Archive for the ‘Sam Olens’ Category

The Republican National Committee today released next week’s Wednesday schedule for Tampa – a day primarily devoted to a display of GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

But also on the RNC agenda will be a prime-time appearance by Attorney General Sam Olens of Georgia.

He’ll follow U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and John McCain on the evening schedule in a kind of duet for attorneys general. Olens will share the podium with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Both attorneys general were strong supporters of Mitt Romney during the primary. Both participated in the 27-state lawsuit challenging President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul – a likely topic for their address.

Olens and Bondi also represent a pair of GOP firsts. Bondi is Florida’s first female attorney general. Olens is the first Jewish candidate to be elected to a statewide, partisan office.

Filling out the night will be former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice — another nod to diversity — …

Continue reading In Tampa, Sam Olens will be half of a duet for attorneys general »

The powers-that-be in and around the state Capitol are making last-minute bids to tip the scales in a number of races,

We told you this morning about this handy quote (and a photo) that Gov. Nathan Deal lent to state Rep. Lee Anderson of Grovetown for use in his 12th District congressional GOP primary runoff against businessman Rick Allen of Augusta:

“Lee Anderson strongly supported my conservative tax reform agenda, which cut taxes on Georgia families and businesses. With Lee’s help, I was able to enact one of the most pro-jobs laws in our state’s history.”

That has since been followed by an endorsement of Anderson by Attorney General Sam Olens – which Olens confirmed by email this afternoon.

To add to Anderson’s wealth, former Republican rival Wright McLeod, edged out of the runoff by Allen, also endorsed Anderson. From a letter McLeod sent to his supporters:

”My campaign was a natural expression of my life-long dedication to Service Over Self. Lee subscribes to this …

Continue reading The state Capitol weighs in on runoff races »

Attorney General Sam Olens, Mitt Romney’s top elected supporter in the state, was rewarded this morning with a speaking role at this month’s Republican National Convention in Tampa.

His will be the most prominent Georgia face at the four-day launching of the fall presidential campaign. Olens was one of five convention speakers announced by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. Apparently intended to advertise the diversity of the GOP, they include:

Attorney General Sam Olens at the state Capitol in February. Jason Getz, jgetz@ajc.com.

– Pam Bondi, Florida’s first female attorney general;

– Ted Cruz, who was Texas’ first Hispanic solicitor general. Cruz just won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Consider this a nod to tea party enthusiasts;

– Luis Fortuño, the first Republican elected governor of Puerto Rico since 1969;

– And Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the first U.S. governor to beat a recall election.

Olens is identified as the former chairman of the Cobb County …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Sam Olens wins speaking role at GOP convention »

Atlanta publicist and tea party backer Randy Lewis emailed last night as he was listening to a briefing on the U.S. Supreme Court’s health care ruling by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who argued that the decision has made repeal of the measure a more achievable goal for the GOP:

[Cuccinelli] said that one additional largely unknown issue from the ruling today is that with the court declaring the law constitutional because it is a tax, that the law can now be repealed with 51 votes in the Senate — not 60. Tax votes only require simple majority. All other legislation requires 60 votes. So, Repubs picking up three seats and a VP can repeal Obamacare.

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Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed will be holding onto this CNN video clip for a while – for bar bets if nothing else. It contains the mayor’s prediction on Tuesday, minutes before President Barack Obama’s plane touched down in Atlanta and 48 hours before the actual decision was made public, that the U.S. Supreme …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Did John Roberts just make health care an easier GOP target? »

Other than that minor decision on health care due out in the next few hours, the most important ruling made this week by the U.S. Supreme Court is the one that will allow Democrats to resume a competitive — if not dominant — role in Georgia politics. Not today, not tomorrow, but within the lifetimes of most of this state’s current residents.

What? You missed that one?

Without being too cute about it, a Democratic resurgence in Georgia may be the ultimate impact of the court’s ruling on how far states — in this case Arizona — can go in the fight against illegal immigration.

This is about numbers, not philosophy. Last week, Alan Abramowitz, the Emory University political scientist, pointed out some interesting statistics on the secretary of state’s website.

In 2001, as the lowering of a segregation-era state flag was about to spark a Republican revolution, whites made up a domineering 72 percent of 4.6 million registered Georgia voters. African-Americans accounted …

Continue reading The U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow Georgia Democrats back in the game »

The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will not grant Alabama and Florida’s request for review of the decades-long legal dispute with Georgia over the intended use of water from Lake Lanier. That means metro Atlanta can use it to quench the thirst of its residents and businesses.

