Cobb Republican Women Get Their Due, Campaign Fundraising Reports, The Prince of Sleaze Gets Booted, Trouble Signs at the GDITT
IntroductionWe've recently added some new subscribers to our publication, and we thought we'd take a moment to ease some of you newbies into our political arena.
If you absolutely have no desire to continue reading, Click Here to remove yourself from the list by unchecking all three subscription boxes.The
Political Vine was first published in July 2000 and has a Georgia-centric theme. We call the newsletter
Rumors have it... because "rumors" are what the political world absolutely thrives on.
The original intent was to officially publish the rumors that swirled in-and-out of the Georgia Republican Party headquarters in Atlanta to the Republicans who lived outside the doughnut and likely wouldn't hear about the rumors for months, if ever. And, nothing upsets a political activist more than hearing some new rumor, only to discover that it's old news. Our goal was to make all of the rumors instantly public so everyone would know what was happening, and deliver it in a humorous and satirical fashion.
Since then, we've evolved from a nascent publication intermittently sent out during the general election campaign of 2000, through the Dark Years of 2001-2003, and now we have, to a great degree, "matured" into a more robust political publication. We now have columns written by articulate conservatives and libertarian-conservatives on subjects ranging from politics to religion to everyday life experiences. Of course, we must still reserve the right to allow our Inner-Child(ren) to come out and play on the keyboard every now and then...but, with the Dark Lord's departure from the Georgia Republican Party, that'll likely be held to a minimum.
If you are a Republican activist within the state of Georgia, you should accept the Political Vine as a necessary component of your consumption of political news, rumors, and opinions. If you live outside of Georgia, we still offer you interesting news and viewpoints. In fact, a good 30% of our readership is located outside of Georgia, with about 5%-8% of this from the international community.
We have three publication formats, each with their own individual e-mail lists:
Regular Weekly Newsletter: Designated via the "Volume IV, Issue XY" format. This format previews news articles and assorted opinion pieces that have been written by our columnists.
Special Reports/Alerts: Periodically, we send out timely news bits or announcements that we believe people should know about. Alerts usually do not have a follow-up in the regular newsletters.
Political Boxers: Political Boxers was developed as a play on the phrase that a lot of other publications use, "Political Briefs." This is designed to be digested in one sitting and all material comes to you complete with the archives available on the Website in the bottom-left of the site.
With our now 6-month old Website, we have poll capabilities, a Discussion Board, a Search facility to research articles since January 2003, and opportunities for advertisers to get their name out to between 4000 and 6000 politically-interested subscribers (which will likely increase as campaign season heats-up). In fact, we've just changed the ad sizes and new rates will be developed soon, just in time for political campaigns and other interested parties to stakeout a place to link to their own Websites.
One new section that will be introduced in the next edition of the Regular Newsletter (due this weekend) will be
Meet & Marketplace. This was designed to publicize upcoming events, as well as publish business general announcements. We will not be able to publish everything sent to us, due to time and labor resource constraints (but, if you advertise or help us in other ways financially, we would tend to work a bit harder at making sure your stuff gets published in a timely manner...)
Now, if the publications of the Political Vine do not turn out to be your cup of tea, within every newsletter issued is a link that allows you to Unsubscribe. There are 3 different publications, so when you click that link, make sure you uncheck all three boxes and click "Save Changes." Or, send us e-mail directly, complete with the usual "hate-mail" style of some folks who take politics way too seriously, and we will remove you.
Of course, we will gladly accept new subscribers as well, and there are several places, both in the newsletters and on the Website that allow you to directly subscribe.
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Cobb County Republican Women (AKA "Has Marilyn Gil-Hooligan Heard About This? Someone Please Inform Her...")Kudos to the
Cobb County Republican Women's Club (CCRWC) for receiving the top award,
The Judges Award, for having the best decorated float in last Friday's Fourth of July Parade out of 80 total floats. This is the first time the CCRWC has ever won such an award in the 17-year history of the county parade.
Phil Kent Departs Southeastern Legal FoundationRumors have it that
Phil Kent has left the top job at the Southeastern Legal Foundation law firm to form his own Atlanta-based company:
Phil Kent Consulting Inc.. Phil has also recently published his first book,
The Dark Side of Liberalism: Unchaining the Truth.PV Notes To Kent: Hey, Phil...do we ever have a prime spot reserved for
you to advertise your new venture. Contact us at
Political Vine to open lines of communication.
Campaign Fundraising ReportsU.S. SenateNo reports have been officially filed yet on the Federal races, but we've gathered evidence by other means:
Al Bartell: Less than $10,000
Herman Cain: Nearly $100,000 raised in 5 weeks. Their goal is to show $1,000,000 by the next disclosure date on September 30.
