Rumors have it that a multi-agent special investigative squad assembled by the FBI in August 2011 is here in Georgia because of a certain straw that was laid on the camel’s back in June 2011 at the Georgia State Ethics Commission, and broke it.

First published by Jim Walls over at Atlanta Unfiltered tonight, Walls reveals that there appears to have been some kind of federal investigation into Governor Deal’s finances over the past year.

However, that really isn’t the most interesting part of this story. Walls has a document up that is a Memo to File written by Georgia Office of The State Inspector General (“OIG”) that is a conversational transcript of what former (politically-dismissed) State Ethics Commission Investigator Sherilyn Streicker told the OIG on August 29, 2011. (NOTE: In case that copy of the memo vanishes from Walls’ site, here is a backup copy of the OIG Memo)

In this Memo, several fascinating things are revealed:

1) Sometime between February 2011 and June 2011 (when her job was “conveniently” eliminated by the State Ethics Commission), Streicker and Executive Director Stacy Kalberman met with the FBI. (Note: It has previously been claimed around the Gold Dome by sources close to Deal that Kalberman was lying in her story to the AJC back over the summer regarding the FBI having any interest at all with the Deal ethics’ investigation. This OIG Memo proves those claims to be undeniably false now and that Kalberman had met with the FBI regarding Deal’s case.)

2) According to the OIG Memo, Streicker and Kalberman met with three members of the Commission on May 3, 2011 after their regularly scheduled meeting (Kent Alexander, Josh Belinfante, and Kevin Abernethy) to discuss the draft subpoena for getting Governor Deal’s records.

3) Ethics Commissioner Kevin Abernethy (appointed by Lt. Governor Casey Cagle via the Committee on Committees), when handed a copy of the draft subpoena reportedly “turned white and said he didn’t want any part of this [investigation into Governor Deal]” when Kalberman and Streicker discussed the issue with him.

4) Streicker then describes the encounter with then-Chairman of the Ethics Commission Patrick Millsaps regarding the draft subpoena where Millsaps “came across as hesitant about our investigation [into Governor Deal’s finances.]”

PV Sniffs The Air: You folks smell that? It smells like an investigation needs to be opened, not on Deal, but on then-member (and Chair) of the State Ethics Commission Patrick Millsaps, as well as current Chair Kevin Abernethy to ask the following questions:

1) In the AJC article published on June 16, 2011, there is a paragraph describing then-Chairman Patrick Millsaps reaction to the draft subpoena in a meeting with Millsaps on May 3: “We were given something on the Deal case,” Millsaps said of the May 3 meeting. “I probably didn’t look at it too much.”

Golly. REALLY, Mr. Millsaps? Why didn’t you “look at it too much?” What kind of people do we HAVE as our “ethics commissioners” if they don’t bother “looking” at things like DRAFT SUBPOENAS????

2) Someone needs to ask Kevin Abernathy exactly what part of his job description does he not get when his response to being handed a draft subpoena to review is “I don’t want any part of this” (AND “turning white” as if in sheer horror and fear?)

In short, Ladies and Gentlemen, this matter now officially stinks to HIGH HEAVEN in Georgia.

AND…these questions that need to be asked of Millsaps and Abernethy should NOT be asked by any investigator at the state level (because AG Sam Olens is charged by the Georgia Constitution to act as legal counsel of the State Ethics Commission and cannot adequately conduct an investigation on his own client while representing the People of Georgia via his oath of office) but by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Why should these questions be asked? Because the manner in which events happened (i.e., Kalberman introduces the subpoena idea, and within a few weeks, a plan is concocted to fire staff and push Kalberman out so that no resources exist for the investigation into the Governor’s financial activities) points directly to a deliberate conspiracy between Patrick Millsaps and the Governor’s peeps to shut down the Ethics Commission’s investigation into Deal’s financial doings.

That multi-member FBI squad came to town in August. You can bet this kerfuffle at the State Ethics Commission in May-June of 2011 was the straw that broke the camel’s back with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of The Northern District of Georgia.

OH…one other thing…a piece of advice for the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI: If you’re tracking interesting money flows, make sure you make a note to look into the state PAC committee disclosures of Governor Deal’s Real PAC when they are filed in January 2012 and throughout 2012.

Who is John Wilkinson? Now that the Lt. Governor has endorsed him, this is a fair question.

Sometime in the past few days, a mail piece hit the district that accuses Wilkinson of voting Democrat in ‘4 out of the last 7 primaries.’ The Wilkinson campaign has spent the last 24 hours vociferously protesting what the mailer implies, as well as blaming their opponent, Rick Austin for being responsible for it.

