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Saturday, Jul. 11, 2009

Political Notebook: A Jack Ellis update ... You know you’re interested

With President Obama visiting the African nation of Ghana on Friday, it seemed like a good time to check in with former Macon Mayor Jack Ellis.

After all, Ellis campaigned for Obama, traveling to other states to do so. And it was Ellis who added Elmina, Ghana, as one of Macon’s sister cities during his time at City Hall. He traveled there himself with some frequency as mayor, and continues to do so now, both for business and pleasure.

Ellis said he’d planned to be in Ghana now, not just because of the president’s visit but because this is the week of the Bakatue festival in Elmina. That, Ellis said, is one of the world’s oldest festivals, dating back to the 1200s. Various online resources say that bakatue translates roughly to “the opening of the lagoon.”

But business concerns — he runs a political consulting firm called C. Jack Ellis Consulting — kept Ellis in the states during the festivals, he said.

Ellis did some consulting work for a Ghanian presidential candidate during last year’s elections there, he said. His candidate didn’t win, but Ellis said he is friends with the winner, whom he met through the sister city program.

“We’re all friends,” he said.

GOVERNOR'S RACE: RIGHT NOW, FUNDRAISING'S THE THING

Before folks vote at the ballot in next year’s gubernatorial race, some of them vote with their pocketbooks.

Yes, it’s fundraising time for the folks running for governor, and the campaigns had a filing deadline earlier this month. So here’s how the race to build up campaign war chests sits.

The figures given are the total amount each candidate raised in the past six months, not including campaign loans, followed by the total amount of cash they have on hand. All figures are taken from disclosures available online from the Georgia State Ethics Commission.

REPUBLICANS

U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal: $980,290/$1,149,847

Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine: $416,580/$1,006,869

State Sen. Eric Johnson: $962,773/$913,483

Secretary of State Karen Handel: $431,178/$325,013

State Rep. Austin Scott: $171,395/$85,578

Activist Ray McBerry: $18,596/$3,424

DEMOCRATS

Attorney General Thurbert Baker: $704,331/$591,220

Retired Lt. Gen. David Poythress: $156,462/$264,099

State Rep. DuBose Porter: $229,400/$225,068

Ray City Mayor Carl Camon: No report filed.

Former Gov. Roy Barnes: $0 (Barnes hasn’t formally begun his campaign, but he has announced his intention to run.)

LIBERTARIAN

Libertarian Executive Committee member John Monds: $3,657/$2,675

There are four other candidates who have filed some sort of official paperwork with the commission, but none of them had filed any fundraising reports with the commission as of the Tuesday night deadline, and none of them have publicly announced their campaign — at least not to The Telegraph.

Just a few things we noticed:

- Baker’s contacts as a past president of the National Association of Attorneys General allowed him to raise a lot of money out of state. About 37 percent of his money came from somewhere other than Georgia. In fact, a single family in Joplin, Mo., gave Baker $48,800. That includes $12,200 apiece (the maximum allowed) from a husband and wife lawyer team, plus another $12,200 apiece from two of their children, both listed merely as “students” on a campaign finance document.

- Deal, who will serve the north Georgia area in Congress during this race, received about $39,000 from various health-care groups. Most of that money came from out of state, too. Why would pharmaceutical companies from other states care about the Georgia governor’s race? It’s hard to say. But it might because Deal serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Health subcommittee, which will be involved in the ongoing debate over health-care reform.

- Johnson surprised some folks by putting up a big number, particularly since he wasn’t allowed to raise money during this year’s legislative session, which ended in early April. But his contacts as a senator, and ability to raise money in the relatively affluent Savannah and Georgia coastal area he represents, gave his campaign a definite edge.

- Poythress, a Macon native, focused on smaller donations from people, and said he got money from all 159 Georgia counties. That includes some folks who apparently pledged to give a certain amount each month. Angela Brady of Brunswick, for example, gave Poythress $30 a month, each month, for six months.

BIBB COMMISSION WRESTLES WITH HOW TO HELP TRANSIT AUTHORITY

The Bibb County Commission continues to wrestle with how to ensure bus service without loaning money to the Macon-Bibb County Transit Authority.

The transit authority has asked the city and the county to provide money for it to keep a healthy reserve and essentially loan it money each year until funds from a federal grant arrive.

But commissioners firmly have held the opinion that the county should not be in the lending business. Also, Bibb’s new short-term bond rating requires maintaining a certain level of cash, and fronting money in tight months could jeopardize that, according to the county’s Finance Department.

Now, the transit authority has suggested the county authorize the authority to dip into its reserve to front the money from the grant. The problem with that, commissioners said, is the county still would be on the hook for bringing the reserve back up to an acceptable level.

“I have difficulty with any loan, front door or back door,” Commissioner Lonzy Edwards said. “A loan is a loan is a loan.”

Commissioner Elmo Richardson said the transit authority needs to take more responsibility for its part of the tri-party agreement. A rate increase could benefit the authority’s operating budget, he said.

Commissioners said they plan to bring the issue to the attention of the local legislative delegation at a planned August meeting.

“The consequence of not having (transit service) could be very much worse than what we have here,” Commission Chairman Sam Hart said.

SALES TAX DOLLARS ROLLING IN FOR BIBB

So far shoppers in Macon are getting the Bibb County school system’s million dollar school construction projects paid off.

In 2005, Bibb voters approved shelling out another penny in sales tax to raise up to $165 million in school improvement projects over five years.

While receipts were down before Christmas, anticipated collections are now back on track.

“We’re keeping our fingers crossed that trend will continue,” Bob Flowers, Bibb’s capital program administrator, told school board members this week. The school system has spent $157 million on projects so far, he said.

Most of the construction costs will be paid off in September as school construction nears completion. The remodeling of Ingram-Pye Elementary on Anthony Road is “essentially finished” with school furniture now being moved in. A new Southwest High is complete except for some landscaping and demolition of the old Willingham buildings, which will continue into the fall.

A new Central High and Early Childhood Center also will open next month.

School officials now have their sights on $176 million worth of new school renovation and construction needs through 2015, which was whittled down from $218 million proposed at a recent board meeting.

School officials have not said publicly whether they will ask for a penny sales tax continuation. The current one ends in 2010.

Telegraph staff writers Travis Fain, Jennifer Burk and Julie Hubbard contributed to this report.