Rumors have it that some elected Dem state officers are continuing their long-held tradition of thumbing their nose at state laws while demanding that everyone else follow them.

PV Offers A Case in Point: Last Friday, January 30, the Georgia GOP delivered Open Records Request to the offices of the Secretary of State Cathy Cox, Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, Lt. Governor Mark Taylor, and the Georgia Technology Authority.

According to Georgia GOP spokesman Marty Klein, all deliveries received time and date stamp receipts from the receiving offices last Friday.

As of early afternoon today (Friday. February 6), the only responses received were from Thurmond and the GTA; no responses were received from either Cox's office or Taylor's office.

"Georgia code clearly states that government entities must respond to open records requests within three business days," said Alec Poitevint, Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party. "Lieutenant Governor Taylor and Secretary of State Cox failed to comply with this law."

This would not be the first time Taylor has refused to respond to an OR request. In October, 2003 the Georgia Republican Party faxed Open Records Act requests to Lieutenant Governor Taylor and Secretary of State Cox. While Cox's office offered a response back then, the Party received no answer from Taylor's office whatsoever.

"In the case of Lieutenant Governor Taylor, there appears to be a disturbing pattern of unwillingness to follow state law. It is time for the Attorney General to investigate this continuing unlawful activity," said Poitevint.

For point of reference, this is the applicable law:

O.C.G.A. §§ 50-18-70(f) states, "The individual in control of such public record or records shall have a reasonable amount of time to determine whether or not the record or records requested are subject to access under this article and to permit inspection and copying. In no event shall this time exceed three business days. Where responsive records exist but are not available within three business days of the request, a written description of such records, together with a timetable for their inspection and copying, shall be provided within that period."

O.C.G.A. §§ 50-18-73(a) states, "The Attorney General shall have authority to bring such actions, either civil or criminal, in his or her discretion as may be appropriate to enforce compliance with this article."

"We have asked Attorney General Baker to investigate this matter to determine whether any corrective action should be taken. If Mr. Taylor and Ms. Cox continue to ignore state law and fail to conform with the provisions of the Open Records Act, we will consider further legal avenues," concluded Poitevint.

The Political Vine attempted to contact the Open Records Act officers for Cox and Taylor for a response. Tom Mishou, from Cox's office, stated to us that he had been in receipt of the request last Friday and had mailed back his response this past Tuesday.

Word was left at the office of Taylor's Chief of Staff, Chris Carpenter, to call us back for a response, and no word yet from him. In fact, we were promised a call back in "10 minutes." No word yet as of publication time from Mr. Carpenter...and, it's been 30+ minutes since we were promised a call back.

The PV also put a call into Russ Willard, spokesman for AG Thurbert Baker. As of publication time, no call has been received.

PV Searches The Banks of the Vast PV Memory Vault: Did anyone else catch Thurbert Baker's testimony before the appropriations committee a couple of weeks ago when Baker testified that his little corner of the universe had something like "104 lawyers and a backlog of 15,000 cases" that they were "working on."

One major question we have is, if the AG's office is SO overwhelmed and SO understaffed that they need lots and lots more of state taxpayer largesse to operate, why did they have no problem a few weeks back dropping everything they're working so diligently hard on to immediately address an ethics complaint filed by George Anderson against Governor Perdue and former Chief of Staff Eric Tanenblatt???

PV Relays An Unrelated Rumor: Have y'all heard that FOX TV is thinking about a new reality-based show shot in Georgia called "Our Big Fat Obnoxious Law-Breaking Lt. Governor?" Should be a smash!