At some point in the future, historians will point to this as the day western civilization crested the hill and began its inexorable slide downhill: the Oxford Dictionary added “twerk” to its online version.

The fantasy of “too conservative”

The liberal Christian Science Monitor continues to tout the idea that there is such a thing as “too conservative” for the Georgia primary electorate. Exhibit one for the proposition is Paul Broun.

Republicans, including Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, have fretted that she could get a big boost if a primary or runoff candidate turns out to be someone like US Rep. Paul Broun, a hard-liner from Athens, Ga., who once denounced the theory of evolution as a lie “from the pit of hell.”

It’s quite possible that any candidate for Senate could make a verbal gaffe that cause trouble at the ballot box, but it’s not going to be about evolution or creationism.

Maybe they missed the part of the recent PPP poll that found a majority of Georgia respondents and 70% of self-described Republican favor creationism over evolution. And this is with a sample that appears to be deliberately skewed to overstate the percentage of Georgians who identify themselves as Democrats.

It might be true that a number of Republicans don’t want Paul Broun as the party’s nominee, but I think it’s more likely because they’re afraid of what he’ll do once elected than that he’ll lost the General Election.

Democrats who really think that Georgia’s Senate seat is up for grabs might be better more concerned that it’s becoming increasingly evident that their to-be-anointed candidate Michelle Nunn is too liberal to be elected.

State Rep. Ed Lindsey to stay in seat

Ed Lindsey announced yesterday that he intends to serve the remainder of his current term in the State House, following Sen. Barry Loudermilk’s announcement that he will resign his seat to focus on his Congressional campaign.

Douglas County considering consolidation?

Douglas County Commission Chair Tom Worthan said he’d entertain the possibility of consolidating the City of Douglasville and Douglas County governments and supports holding a referendum to decide the matter. The context in which the issue arises is ongoing negotiations between the city and county over services provided by the county to municipal residents.

[County Administrator Eric] Linton said currently the city is proposing paying the county $150,000 for the first year for Fire and EMS, $200,000 for the second year and then $250,000 for the final eight years of the deal.

That’s a total of $2.35 million over 10 years, which Linton said could be used for fire trucks and other related equipment. Douglasville’s position is that the county was already going to buy the trucks and equipment anyway, so the money that would be potentially paid for Fire and EMS should be applied toward something else that would benefit the city.

Douglasville City Manager Bill Osborne told the city council Monday night the $2.35 million, along with trading the county properties it owns near Dog River and Bright Star Road could go toward a deal for the city to acquire the old jail.

But Worthan said he’s not interested “in obtaining more land” from the city.

Roads are another area of contention. Linton said Douglasville is accusing the county of using city residents’ money to do maintenance on county roads.

“That’s not true,” said Linton. “We’ve got documents and data to prove we’re maintaining roads with county funds.”

Municipal incumbent matchups

Yesterday, Johns Creek City Councilwoman Bev Miller qualified to run for Mayor against incumbent Mike Bodker.

Miller, will resign her City Council seat as required by the city’s charter.  “The city will hold a Special Election possibly next spring to fill the now vacant seat of Post 6,” explained
Seats up for re-election are the mayor and Post 1, 3, and 5 City Council seats. Mayor Mike Bodker, Council members Randall Johnson (Post 1), Karen Richardson (Post 3) and Kelly Stewart (Post 5), have qualified for re-election.

Warner Robins Mayor Chuck Shaheen recently announced he would not run for reelection, instead seeking a seat on City Council.

“We’re not a strong mayor we’re not a weak mayor, you’re a full time mayor with no authority, so I have all the responsibility but no authority.”

That’s what Warner Robins Mayor Chuck Shaheen told 13WMAZ Tuesday. It’s one reason he says he’s running for a seat on the city’s council instead of seeking re-election.

The problem is that incumbent City Council member Mike Daley intends to stand for reelection.

Tension in Snellville is ratcheting up as many view this year’s City Council elections as a referendum on Mayor Kelly Kautz, though the Mayor will not be on the ballot. At this week’s City Council meeting, Kautz confronted Barbara Bender, who ran against Kautz two years ago and is running for Council this year.

At the beginning of the session, Bender gave a report on the Snellville Entrepreneur Council since she is the group’s president. When she finished, the mayor asked her if she plans to resign from the Entrepreneur Council since she is running for city council in the November general election. Kautz explained that one can’t do both since the city of Snellville’s Charter states that members of boards have to resign if they run for office.
Bender said she believes she doesn’t fall under those requirements because the Entrepreneur Council is not a city organization, so she doesn’t plan on quitting. Even though Kautz said Bender couldn’t speak after her report, Bender further explained that the Entrepreneur Council is a volunteer-based nonprofit organization that is supporting the office of economic development and are independent from the city.
City Attorney Tony Powell was asked to detail the specific rule, and he explained that the Entrepreneur Council is different because of the nonprofit status and that it’s not the same as, say, the city’s planning commission.

Kautz also confronted Council member Tom WItts, who is on the November ballot and has drawn an opponent named Alisa Boykin; Kautz was wrong procedurally here as well.

Here’s your Snellville politics drinking game: every time Mayor Kelly Kautz says, “you’re out of order,” take a drink. When she’s wrong on that procedural point take another drink. Make sure to have a designated driver.

Gwinnett County corruption sentence: two years

Developer Mark Gary, who plead guilty to attempting to bribe now-convicted Gwinnett County Commissioner Shirley Fanning-Lasseter, has been sentenced to two years in federal prison and three years probation after release. But what’s sure to have the courthouse crowd talking is this, from the AJC:

Assistant United States Attorney Doug Gilfillan told the judge that he supported a reduced sentence because of Gary’s help in the probe, which included making “multiple undercover recordings that are of substantial assistance in the government’s ongoing investigation,” according to a sentencing brief filed with the U.S. District Court for North Georgia.

“I do expect there to be at least one other individual charged as a result of Mark Gary’s cooperation,” Gilfillan told Senior Judge Charles Pannell Jr. “Mark Gary did what law enforcement wants individuals accused of wrong-doing to do — he immediately confessed his involvement and agreed to work for the government.”

Kish told the judge that Gary made secret recordings of two elected officials during which potential crimes were discussed; made a similar recording of a political operative in Gwinnett County; and provided the federal government with information that helped a health care fraud investigation.

Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter, who hired a public corruption investigator this year, said he thinks corruption has diminished in Gwinnett County since Gary was trying to build his dump.

“I think things are better,” Porter said. “We have public officials who are, for the most part, honest. There’s not the blatant activity that he portrays.”