Georgia Politics, Campaigns & Elections for June 11, 2013

Georgia Politics, Campaigns & Elections

I don’t know if it will fit in a suit jacket pocket, but surely the handwritten notes in the margins of George Washington’s personal copy of the Constitution and the Acts of Congress, on display at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, would win many arguments among Constitutional Conservatives.

Some Constitutionalists have ideological issues with Georgia’s forfeiture laws that allow authorities to seize cash from suspected criminals, while other conservatives focus on the way in which funds are spent at the local level. Governor Deal has suggested that reforming controls on spending the proceeds of forfeiture may be part of his agenda next year.

Decades-old civil forfeiture laws allow law enforcement agencies to seize millions of dollars worth of cash, cars, and other property from people they suspect dealt drugs or committed other crimes. District attorneys may take a 10 percent cut.

[Fulton County District Attorney Paul] Howard’s spending brought more attention to State Rep. Wendell Willard’s House Bill 1, which stalled during the spring legislative session.

Attorney General Sam Olens reaffirmed his support Monday for forfeiture reform.

Construing the Georgia and Federal Constitutions is likely to be part of the job for whichever of the seventeen nominees for a new Bibb County State Court judgeship is appointed by Governor Deal. With nominations closed, the Judicial Nominating Commission will interview the nominees and issue a short list of up to five names, then Governor Deal will interview and appoint a judge.

Rep. Ed Lindsey writes that Obamacare is a game that citizens can’t win.

Senator Isakson, meanwhile, told WABE that he’s confident that federal government surveillance of private citizens did not violate the Constitution.

The Savannah Morning News has published a “Campaign Staff Glossary” to help you decode the titles held by politicians’ minions.

General consultant This is the hired gun. The general consultant helps develop and implement strategies when it comes to fundraising, campaign events, media relations, media buys and — most important of all — the message that will get the candidate elected. They have to see the whole field and make the right calls at the right time.

Key qualities: Experience, brains and backbone. This job is not for the meek. It is all about making decisions and being accountable, often on the fly.

That’s a great idea and got us to thinking and we’re working on our own guide to campaign staff and jargon. Email me with what you think belongs in it and feel free to include a definition.

Congressman Paul Broun is the target of barbed quips from liberals with an Esquire writer calling the 2014 Georgia Republican Primary for US Senate “the most entertaining carnival of dueling wingnuttery” and Wonkette mocking his ad comparing the IRS to Al-Qaeda.

From the Mailbag: readers respond

If my email inbox is any indication, y’all don’t care what they think in Washington, DC or New York City.

One reader told me “Paul Broun is the kind of person I want in Congress; when something is wrong, it’s not partially wrong–IT’S TOTALLY WRONG.”

Another wrote a longer political analysis,

I happen to think Paul Broun is crazy like a fox by staking out the far-right in this state.

For one thing, it clearly shows up the differences between himself and Chambliss (who has moderated significantly over the years), thus shoring up the conservative vote, even if he does sometimes get Biden-esque in the effort. For another, there’s no way at this stage of the game that he can believably pretend to have moderated in his own right (thus picking up stray/disaffected liberal voters), and the attempt to do so will only worry most conservatives that he’s just another RINO who’s become liberalized by the D.C. Beltway media machine.

After I raised some objections to using nominating conventions instead of primary elections, Jeff Haffley wrote to respond and we have published his answers.

We have observed that many people who now favor the caucus system (including ourselves) initially reacted with similar skepticism. Like jumping into a cool pool on a hot day, it may seem jarring at first, but eventually people tend to begin appreciating its benefits.

Here are our answers to Todd’s questions.

1. What happens to nominations when we lose a quorum because the State Convention has gotten at least twice as lengthy due to the nomination and elections of all the statewide candidates, much less Congressional and lower level offices?

