker — a Miller acolyte in the Legislature during that period — proposed a return to the well.

Now a Democratic candidate for governor himself, Baker wants to bring electronic bingo machines into the state as a way to juice funding for the lower half of the educational ladder — from kindergarten through high school.

The $1 billion the game would raise each year, Baker says, could fund the smallest classrooms in the nation, extend the school year from 180 to 200 days, and send teacher pay through the roof.

With five weeks to go before …

Continue reading Not your grandmother’s game: Thurbert Baker and his big bingo gamble »

Jekyll Island — Thurbert Baker’s Democratic campaign for governor goes up on TV for the first time on Sunday with a message geared specifically for Father’s Day:

The ad is introductory in nature: “Growing up, my dad didn’t even knew his father. But it was never going to be that way with him,” said Chelsea Baker, one of the attorney general’s two daughters – who is now a DeKalb County teacher like her mother. So education is a subtext.

Spies tell us that the Republican campaign of John Oxendine has purchased TV time starting early next week, and that former GOP congressman Nathan Deal looks like he’s focusing on a 10-day strategy for his ads next month.

Thursday’s debates of Republican and Democratic candidates for governor on Jekyll Island were jointly sponsored by the Georgia Press Association and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce – two entities that have often warred over public access to information.

So it was significant that every single candidate, regardless of party, …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Happy Fathers Day to me, says Thurbert Baker in first TV ad »

Jekyll Island – Whether the children of illegal immigrants should be allowed into Georgia universities wasn’t a topic at a pair of debates among candidates for governor on Friday.

But whether Georgia should adopt a replica of the Arizona law – to identify and deport illegal immigrants – was a major topic among both Republicans and Democrats.

The debates were sponsored by the Georgia Press Association and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

As you might expect, all five candidates in the GOP debate,held first, favored adoption of a similar measure. (Karen Handel was absent.)

The entire answer of state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine:

“Yes.”

Eric Johnson said he’d go a step further, requiring all hospitals and public schools to ascertain the citizenship of the people they serve. The former state senator from Savannah said he would then sue the federal government to get back money spent on illegals.

He would also crack down on businesses that hire illegal aliens. The second …

Continue reading On adopting a replica of the Arizona law in Georgia »

From the veranda of the Jekyll Island Club – An island debate among the Democratic candidates for governor this afternoon, hosted by the Georgia Press Association, is highly likely to include charges of theft.

On Thursday, former Gov. Roy Barnes launched his sixth TV ad – this one proposing that Georgia Power and other utilities be required to burn wood pellets from Georgia pines to generate some of their power. Thousands of jobs could be created, he said.

House Minority Leader DuBose Porter of Dublin this morning says Barnes is guilty of intellectual poaching.

“I have been advocating wood-fired power for years. I know it will create thousands of jobs in Georgia — foresters, skidder operators, mechanics — and help landowners by creating a market for timber.”

Porter said. “Coal produces jobs for people outside of Georgia. Wood-fired power doesn’t poison Georgia’s rivers and streams. Coal-fired power does. Wood-fired power doesn’t create pollution that harms unborn children. …

Continue reading Your island jolt: Wood chips fly over charges of theft in governor’s race »

First the fun stuff.

David Poythress, the former National Guard commander and Democratic candidate for governor, has limited cash. His standings in the polls are threadbare.

But he’s got chutzpah. His campaign on Monday unveiled a new website, called bagbarnes.com, and this video that anyone who watches Saturday afternoon TV would recognize:

The money quote: “Democrats, we got to bag Barnes before Republicans get a chance to in the fall.”

On a similar note, we told you earlier this month that John Oxendine’s Republican campaign for governor had adopted a frontrunner tone – quieter, more disciplined, with restrained responses to attacks by competitors.

But only, it seems, if they’re Republican. This from the Associated Press:

Republican John Oxendine on Monday bypassed his six GOP opponents in the race for governor in Georgia and took aim instead at Roy Barnes, linking the Democrat to President Barack Obama and the new federal health care law.