We’ve seen the mailpiece (PeachPundit.com has a copy uploaded to it), and this is not a piece from Rick Austin’s campaign. The Austin campaign uses Stoneridge for their campaign mail, and, in addition to the stark difference in quality between this anti-Wilkinson piece and Stoneridge’s work, the postmark for the hit piece is for a permit holder in Tucker, Georgia.

Stoneridge would NEVER (ever) pass-up an opportunity to promote themselves via their eponymous postmark. So, the Wilkinson campaign should stop accusing the Austin campaign because they were not the source, and any more accusations just makes you look dumb and dumber.

Now, let’s turn our attention to the claim of the ‘4 out of 7’ elections. Here’s an idea…let’s look at Wilkinson’s voting record direct from the Stephens County Board of Elections.

There are several ways to count-up primaries, and everyone has their own opinion on what counts as a real, defining primary (“defining” as in defining whether or not someone is a true Republican or a true Democrat) and what doesn’t.

For years, people in the state of Georgia would split their political preferences and tend to vote more conservative for Presidential elections, and more liberal for state-representation offices. Thus the reason why it took several cycles after Bush won in 2000 to get a majority of Republican officeholders in Georgia.

The point of this is, voting R or D in Presidential Preference Primaries (PPP) is not always considered to be a relevant indicator of whether a voter is a true R or a true D.

SO, if, in looking at Wilkinson’s voting record, one ignores the PPPs, you get the following primary elections and how he voted:

1996: D
1998: No Vote
2000: D
2002: D
2004: D
2006: R
2008: R
2010: R

A more correct wording of the “4 out of 7” claim would have been “Out of the last 7 primary elections in which Wilkinson voted, he voted Democrat in 4 of them.”

BUT, infinitesimal parsing of the language gets a little wordy and that creates a problem because the reader of the mail piece starts to get a headache as they try to interpret what you’re trying to say.

To be fair to the Wilkinson campaign, let’s see what happens when you put the PPPs into the mix:

1996: D
1998: No Vote
2000 PPP: No vote
2000: D
2002: D
2004 PPP: No vote
2004: D
2006: R
2008 PPP: R
2008: R
2010: R

With these results, if we were writing the mail piece, it would read “Out of the last 11 elections, John Wilkinson chose to vote Republican in only 4 of them. So, if he’s a Republican only 36% of the time, what kind of person is he the other 64% of the time?”

Now, of course, to be fair, one should ask what Rick Austin’s voting record is, right? Here’s his voting record. As you can see, there isn’t a “D” to be found anywhere in Austin’s voting record.

Back to Wilkinson’s voting record, it is very curious as to why Wilkinson remained a voting “D” until 2006. Perdue won Georgia in 2002. At that point, if you have been leaning to the conservative side of the aisle, you go ahead and switch before the next cycle in 2004.

Wilkinson didn’t switch. He remained a Dem voter in July 2004, and a reasonable assumption would be because he still wished to lend support to the Tom Murphy-controlled State House in 2004 and to vote for Democrat state senators to try and take back the state senate from Republican control.

And he likely voted D in the General Election on 2004 as well (i.e., John Kerry for President, Denise Majette for US Senator).

SO, the point of this exercise is that Mr. Wilkinson does not appear to have very long-standing, deep roots for the Republican Party and its’ principles.

WHICH, getting back to the real reason why Casey Cagle would be endorsing Wilkinson is because Wilkinson does not have a long-standing, strong Republican bearing. Perfect candidate for Cagle to use for his own personal, political purposes.

According to his Website, Duke Blackburn worked for 20 years in “Georgia government” and retired in 2009. On his Website, he states that he “knows how government works.”

In 2006, he threw his support behind Mark Taylor (D) for Governor by not only contributing $250.00 to Taylor’s campaign, but also adorning his front lawn with Mark Taylor for Governor signs.

Now, while there will be those of you who declare “Oh, that was 5 years ago! He wants to be a Republican now. Let’s hug him and welcome him in!”….ehhhh, not so fast.

Blackburn appears to have retired from government in 2009, and has no evidence of ever demonstrating any knowledge of, or interest in, Republican politics. He has no record of anything remotely resembling a right-wing conservative mind.

As for the endorsement by Casey Cagle, Cagle clearly sees someone who he can easily influence and manipulate. He sees Blackburn as merely a lump of undefined political clay, ready to be molded into whatever kind of Republican Casey needs.

Now, as it turns out, Cagle and Blackburn do both share a similar past: They have both contributed to Democrat Mark Taylor. We referenced the $250 contribution Blackburn gave Taylor in 2006 for his Governor’s campaign.

