Ethics Scandals have Bruised the Georgia GOP's image! Expect that to continue going into November.

And expect that to continue with the nomination of Nathan Deal. Deal won the hotly contested runoff with Karen Handel, despite Handel having the backing of Sarah Palin & Mitt Romney.

Let's recap: The OCE, (Office of Congressional Ethics) investigated allegations that Deal intervened to preserve a state vehicle inspection program run by a private company he owns. The report concludes that Deal did intervene in his official capacity for his own personal benefit, earned more outside income than he is legally allowed as a congressman and did not properly disclose his involvement with the company.

Basically he used his position to make money on the side, while trying to to hide it from the public.

Deal is not alone in this. There's Casey Cagle along with the Georgia Dept of Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham.

Deal met with state Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham on three occasions over a year to question proposed changes Graham wanted to make in the way Georgia inspects rebuilt salvaged vehicles. Deal coordinated his efforts through the office Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle who is also under a cloud of suspicion over potential ethics issues.

Deal & his supporters called the OCE Investigation, a "Partisan Witch hut", despite the OCE being a Bi-Partisan group.

Another Candidate Mark Butler who's running for Labor Commissioner has been in hot water as well & it concerns two-and-a-half-year relationship he had with a woman who served as a lobbyist for the University System of Georgia.


He maintained a relationship with Erin Henderson, a lobbyist who's registered with the State Ethics Commission of Georgia, from April 2006 to February of this year. Henderson began as a lobbyist in January of 2008 when she was hired by the University of West Georgia as Director of Governmental Relations and Special Projects in the Division of University Advancement.

Then there's the former House Speaker Glen Richardson who resigned when his ex-wife went on TV and accused him of having "a full-out affair" with a lobbyist while they were still married. Susan Richardson revealed emails that she said detailed a long, intimate relationship with an Atlanta Gas Light lobbyist, while Richardson was co-sponsoring a bill the lobbyist was trying to get passed in the house.


And there Gary Black, who is running for Agricluture Commissioner who was accused by challenger Darwin Carter (R) for failure to disclose the use of his office as CEO/Lobbyist for the Georgia Agribusiness Council (Not-for-Profit) to run for Commissioner of Agriculture. Additionally, Carter charges that Black's Lobbying
firm, Georgia Agribusiness Council (GAC) is a non profit 501c6 corporation and according to the IRS should pay taxes on their extensive partisan political work.

Now Ethic cuts both ways. There have been some democrats who have been bitten by the ethics bug, like Sharon Beasley Teague, so no party can lay claim to having the high ground when it comes to ethics.

Roy Barnes will no doubt run on cleaning up the ethical mess at the State Capitol. In doing so he needs to admonish both parties for its ethical lapses, but lets get real here, the big kahuna here is Nathan Deal & if he and State Dems are successful in doing exactly that, he will be back in the mansion in Jan. 2011. This is more of a anti-incumbent, anti-government, anti-washington year that a anti-democratic year many are trying to make it out to be. Some will survive, some will not.

Rural Georgia is Ripe & Ready for Roy Barnes to Pickup in Nov.

And I hope the other democratic candidates recognize it also. Its time for a change! Its time for some middle ground! Its time for some Common Sense!



There is a sense among folks here, as in many rural areas across the state, that they are invisible, at least politically. You go ask voters of rural Georgia, and they will say neither party has a vision or game plan for us. There is no respect for agriculture, No planning for our infrastructure, No understanding of the long distances people have to go to access medical care.

As I remember, democrats once dominated the rural landscape here in Georgia until 2002 came along. When democrats had control of the state Capitol, rural Georgia was well taken care of, by the likes of Larry Walker, Tom Murphy, Georga Hooks, Jimmy Lord, Newt Hudson, Henry Reaves & others. The Rural Democrats have been replaced by the Suburban Republicans of Chip Rogers, Jan Jones, Ben Harbin, Allen Peake. As a result Rural Georgia has fallen off the radar of the current GOP majority now occupying the state legislature.

Now you can argue that because Sonny Perdue hails from Rural Houston County, that rural Georgia has always been taken care of, or well well tended to under Perdue, but Perdue let the inmates (GOP) run the asylum instead of taking more of a leadership role when it came to critical issues facing us here in rural Georgia.

