Georgia Politics, Campaigns & Elections for May 9, 2013

Here’s what I’ve learned this week in Washington, DC: there’s something in the water that makes these people smarter than anyone else in the country. Doubtful? Just ask them. It’s really an astonishing level of hubris, and the old saying about the worst words you can hear being “we’re from the Government and we’re here to help you,” should be updated to “we’re from Washington, and we’re here to tell you what you need to do because we’re smarter than you yokels.”

This is not a condemnation of our elected officials, but the unelected elites who work here.

Folks, whether you like the “Growth and Opportunity Project Report” or not, everyone up here seems to think it’ll be the salvation of both the Republican Party and the Republic itself.

In three debates among the candidates for GAGOP Chairman, who will have a seat on the RNC, I have yet to hear one of them suggest the Growth and Opportunity Project Report has a single redeeming feature.

Rather than labeling the report an autopsy of the 2012 Presidential Election, we should recognize that it’s an exercise in proctoscopy.

Georgia by the Numbers

1 — Columbus High School ranked best public high school in Georgia and 150 in the nation by DailyBeast.com.

2 — Georgia’s rank for highest rate of identity theft, according to Equifax and the FTC.

3 — Georgia’s rank for highest teen unemployment at 30.6%.

4 million — dollars to be raised by one mill tax increase by Columbia County BOE.

6 — Coca-Cola ranking on Davis Brand Capital 25, up from 9 for the previous year.

19.9 — billion dollar state budget for FY 2014 signed by Governor Nathan Deal.

50 — percent of net worth Sara Blakely pledged to charity.

50 — percent pay raise Norcross City Council voted itself.

51.2 — billion dollars into Georgia’s economy from tourism.

90 — million dollars to be invested in Effingham County film production facility.

100 — million dollars to eventually be appropriated for state vulture venture capital fund.

100 — denomination of new currency with security features by Alpharetta-based Visual Physics LLC.

100 — million dollars possible total cost in state and local incentives to create 2400 new jobs in northwest Georgia.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns & Elections

Fayette County voters will be asked to approve a SPLOST in November. Peachtree City Council is discussing how to spend the money raised, while Fayetteville City Council is not impressed with the idea.

The Marietta Daily Journal’s Around Town column writes that the Cobb Chamber of Commerce seemed like Senator Johnny Isakson was auditioning replacements, with Congressmen Jack Kingston, Phil Gingrey and state legislators Edward Lindsey and Barry Loudermilk in attendance. On Tuesday evening, Isakson told a group of Georgia Republicans in Washington that he will be running for reelection in 2016 and has begun fundraising for a campaign that will likely exceed $15 million.

MDJ also writes of the 2014 Senate race:

THE CLOCK IS TICKING for others thinking of seeking Chambliss’ seat. A well-known politico tells Around Town that, “Anybody who can’t write a seven-figure check to jump-start his campaign needs to be in the race by Memorial Day if he wants to have a chance. Those who can write a seven-figure check can wait, but only until the end of the summer.”

That second category would include former Dollar General CEO David Perdue (cousin of former Gov. Sonny Perdue), who’s said to be weighing a race; and Kelly Loeffler, VP of Intercontinental Exchange, which operates global commodity and financial markets. Loeffler, who also is co-owner of the Atlanta Dream women’s basketball team, reportedly is in final negotiations to purchase the New York Stock Exchange. Now that would be a coup for Georgia.

In Cobb County, bureaucrats have voted against the first application under the “pathway to chicken ownership”

The Cobb Board of Zoning Appeals has unanimously denied chicken advocate Joseph Pond’s request to keep four hens on his east Cobb property.

Wednesday was the first chance for the board to test out a new poultry ordinance recently adopted by the Cobb Board of Commissioners, which provides a pathway for residents who live on fewer than 2 acres but who want to have hens.

Commissioner JoAnn Birrell’s appointment to the appeals board, David Poteet, made the recommendation to deny Pond’s request, referencing an April 29 email from Robyn Funderburg, who lives across the street from Pond. In that email, Funderburg writes that she has reported Pond to the county in the past over having chickens.

City Council members could have hired a chicken consultant but they threw it in your lap. Although hen house research is a really “chicken” assignment, I am confident you will scratch up enough relevant information for the council to consider as it deliberates this highly critical issue.

Proponents of changing the ordinance to permit chickens in Peachtree City argue that a back yard hen program with chicken coops and the increased presence of chicken manure will improve the quality of life, beautify neighborhoods and increase the value of homes in Peachtree City. They contend that chickens in back yards will create jobs and attract new businesses. They say the economic impact of chickens in Peachtree City could rival the highly touted Pinewood Atlanta Studio project in Fayetteville.

Chicken supporters vehemently deny that chicken manure has a bad smell. Unfortunately, a handful of mean-spirited troublemakers in Peachtree City agree with Shorty and deny the aesthetic benefits of chicken coops. They flat oppose turning Peachtree City into chicken utopia. The anti-chicken group expresses fear that our chicken-friendly town will be highlighted nationally as part of Jay Leno’s monologue.

This is a hipster

See you later this month in Columbus?

The opening of the whitewater course in downtown Columbus, Ga will continue on schedule for Memorial Day, although the Nantahala Outdoor Center has withdrawn as one of the two planned outfitters.

“After due diligence, we could not establish an operating plan that met both our needs as well as the expectations of the organizers and community,” said NOC spokesperson Charles Conner in an email. “We are disappointed, but we part ways friends and remain huge admirers of Uptown Columbus and their ambitious project.”

That leaves Atlanta-based Whitewater Express, a smaller company owned by Dan Gilbert, as the lone company operating guided raft trips on the $25-million course.

“We wish nothing but the best to our colleague and friend Dan Gilbert, and we are confident he will be a wonderful partner to communities on both sides of the river,” Conner’s email read.

Uptown Inc. President Richard Bishop said NOC had a lot of commitments this summer, including the World Championship of Freestyle Kayaking in September near its North Carolina headquarters on the Nantahala.