In 2006, in the Lt. Governor’s primary between Casey Cagle and Ralph Reed, the Reed campaign unearthed Casey’s contribution of $1000.00 to Lt. Governor Mark Taylor in the 1999-2000 time frame. (The AJC’s Jim Galloway wrote a column about it which does not appear to be on the Web any longer…)

As far as the qualifications for Mike Crane go (Blackburn’s opponent), Crane has a documented history of many years of Republican activity, not the least of which most recently was his winning the Republican run-off in August 2010 for Congressional District 13, and then challenging Democrat David Scott in the General (Crane lost…very tough district for a Republican to win).

So, Mike Crane has proven Republican chops. That, apparently, is something Cagle doesn’t want to have to face in a senator in his chamber.

Final Comment on Blackburn: Nothing personal to him, but, when a ghost (i.e., someone who has no Republican form prior to qualifying) shows-up to qualify for office as a Republican, you gotta wonder if he’s doing it because he’s a person who believes in the principles of the Republican Party, or is he doing it because he just thinks that’s the best way to win?

Also, in our view, the last thing this state needs is another ex-government bureaucrat. Because, the only thing bureaucrats know how to do really well is create and manage the red-tape processes the rest of us just grit our teeth and grimace about every time we interact with a state agency.

Mitch Seabaugh served SS District 28 for a long time as a very solid conservative Republican. To replace him with someone whose principles no one really knows anything about is just asking for a lot of trouble.

Rumors have it that the skirmish that made headlines all over the state between Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and the senate GOP caucus leadership in the waning days of this year’s General Assembly is now being fought in hand-to-hand combat in two battle theaters: The State Senate District 50 and State Senate District 28 run-offs to be held this coming Tuesday, December 6.

Lt. Governor Casey Cagle has endorsed two candidates in these run-offs:

1) Recently endorsed John Wilkinson in the 50th in his run-off against current State House legislator Rick Austin. (Source: online news article)

2) Recently endorsed Duke Blackburn in the 28th district, in his run-off against Mike Crane. ( Source: Blackburn’s website)

Now, an inattentive observer of the Lt. Governor’s involvement in these two races might not think much beyond the fluffy hug-fests stuffed into press releases as to the reasons why Cagle would be making moves to make endorsements in two special election races in which all 4 candidates are running as Republicans.

But, when attentive observers look more closely at the LG’s endorsements, there is an indication of a deliberate strategy of a personal political gain behind the endorsements.

During the original skirmish (i.e., during the birth and rise of ‘Beth Merkelson’), one of the rumors was that Cagle was very close to cutting a deal with Minority Senator Robert Brown whereby if enough Republican state senators abandoned the GOP caucus structure put in place in November of 2010 (in which the LG’s authority was removed from making committee assignments), and these GOP senators voted with the Democrat Caucus, the LG would regain a ruling majority, which would allow him to re-write the Senate Rules and declare himself King of the Hill.

At the time of the skirmish, PV did not believe the rumor regarding Casey joining forces with Robert Brown. There was no evidence, soft or hard, at the time.

However, with these two current-day endorsements in particular, the original rumor is now looking more and more plausible because it would explain why the LG is making these moves now, and nothing else comes close to explaining it.

Every year, America sets aside a special day — Veterans Day — to thank its veterans for their service and sacrifice. And well we should.

Originally known as Armistice Day in America and Europe, the occasion commemorated the signing of the armistice between the Allies (in particular, America, Britain, and France) and Germany at 11:00AM on November 11, 1918 — the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of that year. The armistice marked the end of World War I which came to be known as the “war to end all wars.”

Later, in America, the name was changed to Veterans Day and each year across the country thousands of parades, festivals, and celebrations of every sort are held in honor of our nation’s veterans. And during many of these celebrations, two minutes of silence are observed beginning exactly at 11:00AM in honor of our nation’s fallen heroes.

There is a saying, “Freedom is not free.” That is especially true of America’s freedom. To gain a bit of perspective regarding our nation’s sacrifice in the name of protecting our freedoms, one need only consider the number of soldiers killed in battle: Revolutionary War (1775 — 1783) 25,324; War of 1812 — 2,260; Mexican War (1846 — 1848) 13,283; Civil War (1861 — 1865) approximately 640,000; Spanish-American War (1898) 2,893; Philippines War (1899 — 1902) 4,273; World War I (1917 — 1918) 116,708; World War II (1941 — 1945) 408,306; Korean War (1950 — 1953) 54,246; Vietnam War (1957 — 1975) 58,219; Persian Gulf War (1990 — 1991) 363; Afghanistan War (2001 to date) approximately 1,800; Iraq War (2003 to date) approximately 5,000.