That sentiment has many predicting a bitter battle between the political parties to capture the votes of rural Georgia. Although these areas tend to lean Republican, support for Governor Perdue and the GOP has waned after 8 years of GOP control of every level of state government.

Rural Georgia remains conservative, (some parts moderately conservative) with social issues in the forefront, but voters here are also consumed by economic concerns and the lack of job opportunities. Regardless of what party they belong to, many say they vote for the candidate who can help them, not the party. Social Issues was dominant in the GOP runoff, but let me tell you right now, those issues will take a backseat this november with the state unemployment higher that the national average, along with education, ethics, & other critical issues.

Ignoring these areas can be politically lethal for candidates. While rural Georgians make up only about 30-35% of the state electorate, they in my opinion are key to any candidate running for office whether its governor or Labor Commissioner.

Getting to far-flung, isolated areas is time-consuming, and crafting an effective message is difficult because many politicians don't understand the complexities of rural Georgia, For instance: many rural residents resent interference by the federal government, but their towns' existence often depends on grants and funding for infrastructure. To be more blunt, ITS OUR LIFEBLOOD!


The reason rural Georgia is competitive now is not because they love the Democrats. It's because they are beginning to fall out of love with the Republicans.

Here's my thought: that to capture rural votes, dems must find cultural and economic connections. "VOTERS AREN'T LOOKING FOR GRANDSTANDING OR CHEAP SYMBOLIC PERFORMANCES (Like questioning someone's Birth Certificate or claiming to be something that's not true).

See Roy Barnes, despite what his critics say about him understands what's happening in Rural Georgia. He has spent more time in Rural Georgia than his hometurf in Metro Atlanta. Herman Talmadge made this statement after he was defeated in 1980 by Republican Carpetbagger Mack Mattingly, who moved to Georgia 3 years earlier: "Had I spent more time in places I was the weakest, instead of the the places I was the strongest, I might have won my re-election against Mattingly". That is so true! Rural Georgia is where Barnes campaign will either "make it of break it" this coming november.

Rural voters can be bagged, if they're stalked properly. "Politics is team work. You have to have a good team and a candidate who is 100 per cent committed in going into areas where there are only one traffic light.

Rural Georgia is a Blue collar Region, with Bluecollar Jobs out numbering White Collar Jobs. And people wonder why someone like Jim Marshall continue to win in the rural dominated 8th District. Marshall has that Bluecollar appeal to voters, & it doesn't hurt when he himself did a lot of odd jobs blue collar workers have also done like Logging for instance.




The main thing that has rural Georgians up in arms in the poorest parts of the state is the crumbling of the local economy, outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries and downgrading of chronic rural problems like poverty. For example, look at Baldwin County. That county has hit hard by the loss of jobs there over the last 5-10 years. It has gotten to a point that folks up there have had it and are looking for a change in their elected officials.

The economic differences within the state are huge. The people in rural areas are poorer, sicker and less franchised. Rates of clinical depression are higher, and there are higher deaths per capita.

Here are the matchups

U.S. Senate: Michael Thurmond (D-Athens) vs Johnny Isakson (R-East Cobb)

Governor: Roy Barnes (D-Mableton) vs Nathan Deal (R-Gainesville)

Lt. Governor: Carol Porter (D-Dublin) vs Casey Cagle (R-Gainesville)

Secretary of State: Georganna Sinkfield (D-Atlanta) vs Brian Kemp (R-Athens)

Attorney General: Ken Hodges (D-Albany) vs Sam Olens (R-Marietta)

School Superintendent: Joe Martin (D-Atlanta) vs John Barge (R-Marietta)

Agriculture Commissioner: J.B. Powell (D-Blythe) vs Gary Black (R-Commerce)

Labor Commissioner: Darryl Hicks (D-Fayetteville) vs Mark Butler (R-Carrollton)

Insurance Commisisoner: Mary Squires (D-Norcross) vs Ralph Hudgens (R-Hull)

Candidate Spotlight: David Gault (D-Haddock), HD 125

For the Open HD 125 seat, Former Jones County Commissioner David Gault, a conservative democrat will attempt to win the seat against Susan Holmes (R-Monticello). Curtis Jenkins was the last democrat to hold that seat until redistricting led to his defeat from Jim Cole a few years ago.

