Voter ID Letter

I wonder how many Athenians will be affected by this letter from the State Election Board:

"More than 300,000 Georgians have received inaccurate letters from the State Election Board telling them about acceptable forms of identification when they vote in the Nov. 7 elections. The one-page letter says the recipient is on a list of registered voters who might not have a driver's license or photo ID card. It requests those who do have licenses to contact the county elections and registrations office and let it know their IDs are valid. Driver's licenses aren't needed to vote, the letter continues, because voters can use five other photo IDs when voting.

"But the letter is wrong because a court ruling bars the state from enforcing the controversial voter ID law."

Presumably, these letters were mailed before the Voter ID Act was struck down (for the umpteenth time) by an "activist jerdge" in Fulton County.

Meanwhile, given our higher than average share of poor folks here in ACC, I can't help but wonder how many Athenians received this letter and are thinking they can't go to the polls in November.

Hi John

We see you looking. Thanks for visiting. (Realistically, it's probably a low-level flunky of course.) Either way, get Firefox like the rest of the bipeds, mmmkay?

Hobnoblin'

From the Chamber's website:

It's popcorn, lemonade, peanuts and politics at the the bi-annual HOB NOB, Old-Fashioned Political Rally Wednesday, October 4th beginning at 6:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn. Hear stump speeches from ACC Mayor and Commission candidates, State House and Senate Candidates and statewide candidates all in one big event.

Also, there is of course the mayoral debate on the east side mentioned in the comments.

Finally, kudos to Elton for dropping in and sharing a piece of his mind. No matter what you may think of him or the words he chooses to use to describe certain commission candidates, I think it's always positive when the candidates and officeholders choose to engage the public in general and us in particular. Heck, the guy even put his cell # out there. More guts than me.

Go and do likewise, gents.

On the other hand...

So this Elton Dodson thing is becoming a little mini-shitstorm on the blog, and sources who were hanging out at the Iron Triangle festivus today tell me that at least the usual inside baseball players are talking about it.

Did the Commish go too far? Well, before you jump to conclusions, bear in mind that Chuck Jones had, at various times in his campaign, alluded to (and in some cases directly charged) that the ACC Commission was corrupt and engaging in collusion. He didn’t specifically exclude Dodson, so one presumes he includes him in his allegations of corruption and collusion. Dodson had every right in the world to respond, and he had every right in the world to respond in the way he did.

On the other hand, Dodson is a public figure and those kinds of charges get thrown around a lot from challengers looking for traction – it’s part of the game. On the other hand, Jones , at the time of Dodson’s comments, was not a candidate. But that doesn’t mean that he’s longer a public figure.

However, Chuck Jones is no moron. (And there’s the slogan for next time: “Chuck Jones – he’s no moron.”) As I’m sure the Commish hisself would tell you, you don’t get through law school if you’re stupid. Chuck is, in my opinion, wrong on just about every issue. As a candidate, he was waaaaay too quick to throw around charges he couldn’t back up. And there was the unfortunate Cobbham listserv incident. When you get right down to it, Chuck’s Achilles heel as a candidate was a lack of judgment and a surplus of immaturity. On the other hand, Dodson’s quote indicates a temporary lapse of maturity as well.

Here’s what I know. Dodson should have used a more diplomatic choice of words, if for no reason than taking the high road usually makes one look better.

Here’s the other thing I know. We can massively increase the revenue in the ACC General Fund if Chuck will move to the 10^th District in 2008 and run against Dodson. We’ll make them debate each other every week, and put it on pay-per-view. Should be interesting and lucrative.

Name Calling

Some of you may have missed the article in the Red and Black yesterday, so here's the link:

Students are pissed, but lazy.

The article itself is an unremarkable, sometimes inaccurate, diatribe the likes of which we've seen for years. I bring it up here for the purpose of discussing District 10 Commissioner Elton Dodson's on-the-record reference to then-candidate Chuck Jones as a "moron."

Is that really appropriate talk from one of our elected officials, especially concerning other candidates?

BTW I think it's a little harsh. Chuckie is naive and a little silly, like all of the other "student" candidates who have preceded him, but "moron?"