Further, the number of American soldiers wounded in battle often far exceeds those killed: Revolutionary War (1775 — 1783) 8,445; War of 1812 — 4,505; Civil War (1861 — 1865) 418,206; Spanish-American War (1898) 1,637; Philippines War (1899 — 1902) 2,840; World War I (1917 — 1918) 204,002; World War II (1941 — 1945) 670,846; Korean War (1950 — 1953) 103,284; Vietnam War (1957 — 1975) 153,356; Persian Gulf War (1990 — 1991) 357; Afghanistan War (2001 to date)
approximately 5,000; Iraq War (2003 to date) approximately 15,000.

Many of those wounded in action suffer permanent disabilities or are permanently disfigured.

However, honoring veterans isn’t only about recognizing the number killed or wounded in action. It’s also about recognizing their sacrifices which come in many forms: time away from home and family; the missed milestones in children’s lives such as graduations, recitals, awards banquets and sporting events; enduring the rigors of deployment or the horrors of battle; and the homesickness among so many other sacrifices.

When Daddy joined the US Army at the outbreak of World War II, he was 22 years old. He had seldom been away from home. One day he stepped on a train in Parkersburg, West Virginia, waved goodbye to his mother through the window, and didn’t return for three and a half years. He sailed halfway around the world to serve in lands as foreign to him as if he had landed on another planet. He served in New Guinea, the Philippines, and numerous islands in between. And when it was all over, he spent 33 days at sea crossing the Pacific Ocean in an LST — landing ship tank — small vessels designed to transport soldiers from troop ships to the beach, not to sail across the open ocean. Now that is sacrifice.

Through the years, he seldom spoke of the war. Quiet humility is his nature after all. And it is the nature of many from his generation that has come to be known as the “greatest generation.” I’m proud of his service. I’m proud of all Americans who’ve served our nation honorably. And I’m proud to be a veteran myself.

So, this Veterans Day, be proud of America’s veterans and be proud of America. And never apologize for America’s greatness. After all, we earned it. And for that, don’t forget to thank a veteran.

Read more from Spencer Price via his own blog and sign-up for his emailed articles!

Mark Mathews is the current mayor of Kennesaw, and is running for reelection this Tuesday, November 8th.

First elected as mayor in 2007, he started his term in January 2008.

According to his reelection Website, he states the following as part of his business resume:

“1989-2009: Mathews Carpet Company – a company started by his parents in 1974. In 2001 MR Mathews, Inc. was created to purchase the business, Mathews Abbey Flooring, providing all types of flooring products and services to the residential, commercial, and new construction markets. Forced to close business due to economic downturn.”

A more accurate statement (and, truthful one at that) with regards to being “Forced to close business due to economic downturn” would have been “Filed bankruptcy in 2009 as a result of economic downturn.”

See, Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a difference between merely “closing a business” and a business filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. One denotes the act of merely ceasing operations after settling all debts…while the other one denotes a legal filing to a federal court to officially tell 44 some-odd creditors “Hey…ummm…sorry, we ain’t gonna pay you what we owe” to “close” the business.

So, if he’s not accurate in his description of what actually happened to his business, one might wonder if it really went bankrupt due solely to an “economic downturn” OR…could it be because Mathews was spending too much of his time playing mayor and dealing in the “fun” of politics rather than keeping his eye on his business enterprise?

Also in 2009, Mathews and his wife had to personally file for bankruptcy. (We are not in any way implying or inferring anything negative with regards to the character of Mark Mathews or his wife.)

HOWEVER…in referencing the actual filing (a 23 Megabyte PDF file should you choose to open or download it), there are significant instances of the taxpayers of several government jurisdictions being left on the hook for Mathews’ tax debt.

Specifically:

– City of Marietta: $2286.53 (Page 31 of 83 in PDF)
– City of Marietta Section 8 Housing Authority: $2003.43 (Page 39 of 83 in PDF)
– Cobb County Tax Commissioner: $626.00 (Page 40 of 83)
– Cobb County Tax Commissioner: $1553.32 (Page 40 of 83)

All told, Mark Mathews (via himself and MR Mathews, Inc) has left several Cobb County-based municipalities $6,469.28 in the red and OTHER taxpayers having to foot his tax bills (by having to pay higher taxes on their tax bills owed)

Now, the 2nd-term seeking mayoral candidate just happens to be one of the big, Big, BIG proponents of next year’s T-SPLOST. You know, that little vote that will require all Kennesaw inhabitants the additional responsibility of paying 1% more in sales tax on everything they buy in Cobb. Yeah. Mathews is in favor of you paying more taxes so that he can have a hand in spending on your behalf.

Councilman Tim Killingsworth, Post 2 is running for reelection to the Kennesaw City Council. He is also known to be a tight ally of Mark Mathews.