He first ran for The Jones County Commission in the 2000 elections, was elected, and served the county as the Vice-Chairman from January 2001 until December 2009.

Commissioner Gault is married and the father of 5 children and has three granddaughters. He is a veteran of two terms in the U.S. Navy, one of which he served on an aircraft carrier that helped run the Cuban blockade.

He also serves on the following boards & committees:

ACCG General County Government member

2009-10 ACCG Board of Managers, elected by leaders of the Assoc. of County Commissioners

Chairman of the Revenue and Finance Committee, ACCG, 2008-2009

Seventh graduating class of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership program (IGEL)

Certified Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children

Has served on ACCG's Infrastructure Planning Committee

Middle Georgia Regional Development Center Board of Directors

Authored several County Ordinances which have included:
Unsafe Building Ordinance (Abandoned Building)

Open Container Ordinance

Solid Waste Ordinance with the assistance of the Code Enforcement Officer to address junk vehicles

Update to the Animal Control Ordinance - new draft as of April 22, 2010. The ordinance has only been updated once (July 2001) since 1989. Chaired the committee responsible for the current draft.

Community Health & Human Services Steering Committee for National Association of Counties

Jones County Family Connections

Substitute teacher for Jones County High School and Middle Schools



Board of Directors of Haddock Community Action Program

ACCG Indigent Defense Steering Committee at inception


.
Plans and funding for a future fire training academy through the 1999 SPLOSt

Haddock Water System updates with a Community Development Block Grant providing $500,000

Future expansion of water in the Haddock area with Intergovernmental agreement being drafted after several meetings with Baldwin County; strong proponent of running waterline to Hitchcock Road to address its emergency situation.

Haddock Community Park and Ball Field

Land purchase for expansion of the central recreation complex

Downtown Streetscape with a TE Grant of $500,000

3 new fire stations

2006 TE Grant awarded for Storm Drainage and Curb and Gutter at the W. E. Knox Civic Center complex

Proponent of expanding the Jones County Animal Control facility through the approval of a new building voted by the Board December 2006.

Water Expansion in many areas of the county

Paving of many of the county's dirt roads

Tower project for EMA with federal funding of over $500,000

2006 approval of CHIP grant providing $299,836 for housing improvements in the county

2006 Community Development Block Grant of $500,000 in federal funds for drainage/street improvements with a total estimated costs of $ 872,408

Has taught classes to county employees and trained 25+ drivers who have obtained CDL license

1st update to the Employee Handbook since 1996 was adopted in 2007 when it was rewritten.

Last but not least, the start of Employee Appreciation Day and recognition services for county employee service and tenure.

Gault says he qualified for election to serve the district in the Georgia Legislature because too many things have happened in State Government that really disturbed me during these last 4 years.

Says Gault: Some of these more notable blunders include the state's cancellation of the Homestead Exemption. This action has resulted in transferring a major portion of government service costs to the property owners of this state. The dramatic cuts in education funding, (which have all been blamed on the economic downturn), school teacher furloughs and the overall misdirection of State funding priorities. Our citizens are trying to support a tax burden they can not afford. My pledge to you includes a specific plan to accomplish what I have promised.

Gault is married to Shirley of 29 years & have Five children & three grandchildren.

GOP Tax Cut Bill Would Add Almost $7 Trillion to America's National Debt To Further Enrich the Wealthiest

Citizens for Tax Justice reports:

On April 15 of this year, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced a bill calling for a huge federal tax cut. They titled their bill (H.R.5029) “The Economic Freedom Act.” But it would better be called the “Endless Borrowing Act.” It would add almost $7 trillion to the national debt over the next ten years, mainly to further enrich the very wealthy.According to its sponsors, H.R. 5029 was introduced “in conjunction with the Republican Study Committee,” whose membership includes two-thirds of all House Republicans.

