A Little Bit Of Everything For The Georgia Political Palate...
By
PV Staff
Sleazy Come, Sleazy Stay? Not If The FEC Has Anything To Say About It...Rumors have it that
Tom Perdue is not technically leaving the Mac Collins campaign, he's just backing-off a bit because he's "overextended" in race management this cycle.
In last Monday's
Political Insider column in the AJC, Perdue was quoted as saying "[Mac Collins] can't fire me, and I can't quit."
Perdue went on to say that [paraphrased] "...there is no contract that binds me to Collins...[my] advice to Collins has always been offered
pro bono.
PV Mulls The Expression "Pro Bono": Hmmmmmm...there's just the littlest problem with this "free advice" Perdue is supposedly offering Collins.
Because Perdue has, at minimum, a 5-year history of ALWAYS charging money for his consulting services, his work on a campaign cannot be considered "free" anymore than work performed by a lawyer for a campaign can be "donated" off the books.
A lawyer can provide "contribution in-kind" services to a campaign up to the limit allowed by law. After that, the campaign has to pay for the services...otherwise the overage on the "donation" counts against the donor and the candidate as violating campaign contribution laws.
If last year, Perdue earned...say, $1,000,000 in gross income (this is a guess on the low end), that would be the equivalent of approximately $481 per hour (assuming 2080 work hours in a year. If yearly work hours are lower these days, his hourly rate increases).
So, taking the $2000 contribution limit for the primary and the $2000 contribution limit for the general into consideration, Perdue can only "donate" approximately 8.32 hours of total consulting time to the Collins campaign.
And, the fact that Collins doesn't report these "pro bono" contribution in-kind hours is putting him at risk for a violation of FEC rules.
If a garden-variety professional donated her time to a campaign doing something not related to the work she is does in her professional life, that time could be donated "pro bono." But, once you're an established professional (as Perdue is), "pro bono" has a real dollar opportunity cost associated with it and, we believe, that value must either be reported as though it was real money being paid to Perdue, or as an in-kind contribution of consulting services.
Of course, if Perdue wanted to donate his time to driving Collins around or emptying the trashcans in the area of his office where the Collins campaign is being managed, that time could be counted as mere "volunteer" hours and not count towards the contribution limit.
Apparently, It Is Good To Be Bad In The State SenateThis past week,
Governor Perdue announced his senate administrative floor leader team, making two new appointments,
Senator David Shafer (R-48) and Senator Preston Smith (R-52) who both join
Senator Dan Lee (R-29) to complete the triumvirate.
What does an administrative floor leader (AFL) do? He/she acts to bring the Governor's legislation to the floor and work on getting it passed.
Some perks to the position include a physical move to offices in the Capitol, as opposed to being in the LOB offices. These offices are beaucoup better in terms of ceiling heights, secretarial support services, and proximity to the Governor's office and the Senate chamber.
Along with the new digs, the AFL is perceived to be THE person to suck-up to in the chamber to get your legislation passed. The AFL is also in the privileged position of getting things in the budget that he wants. The position requires lots of wheelin', dealin', connivin', jivin', and all around ability to screw someone without any remorse or retribution from anyone. And, of course, the AFL tends to attract more "gimmes" in terms of contributions and lobbyist-catered affairs.
PV Does A Double-Take On The Appointments: Ummm...let's see if we get this straight: if you strenuously oppose the Governor's agenda, you get
rewarded with a leadership position? Okay, kids, let's all be as bad as we want to be.
Both Shafer and Smith, along with Mark Burkhalter in the House, fought hard against the Governor's tobacco tax increase. Burkhalter was interviewed several times on his public objection to the Governor's legislation.
One could claim reverse logic on the Governor's choice and perhaps conclude that the Governor neutralizes his adversaries by appointing them to a position in which they are required to work with him. However, the AFL can tell the Governor "no" on certain legislation he disagrees with, so, it is not mandatory that every bill gets carried.
If we take the reverse logic approach, then one could reasonably conclude that if a senator stood on his desk in the next session and shouted-out that the Governor has no clothes and worked behind the scenes to gather enough fellow senators for a mutiny of the Governor's agenda, then the Governor might appoint that person to a 4th AFL position, right?
Oh, if only Machiavelli was alive today...he would absolutely cheer.
The AJC's Slant Begins In EarnestJim Tharpe, an AJC reporter, appears to have a problem performing the most basic due diligence before creating a story.
In the past week, Tharpe's written two articles covering the Georgia U.S. Senate race. In both articles, he has referred to the Republican candidates who will face
Johnny Isakson as
"U.S. Rep Mac Collins of Jackson, millionaire businessman Herman Cain and Al Bartell."
