Georgia’s prisons have had a bit of an image problem for a long time. Robert E. Burns’ best-selling book, I Am a Fugitive From a Georgia Chain Gang, brought the brutalities of the state’s penal system front and center to…
It is a message that my conservative friends have been sending me for years: Georgia spends too much on government services and taxes us too much to pay for all that profligate spending. It can be an effective campaign theme…
That old gang of mine: Georgia’s seven Republican congressmen were long known as “G-7,” one of the most conservative groups in the U.S. House, but the old gang is breaking up. Rep. John Linder of Gwinnett County announced he won’t…
Not since the days of the WPA and the CCC has the landscape been this bleak for working people in Georgia. The state’s unemployment rate inched above 10 percent in June and has been hovering around that double-digit level ever…
Amburn in charge: House Speaker David Ralston picked Spiro Amburn, previously the legislative affairs director for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, as his chief of staff. Amburn earlier was Gov. Sonny Perdue’s deputy legislative affairs director. “Spiro is not…
Abit Massey remembers how it was in the beginning. Fifty years ago, he was hired away from the state Department of Commerce to be the director of the Georgia Poultry Federation. As part of his job he would go to…
Appointments: Gov. Sonny Perdue has appointed Shawn LaGrua to another judicial branch job. Perdue named LaGrua solicitor general for the DeKalb County State Court in 2004, but when she ran for a full term as a Repub-lican in 2006 she…
Chicago newsman Finley Peter Dunne has been dead for more than 70 years, but the phrase he coined still gives us the best analysis of the upcoming election year in Georgia: Politics ain’t beanbag. No, politics is not for the…
Is Johnny safe? Sen. Johnny Isakson so far does not appear to have a credible Democratic or Republican primary challenger for his reelection campaign in 2010, a fact that prompted the online publication CQ Politics to declare the U.S. Senate…
Integrity Bank, Alpharetta ... Alpha Bank and Trust, Alpharetta ... Community Bank, Loganville. Those were the first three Georgia banks to be shut down by federal regulators in August 2008. Over the past 15 months at least 25 banks have…
Howard award: This year’s winner of the Rock Howard Award from the state Board of Natural Resources will be Reid Harris, a retired attorney from St. Simons Island who sponsored one of the state’s most important environmental laws, the Coastal…
Down here in the South, we are serious about college football. Dead serious. Just last year, two football fans in Brewton, Ala., were arguing so vehemently over the Alabama-LSU game that a “physical altercation” developed, in the language of police.…
Policy group formed: Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) has formed a new Senate Policy Group, which he will chair, to develop conservative proposals for the 2010 legislative session. The group’s members include Mitch Seabaugh (R-New-nan), Chip Pearson (R-Daw-sonville), Bill…
As a legislative study committee on transportation funding was wrapping up its hearings two years ago, House Speaker Glenn Richardson said in no uncertain terms it was time to do something about the state’s stifling traffic congestion. “I am willing…
Jobless fund balance drops: Like every other state, Georgia has seen the balance of its unemployment trust fund take a dive this year as more laid-off workers file for jobless benefits. The trust fund, made up of taxes paid by…
Vance Smith is the kind of guy who could crack jokes in the middle of a hurricane. On a recent summer morning as I sat down to chat with him in the Department of Trans-portation headquarters in Atlanta, he was…
No fringe candidates here: The election to replace Nathan Deal as Georgia’s 9th District congressman (he’s running for governor next year) has attracted four very credible candidates. State Sen. Lee Hawkins (R-Gainesville) was the latest person to jump into the…
We are still about a year away from raising the curtain on primary elections in Georgia, but the main players are already assembled onstage. They are all auditioning for the biggest role in Georgia politics: the person who will succeed…
Road warrior: Rep. Jay Roberts (R-Ocilla) was the House Republican leadership’s choice to replace Vance Smith as head of the powerful House Transportation Committee. Smith, who was elected DOT commissioner, resigned from his House seat. The Transportation Committee chairmanship, already…
California, the Golden State, is much in the news these days because of a monstrous budget deficit – currently estimated at $24 billion – and a political paralysis among its elected officials that leaves the state unable to deal with…
Finding the cause: Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson was successful in establishing a congressional commission to investigate the causes of the collapse of the financial markets with their resulting impact on the economy. “The only way to get an objective evaluation…
For reporters, one of the most frustrating parts of the job is the difficulty of getting an honest answer from a politician. It is a given that a politico who’s hit with a tough question is going to evade, dissemble,…
No dealings with Darfur: Even though the General Assembly was a failure when it came to adopting a transportation tax method, lawmakers were on the ball when it came to foreign policy. They passed, and Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into…
We have noted before the General Assem-bly’s fondness for giving tax breaks and other financial gifts to corporations and special interest groups. It’s something they do with a passion and the state treasury, as a result, loses more than $1…
A big loss for Georgia: Dr. Daniel W. Rahn, a respected figure in the University System as the president of the Medical College of Georgia and a leading player in the shaping of the state’s healthcare policy, has decided to…
