Democrat Steen Miles announces for US Senate

Former State Senator Steen Miles of DeKalb County has announced that she will be a Democratic candidate for United States Senate, joining Dr. Branko Radulovacki, Todd Robinson and Michelle Nunn.

This probably doesn’t constitute a problem for the Anointed One, Michelle Nunn, whom national Democrats seek to portray as both the inevitable nominee and a potential General Election winner, but it may suggest that some in the African-American community are not content to simply stand aside for yet another white liberal.

Bizarre Political News this week

In Johns Creek, two of three seats up this year on the City Council are contested.

Leonarde Zaprowski, a chiropractor, has qualified to run against [City Councilman Randall] Johnson for Post 1.

And Karen Richardson (Post 3), has two challengers, Nancy Rienecke, a dietitian and nutritionist, and Corinth Davenport, owner of Trinity Athletics.

Here’s where it gets weird. Corinth Davenport has been on Real Housewives of Atlanta and was mentioned in a 2010 Channel 46 story about illegal recruiting of cheerleaders to Johns Creek High School.

CBS Atlanta News

Investigators are looking into claims that Johns Creek High School recruited two superstar athletes to one of their teams and the allegations involve cheerleaders.

They are arguably two of the best tumblers in the state, Shayla Moore and Angel Rice, and they bumped two other girls off the Johns Creek team this year.

Public records showed the house in Alpharetta that Rice and her family now call home was bought right before the start of the school year by CBD investments. CBD is owned by the husband of Johns Creek Booster club member and Trinity Athletics owner Cori Davenport. Both the girls now train at Davenport’s gym.

Who knew that there was such a thing as recruiting of high school cheerleaders from outside the district, much less doing so illegally? It seems a particularly suburban kind of offense.

Bob Barr typo makes evening news

Here’s the problem if you’re running for Congress against Bob Barr: when his campaign disclosure vendor makes a typo and attributes a contribution to the wrong spouse on the checking account, it makes the national political websites, and he ends up getting nearly two minutes on Atlanta’s top-rated television station.

As Barr’s opponent, you have to ask yourself if the satisfaction you get from being mentioned briefly in passing during a 110-second gift you just gave him is worth the cost.

Next Battle of Kennesaw?

Yesterday’s morning news mentioned a couple of cases in which we’ve seen political battles that span years and multiple elections. Is Kennesaw part of this trend? A former Mayor who was ousted by the current Mayor is running for City Council this November. From the Marietta Daily Journal:

Bruce Jenkins, who holds the Post 3 seat on the Kennesaw City Council, will face Leonard Church, a former two-term mayor of Kennesaw. Church was ousted by the current mayor, Mark Mathews, in 2008, and beaten again by Mathews in 2011.
Matt Riedemann, who was appointed to the Kennesaw council on July 1 to fill the unexpired term of the late Councilman Bill Thrash, will have to fight to keep the seat. Jimmy Dickens, the owner of the Amazing Cuts barber shop, has qualified to run against Riedemann.
Dickens ran for council two years ago and said this year there is enough momentum to push him over the top.

Ethics hearing October 2d in Cherokee County

On October 2, 2013, the Cherokee County Board of Education will hear a complaint alleging that board member Kelly Marlow violated the board’s ethics code when she complained to SACS, the regional school accreditation agency, about governance issues. From CherokeeTribune.com:

The Board of Education voted unanimously at its July 24 meeting, to hold the ethics hearing to determine if Marlow violated school board ethics policy by sending the complaint letter to AdvancED, the agency in charge of school accreditation, alleging that the district was in violation of AdvancED standards and/or policies.
The Cherokee School District was cleared by AdvancEd in a letter dated Aug. 19, in which the agency’s president and CEO, Dr. Mark Elgart, stated that the “district is not in violation of AdvancED Accreditation Standards and/or policies,” and “no further action is needed” in Marlow’s complaints.
Marlow’s request that the board pay for her attorney cost was denied at the school board’s Aug. 15 meeting, by a 2-5 vote, with Marlow and Michael Geist the only two in favor of the motion made by Marlow.
If Marlow is found to have violated board policy, School District spokeswoman Barbara Jacoby said that the board would determine the action taken against her.
“The school board will determine the censure, which cannot include removal from office or barring her attendance from School Board meetings, but no other parameters have been set by state law or School Board policy,” Jacoby said.

While it appears to me that Ms. Marlow may be a bit of a loose cannon, I don’t believe there should be any impediment to an elected Board of Education member addressing concerns directly to SACS when they implicate the Board itself. It’s like not only allowing the fox to guard the henhouse, but also preventing the hens from drawing attention to that uncomfortable fact.

Reporting from Orlando this weekend

Tomorrow morning’s email will come from Orlando, Florida, where I’ll be speaking on a panel at RightOnline and covering Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit. Email me if you’re going to be there this weekend.

Tonight from 7-9 PM, the Georgia Tea Party will host as their speaker Matt Towery, CEO of ~~corporate overlord~~ InsiderAdvantage. The meeting will be held at 900 Roswell Street, Marietta, GA(Roswell Street Baptist Church office building, east of the church campus, west of the Big Chicken).

Matt Towery was the 1990 Republican Nominee for Lieutenant Governor, having served in the State House. In 2008, he published his most recent book, Paranoid Nation: The Real Story of the 2008 Fight for the Presidency.