On October 24th, there was a candidate forum held by the Kennesaw Patch (an online local news site that is owned by Huffington-Post).

Here is a link to a PDF version of the transcript.

It is interesting to us that Councilman Killingsworth, at Time Marker 7:32 states “We haven’t raised your taxes, and we don’t plan to do that anytime soon.”

Then…at Time Marker 7:45, Killingsworth answers the question of whether he supports the T-SPLOST vote next year by saying “I would have to say I do support it.”

So, for Killingsworth’s mind, maybe there’s a distinction in his mind of what constitutes “anytime soon” and intending to push (along with Mathews coordinating) for passage of next year’s T-SPLOST vote to…do what? Oh, yeah. RAISE TAXES.

PV’s Conclusion: Frankly, in our opinion, the existence of Mathews’ two bankruptcies (personal and business defaults) are not the direct issues here.

What should be important in this case is the following:

1) Mathews had an obligation to be truthful as to why his business “closed.” It’s easy to blame the downturn…but, not everyone has gone out of business due to the downturn. AND, filing a bankruptcy is NOT the same thing as “closing a business.”

2) The failure to pay nearly $6500 in various taxes to the City of Marietta (hey, Thunder has deep pockets to cover this default, right, Thunder?) and the Cobb County Tax Commissioner’s office (hey, Tim Lee and Helen Goreham will cover for Mathews in a heartbeat…they’ll just raise the rest of our millages, right?).

No, defaulting on taxes should immediately disqualify anyone from “serving” the people. We hope that come the Election Night of November 8, the voters of Kennesaw disqualify the reelection of Mark Mathews.

Last week, we issued a Poll to the Vine readership consisting of this one question: ” If a person running for public office has a bankruptcy of any type in their background, should it be disclosed?”

Out of 142 votes cast, 111 voted “Yes, it should be disclosed” and 32 voted “No, I don’t care to know.”

There was an opportunity for people to give their own insight into the subject, and the personal opinions ran the gamut (see here for opinions…by the way, the site that the Poll is on is not controlled by Political Vine in any way, and it will not be monitored).

In reviewing these opinions, as well as consulting with other people in the world of politics, we’ve come to the following conclusions about bankruptcies (you are free to disagree):

1) Not all bankruptcies are the result of a character flaw in the people who file. It does not mean the person is immoral or unethical for filing a bankruptcy (of course, if any US Senator from Georgia ever files for bankruptcy, we’ll be scratching our heads and wondering why they didn’t get enough ROI from their crony capitalist bank pals after they voted in 2005 to give the homeowner less of a chance for recovery, all the while giving more power and absolution to the banks themselves).

2) Not all bankruptcies are entirely the fault of the person or business making the filing.

3) Barring the actual attempt to defraud, defaulting on money owed to creditors is not a sign of anyone who is being inherently dishonest (the creditors voluntarily took a risk to give credit to the borrower…that is an agreement between two private parties as far as we are concerned and a happenstance of the free market).

4) However, if the person has defaulted on taxes owed to a government entity, AND….that person is a candidate for a publicly-elected office for some position at some level of government, then everyone’s pretty much in agreement that that is a sign of hypocrisy present that is not going to be tolerated for very long by the voters and taxpayers.

It is this 4th point that is crucial to understand why there’s “hypocrisy” if someone is elected to office who hasn’t paid their own tax bills. It is the reason why we felt it was necessary to expose, not only the $137,000 some-odd of current tax liens that HD 43 candidate Robert Lamutt had on his current books, but also his documented 7-year history of having liens at both the federal and state level field against him that made it relevant.

When you are elected to public office, you are, in effect, using the force of government to extract tax dollars from us to pay for your fiefdom.

And, unless you think, as an elected official, that you should be exempt from paying taxes to support your infrastructure, your failure to pay taxes means that the burden must fall on the rest of the taxpayers.

And, taxpayers don’t particularly care to shoulder your load while you are put in charge of making decisions on how to spend their money.

Rumors have it that Senator Cecil Staton is growing a bigger pair of cojones (pronounced ka-hon-ees) these days. So much so that he has taken it upon himself to invoke his title “State Senator” when he solicits new business for advertising on his radio station business.

One such incident happened several weeks ago when he called on the CEO of a large hospital in middle-Georgia, which just happened to be located in his senate district. He told the hospital decision-maker “Say, you should advertise on my radio station…oh, and I’m your state senator.”

PV Utters A “_ _ _?” (Hangman, anyone?): Wow. Essentially, Staton is playing the “Buy radio advertising from me OR else I, as YOUR State Senator, will hurt your operation, hold-up legislation, and generally make your life and this hospital live through Hell…” playing card.

