Who's Running For What?

We certainly don't want to be one to spread any unfounded rumors, but we think it's time we offered a preliminary assessment of what's shaping-up to be a challenging 2006 election cycle.

Governor's Race: As far as what we know at the moment, Governor Perdue will not have any primary opposition for his 2006 reelection campaign. Though there have been plenty of mutterings, utterings and names tossed-out like Mac Collins, Bill Byrne, John Frank Collins (hey, he could switch parties...again), no one has made a serious step forward to throw their name out there.

On the Democrat side, Lt. Governor Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox are the most likely contenders. Though, rumors are that Taylor may be taking a harder look at the prospect of losing his primary and forever losing a foothold in Georgia government...and may not actually qualify for the race, regardless of how much money his daddy, Fred, can generate for his candidacy. Which brings us to...

Lt. Governor's Race: It could be just bad timing OR it could be due to a direct Act of God, but rumors are that Ralph Reed was planning on making his official announcement to run for Lt. Governor at this weekend's annual Georgia Christian Coalition event...and, alas, the event was iced-out by a winter storm.

Other likely Republican entrants into the Lite Governor's race include Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and State Senator Casey Cagle.

On the Democrat side, the only candidate we know about is former state senator Greg Hecht.

As a side note, the prospect of Ralph Reed entering a Republican race in Georgia has caused Democratic Party Chairman Bobby Kahn to salivate so much that his office employees had to call Fulton County Animal Control because he was foaming at-the-mouth so much...

Secretary of State: With Cathy Cox's definite announced departure from this office, not too much noise has been heard from the Republican side on who will be stepping into that race. Rumors are that current State Senator Bill Stephens and former state senator Robert Lamutt are mulling entry possibilities.

On the Democrat side, former state senator Carol Jackson has announced her intention to seek the seat.

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Who's Running For State GOP Positions?

6th District Chair Sue Everhart has announced that she will not be running for her seat a third time and, instead, will be seeking the position of First Vice-Chair of the State GOP.

Rumors are that a caucus of Fulton County and Cobb County activists are pushing former state senator/state chairman Rusty Paul to run for the vacant 6th District slot. If Paul was elected, it would likely be a good fit in that position because he and 6th District Representative Tom Price are good friends and have worked well together in the past.

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Other State GOP News...

Rumors are that the party is relocating from its long-held HQ at The Prado to the American Software building on Maple Drive in Buckhead. The move is set to occur around March 1.

Rumored reasons are a variety, from being closer to the Governor's Mansion to being closer to Alec's personal stash of fine vintage UGA wines in the basement of Bone's...

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City of Sandy Springs

Rumors have it that State Senator Scudson Hill has been wreaking havoc on the plans for the City of Sandy Springs ("CSS").

Last week, while the Assembly was in recess, most of the state legislators whose districts intersect the proposed City of Sandy Springs' lines worked in their offices, went to committee meetings or met with City of Sandy Springs' activists and planners. All except for one legislator: Judson "Scudson" Hill.

Scudson was busy glad-handing Washington insiders at President Bush's inaugural events, and, according to our sources, appeared to be focused on laying the groundwork for a run in either 2006 or 2008 against Tom Price.

When Scudson returned and joined the other legislators in the CSS work, he was way behind and had to ask a bunch of dopey questions of the others. And, he proposed things like "While we're drawing these new city lines, why don't we just go ahead and straighten-out the Chattahoochee River...it shouldn't be this crooked..." and he used a crayon to demonstrate exactly how he thought the river should run.

We have no doubt that, though Scudson is COMPLETELY clueless and in way over his head as to the requirements of his legislative job, his campaign mailing literature will claim that HE was the one who orchestrated the whole City of Sandy Springs' legislation and that it was HE who negotiated with all of the parties, including the Fulton County Commission.

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If It Ain't One Darn Thing, It's Another...

Rumors have it that President Bush will soon propose a new Constitutional Amendment that bans the use of cartoon characters to deliver any kind of message directed at the human brain. This is in response to the hysterics of the religious socialists in this country over a video coming soon to a public school near you.

No, it's not a Harry Potter video, though that is on the list of religious fanatics to burn and burn often.

And, no, it's not a science video teaching the concept of evolution, though that is also certainly a wish from the religious socialists to burn.

No, this controversy has to do with a video that (read carefully) a) the majority of the people who are criticizing the video haven't even SEEN the video, and b) the head of all of the lemmings, Dr. James Dobson actually states in his January newsletter that "...The video itself is innocent enough and does not mention anything overtly sexual...".

Huh..well...whaddaya know about that? Let's look at his statement again: "The video is innocent enough and does not mention anything overtly sexual."

One should pause a moment and ask oneself: "Political Vine, if the video is innocent as Dr. Dobson EXPLICITLY states and doesn't mention anything overtly sexual (and, our guess is it doesn't even infer anything sexual either), then why, would an organization like the Georgia Christian Coalition send out a Special Alert titled 'PARENTS BEWARE! A “GAY” TOLERANT SPONGE BOB MAY BE COMING TO YOUR SCHOOLS!'???

The problem comes when Dobson presumes to ASSume that, though the video is harmless, since it was produced by an organization that promotes acceptance of multi-cultural ideas then that must mean there is something inherently evil about the video. That's ASSinine thinking.

And, it is also ASSinine thinking for the Georgia Christian Coalition to fail to read Dobson's newsletter and, instead, RELY on media outlets like The Washington Post for its' information. Dobson never stated that SpongeBob Squarepants was "gay" or "gay tolerant."

We wonder if the Georgia Christian Coalition has the guts to send out a correction on their Alert? Perhaps that is why an ice-storm passed over Atlanta just in time to shut-out their annual event...because Someone doesn't like people who spread erroneous information...