I mean, sure, we pick on him here, but we're not elected officials either...

Heidi on the Radio...

Mayor Davison will be interviewed on WXAG 1470 this am at 11:30.


NOTE TO OTHER CANDIDATES/CAMPAIGNS:
Send us info about upcoming appearances, etc. Sad as it sounds, for some of the smaller races, this blog is the only source of news.

''Sweatin" the Judge's race....

Reports just in of candidate Stan Durden shooting a TV spot on the steps of the courthouse this week. There's been very little press on this contested Superior Court Judge's race, and myself being admittedly distrustful (if not not downright contemptuous) of lawyers generally, I'm even more ignorant about this race than I was about the Solicitor's race this summer.

I do know it's pretty rare for a sitting judge to be challenged. Anyone (maybe our attorney readers) have any insight for the rest of us?

Heidi/Charlie blurbs...

Received a press release from Jeff Snowden of Charlie Maddox's campaign. Charlie has posted his answers to the Athens Grow Green Coalition questionnaire of mayoral candidates. You can read his responses here.

Saw my first Heidi signage the other day. Nice, narrow vertical blue and white signs reading "Heidi Our Mayor". Very catchy.

Everyone to your corners.

From the Culpepper Campaign...

E to the H' folks sent us a press release concerning his K-12 education plan. Full details can be found here:

Press Release

Commission Candidates debate at the Chamber of Commerce; Chuck Jones withdraws from 9th Race

The candidates in the 1st and 9th District Commission races participated in a forum/debate sponsored by the Chamber PAC and held at the Chamber building.

The 1st candidates seemed to have a little bit of the "I agree with Governor Bush" syndrome going on, with little to separate them. On the few questions that produced discernible disagreement, I think I would have to with Garland. For example, Lowry trashed college students in his answer on rental registration, which he basically seemed to support, and he said he wanted "no new bars" downtown in response to a question about whether local government should be involved in regulating the daylife/nightlife balance downtown. Garland, on the other hand, opposed rental registration and suggested existing ordinances as the means to deal with rowdy, messy college students living in our neighborhoods, and didn't think it was government's job to tell business owners what kind of businesses to put downtown. I happen to agree on both accounts.

Then came the 9th debate. The day began with four candidates, but it was announced by moderator Tim Bryant at the beginning of the debate that the field had been narrowed to three by the resignation of Chuck Jones from the race (Mr. Jones reportedly phoned his opponents personally earlier in the evening to inform them of his resignation as well). Alvin Sheats chose not to participate, and so only Kelly Girch and Ed Vaughn took part in the debate. Both trumpeted their experience, Girch as an educator and Vaughn as a city planner and government contractor, as a reason to give them the job. Vaughn challenged the Chamber on why it had not done more to help downtown businesses, who in Vaughn's words have been getting "hosed" for the past four years under the current commission.

There are several more debates scheduled during the month of October for both the commission races and the mayor's race; it's late and so I don't remember dates right now, but I'll perhaps do another post with those later.

The Swift Boating of John Barrow

Even though John Barrah is no longer Athens' congressman, his name continues to come up here, and 12th district Democrats should take heed of this: The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (who are neither honorable veterans, nor truthful in any respect), are back, and this time they're taking aim at two congressional Georgia Democrats to "swiftboat".

"The man who helped put up the money to pay for the Swift Boat attacks on Democratic Sen. John Kerry's war record has an new target. Bob J. Perry, a Texas homebuilder with close ties to White House advisor Karl Rove and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, have given $5 million to the Economic Freedom Fund, a newly created California group targeting Democratic candidates.

The Economic Freedom Fund, which is headquartered in California, has paid for TV ads, fliers and telephone messages criticizing Jim Marshall and John Barrow, whose re-election bids are among the hottest races in the country this fall."

Don't you just love that ambiguous, kinda classy name? The "Economic Freedom Fund"? Like they're a bunch of economists sitting around planning economic theory, as opposed to a goon squad of malcontents out to destroy congressional careers.

