When it came to meeting with nearly 250 stakeholders from across the state to come up with ideas to address key issues facing Georgia over the next 20 years, gubernatorial candidates Roy Barnes and Nathan Deal phoned it in — literally.
The GeorgiaForward Forum, created by Central Atlanta Progress, was held Wednesday at Macon State College. The forum hosted political figures, academics, business leaders and others interested in coming up with plans to vault Georgia to the top of states in the Southeast.
One might assume that it’s a conference that any candidate hoping to govern the state over the next four or eight years might attend, since panels covered important challenges facing Georgia such as water management, education, transportation, infrastructure and the environment.
Both candidates were invited to attend but ended up being interviewed by Georgia Public Broadcasting anchor Rickey Bevington, who asked each candidate the same set of questions. By not being present, however, none of the attendees were able to follow up on comments either candidate made.
Deal, for example, said the toughest thing about being governor would be to turn down the requests of his friends, something that might have been interesting for media to follow up with considering he was facing possible ethics charges before resigning from Congress earlier this year.
Both candidates also brought unintentional moments of humor. Deal, the Republican, called the teleconference back a few minutes after his session, not recognizing the number on caller ID and asking the room full of attendees who had just called him.
Barnes, the Democrat, talking on his cell phone while on the road, couldn’t hear Bevington correctly when she1947FF30 asked him how he would define leadership. Barnes heard the question as how he would “find” leadership.
Conference officials said they tried to do everything to get the candidates to come to the conference before finally agreeing to the teleconference.
For the record, Barnes was at a political event somewhere else, one of his aides said, but didn’t say where the event was or who sponsored it. Deal’s spokesman said the candidate was at meetings all day and served as a panelist for a National Federation of Independent Businesses event before returning to his hometown for a birthday celebration.
Congressional race heating up
In 8th Congressional District news, Austin Scott, the Republican from Ashburn, was said in a poll to have a shot at beating U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall, a Democrat from Macon.
A Republican poll shows Marshall leading Scott, 44 percent to 39 percent, with a margin of error of 5.7 percent. In short, they could be tied, or wide apart, in a candidate-funded poll. This won’t be the last update before November.
Separately, the Cook Political Report decided Marshall’s seat is no longer “likely Democratic” and not even “leaning Democratic.” The Cook political handicappers moved the seat to “toss up.” Another political handicapper, Real Clear Politics, moved the race from “likely Democratic” to “leans Democratic” -- then moved it again to “toss up.” A third political handicapper, Stuart Rothenberg, moved the seat from “leaning Democratic” to “toss up/tilt Democratic.” This also won’t be the last update before November.
Beyond the handicapping, there’s an interesting prediction from the Cook Political Report excerpted by Peach Pundit: “Republican insiders admit this race will come down to Macon, where Marshall was mayor and Scott is undefined. But if other districts in rural Georgia are even slight headaches for Democrats, this one will be a migraine.”
We’ll offer a safe prediction: The 8th District election will mean good business for pollsters, paid pundits and the manufacturers of headache and heartburn medicine.
Qualifying for Macon City Council seat set to begin
Qualifying for Alveno Ross’ open Macon City Council seat officially begins at 9 a.m. Monday and ends Wednesday at noon.
The cost to register to run for the Ward III, Post 2 seat is $300. Candidates have to register at the Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections, 2445 Pio Nono Ave.
The vote for the seat will take place during the general election Nov. 2.
Taking count
Mercer University student Paul Leachman filed an ethics complaint in January against a state senator, Ralph Hudgens. That complaint was finally settled this month by the State Ethics Commission, which agreed with Hudgens that his state Senate campaign donations should not be used in his insurance commissioner campaign. The agreement means Hudgens had to move the money back to his Senate campaign accounts.
Hudgens has since won the Republican nomination for the seat over nine other candidates. The ethics commission did not fine him, and no one says Hudgens spent the money from his Senate account.
Leachman did not return a request for comment.
The return of American hegemony?
“Foreign Policy” is a 40-year-old academic journal. But a rambunctious phrase recently popped out at us, predicting a chain of events in which America would be responsible for maintaining peace and order around the world, “a global Pax Americana supported by regional client-empires tasked with controlling and eradicating local zombie eruptions.”
The amusing back-and-forth can be found by visiting foreignpolicy.com and searching for “zombie horde.”
A walk to remember
People don’t want to walk far to get to Macon State College’s walking track, and that’s causing problems.
Bibb County officials said signs were posted last year along Ivey Drive prohibiting parking along the side of the road. But the signs weren’t posted following the proper procedure, which involves telling county commissioners about them, so there was some dispute with the sheriff’s office, which wrote tickets. We’re not quite sure what happened with last year’s tickets.
The college begins ticketing people without new parking stickers on Sept. 1.
Legal parking or not, would it kill anyone to walk to a walking track?
Writers Phillip Ramati and Mike Stucka contributed to this report.
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