This question is undoubtedly asked in light of the recent conclusion of the Georgia GOP state convention. At that event, once the voting on all the state party officers was completed around 6:00PM, hundreds of people got up and left the hall so that a quorum was no longer present. As a result, the resolutions were never voted on. But they did stay long enough to elect an Assistant Secretary.

The reason why people left in that situation was because most people do not believe that the resolutions have any real significance. They are not binding. They are merely recommendations that some elected officials consult, if they so choose.

However, when delegates know that staying and participating involves doing something significant, they stay. In the Virginia convention last Saturday, delegates stayed from 9:00AM until about 10:00PM as they conducted four ballots for the nominee for Lt. Governor and other state offices, because they realized the importance of deciding these nominations.

Dem attacks against Chambliss strategic

Walter Jones writes that Democratic and leftist attacks on the ramblings of Senator Saxby Chambliss are part of a strategy to define what the Republican Party stands for.

So, when Chambliss tripped over his own tongue, the Democrats quickly jumped on him. Never mind that he was in the midst of berating the chiefs of the military branches for not stopping it.

Democrats instantly recognized it as another opportunity to paint Republicans as closed-minded, rigid and old fashioned. They lumped it in with a comment by conservative commentator Erick Erickson of Macon who said on CNN “the natural world order” gave males the “dominant role” as breadwinners and women a “complimentary role.”

“Republican leader’s extreme, anti-women comments are despicable and offensive to women in Georgia and across the country. Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey, Jack Kingston, Karen Handel, and David Perdue must immediately condemn Saxby Chambliss and Erick Erickson’s comments,” said Regan Page, a spokeswoman at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

After last year’s election, the College Republicans conducted a series of focus-group discussions and surveys and concluded that 18-30-year-old voters see the GOP in a negative light. A survey in March showed just 33 percent of young voters had a favorable view of the party versus 53 percent with an unfavorable one.When asked which attributes least described the party, the terms used most often were open-minded, tolerant, caring and cooperative. Those surveyed painted the Democratic Party as almost the mirror image as being best described as open-minded, tolerant and intelligent.

“When someone purchases a product, in some ways they are buying into the value system espoused by the brand,” the authors of the CR report wrote. “With a list of attributes like that, who would want to buy the product the GOP is selling?”

The tactics of the national Democrats show they understand that.

Bibb County Pushes Back Against Feds

Eager to get on with elections for the first ever Mayor and Board of Commissioners for the consolidated Macon-Bibb County government, County Attorney Virgil Adams is pushing back and threatening to sue the feds.

“With the existing governments being abolished as of January 1, 2014, we must have elections in order to have a new government in place as of January 1, 2014. Therefore, I cannot overstate the importance of having a decision no later than June 17, 2013. Obviously, the sooner, the better.”

Last month, the previously scheduled July elections had to be delayed because of the DOJ’s request for more info on the subject. Adams stressed there needs to be an election–partisan or not–in November, so that the merger of Macon and Bibb County can happen smoothly.

Senate to vote on Immigration today

Yesterday, ProEnglish.org sent an email to subscribers asking them to contact your Senators and ask them to vote No on S. 744. According to the group,

The Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has announced that the U.S. Senate will vote to proceed to a floor debate of S. 744, the Gang of Eight’s comprehensive immigration reform bill.

The bill proposes to grant immediate work permits to the estimated 12-20 million illegal aliens presently residing in the U.S.  There are no provisions in the bill to make English the official language of government and to ensure that amnesty recipients learn English.

ProEnglish urges you to call your Senators right now and urge them to vote NO!  The vote to proceed will occur [today], Tuesday, at 2:15 PM.

Overall, the bill contains the following fatal flaws with regard to English requirements:

• Illegal aliens are not required to prove any English ability before legal status is granted (Sec. 245B).

• Green card (permanent legal status after a 10 year waiting period) applicants have an English language requirement full of loopholes (Sec. 2102).

• The bill does not provide for the establishment of English as the official language of the U.S.

Tell them to Vote NO on the cloture motion to proceed to debate.