Political Notes

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…

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…

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…

This is all too typical, alas, of your legislature in action. On a cold Friday morning in February, the House of Representatives devoted most of its time debating and then passing HR 1034, a meaningless resolution that urges the NCAA…

Help for vets: Georgia’s military veterans got a well-deserved boost from Congress with the passage of legislation that will bring $20.5 million in federal funding for improvements to the VA Medical Center in Decatur. The money will be used to…

It’s growing: Enrollment in Georgia’s public colleges increased by more than 10,000 students this academic year to an all-time high of 270,022. That’s a 3.9 percent increase over the enrollment for fall 2006. “Our new strategic plan indicates we should…

When Sonny Perdue won his improbable victory in the 2002 governor’s race he called his campaign “Perdue for a New Georgia,” and he followed up in office by appointing a “Commission for a New Georgia” to revise state government’s business…

Revenge is sweet? House Speaker Glenn Richardson may have lost out in his attempt to secure the DOT commissioner’s job for Rep. Vance Smith, but he could have the last laugh on some of the Transportation Board members who voted…