For Georgia, that’s bigger than the court’s decision upholding portions of HB 87.

The word from Attorney General Sam Olens:

“I am pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court has denied certiorari, and the excellent decision by the Eleventh Circuit is the law – making clear that Lake Lanier can indeed be used for water supply for Georgia. It is my hope that we can finally put this decades-long legal dispute to rest and work together with our sister states — in meeting rooms, not courtrooms — to develop a fair and equitable water sharing plan and promote a strong and vibrant Southeastern region.”

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

For instant updates, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on …

Continue reading U.S. Supreme Court affirms metro Atlanta can use Lake Lanier for drinking water »

If you’ve been shopping for a sizable reason to vote against metro Atlanta’s transportation sales tax next month, but have been unable to find one that’s XXL or larger, try this on:

The tax and the people behind it are part of a United Nations plot called Agenda 21.

Laugh if you like. The topic is now center stage in Cobb County, as part of the debate over the penny sales tax, and the contest for chairman of the county commission as well.

Those who aren’t hardcore GOP will need a bit of background. Agenda 21 is also known as the “Rio Declaration on Environment and Development,” and was adopted in 1992 at a conference in Brazil.

In most languages, the report is a vacuous U.N. document that declares the need for a “sustainable” world environment. But to a certain segment of those who speak Republican, it is a secret declaration of war.

At the state GOP convention in Columbus last month, delegates overwhelmingly condemned Agenda 21 as an attempt to “outlaw …

Continue reading The transportation sales tax as part of a United Nations plot »

On CNN last night, former President Bill Clinton very purposely undercut President Barack Obama’s strategy of criticizing Republican rival Mitt Romney’s days at Bain Capital:

The former president referred to Romney’s private equity career as “sterling,” and added this:

“I think the real issue ought to be, what has Governor Romney advocated in the campaign that he will do as president? What has President Obama done and what does he propose to do? How do these things stack up against each other?”

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Business Week is quoting unnamed Democratic donors who say President Barack Obama has told them that he may have to tackle health care reform again during a second term:

As he previewed his agenda for donors at a May 14 fundraiser, Obama said he may be forced to try to revise parts of his health-care plan, depending on how the court rules later this month, said one activist, who requested anonymity to discuss the president’s comments. Guests at the $35,800-a-plate …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Bill Clinton rejects criticism of Mitt Romney’s days at Bain Capitol »

With a U.S. Supreme Court decision on health care reform in the offing, Republicans are making preparations.

Near the top of the GOP food chain, we’ve heard Attorney General Sam Olens and U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss both declare the party that brings down President Barack Obama’s premier piece of legislation should be ready to cope with the fallout.

It is akin to Gen. Colin Powell’s attitude toward the war in Iraq: “If you break it, you bought it.” (Although one could argue that a system in which an appendectomy might cost $1,529 or $182,955 – depending on the color of a California hospital administrator’s mood ring – already qualifies as damaged goods.)

Given his experience in Massachusetts, former Gov. Mitt Romney may allow congressional Republicans the first crack at floating a substitute. Already, several are blazing their own trails, including U.S. Rep. Paul Broun of Athens.

Broun, a physician, has come to recognize that the expectation of guaranteed health …

Continue reading The coming Republican debate over replacing ‘Obamacare’ »

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed was in New York this week, pitching American cities as an alternative to a gridlocked federal government.

“We’re being strangled by the lack of action at the federal level. That’s why mayors are where the action is,” Reed said at a high-end forum with Houston Mayor Annise Parker and New York Deputy Mayor Robert Steel.

Said Reed, via The Atlantic, a co-sponsor of the Tuesday event:

“If you look at the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, less than 10 percent of those dollars went into cities, where 80 percent of GDP occurs,” he said. “We’re going to have to shift national politics, and we’re going to have to shift state politics. Governors have a better lobby than mayors do.

“That’s why they got 90 percent of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, when that money should have gone to cities. Because we deploy it faster, we’re more creative, and we’re more representative of the majority of the United States of America.”

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The …

Continue reading Kasim Reed: Cities ‘being strangled’ by gridlocked Washington »