Georgia Politics, Campaigns & Elections for April 5, 2013

Today is the last day to purchase discounted “Early Bird” tickets for the Fulton County Republican Party’s “Evening with Dr. Ben Carson” on Thursday, April 25th.

In Virginia, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is investigating possible voter fraud after cross-checking voter rolls against those of other states, including Georgia.

State Board of Elections spokeswoman Nikki Sheridan said the board requested the investigation Wednesday. The probe was prompted by results of a voter registration database check that turned up more than 308,000 duplicate registrations in Virginia.

Of those, more than 97,000 were listed as having voted in recent elections in Virginia.

Last year, Virginia joined several states — including Kansas, Arizona, Georgia, Oklahoma, Indiana and Tennessee — in an interstate cross-check of registration databases with more than 85 million voter records. Sheridan said the partnership serves as a way to maintain and update voting records.

The reason for the duplicate registrations could be explained by a person moving to a different state, attending college or serving in the military. Sheridan cautioned that such findings do not necessarily constitute voter fraud.

If only they’d ask the AJC’s liberal columnist Jay Bookman, they’d learn that voting fraud does not exist.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler will write, “I will not illegally deny unemployment benefits” 4000 times as he signs checks totaling more than $8 million.

Commissioner Mark Butler told the AJC Thursday the back payments are necessary after legislation to support his policy failed in the final hours of 2013 General Assembly, a complication that prompted a multi-million dollar threat from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The issue affects privately-employed public school and university workers such as bus drivers and cooks. Butler contends they should not be eligible for unemployment benefits during summer or holiday breaks, since teachers and other school system employees are not.

Senator Johnny Isakson may be at the center of a Medicare budget deal in which the age for eligibility is raised to 67, but 65-66 year olds would be able to buy-in to the system.

“I think the idea has merit to it,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) who will help to host a dinner next week for President Barack Obama and about a dozen Senate Republicans. “You are shifting two years of cost from the government and allowing the buy-in makes it easier to do that. It’s a different way to get to where people want to go and something that ought to be considered.”

Campaigns & Elections

Bob Barr’s campaign for 11th District Congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Phil Gingrey yesterday named McKenna Long attorney Craig Dowdy as Treasurer; this is a big deal, as Dowdy was state finance director for Mike Huckabee’s 2008 Presidential campaign and one of the strongest and most extensive Republican networks in the state can be found in the halls of McKenna on any given weekday.

“Craig Dowdy is one of the most respected lawyers and Republican leaders in Georgia. It is an honor to have a person of Craig’s integrity in this important leadership position within our campaign. In addition to his service for Gov. Huckabee, his experience as the Cobb County Co-Chairman for President George W. Bush and numerous other positions in the Georgia and Cobb County Republican Parties, will prove invaluable to our campaign,” said Barr.

Barr also visited Cartersville on a campaign stop:

As for his return to the Republican Party, Barr cites a change in the Republican Party that he feels now reflects the ideals of “libertarianism with a small ‘L.’”

“Party labels may change over time, but one thing that has never changed for me and that has not changed for the vast majority of people and voters in the 11th District or my old 7th District, is the constitution,” Barr said. “That’s what I have always used as the guiding star for what I do in the political arena. Is it constitutional? Does it fit with our framer’s concept — those things they set out in the Federalist Papers, for example? And folks had strayed from that. The Republican Party, of which I have been a proud member ever since I was in college, had strayed from that. The Republican Party has now very clearly and very firmly recognized that we have to stick to the Constitution. We have to protect people’s individual liberties.

“Just as Ronald Reagan recognized that libertarianism with a small ‘L’ really is at the heart of the Republican Party. It’s the essence of the philosophy of reducing the power of government and increasing individual liberty. I think people are really recognizing that we need to get back to that.”

National Review wins the headline of the week for “Hard to Handel,” in which Betsy Woodruff writes:

Several GOP insiders tell National Review Online they believe that the 50-year-old Handel will run for the Senate next year, and that Tom Price — a congressman from the Atlanta suburbs, who had been expected to enter the Senate race — will stay in the House. Sources close to Handel say that, over the next few weeks, she’ll likely start putting together a political team, primarily on the consultant side.

Should Price shift toward a Senate run, Handel’s operatives are ready to set their sights on the House seat Price would be vacating. But Price has good reasons to stay in the lower chamber. If his colleague and friend Paul Ryan were to become speaker or run for president, Price is in line to become chairman of the Budget Committee — or, potentially, to rise even higher in the House Republican ranks.

Price, who ran for a House leadership post — conference chairman — last fall and lost, is clearly ambitious, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a Senate run, Capitol Hill sources say. Yes, he recently met with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but the persistent buzz is that he may want to stay in the House, stay close to Ryan, and continue to shape the fiscal debate from his safe seat.

But as Handel nears the contest, doubters remain. Some state Republican leaders don’t appreciate her hard-knocks approach to politics — she has a tendency to step on toes, and that may have been a factor in her loss to Deal. But that loss didn’t end her career, and now, it seems, she’s poised to make a comeback.

The crowded Senate field may be causing some donors to wait-and-see, or stay out altogether until later, according to the AJC.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of federal contribution data shows that 86 political action committees and 20 individuals last year donated to at least two of the three Republican House members most likely to run for the Senate: Paul Broun of Athens, Phil Gingrey of Marietta and Jack Kingston of Savannah.

Broun and Gingrey already have filed the paperwork to run, while Kingston has told allies he is in. U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Roswell has said he will decide next month whether to run for the seat being vacated by Saxby Chambliss.

The American College of Radiology’s PAC donated the legal maximum of $10,000 to Gingrey and Price, and $7,000 to Broun during the 2012 cycle. But the group is staying out of the Senate primary.

“There’s nothing to gain and really a lot to lose because these are relationships and people we know really well,” said Ted Burnes, the PAC’s director.

Burnes said Gingrey’s camp was pressuring him for a donation, and he replied: “We’re not going to get in the middle” of a tussle.

Add in the fact that Georgia’s GOP donor base will be strained by a frenzied 2014 election cycle. Not only is the open Senate seat drawing a crowd, but so are the three to five Congressional seats vacated by Senate aspirants. The dominoes extend to the Gold Dome, with state House and Senate members departing to run for Congress.

On the day he announced his campaign for United States Senate, Rep. Phil Gingrey debuted a new website design. Yesterday, Congressman Tom Price unveiled a reboot that looks similarly trendy and is nearly devoid of the word “Congress,” except for the disclaimer.