The problem, as blackfin pointed out in Barrow's ads posted on Youtube, is that Barrow can't really fight back in any meaningful way. While he can "denounce" Perry's tactics, he is still running on the very same "I ain't no Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Cut and Run Democrat" platform that Perry et al are swiftboating him to begin with.

That's why any 12th district Democrats reading this need to do the work for him. As Kerry said recently, capital D Democrats everywhere need to stand up and be prepared to "kick their ass from one end of America to the other."

Or at the very least, back to Texas and out of Georgia's politics.

What's on YOUR "Sonny Do" list?

And finally (for this evening), and fittingly, since my suggestion to Publius on this subject is what led to my invitiation to join this little party, I now must open the floor for suggestions for Governor Purdue's "Sonny Do" list.

If you missed the original commercial introducing the idea, here's a link:

Sonny Doo Doo

(I did an actual spit-take with my corn flakes the first time I saw this, no lie.)

So come on, I know you've been dying to.

Also acceptable are ideas for a "Sonny don't" list, like, "Sonny, don't pretend that taking our school system from dead-last to next to dead-last is something to be proud of..."

Earl and Eddie and John

Since he's not on the ballot here anymore, many of you may not be aware of John "Zell" Barrow's current campaign message. I think's it's probably best to let his radio ads speak for themselves. Suffice to say, I thought these ads were a parody of some kind... but they are real. Let the fun begin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4R1CQeUen0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8xUrIBvyz8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMfEmb9M7_g



I'm not sure if "them dawgs" really need your approval, John, but what's with dissing the Braves?

And we're back! (cue the radio "zinger")

I also want to thank (I refuse to "give a shout out to") Publius and DoubleDawg for asking both Mitchell and myself to keep the party going.

I have lived in Athens for 10 years, and am Georgia born and raised. While I've never met our other three contributors, I've sparred with them a time or two online, so this should be fun. Don't bother checking out my blog It's a Blackfin Day, as I am woefully bad about updating it.

I'm a Democrat, but pissed off about it much of the time.

Just a couple of other races to talk about that Mitchell overlooked.

It's been a while since we heard much from the McKillip/Culpepper/Quick house race. McKillip seems to be lining up all of the usual suspects of local "progressive" supporters, and I'm pretty sure E.H. has a Bill Cowsert sign in his yard... which leaves us with Ms. Quick who has kept pretty quiet. Word on the street is that she is not your typical pro-life, pro-Sonny, ten comandments on the wall Republican, but I don't know her, and as a first timer, she has no record to look at. Anybody got any insight?

And even though he's "our congressman" for only a few more months, I just can't resist this John Barrow guy. Actually, this needs it's own post so...

look up....

Never Surrender

Greetings everyone. I appreciate Publius and DoubleDawg's invitation to post to Athens Politics and try to keep this party going. Unlike them, I have no life to speak of, so blogging and trying to find some time to hit a few posts here shouldn't be too much of a stretch for me.

As a brief intro, I've lived in Athens approximately 8 years, and while I blog on other topics more national in scope at Article of Faith, I will admit to being somewhat left of the political spectrum both locally and nationally. I call myself a Kerrycrat as opposed to a capital D Democrat (yes, there are a few of us who "still believe" in another Kerry run), but I appreciate the chance to "go local" and will try to keep my comments "fair and balanced". [snicker]

A few observations on this beautiful Game Day Saturday morning:

Where's Heidi's campaign? I'm not the most politically connected person in Athens, but it seems that in the most obvious and public areas (signage, advertisements, etc.) her's is nowhere to be found. Maybe I'm not seeing it, but Charlie Maddox's campaign seems to be outworking Heidi's re-election effort. With just over six weeks to go to the election, that doesn't bode well for the incumbent Mayor.

Speaking of signage and Charlie's campaign anyone else notice that the "I'm With Charlie" yard signs seem to be springing up in lawns and yards (especially up on Milledge) alongside Republican candidates like Bill Cowsert and Perdue? I'm just sayin....