"[M]illionaire businessman Herman Cain?" Is that the extent of creativity Tharpe has in his AJC-enriched vocabulary?
Unlike Johnny Isakson, Herman Cain started with nothing and built himself into something successful. Too bad Tharpe just sees the end-product and decides that he must bring him down with trying to attach a mere "millionaire" label to Cain. (Why isn't Al Bartell referred to as being a "thousandaire mediator," Jim?)
Had Tharpe bothered to actually go online and examine the financial disclosures of Isakson, he might have seen that Isakson is also a "
millionaire businessman". But, we know that kind of research might cause reporters like Tharpe to get a headache as they try to interpret such weighty documents as financial disclosures.
PV Offers Tharpe Some Suggestive Adjective Phrases: Since you are apparently stuck in Guy Millner mode (reader note: Millner was
always referred to in the press as "millionaire businessman Guy Millner"), here are some alternative, not so Left-Wing, ideas, Jim:
- "really, really, really successful black guy Herman Cain" or...
- "rags-to-riches-successful-businessman-Herman-Cain"...
- "Herman Cain, more-money-than-I'll-ever-earn-as-a-reporter-guy"...or
- "If-I-can-paint-Herman-Cain-as-a-stereotypical-rich-Republican-I'll-bring-in-those-liberal-readers-and-they'll-learn-to-hate-Herman-Cain's-success-as-much-as-I-do"
Call us anytime you need help in coming-up with accurate descriptions of the people you write about, Jim. We're here to make you better... :-)
Capitulation or Commitment?Rumors have it that U.S. Senate candidate Johnny Isakson has made a verbal commitment to co-sponsor the
FairTax legislation. This would be after Isakson has told the FairTax folks for well over a year that his preferred new tax system is the Flat Tax, not the FairTax.
The PV put a call into the Isakson campaign for a comment on Thursday afternoon, a message was left in campaign manager Chris Carr's voice-mailbox, and, as of print time, no return call was made.
The background story on Isakson's supposed decision to become a co-sponsor of the FairTax revolves around a radio show that took place earlier this week on
Neal Boortz. Boortz is a strong proponent of the FairTax and, on his show, a comment was made regarding Isakson's disagreement with the FairTax. Supposedly, FairTax supporters jammed the Isakson campaign's phone lines to put pressure on Isakson.
We received an e-mail on Thursday afternoon from a FairTax activist that described a call made by the Isakson campaign to Boortz that stated that Isakson agreed to co-sponsor the bill and a press release would be forthcoming on it.
When hearing of Isakson's rumored commitment to the FairTax, another FairTax activist made this comment to us: "Good thing I didn't bet money on [Congressman]
Sanford Bishop signing onto the bill before Johnny Isakson...I would have lost my shirt!"
PV Is Unconvinced Of Isakson's True Beliefs: Really now, if it was the result of phone calls demanding that Isakson get on the bandwagon to support the FairTax, then it is not due to Isakson
committing his support to the bill because he really believes in it, but it is
capitulation to the pressure to commit.
And, the only thing capitulation usually translates to is a promise during the campaign to agree to anything a voter wants, then act completely different if elected. "What's that? I promised what? No, no, no...you misunderstood me. That's your fault, not mine."
Has Calvin Smyre Cleared This With Eric Tanenblatt?Rumors have it that the Democratic Party of Georgia is promising donors that if they
contribute $1000 to the "Governor's Club," that they will, among many things, be given "Two invitations to attend a festive holiday reception during the month of December with the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and other top Democratic state officials."
PV's Response: Swwwwweeeett! It's nice to see the Dimocrats willing to reach across the aisle and offer chances to be invited to Governor Perdue's annual "festive affair." What a swell deal!
We hope Eric T. was able to negotiate a split of the contribution proceeds with the Dims...
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTDear Friends,
The Committee to Elect
Daryll A. Triplett for Fulton County Sheriff is having a Campaign Outing:
Date: 8/15/03 @ 4:00pm
Location: Creel Park, 2775 Creel Rd. College Park, Ga. 30349.
Raffle Tickets: $10.00 e-mail
Ms. JonesThere is no easier way to help the campaign than to come out and support Candidate Daryll Triplett. So come out and declare your support to your neighbors, also help keep people aware of the upcoming election, lets keep Sheriff Candidate Daryll Triplett's name fresh in their minds, help demonstrate the community's depth of support for him on 8/15/03. Bring the family for a fun day at Creel Park!
