USDOJ wants 2014 election season to go into 2015

The United States Department of Justice has submitted a proposed schedule that it says allows Georgia to retain runoff elections while complying with a federal statute that mandates the timing of ballots for service members and citizens overseas. Here’s their proposed schedule:

Primary held on Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Primary runoff held on Tuesday, August 5, 2014
General Election on November 4, 2014
General runoff on Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Any proposed changes to election laws agreed to by the state would have to be passed as legislation by the Georgia General Assembly, unless the federal court with jurisdiction over the case simply orders that changes be made.

Georgia GOP State Committee Meeting tomorrow

The State Committee of the Georgia Republican Party will meet tomorrow at 1 PM in Milledgeville at the Old State Capitol to discuss and vote on the resolutions that were not addressed during the state convention last week.

Here is a list of links to all the resolutions if you wish to study up for the vote tomorrow.

Greg Bluestein writes about the issue in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution and will likely attend the meeting tomorrow. From Bluestein’s article, two competing perspectives:

Brant Frost V, the Coweta County GOP chairman who brought the resolution, said his reasoning is simple: The grass-roots base that powered the GOP for generations during its political exile has been “discriminated against” as the party came to power in the past decade. Enough members of the party’s 16-member resolution committee agreed, setting up Saturday’s vote.

“We’ve seen the cost of a primary spiral out of control, and that means you’re excluding candidates who can’t raise the money,” said the 23-year-old, whose family has been influential in GOP politics. “Politics is like a stew. You’ve got to have money, support, the ground game. But we’ve so spiced it up with the money angle that we’ve completely deadened the effect of all the other essential ingredients.”

It’s not an all-or-nothing gambit for Frost and his supporters. They are willing to back a compromise that allows the state GOP convention to endorse candidates before a primary vote, a practice that’s not followed now. That’s similar to formats used in Minnesota and a handful of other states.

Top Republicans, though, are wary of any changes. Ralston, a Blue Ridge Republican, said the voters in his North Georgia district spend their nights going to Little League games and weekends hunting and fishing — not at party meetings and insider conventions.

“Are we going to tell them that if they don’t have time to be an activist then we are going to disenfranchise them?” he asked. “I’m not going there.”

Here are my arguments against nominating conventions. First, if you think you’re going to get the money out of politics with this or any other device, you’re naive; money will find its way into the process, it will simply be more concentrated on persuading fewer voters.

Second, by switching to a system that disenfranchises more than 650,000 Republican Primary voters who have a life better things to do, you will wind up with weaker candidates incapable of winning general elections, who have not already been exposed to their base of voters, and risk the wrath of soccer moms and dads across the broadest swathes of Republican voters.

Third, by attempting to “hold elected officials accountable to the party,” you are also weakening the bonds that hold them accountable to the voters in their districts. I happen to live in a state house district that is held by a Republican representative, but where few, if any, other Republicans in the state house would be able to win election in. Make him toe the party line and you will ensure that we lose marginal districts like this.

Fourth, will this fly with the United States Department of Justice, which is already engaged in a lawsuit with Georgia over our treatments of overseas military and citizens who wish to cast ballots? Because another aspect of this will be the total disenfranchisement of American military members and families living overseas.

Finally, we as Republicans appear to have not learned from our years in control of the legislature that we are unable to fully comprehend the results of our actions. Am I the only person who realizes that we appear to every year have to go back and correct major snafus in the previous year’s legislation?

In the interest of fairness, here are some things that proponents of nominating conventions have written:

James Camp on Nominating Conventions

Brant Frost, V, Coweta County GOP Chair: Let’s Restore the Republican Party

Jeff Haffley: Answering Objections to a Caucus System for the Georgia GOP

Dale Jackson, 3d District GAGOP Chair: Georgia a caucus state? Why not?

Ted Nugent to stump for Bob Barr in Georgia

Bob Barr announced last night at his fundraiser barbecue at Adventure Outdoors that he and fellow NRA Board Member Ted Nugent are working out the details for the outspoken rocker to visit Georgia in support of Barr’s campaign for Congress.

If Nugent brings his guitar and plays, it might be the greatest Republican campaign event of the decade. Either way, it’s a Free for All.

Voting Results on 2013 GAGOP Resolutions

Last night we posted the results of voting on GaPundit.com for the resolutions that the State Committee will take up tomorrow.

The leading vote-getter, not surprisingly, was the resolution to express our gratitude to the members of our United States Armed Services, who protect our freedom. Nearly 96% of people identifying themselves as Delegates or Alternates who were promoted to Delegates at the May State Conventions voted “Yes”! to thank our heros. Three voted “commie” and two doubled down on disloyalty also voting it “crazy.”

Every single resolution came in with support of 75% or greater, with the sole exception of the resolution on changing from primary elections to a nominating convention. I would hope there would be some way of moving quickly through the measures with very large margins of support so that the most time can be spent on the issue that really needs discussion, nominating conventions.