Mentioning the Cowsert race, is it wise for his opponent Jane Kidd to be expending phone bank energy this early in the race? I think I've been called at least twice in the past month, but maybe the fact that I'm talking about it shows it's working. You tell me.

Last comment, this one on the state Governor's race. Frankly I find Mark Taylor's "gettin tuff" on crime ads to be abysmal. Hasn't the Democratic Party, particularly the state party, learned that you can't out right the right? The "abolish parole for violent criminals" was ambiguous enough, I guess, but the death penalty for sex offenders? Shameless.

The only people turned on by those issues are voting for Sonny Perdue anyway, and as this poll shows, Taylor is still 20 points behind. Who exactly is he trying to motivate with ads like this? IMO, having sent an emissary to Athens to make up with all the Cathy Cox supporters would have garnered more votes than those ads will ever generate.

One last note: the same poll above shows lite guv Democratic candidate Jim Martin, who's "more liberal and doesn't try to hide it," in a dead heat with Republican Casey Cagle.

Makes you go "hmmmm..."

I quit!

That's right, I'm done with the blog. Why? Well, I'm not quite ready to give up my career, which I feel like I'd have to do to go on with the blog properly. Plus, politics in Athens is too dysfunctional for me to do any good on here anyway. And I've got some screenplays to write; I'm not getting any younger! Good luck.

Arg!

Ok, so I guess I'm doing all of my comments as new posts until I can figure out what's wrong. So here goes.

Here's the short version of my response to Chuck, cause I'm not typing all of that again:

Yes, there is a "controversy" over the war, obviously. I didn't think that's what you meant. If that's what you meant, then you were basically saying I should be talking about the war instead of your legal ads. Well, ok. We've talked plenty about the war on here.

I was saying that I didn't think the protests themselves were very controversial. Nobody is trying to keep anyone from doing it (either them or you), and nobody seems terribly excited about either group of protesters. That's all.

Anyway, send your ad if you find it; I'm still curious.

On to other things, it's Labor Day, and with it comes the news that Athens firefighters might be forming a union.

All for now; enjoy the rest of your day off.

Response to Chuckie, etc.

I'm doing this as a new post instead of a comment because my word verification on the comment page is having a fit and won't let itself be seen by me. Which makes it hard to verify.

Anyway, I'm not sure my previous post could be characterized as "going crazy" criticizing your ad. I just mentioned it because I was told it existed and I wanted to see it. If it never existed, so be it.

And while we're citing Red and Black articles, check this one out about local blogs; we are specifically mentioned, as well as JMac and Hillary.

Gameday, Bitches!

Ok, fair enough, here's a new post.

So I have it from someone I know that Chuck Jones has an ad in the Red & Black. Since I don't necessarily spend that much time on campus these days, I haven't read an issue lately, and so I haven't seen it. My source describes the ad as "over the top." Has anybody seen it? Can we get someone to drop it in the ol' scanner and get us a copy? If so, we'll put it up (no, not to give Chuck Jones free press, but to laugh at him mercilessly; although I guess those two things are not necessarily mutually exclusive).

Chuckie, maybe if you're still reading, you can just send it to us (although with that sendup I just gave it, maybe you're not so inclined).

Go Dawgs, and so forth.

The Culpepper Campaign Responds

Hi kids. If you've been following things here on AthPo for the last few days, you know that there's been some back and forth about the House District 115 race. Supporters of Doug McKillip and E to the H Culpepper have been going round and round. The Culpepper campaign emailed me a more official response, which I'm posting here in toto for your perusal. Go nuts.

In the last few days I have been following the rancorous online debate of several issues concerning the candidacy of E.H. Culpepper, the first independent to seek the District 115 seat in the Georgia House of Representatives. I feel it imperative to address several points raised in these commentaries. Several issues are of factual note and several are more abstract.