On the afternoon of Jan. 21, Gov. Sonny Perdue went before a joint hearing of legislative budget writers and said he really didn’t care what the newly inaugurated President Barack Obama did with his economic recovery legislation that would funnel…
Judicial panel: President Barack Obama will have several judicial appointments to make for the federal courts in Georgia this year, including four District Court judges, three U.S. attorneys and three U.S. marshals. The state’s congressional Democrats have set up a…
One of the hallmarks of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s administration has been his consistent cutbacks in state formula funding for Georgia’s public school systems. In nearly every budget he’s proposed since first taking office, Perdue has included large “austerity cuts” in…
Forming their teams: Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, who’s putting together a campaign team for the 2010 governor’s race, has named AFLAC CEO Dan Amos as his finance chairman. Bill Byrne, former Cobb County Commission chairman and an unsuccessful GOP candidate…
We now know what happens when push meets squeeze. As the economic recession deepened in the last six months of 2008, Georgia’s political leaders found themselves squeezed by dropping tax revenues at the same time they were being pushed by…
For a while there, Zell Miller had quite a career going as the last angry man of Southern politics. In the fall of 2003, as he was preparing to step down from his seat in the U.S. Senate, you could…
Making changes: For the first time in six years, a new president pro tem will lead the state Senate when the General Assembly convenes a new session this month. Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) stepped down after six years in the…
On a night when the rest of America was saying “Yes, we can!” to the notion of electing a black man as president, voters in Georgia defiantly replied, “No, we won’t!” The election of Barack Obama as the country’s first…
Executive appointments: Gov. Sonny Perdue named Cumming developer Mike Evans, a former House member from Forsyth County who once chaired the State Transportation Board, to the Board of Community Affairs. Evans stepped down from his seat on the Transportation Board…
I don’t know that there has ever been a Georgia politician who has provided more surprises over the years than Angela Elizabeth Speir, who will soon be stepping down as a member of the Public Service Commission. She came out…
It has been a long, long journey for George T. Smith – from plowing behind a mule in south Georgia during the 1920s to playing a pivotal role in the state’s most tumultuous political period, to occupying a seat in…
Sam I am?: He obviously wasn’t the pick for vice president, but is there a chance that retired senator Sam Nunn will play any kind of role in Barack Obama’s campaign or administration? “I have made no decision that I…
If your only source of information about Georgia’s public schools was the news releases distributed by the office of state school Supt. Kathy Cox, you’d think that our kids are surely being educated in the best of all possible worlds.…
Golden opportunity: You can add the name of state Sen. Tim Golden (D-Valdosta) to the list of possible Democratic candidates for governor. Golden got the word out that he’s giving serious consideration to the race, although he might not announce…
It’s as close to paradise as you can get and still be within the geographical confines of Georgia. I am referring to the scenic beauty of our coast and its Golden Isles, one of the major attractions for tourists who…
Hail and farewell: Two of the most important figures in the state’s higher education community both retired, coincidentally enough, on June 30: Georgia Tech President G. Wayne Clough and Georgia State University President Carl Patton (they both ascended to their…
Remembering Jordan: In his heartfelt eulogy for longtime aide and strategist Hamilton Jordan, Jimmy Carter recalled how he first met Jordan prior to the 1966 governor’s race. Carter, who was then an obscure state senator from Sumter County, wanted the…
It’s history in the making, so they tell us. American voters this fall will elect either the country’s first black president or the oldest candidate ever to take the oath of office. History? Don’t bother me with that. The most…
There always has been a zany, schizoid – dare we say, nutty? – quality about the Georgia General Assembly. Our duly elected lawmakers have a habit of making speeches and casting votes that seem to contradict what they were doing…
The Ox is in: State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine was the first politico to officially file the papers and start raising money for the 2010 governor’s race. That could be one of the most crowded races on the ballot, as…
Many politicians get elected to the Georgia General Assembly and do little besides occupy a chair on the House floor. A few, however, actually bring some original thought to the political process. One such lawmaker was Kil Townsend, a New…
Gingrey’s in?: Cobb County Congressman Phil Gingrey is now rumored to be planning a run for the U.S. Senate in 2010, assuming Johnny Isakson does indeed decide to leave the Senate to run for governor. If true, that could set…
Value Government: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle has named four state senators to a task force on “Value Government” that will develop recommendations for delivering better government services to Georgians at a lower cost. Cagle appointed Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) to…
My colleague Bill Shipp, who rode herd over this piece of journalistic real estate for some years, used to lament that they just didn’t make congressmen from Georgia like they used to. Whether you agreed with their politics or not,…
No more in Darfur: In the latest legislative foray into foreign policy, a bipartisan group of state senators introduced a bill that would prohibit the state’s pension funds from holding investments in companies that are selling military weapons to the…
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