That does take some cojones. AND, a certain degree of real stupidity.

Because, there is a set of written rules that the Georgia State Senate operates on, and one of them is that a member cannot invoke their title as a way of using leverage in a private business deal. Under Part Four-Conduct & Ethics, there is a slew of topics, not the least of which is 1-4.1: “(a) Senators and Senate staff shall refrain from using government positions to attain personal financial gain.”

PV Provides Some Background: But we kinda already have that experience with Senator Staton with his direct knowledge and participation in the Beth Merkelson saga near the end of the 2011 Legislative Session.

Now, another flourishing rumor is that Staton is up to his eyeballs in current debt owed to Mercer University…because Mercer apparently had a similar deal with one of Staton’s radio stations that Georgia Southern University had regarding the splitting of advertising revenue sold for the broadcast of college athletic events, and Staton owes Mercer big time.

This story from WMAZ in Macon from June 2011 describes the GSU issue whereby GSU is claiming Staton’s company owes them $52,000 in overdue radio advertising revenues.

PV suspects that Mercer University will either not return news organizations’ phone calls OR flat-out deny that any such advertising revenue is owed to them. Why? Because Senator Staton acts as one of their biggest benefactors in getting state revenue tax dollars out of the state budget and into Mercer University’s operating budget (what exactly does “private university” even mean anymore???).

PV Ponders: Golly, we wonder what Cecil Staton’s #1 Fan, Erick Erickson, thinks about a state senator using his position to attempt to extort new business while giving the middle-finger to old business that he owes multiple thousands of dollars to? Especially when it concerns Erick’s own alma mater?

Well, knowing Erickson’s incredible capacity for political myopia, PV’s pretty sure Erickson will be telling his Mercer Admin-pals that they shouldn’t worry about getting that money.

Because just as soon as Staton is successful in convincing NEW business to come-in (vis-a-vis , thinly-veiled political threats to hospitals and the like in his district), we’re certain Staton will use those new dollars to pay all of his old business debt…’cause, he’s such a good state senator isn’t he, Beth? Beth? Bethhhhhh…? Yo! Where’d that girl get to now…?

POLL QUESTION

Rumors have it that House Speaker David Ralston has officially flown over the Cuckoo’s Nest…and, apparently, is intent on dragging the entire state house with him.

PV Provides A Little Background: The oft-discussed T-SPLOST coming-up in 2012 had its beginnings in a vote on HB 277 in April 2010.

Bill Evelyn of the State of Georgia Tea Party (a separate entity from Georgia Tea Party and the Atlanta Tea Party Patriots) has put together an awesome video showing Speaker David Ralston in the Well of the House last year speaking on behalf of HB 277.

The video, literally, speaks for itself, and it’s a little over 7 minutes of Ralston demonstrating that a) Ralston knows NOTHING about why this country was formed, b) He knows NOTHING about how his own house district constituents likely truly feel about shoveling their money to “Atlanta”, and c) Just how OUT OF TOUCH he is with Georgians:

Ralston on HB 277

Rumors have it that one of the announced Republican candidates running to oppose John Barrow (D) in Georgia’s new 12th Congressional District has a very special place in his heart for Democrats.

PV Provides A Little Background: There are several candidates running, or thinking about running, to get the Republican nomination to try to defeat Barrow. This is who we know about to this point:

Rick Allen (in the race)
Lee Anderson (in the race)
Ray McKinney (thinking of entering)
Max Burns (was thinking of entering)
Wright McLeod (thinking of entering)
Jeanne Seaver (thinking of entering)

Rick Allen announced via an emailed press release last week (H/T Barry Paschal at Augusta Chronicle). Allen is a graduate of Auburn University with a degree in building construction, and has operated RW Allen & Associates since 1976. Most of his project work has been through bids for public works projects in Columbia County and the City of Augusta.

PV Has Some Questions: 1) How long has this guy even been a Republican?

2) Why did he contribute $1000 to a Democrat like Charles Walker, Jr. (aka Champ Walker, son of former State Senator Charles Walker, Sr.) when Champ ran for Congress for the 2002 election cycle?

It’s not like Congress was run by Democrats back then. In fact, Republicans had held the House since 1995 in 2001-2002 time frame.

Back then, the Dems did still run this state’s house and senate…and the “Don” (yes, you can interpret the application of the word “Don” to mean “Godfather”) of the Augusta area was then-State Senator Majority Leader Charles Walker. Was Rick Allen trying to curry favor with the senior Walker by contributing to the junior Walker?

