Political Notes

Ox In A Ditch: Former Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, who used his last day in office to grant himself some insurance licenses without taking the exams that mere mortals are required to pass in order to acquire such licenses, may…

Oops: Looks like the state gives, and the state takes away. Georgia’s new revenue commissioner Doug McGinnitie had an embarrassing little brush fire to extinguish during his first weeks in office. His department wired state tax refunds to some 30,000…

Have A Seat: Results of the 2010 Census (some 307 million Americans as of last April’s official count) will give Georgia a 14th seat in Congress. Geor-gia is one of eight states to gain congressional representation in the U.S. House…

Justices For All: Supreme Court Justice David Nahmias defeated challenger Tammy Lynn Adkins in the post-Thanksgiving runoff and will retain his seat on Georgia’s high court. He had endorsements from an impressive bipartisan group of Georgia legal and political luminaries,…

Two Thumbs Up, Three Down: Only two of the five Constitutional amendments on last month’s ballot passed. Amendment No. 1, authorizing court enforcement of non-compete agreements, and No. 4, allowing the state to execute multi-year contracts to improve its aging…

Water Wars, Part 7,962: Just as Congress was adjourning for the fall election break, Georgia senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss introduced legislation aimed at a resolution to the long-long-long-running water dispute involving Georgia and its neighbors Alabama and Florida.…

The Race Is On: Georgia’s successful pursuit of some $400 million in federal “Race to the Top” education funds presented something of a dilemma for state officials and candidates. Nobody seriously suggested giving the money back, but many found themselves…

Game On: Nathan Deal’s reward for defeating – just barely – Karen Handel in the rough and tough Republican primary runoff was that he got to jump headfirst into a three-month-long battle with another tough campaigner, Demo-cratic candidate and former…

Barnes VS. Handel or Deal: No surprise that former Gov. Roy Barnes won the Democratic primary outright, and will have a chance to win back his old job in November. Meanwhile, Republicans Karen Handel, former Secretary of State, and Nathan…

Balanced And Fair? One of the methods used by the 2010 legislature to balance the budget was to let sales tax exemptions expire. Nine of the more than 500 sales tax exemptions – totaling more than $500 billion – in…