Rumors have it that Glynn County State Representative Jerry Keen is seeking to overthrow the House Minority Whip, State Rep. Earl Ehrhart of Cobb County, from a position he has held since 1994.

PV Is Perturbed: Ehrhart has worked darned hard as our House Whip to build a well-oiled political machine. As Whip, he has worked to build an efficient and very effective House Minority Information Office. He took the office from the point of using agendas printed on paper and distributed to all of the Member offices, to developing a House Caucus Website that can be viewed by the Caucus every morning or by anyone interested in tapping into what our caucus is doing. He introduced communication tools from the Web to allow silent communications and strategizing between caucus members while on the floor. AND, he did all this by using his own legislative funds intended by the Legislature to pay for legislator office supplies and equipment.

So, someone needs to explain WHY, after our party recently won the governorship and enough of the state senate to cause three converts so that we take control of 67% of state government, we have a Power Ranger like Jerry Keen popping-up and thinking he now needs to run the show? Don't we have enough to contend with on trying to figure out who to support for Speaker? Don't we have enough to contend with in trying to build coalitions with the new House Dems?

We see this move by Keen as a direct attack on the winning management team of Lynn Westmoreland and Earl Ehrhart, who have been pretty effective since 2000. The House Dems drew the maps intending on giving us...what?...60 seats? And, what do we have now? 73? Yeah, the leadership of the House Minority Caucus just sucks, doesn't it? Throw them all out.

Finally, we don't think this is the time to throw someone out who, seniority aside, has done a fine job considering the resources he was given. This is a bad idea, and will make us look foolish to have an internal fight like this occur at this point. We hope Keen and his claque reconsider their moves. We back Ehrhart.