Mac Collins: Between $300,000 and $400,000
Johnny Isakson: According to a NY Times article last week, Isakson will likely report about $3,000,000 raised.
6th District CongressionalChuck Clay: Estimates range between $65,000 and $110,000
Robert Lamutt: Estimates range between $80,000 and $120,000 as far as money raised goes. Information gathered from sources close to the campaign indicate a focus on first building a solid grassroots team in Cobb, Cherokee, and Fulton counties and then focusing on the fundraising element.
Tom Price: According to Price's Press Release, Tom will report over $200,000. Look for most of the money to be from medically-
oriented sources. Not that there's anything wrong with that...
8th District CongressionalMike Crotts: We've attempted to contact Mike, but have been unable to as of publication time.
Greg Dunn: No word yet on whether he has even decided to enter...though, we strongly urge him to make-up his mind soon.
Dylan Glenn: It was rumored back at the May State Convention that the White House was encouraging Dylan to enter the race for the 8th, but rumors now are that a poll has been performed in the district to check his name ID, and the results were not too stellar.
Lynn Westmoreland: Lynn's campaign reported to us that they will show approximately $190,000 raised, along with being well on their way to building a solid grassroots organization in all 18 counties.
State Senate Races of NoteState Senate 21: Craig Dowdy (R) reports raising $33,000 as of June 30, 2003 and has $26,200 cash on hand. No primary opponent has electronically filed.
State Senate 31: Mason Rountree (R) reports raising $43,198 as of June 30, 2003 and has $38,285 cash on hand. No primary and no general election opponent has electronically filed as of July 9, 2003.
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Sleazy Come, Sleazy Go (AKA "The Prince of Sleaze Gets Booted")Rumors have it that political consultant
Tom "The Pot" Perdue (no relation in any way to Governor Sonny Perdue) was summarily dismissed from the
Lynn Westmoreland Campaign for Congress last week. The campaign cited the fact that Perdue had so many other races that he was working on that he wasn't giving Westmoreland any time.
Perdue is reportedly working on Mac Collins for U.S. Senate and Calder Clay for Congress as his two other Georgia campaigns, and Robin Hayes in North Carolina and another candidate in South Carolina.
PV Writes A Post-It Note To The Other 4 Perdue Campaigns: Not that this is related to anything in particular, but just to be on the safe side, we would advise buying pepper spray and Tasers for your wives, your daughters, your granddaughters, your great-granddaughters, your nieces, and any other member of the female gender of whom you may care about.
For whatever reason, the campaigns that Perdue tends to run are filled with the type of sleaze and seediness normally found in Bill Clinton's memoirs. Which, in Tom's case, is quite fitting since he was raised as a Democrat and lived most of his life as one...
Daimler-Chrysler Plant Goes Kaput?Rumors have it that the plans for a van assembly plant being built in Pooler, Georgia (near Savannah) by
Daimler-Chrysler are being revised, and Georgia may not get the plant after all.
PV Has Some Inside Scoop: First off, we know the state dems are going to be jumping all over Governor Perdue on this.
But, we have a good idea of the real reason Daimler is pulling back and taking a harder look, and it actually involves a display of utter arrogance by a bureaucratic appointee held over from the Barnes governorship at the
Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism (GDITT).
Rumor has it that a recent phone conversation between this democrat- appointed GDITT official and the former CEO of Daimler, who was interested in meeting with GDITT to discuss this impending DaimlerChrysler deal, went like this:
Former Daimler CEO: "Hello Mr. _______, I was told to call you to set-up an appointment to discuss the new factory. I will be visiting Georgia soon and we should get together. I can help provide some insight."
GDITT Democrat Bureaucrat: Oh...ummm...actually, we have very good relations with the DaimlerChrysler people, and we don't need your help in this matter. Thank you, anyway. [end of phone conversation]
Oh, and the name of the GDITT genius who essentially gave the former Daimler CEO the middle-finger?
Tim Evans, Georgia's assistant deputy commissioner of industry, trade and tourism.
PV's Advice To Governor Perdue: Merely cutting the heads off the top of departments is obviously not going far enough. In order to rid this state of 130 years of democrat rot, you need to go below the surface of these departments like GDITT and give the houses a thorough cleaning. Evans (and no doubt there are many others like him all over Georgia government), is a little bureaucratic mole waiting for the opportunity to sabotage your goals. Time to call an exterminator in to get rid of the pests.
IN MEMORIAMWe are sad to report the untimely passing of
Leigh Ann Gayle on May 29. Leigh Ann was a graduate of Georgia Tech in Industrial Engineering and active in YR politics. During the time period 1996-2000, she was actively involved in the Atlanta Young Republicans, the North Fulton Young Republicans, and the Cobb Republican Party. We send our condolences to her parents and her younger brother. We hope her restless spirit will now find peace.