The bill has also been endorsed by a number of anti-tax organizations and people whose relentless pursuit of debtfinanced tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy has played a central role in the growth of the national debt over the past three decades. These include the Heritage Foundation, the anti-union National Taxpayers Union, the American Conservative Union, and the National Federation of Independent Business (which represents the nation’s “largest” small businesses) — plus, of course, GOP political strategist Grover Norquist. H.R. 5029 proposes to do the following:

• Cut the payroll taxes that pay for Social Security and Medicare
in half. (This particular tax cut is for one year only).

• Completely eliminate taxes on capital gains, for both individuals
and corporations.

• Eliminate almost three-quarters of the corporate income tax by (a) allowing businesses to write off equipment purchases immediately, rather than gradually as the equipment wears out & reducing the regular corporate tax rate to 12.5 percent (from the current 35 percent).

• Repeal the estate tax, a tax that falls almost entirely on the nation’s wealthiest families. Citizens for Tax Justice has analyzed the effects that H.R. 5029 would have on federal deficits and debt, as well as the distributional effects of the bill. These are our key findings:

The bill would add a staggering $6.9 trillion to federal deficits and debt over the upcoming decade. That’s $6,884,000,000,000 in additional government borrowing
over the next ten years, equal to almost $23,000 in added debt for every man, woman and child in our country. Starting in 2012, more than three-quarters of the proposed
tax cuts would go to the best-off five percent of all taxpayers, with 62 percent going to the top one percent).

In 2012, the average tax cut for the bottom 80 percent of all taxpayers would be $399. In contrast, the average tax cut in 2012 for the best-off one percent would be $157,522.

GOP leader admits Republicans have "credibility problem" on deficits

The Wahington Post's The Plum:

Everyone is digging through the lively exchange that David Gregory had with GOP leaders John Boehner and Mike Pence on Meet the Press yesterday over whether to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

Most people are focusing on the fact that the two Republican leaders, under persistent questioning by Gregory, refused to say how the tax cuts would be paid for. No question, that's noteworthy, and Gregory deserves credit for pressing the issue.

But the most interesting aspect of the exchange was that Pence, the chairman of the House Republican Conference, openly admitted that the GOP has a "credibility problem" on tax cuts and the deficit. From the transcript:

DAVID GREGORY: Congressman, you're asking Americans to believe the Republicans will have spending discipline when you're saying extend the tax cuts that aren't paid for and cut the deficit. How is that a consistent, credible message?

PENCE: Well, I understand the credibility problem, David. You know that during the first six years of this decade, I spent most of my time fighting against runaway spending under Republicans. I opposed No Child Left Behind, I opposed the Medicare prescription drug bill, I opposed the Wall Street bailout.

What the American people are starting to see is that Republican, Republicans on Capitol Hill get it and the Democrats, from the White House to Capitol Hill, just don't get...

Pence openly acknowledged here that Republicans have a "credibility problem" on this issue because the GOP ran up the deficit during the Bush years. To be sure, Pence also said he spent years and years fighting "runaway spending" under the previous administration. But he seems to be acknowledging that the rest of the party does, indeed, have a credibility problem, thanks to the Bush record on the deficit.

Pence's admission seemed intended as part of a larger GOP strategy. Republicans have undertaken a systematic effort to achieve separation from Bush and the GOP Congress of the previous decade by acknowledging that the previous GOP leadership was out of control and claiming the new leadership is very different. That's what Pence seemed to be driving at.

But from a messaging perspective, Pence's formulation seems ham-handed, and it wouldn't be surprising if Dems adopt it as a talking point for the coming deficit and tax cut showdown, which promises to be central to the midterm elections: "Even the number three in the House GOP leadership says his party lacks credibility on this issue

Gun Owners of America Victory Fund Endorsse Jody Hice for 7th Congressional District

Gun Owners of America is proud to endorse Jody Hice for Congress in the Republican primary run-off election tomorrow, August 10.

Jody Hice, a member of GOA, has forcefully advocated the rights of gun owners on his radio program and he will be a true friend to gun owners upon his election to Congress.

Let's send one of us to Congress

Please vote for Jody Hice tomorrow if you live in Georgia's Seventh Congressional District.

Tim Macy
Vice-Chairman