I'd like to start with the factual, personal arguments brought to bear on E.H. The most prevalent issue is over a tax lien levied against E.H. in the early '90s. My, and our, response is this: it is true that due to a lack of attention to the proper amount E.H. owed in the early 90's the IRS did issue a tax lien to E.H. in May of 1996 for the years of 1988 - 1991. Just like many other taxpayers that do not have their taxes prepared for them, E.H. simply did not pay enough. In fact, in the last 11 years more than 6 million Federal tax liens were issued in the United States (IRS website, in the taxstats section). That number may seem surprisingly high, but is in fact a low estimate of how common a mistake this is (especially considering the low rate of auditing by the IRS). That analysis is not an excuse; it admittedly was a mistake. A mistake E.H. corrected long ago (as opposed to a anonymous poster's claim that these still exist). It is ancient history, and as such this will be our only comment on it because this election is about the future of our community and the candidate whose professional experience best suits the needs of Athens-Clarke County and The University of Georgia.

Another seemingly factual argument is the E.H. is really a Republican. Well, I've known E.H. personally, as have many of you, and I know his ideas for our citizens future genuinely do not fit in with either of the two parties' ideology. Of his voting record (available at the ACC Board of Elections), he has frequently voted in both parties' primary elections. Of his public contributions (available at opensecrets.org), he has given to Jack Quinn (R), Barbara Dooley (R), Roy Barnes (D), Johnny Isakson (R), and Max Cleland (D). He's worked tirelessly for the Athens Greenway, the Georgia Rail Passenger Authority, the Classic Center initiative, 441 Heritage Corridor, the Northeast Georgia Roundtable, the BrainTrain initiative and a slew of other projects (check out the full list available on our website). There isn’t a partisan pattern – that’s why E.H. is a fit for Athens. He can’t be stereotyped, no matter how hard you try. The only logical explanation is that E.H. supports the candidates and initiatives he feels are best for this community, and has for close to a half century.

The accusation that E.H. is in any way discriminatory is definitively laughable to literally anyone who knows him. That being the case, I will not respond to such unfounded attacks that try to make this race a character battle that no one would win. In actuality, this community will lose with a lack of actual exchange of real ideas on the progress of our community (if you want to know about E.H., ask any one of his friends rather than throwing around the names of national political groups with no impact or role in Athens).

E.H.'s candidacy is based on the fact that he is the best candidate for the district. The reason’s are outlined in the five “E’s” on our website: Experience, Education, Economic Development, Effectiveness and Environmental Health. E.H. has proven he has the unique leadership skills and long-term relationships to get more results in these areas than any of the other candidates. As the campaign moves along, more and more detail will be provided on the specifics of E.H.'s vision and how he will work with the community to get tangible results back from our state government.

As I have insinuated throughout this post, E.H.'s campaign will not engage in the type of partisan rhetoric that we and the citizens of Athens-Clarke county abhor. That is part of the reason E.H. believes his independent candidacy is in the best interests of Athens-Clarke County: we can honestly evaluate the candidate that the community feels is best on the issues that genuinely affect our citizens.

To Mr. McKillip's supporters I ask this: To you, does progress mean continued slick campaigning on frivolous and personal issues? Or does it mean, as Mr. McKillip has eloquently stated himself, “debat[ing] real issues, such as education, health issues and the environment (ABH, 10/24/00)?” I think all the candidates and voters deserve a constructive airing of the concerns at stake in this race. I thank all of E.H.'s supporters and would encourage them to continue to be active in debate of these important issues.

Our Campaign invites intelligent discussion on the variety of issues in the race for House District 115. It is our contention that E.H. represents a real chance in Athens for substantive representation, as opposed to the symbolic or formalistic representation offered by our two opponents’ candidacies. As a start and on a personal note, I would like to thank Publius for posting the article on the BrainTrain. As one of E.H.'s strongest initiatives, we welcome a debate on this issue who's fate can greatly enhance the economic development, employment level, education and overall quality of life (among other affairs) of Athens-Clarke County.

We look forward to hearing from anyone who reads this who might have any information or questions relating to the issues in our campaign. Please feel free to frequently check our website for updates and continuously forthcoming information about E.H.'s Legislative plans and contact us via email or the “Ask E.H.” section of our website (www.ehculpepper.com). We'll talk to you soon!

Respectfully,

Ryan Hicks

Campaign Manager

706.355.9114

ryan@ehculpepper.com