Elections in four legislative districts scheduled

Governor Nathan Deal issued Writs of Election for State House Districts 100 and 104 (Gwinnett), 127 (Jefferson and Richmond Counties) and Senate District 14 (Bartow, Cherokee and Cobb) and setting November 5, 2013 as the election date. Rumor has it qualifying will be held September 16-18.

In the race for House District 104, vacated by Donna Sheldon who is running for Congress, former GOP County Chair Chuck Efstration is joined by retired Dacula postmaster Tim Puckett in the Special Election.

“I am running on a platform of ‘common sense’ with conservative values,” said Puckett, who lives outside of Buford. “I desire to continue to be a servant to mankind. I solicit your support and prayers as I keep working for you.”

Expect at least one more candidate to emerge for the seat before qualifying ends.

In Dacula, the only city entirely within HD 104, Mayor Jimmy Wilbanks and Council Members Councilman Gregory Reeves and Councilman Wendell Holmes are unopposed for reelection, but a referendum will be held on Sunday sales of packaged distilled spirits (“liquor in the bottle”). In 2012, voters passed the referendum to allow package stores in the city limits.

A Special Election for Clerk of Superior Court in Douglas County has also been called for November 5th.

Voting is underway in the September 17 elections for Mayor and Commision of Macon-Bibb County and in the nonpartisan special election for Sheriff of Miller County.

According to the “Macon in the Mirror” project that included 600 resident interviews, crime is the top issue on the minds of residents of the middle Georgia city. Now you know why “crime prevention” made the list of priorities in the independent expenditure mailing. +1 point for everyone who emails me identifying the misspelling in that mailpiece; +1 for identifying the redundant statement.

The League of Women Voters of Macon predicts that the Mayor’s race will go into a runoff and is planning to have the surviving candidates speak at their meeting on September 18th.

Apply now for judicial posts

The Georgia Judicial Nominating Commission is accepting nomimations for two Superior Court seats serving the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit, which comprises Chattahoochee, Harris, Marion, Muscogee, Talbot, and Taylor counties.

The JNC is also accepting nominations for a seat on the Superior Court for the Oconee Judicial Circuit, which includes Bleckley, Dodge, Montgomery, Pulaski, Telfair, and Wheeler counties.

Augusta Mayor has horrible taste in music

Over the weekend I was forced to cite Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver and deduct 1 point for horrible taste in music when he took to Twitter touting a lousy 1980s hair-metal band. Before his next triathlon, Copenhaver’s hair will be tested for banned substances — namely hairspray and bleach.

I would have deducted additional points if I thought he was talking about the Miley Cyrus version of the song.

Georgia: banning books since before it was cool

The Clarke County Board of Education will meet to consider removing from middle school reading lists a book that contains salty language.

A paragraph in the book describing an old man’s angry outburst contains language unsuitable for 12-year-old readers, the couple say.

Superintendent Philip Lanoue declined to order the removal when the Lowerys first made their request last spring, but offered to allow parents to opt out of letting their children read the book. The couple appealed his decision to the Clarke County Board of Education.

School board members voted 5-2 to send the request back to Lanoue for reconsideration, but Lanoue did not change his mind.

“I maintain the position that the one paragraph does not overpower the other literary elements that this book can offer our students,” Lanoue said in a letter to the couple.

The Lowerys then appealed the decision to the State Board of Education, but the state sent the request back down to Clarke County.

I remember in the mid-1980s when a kerfuffle arose in Gwinnett County over whether Judy Blume books were appropriate for school libraries and in 2001, a Glynn County Board of Education member sought to remove “To Kill a Mockingbird.” From 2005 to 2007 a parent sought unsuccessfully to ban Harry Potter books from Gwinnett County schools.

Hudgens continues assault on Obamacare

Over the weekend, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution continued its coverage of Republican Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens and his crusade against Obamacare.

With little ammunition and almost zero chance of success, Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens is fighting a last-ditch battle to derail the Affordable Care Act.

Key provisions of the law begin to take effect in 22 days, and Hudgens is refusing to lift a finger to smooth the way for the act or help consumers make sense of it. Instead he launches scorching broadsides against “Obamacare,” preferring blanket condemnations to specific criticism.

“The problem is Obamacare,” Hudgens recently told a partisan crowd in Rome. “And we’re doing everything in our power to be an obstructionist.”

Later, in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Hudgens said, “I’ll be real honest with you. I’m not going to do anything in my power to make this law successful. Now, I’m not going to violate the law. And I’m fulfilling all my responsibilities. But I’m not going to do anything to try to enhance its success.”

Earlier, liberal AJC writer Jay Bookman excoriated Hudgens for reflecting the wishes of most Georgians obstructing Obamacare.

The overtly partisan and unprofessional tone of that response from a state official whose duties are largely regulatory and non-political shouldn’t be a surprise any longer, but somehow it still is.

Never mind that Hudgens had actual numbers to back up his statements, I’m more interested in why Bookman singled-out Hudgens to criticize for obstructing Obamacare when more has been done to obstruct its actual implementation by President Obama’s administration, the United States Congress and labor unions?

Loggerhead turtle nesting rises again

Loggerhead turtles, which are a threatened species weighing up to 300 pounds each, are nesting is greater numbers on Georgia coasts for the fourth year in a row.

Unofficial tallies for the loggerhead nesting season, which runs from May through August in Georgia, show the threatened species dug at least 2,284 nests to lay their eggs. That’s up from 2,241 nests counted last year.

More importantly, the numbers show loggerhead nesting in the state has continued to increase every year since 2010, bucking a two-decade trend of up-and-down fluctuations. Last year the Georgia Department of Natural Resources declared for the first time that the state’s loggerhead population seemed to be recovering after 24 years of conservation efforts. Seeing nest numbers increase to another record level in 2013 adds more evidence the turtles are rebounding, said Mark Dodd, the DNR biologist who heads Georgia’s sea turtle recovery program.

“Another big year in a row like this just gives us more confidence we’re in a recovery period,” Dodd said. “The last four years have seen increases each year in nesting, which is something we have not seen before.”