On the question of eliminating primary elections to change to party nominating conventions, like I’m sure they used to do in the Soviet Union, 46% of self-identified Delegates opposed the measure, and 17% called it “crazy.” Only 35% of the voters wish to accelerate the decline of the Georgia Republican Party by shutting out families and people with non-traditional work hours.

Deal receives Burrell Ellis Indictment

Yesterday, Gov. Deal’s office acknowledged receipt of a certified copy of the indictment against Burrell Ellis, which starts the 14-day period in which Deal must name two members to join Attorney General Sam Olens on a committee to recommend whether to suspend Ellis from office.

File Under: Goofy Solar Math

We discussed yesterday how the $100,000 “savings” that the Dublin City Schools proclaim as a results of a $300,000 per year expenditure are the result of financial tricks that make something appear to be a savings when you’re actually paying three times as many taxpayer dollars for electricity.

But what’s worse is that the total pricetag on the solar system, which costs about $3.6 million, will actually total over $7.5 million by the end of the 25-year lease. (For the math-challenged out there, $300k per year times 25 years equals $7.5 million).

And because the bonds sold to finance the solar shenanigans are backed by a sales tax revenues from 5-year SPLOST and E-SPLOST sales taxes, the 25-year lease will requires either (a) extension of the sales tax enough times to cover it; or (b) payments from the only other source of school board money, property taxes. So Dublin City homeowners are on the hook to pay more than twice as much for electricity because of this solar goofiness than if they simply wrote a check to the power company every month.

Tell me again what great savings these solar schemes represent, and how you think Georgia needs more government-mandated solar energy.

Is solar power mandates just like we get out of the Obama administration what you signed up for when you went to that Tea Party event? Really?

Education Ends & Pieces

Speaking of education finances, Gwinnett County’s operating budget has become so strapped due to falling property values, which lower property tax receipts, that the Board of Education is considering raising the millage rate.

Gwinnett County property tax revenues have fallen so far and so fast that the school system can’t keep up with payments on its long-term debt without going back to taxpayers for more money.

That’s the main reason why the school board is expected to vote tonight to raise property taxes for the first time in eight years, officials said.

The proposed tax increase would add an extra $75.80 to the tax bill on a $150,000 house, or $101.80 on a $200,000 house, according to school system projections.

More than half of the extra money that’s raised will go to cover $47 million in principal and interest that the school system will owe in fiscal 2014 on long-term debt it has been carrying from 2008 or earlier, said Rick Cost, chief financial officer.

So, debt payments are causing the Gwinnett County school system to look at raising property taxes. Think long and hard about whether you want your school board to be able to make “investments” that will ultimately be backed by their ability to tax you out of your home.

Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, House Education Chair Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth) and Senate Education Chair Lindsey Tippins (R-Marietta) met with administrators and staff from 19 charter school systems at a workshop hosted by Charter System Foundation Inc. and Marietta Superintendent Emily Lembeck.

Pro-tips

1. Assaulting a fellow board member will not get you suspended from office or even necessarily produce an opponent in the next election, but it will likely make you less effective in office. That’s either the power of incumbency or of voter apathy, as demonstrated by the case of Marietta City Council member Anthony Coleman.

In the past four years, [Marietta Councilman Anthony] Coleman pleaded guilty to assaulting fellow Councilwoman Annette Lewis in September 2011, faced many speakers at council meetings about the lack of progress from the 2009 parks bond on recreation centers in low-income areas, and most recently, missed a public meeting by the council on the $35 million redevelopment bond that syphoned money from a possible project on the segregation-era Lemon Street high school.

2. If someone contacts your campaign staff asking for information so they can publicize your campaign fundraiser in an open Congressional seat, you probably want to make sure they get it. Just saying.

BuckSprings Breakfast for tomorrow cancelled

Due to flooding in the Fulton GOP Headquarters, the BuckSprings Breakfast has been cancelled for tomorrow, but will return next month.

Down on the farm

From the pictures on Facebook, it looks like State Rep. Robert Dickey had quite an event with Peaches and Politics last night at Dickey Farms. I’ve heard from many that this is one of the best political events of the year and regret that I haven’t yet made it.

Republican Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black is touring South Georgia Farms today as the second day of the Legislative Farm Tour with Senate President Pro Tem David Shafer, Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Wilkinson, Senator Mike Dugan, Representative Lee Hawkins, Representative Dan Gasaway and Representative Buzz Brockway.

The tour [began] with a visit to the Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry, Georgia followed by tours of Chase Farms in Oglethorpe, Coley Gin in Vienna and the Langdale Corporation in Valdosta. Day two of the tour will consist of visits to Coggins Farm in Lake Park, Brooks County Dairy in Quitman, the Georgia Department of Agriculture Labs in Tifton and Super Sod in Fort Valley, Georgia.

The Legislative Farm Tour serves as an opportunity for elected officials to learn more about Georgia’s agribusinesses and the key role that the agriculture industry plays in Georgia’s economy. The tour also provides a chance for members of the agriculture community to share concerns and discuss how current or proposed legislation or regulations will affect their operations.