The skirmish comes with the state …

Continue reading Roy Barnes as a 12-point buck — worthy of a John Oxendine attack »

One of the more significant events of the Democratic contest for governor was engineered by Roy Barnes this morning – and we’re not talking about his ever-larger mea culpas to teachers.

Barnes went to the old courthouse in DeKalb County, home of his Democratic rival – Attorney General Thurbert Baker, to show off the local officials who have endorsed his candidacy.

Roy Barnes chats with DeKalb County Commissioner Jeff Rader (left) and DeKalb County District Attorney GwenKeyes Fleming on the steps of the old courthouse in Decatur. Bita Honarvar, bhonarvar@ajc.com

Topping the list was DeKalb County District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming, the only female African-American in Georgia currently holding such a position.

In other words, the state’s lead prosecutor does not have the support of his county’s lead prosecutor – not in his run for governor.

“Given Roy’s history, his background, his knowledge — he’s the best person that we as Democrats need right now to get us back on track. …

Continue reading Roy Barnes’ snags support of DeKalb County’s top prosecutor »

Republican candidate for Georgia's 9th Congressional District Tom Graves greets supporter and barbecueist Oscar Poole during an election-night party in Jasper. AP/John Bazemore

Updated at 10:37 a.m.: A campaign spokesman on Wednesday morning said it’s likely that Tom Graves of Ranger won’t be sworn in as the newest Republican congressman from Georgia until early next week.

Tim Baker of the Graves campaign, said that he’d been told by the U.S. House clerk’s office that Graves could be seated Thursday – if Secretary of State Brian Kemp, by noon, sends a letter, assuring Congress that the results aren’t likely to be contested.

Baker says he’s getting indications that Kemp isn’t completely comfortable with that. Provisional ballots don’t have to be counted until Thursday, and the deadline for overseas military ballots is Friday — at which time counties will send in their formal counts.

But the betting here is that caution from the secretary of state is rooted in the fact that this …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Tom Graves again dominates 9th District map »

After signing a water conservation bill on Tuesday, Gov. Sonny Perdue explained why he might veto SB 360, a bill that would ban adult drivers from texting while at the wheel.

Gov. Sonny Perdue signs a water conservation bill at Buford Dam Park on Tuesday. Vino Wong, vwong@ajc.com

This from 11Alive:

“I’ve got some concerns over the enforceability of that,” Perdue said at a news conference….

The governor has until June 8th to sign all bills into law. The bill in question is S.B. 360, also known as Caleb’s Law. It bans texting while driving for anyone 18 and older; the problematic area is the part that makes it illegal to “read any text based communication.”

Here is Perdue’s example to describe why enforcing that part could be an issue:

“If I get my e-mails and I pick up a smart-phone and read my e-mails, I’m violating the law. But if I print out my e-mails and I have a sheet of paper driving [and look at it], then I haven’t violated the law.

Candidates fell over Alabama last …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Sonny Perdue’s doubts about a ban on texting while driving »

Other candidates and the Savannah Morning News are pointing out that the latest TV ad by former Gov. Roy Barnes leaves a few details out. Writes Larry Peterson:

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Roy Barnes is airing a television ad that takes aim at lobbyists – and banks that receive federal bailouts.

But the former governor – the frontrunner for his party’s nomination – was himself a registered lobbyist in 2007.

And his state financial disclosure report says he owned stock last year in five banks that received more than $34 billion in bailout loans.

The stock he said he owned in them was worth about $654,000 as of Wednesday. Since late 2008, they have paid him dividends that may have totaled almost $23,000.

In his ad, Barnes says that, as governor, he’d make sure banks don’t foreclose on a home before there are negotiations.

“Bankers and their lobbyists got bonuses and bailouts, but you lost your home,” Barnes says in the ad as video shows a family being evicted.
Viewed …

Continue reading A late jolt: Roy Barnes’ new ad and his bank investments »