Rumors have it that Cobb County GOP Chairman-Candidate Anthony-Scott Hobbs ("ASH") is raising money for the county party the old-fashioned, Governor Roy Barnes way: by "blackmailing" potential contributors and stating that they will not have access to the Governor unless they pony-up $1000 a head.

As Cobb GOP Pick-Your-Official-Title-Of-The-Month, Hobbs has apparently formed an adjunct organization to the county party called the "Republican Businessmen's Council." Price of membership? $1000. What do you get promised to you? Direct access to the Governor.

PV Fills-In A Lot Of Blanks: We hate to be the bearer of bad news to our new state leadership, but usually they don't get the hint unless we lay it out to everyone...and even then, as in the case of ralph reed, they have to suffer the experience before they figure out what we were talking about. (More on reed in future issues.)

First, who is Anthony-Scott Hobbs? Hobbs is a Cobb County Republican who has been active for approximately 2 years in Georgia. He is part of the nutty inner-circle of Cobb GOP Chair Marilyn Gilhuly if that helps you in any way.

During this past cycle, Hobbs was Sonny Perdue's Cobb County Chair, along with participating in a whole lot of shenanigans put forward by Marilyn Gilhuly.

In 2001, Hobbs once bragged to a District Chairman that he raised "$47,000 for [State Senator] Rusty Paul in one weekend."

When Senator Paul was checked for verification of the story, Paul basically said "Who? Who did what for me? I've never heard of Anthony Hobbs. And, if anyone raised $47,000 for me, whether in a weekend or throughout my campaign, I would remember it."

Of course, the person who would be most shocked with such a fine fundraising effort, if it existed, would have been Art Morris who actually ran against Rusty for State Senate District 40 in 2000. Hobbs was hired and paid by Morris for some PR work during his campaign.

PV's first encounter with Hobbs was early in 2002 when Hobbs put a proposal before the Cobb County GOP to produce a volunteer recruiting commercial to promote the county party on cable TV. Hobbs offered to produce it all at his own cost on behalf of the County party. Great idea, right? But, there was one little hitch...the money to buy time to run the ad.

For this, Hobbs proposed that the Cobb County Young Republican Club finance the airing of the ad. When Hobbs was asked (by the PV and a few others) where the Cobb YRs would get the money, Hobbs said he was going to be able to finance the ad with "anonymous contributions." When the PV explained to both the Cobb County party and the Cobb YRs that "anonymous contributions" are illegal under the State Ethics in Government Act, we initially got a big shrug of "so what?" from the party.

Only until we kept hammering them on the illegality of financing any political party venture with anonymous contributions (which, as an aside to the AJC, is the true definition of "money laundering") did the idea just fade away. We believe Hobbs did finally get the commercial completed, but we have no idea if it aired, or who paid for the airing. We know/hope it was not the Cobb YRs (right, Tad?).

PV Gets Back To Present Day: So, to get back to the current situation, Hobbs has now taken to calling Cobb County business people and told them that though they didn't contribute to the governor's campaign (i.e., Sonny Perdue's), "This is your chance to get right with the Governor" if they join the Republican Businessmen's Council and pay $1000. The preceding quote is verbatim, by the way, of what Hobbs told one person.

In fact, we know of one such person he tried to hit on recently who, it turned out, had been a Cobb County Republican for 20+ years and served in county government. Hobbs reportedly didn't have one clue as to who he was talking to and received a bit of an earful. (we aren't saying who that was right now.)

PV Offers Another Warning Signal To Governor-Elect Perdue: Hobbs, in his race for Cobb County Chair, has told the Sons of The Confederate Veterans that he is all for their cause and he will lobby Sonny Perdue directly for the return of the pre-2001 state flag. Not an opportunity to vote on a new flag in a referendum, as the Trojan Horse SCV claimed they would be satisfied with, but a demand for the return of the post-1956 flag.

As a result of Hobbs' promise, the SCV have jumped right behind him and will continue to demand a government fiat to undo the previous government fiat. This, of course, despite the fact that EVERYTHING Hobbs says or does has a certain air of shadiness around it. Why the SCV believes him, we'll never understand. Oh, wait. Yes we do. Mention the state flag and these guys will act like UGA fans running down the Up escalator at the airport...irrational and consumed with only one goal.

PV Sums-Up Perdue's Political Problem That Will Soon Get Out Of Hand: On the one hand, we have Hobbs selling access to the governor for $1000 a pop and on the other, promising to be in-the-governor's face for the flag issue. Crafty. Hobbs is one crafty guy. Reminds us of that scum-of-the-earth Bill Clinton and his "triangulation" strategies...