Wonder how that contribution to Champ Walker would have turned-out had Champ won and had senior Walker not been indicted and found guilty of 127 counts of tax evasion, mail fraud, and conspiracy?

Inquiring minds should be wondering…

HD 43-Brian Laurens vs. Geraldine Wade

In a previous PV, we described an incident regarding Brian Laurens of the Robert Lamutt Campaign and Geraldine Wade, who was a candidate for the HD-43 Special Election.

That election has come and gone, and Wade, while receiving an impressive 22.2% for her first time out with a pure grassroots effort, fell short of getting into a run-off which is now between Robert Lamutt, who received 31.3% (699 votes) and John Carson, who received an even more impressive 35.8% of the vote (801 votes) for his first time running with his grassroots team.

After our story that identified Brian Laurens as the culprit in the duplicitious phone conversations he had with Wade about her campaign signs, Laurens was asked about this by several people to which he has reportedly replied “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me!”

Well, here’s the problem with his denial: Either he’s lying or a brand-new political candidate, who never met Brian Laurens or encountered him in any other venue before this race, is lying.

That is, that would mean Wade is lying about the phone number that appeared on her cell phone Caller ID when the incident happened.

One thing PV had collected from Wade in our interview with her shortly after her phone encounter with Laurens was the actual phone number that showed-up on Wade’s phone.

That number was not reported in our original article because PV did not wish to give Mr. Laurens any more notoriety than he already has…but, since he insists on NOT taking responsibility for his actions, and, essentially accusing both the PV and Geraldine Wade of lying, we now have no choice but to print the phone number, and allow our readers to do their own searches to find out the identity of the following phone number that Wade had on her Caller ID a few weeks ago (and, she may still have it on there as an incoming call): 770-256-8394.

HD-43: Chip Rogers vs. Chip Rogers?

To the voters of HD 43, it might seem like State Senator Chip Rogers may have schizophrenia with whom he is supporting in this Special Election. Now, before you go jumping to conclusions about what this means, consider these Exhibits:

Exhibit 1: Lamutt Campaign mail piece with a quote from Senator Rogers

Exhibit 2: Carson Campaign mail piece with a quote from Senator Rogers

Hmmmm…Gee….what’s going on here with one person seeming to endorse two candidates in the same race?

Well, this did perplex PV and we made a call to Senator Rogers who illuminated us on the issue. He stated to us that he had told the Lamutt campaign that he’d be happy to give a quote in support of Lamutt, but that he would not “endorse” Lamutt because Rogers knew all of the candidates in the HD 43 race, liked them all, didn’t wish to take sides in a race between all of his friends, and wished to offer all candidates a quote if they wanted to use it in their campaign with the stipulation that they not use the word “endorse.”

And, subsequently, after the Lamutt mail piece hit, the Carson campaign contacted Rogers and received the quote given in support of Carson, which is in Exhibit 2.

So, Senator Rogers is not endorsing opposing candidates in the same race.

Getting the Legislative Fiscal Office (“LFO”) into Fiscal Order

Rumors have it that there are going to be some changes proposed in the next legislative session in how the Legislative Fiscal Office doles-out reimbursed expenses.

Now, to the majority of the people in Georgia, you’ve never heard of this office because it does not affect you directly, nor would you really ever know about it unless you were a legislative inhabitant of the state legislature.

The LFO is the office for the state house and state senate members to go to turn-in payment requests for expense reimbursement. The procedure for decades has been for any Member to go to the office, sign an affidavit claiming they have made expenditures in direct support of their role as an elected member of the legislature.

Currently, there is a $7000 limit per session per Member that is allowed for each Member to use to help him/her carryout his/her duties. Activities like hiring an assistant, or a part-time person to help in the district, etc.

Now, apparently, upon the signing of the affidavit by the elected Member, a check is cut shortly thereafter and given directly to the Member. This has been the procedure for years, if not decades (and was put in place by the Democrats because it was not until 2005 that Republicans got control of both houses, and the LFO has existed for many years prior to 2005).

So, some members have realized that this procedure is open to massive abuse…especially when they observe some other members walking into the LFO on the first day of the session and claiming things similar to “Yeah, uh, I hired Wanda Merkelson (first cousin of Beth) to consult with me for a day to help me organize my office and files and she charged me $7000.00 for this, and I need a reimbursement for my full allotment now.“

Funny thing about these “reimbursement” checks: No tax trail follows this money. No member has to report it to the IRS. The LFO does not (based on what we’ve been told) report to the Georgia Tax Department or the IRS that this money has been paid out and to whom.

So, currently, if the money is being used to pay for an employee that works directly for the legislative member…that money supposedly has no tax ties to it. It’s essentially, “free” money to the recipient, who then has the (ahem) obligation to report it.

In the case where it is a true “reimbursement” (e.g., office equipment purchase, stamps and envelopes, etc.) then that would be an instance of a check being cut for a valid reason. But, unless receipts are required to be provided (which they are not), no one really knows what a legitimate reimbursement is and what a fraudulent one is.

In the case of an employee who works directly for a legislator and is paid out of these funds…they may not be paying taxes AND…there is no paper trail required on the payment. It’s not like a legislator is required to disclose where/how the $7000 is actually being spent.

Now, to be sure we do not slap a paint brush across the faces of every member of the legislature, we are not accusing any member of ever (ahem) falsely claiming a reimbursement. But, we have had real-life examples described to us that certainly point to what would be considered a fraudulent claim if it was made in the “real world.”

So, one of the ideas being floated is that anyone who works for a legislator as a part-time assistant that they be required to file a W-2 form with the LFO and the LFO starts issuing checks directly to the assistant to the legislator. This way, there is a direct link to why the money was paid, to whom it was paid, and for the proper income taxes to be collected and submitted to the tax collection authority.

There may be some thorny issues, though, with a change-up like this in procedure that need to be wrangled-out. As it has been explained to us, there is a distinct entity called the “General Assembly” which is not really integrated into “state government” when it comes to the state employee and retirement system. Supposedly, there are distinctly different pension retirement systems between members of the Georgia General Assembly and regular Georgia state government employees (no, we don’t know the intricate differences, nor do we care to find out because we know that subject is pretty sticky).

So, if someone who is now just operating as a paid assistant of a legislator becomes a paid employee of the General Assembly by having to register a W-2 with the LFO, does the General Assembly face these issues: 1) Having to pay unemployment insurance to the Labor Department, and, 2) if an employee of the General Assembly commits some sort of tort against someone else while carrying out their official duties, is the General Assembly liable for that tort?

Anyway, PV hopes the 2012 Legislature examines this issue in some depth to ensure that tax dollars are not being abused and laws are being followed when it comes to their direct, personal use of our tax dollars.

Herman Has The Hammer Down…

Rumors have it that the campaign coffers of Presidential Candidate Herman Cain are piling-up with contributions after Cain’s stunning win in the Florida Presidency 5 straw poll last Saturday.

Congratulations, Herman!

What’s Up With Brian?

Rumors have it that the man in Georgia who has the weightiest decision to make is Secretary of State Brian Kemp. Why?

Because Kemp is charged with setting the date of when the Presidential Preference Primary (“PPP”) occurs in Georgia.

AND…he hasn’t made that decision yet…

AND…he has to weigh a whole LOT of “What-Ifs?” in his decision-making process. What are some of his “What-ifs?”

1) What if I set the date to be before March 1, 2012?

2) What if Chris Christie and/or Sarah Palin enters the race?

3) What if there is a floor fight at the 2012 Republican National Convention where whatever has been determined via the Presidential Preference Primary gets shredded because some states will be dominated by Tea Party delegations who don’t give a rip about the traditional way the RNC has been doing things and, if they are unhappy with the PPP choice, they may refuse to participate in the normal convention procedure of accepting a bad candidate to show “unity” and try and get a better candidate.

AND…these three “What-Ifs” are actually…intricately…connected. How?

Because if Kemp sets the date before March 1, an RNC Rule kicks-in that stipulates that Georgia will only get half of its 76-member delegation seated at the National Convention. Meaning, only 38 people will be attending the convention next year. (This Rule, by the way, was something State Chair Sue Everhart fought strongly against and her caucus came within just a few votes of defeating it…and there are several state chairmen who have expressed their regret since then that they didn’t follow Sue and vote against the RNC rule change.)

Now, while some Republicans in this state shrug their shoulders and assume that this rule that cuts the delegation down merely means 38 people won’t get to attend the convention…they would be extremely short-sighted in that viewpoint.

Because…if another one or two Republican candidates do jump into the Presidential race, then that may bleed-off supporters of other candidates (or, even cause currently neutral voters to jump on one of the newbie campaigns) and cause no candidate to obtain a clear mandate in collecting a strong majority of PPP votes and states…which is another reason a massive floor fight could happen at the convention in which only the delegates seated will truly have a say in selecting who becomes the Republican nominee.

And, if Kemp has set the date to be before March 1st, Georgia, while seeming to become a “player” in the national PPP race, will be relegated to has-been status if there is a floor fight at the national convention and Georgia’s delegation is not present in full force.

PV Note to Brian Kemp: Be vewwy, vewwy careful in your potential desire to become a player…because, it might just backfire if there is a floor fight at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Happy Decision-Making to you, Brian! 🙂