Thursday, January 26, 2006
Is it division or multiplication? Depends on your party
When the Democrats whacked through county and municipal lines to create a politically weighted new redistricting map in 2001, Sonny Perdue, then in the state Senate, thundered in righteous indignation at how communities across the state were being divided. Fellow Republican Sen. Bart Ladd wept openly that the small towns he loved would have divided representation under the Gold Dome.
Now it's the Democrats' turn to cry.
The GOP-controlled Senate passed a redistricting measure, now before the House, which divides Athens-Clarke County into two Senate districts and deals a blow to Rep. Jane Kidd (D-Athens), who's running for the seat being vacated by Sen. Brian Kemp (R-Athens). The changes make the district a less Democrat-friendly place.
Kidd said last week she intends to fight the remap "to the very end." If the new district lines do pass, Kidd said she was leaning toward going ahead with her Senate race but hadn't reached a final decision.
This issue divides the Athens-Clarke County Commission, which opposes the map, and the Chamber of Commerce, which endorses it. In the debate, a lot of the arguments made a few years ago about communities of interest have been reversed.
The map Republicans want to change, she said, was drawn by a court after the last redistricting suit brought by Republicans and pronounced fair by Perdue. It has proven to be competitive for both parties.
Kidd noted she wasn't in the Legislature when the Democrats drew the 2001 map, which Republicans are already pointing to for political justification. "We're a little blue island in the middle of a red sea, and I want them off my island," Kidd said.
Athens isn't a little town, Sen. Ralph Hudgens (R-Comer), the sponsor of the remap bill, said at Saturday's Christian Coalition kickoff event. It could use more representation in the Senate, he argued, noting that the 13 counties larger than Clarke --- which include the real giants like Gwinnett and Fulton --- have an average of 3.4 senators per county.
"They're complaining because it's bad for Democrats, not because it's bad for Clarke County," Hudgens said.
Hudgens said theLegislature never gave formal approval to the court-drawn map, and the current bill would give it the chance to do so with the new changes.
These redistricting stories, it should be noted, are often fraught with unintended consequences. Ask Roy Barnes.
Higher education politics
Absolutely nothing will come of it --- at least during a year when hunkering down is the watchword --- but it was interesting to read what former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell had to say about education, particularly higher education, last week at a Georgia Public Policy Foundation lunch.
Bell recommended consolidating some state colleges with technical schools and imposing what he called "term limitation" under which HOPE scholarship recipients could not stay in college longer on a "relaxed pace" and other students would have to pay higher tuitions for this luxury.
Bell's most politically sensitive point was about the University System-governing Board of Regents, which he called "an organization of another era." The state should take a close look at how the University System is structured, said Bell, who called on the foundation to issue a white paper on the subject.
Reed trails Democrats
Last week we reported on a campaign poll for Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Jim Martin that showed him leading Republican Ralph Reed by more than Martin's Democratic rival, former Sen. Greg Hecht.
The poll raises a good question, brought up by the Hecht campaign. How did Martin do in a head-on-head with Hecht?
Jay Martin, campaign manager and son of the candidate of the same name, said pollster Alan Secrest was looking solely for who had the better chance against Reed and didn't ask voters to chose between the Democrats.
"It was a general election poll, and it wouldn't have made sense to poll on a Democratic primary question," the younger Martin said.
Now it's the Democrats' turn to cry.
The GOP-controlled Senate passed a redistricting measure, now before the House, which divides Athens-Clarke County into two Senate districts and deals a blow to Rep. Jane Kidd (D-Athens), who's running for the seat being vacated by Sen. Brian Kemp (R-Athens). The changes make the district a less Democrat-friendly place.
Kidd said last week she intends to fight the remap "to the very end." If the new district lines do pass, Kidd said she was leaning toward going ahead with her Senate race but hadn't reached a final decision.
This issue divides the Athens-Clarke County Commission, which opposes the map, and the Chamber of Commerce, which endorses it. In the debate, a lot of the arguments made a few years ago about communities of interest have been reversed.
The map Republicans want to change, she said, was drawn by a court after the last redistricting suit brought by Republicans and pronounced fair by Perdue. It has proven to be competitive for both parties.
Kidd noted she wasn't in the Legislature when the Democrats drew the 2001 map, which Republicans are already pointing to for political justification. "We're a little blue island in the middle of a red sea, and I want them off my island," Kidd said.
Athens isn't a little town, Sen. Ralph Hudgens (R-Comer), the sponsor of the remap bill, said at Saturday's Christian Coalition kickoff event. It could use more representation in the Senate, he argued, noting that the 13 counties larger than Clarke --- which include the real giants like Gwinnett and Fulton --- have an average of 3.4 senators per county.
"They're complaining because it's bad for Democrats, not because it's bad for Clarke County," Hudgens said.
Hudgens said theLegislature never gave formal approval to the court-drawn map, and the current bill would give it the chance to do so with the new changes.
These redistricting stories, it should be noted, are often fraught with unintended consequences. Ask Roy Barnes.
Higher education politics
Absolutely nothing will come of it --- at least during a year when hunkering down is the watchword --- but it was interesting to read what former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell had to say about education, particularly higher education, last week at a Georgia Public Policy Foundation lunch.
Bell recommended consolidating some state colleges with technical schools and imposing what he called "term limitation" under which HOPE scholarship recipients could not stay in college longer on a "relaxed pace" and other students would have to pay higher tuitions for this luxury.
Bell's most politically sensitive point was about the University System-governing Board of Regents, which he called "an organization of another era." The state should take a close look at how the University System is structured, said Bell, who called on the foundation to issue a white paper on the subject.
Reed trails Democrats
Last week we reported on a campaign poll for Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Jim Martin that showed him leading Republican Ralph Reed by more than Martin's Democratic rival, former Sen. Greg Hecht.
The poll raises a good question, brought up by the Hecht campaign. How did Martin do in a head-on-head with Hecht?
Jay Martin, campaign manager and son of the candidate of the same name, said pollster Alan Secrest was looking solely for who had the better chance against Reed and didn't ask voters to chose between the Democrats.
"It was a general election poll, and it wouldn't have made sense to poll on a Democratic primary question," the younger Martin said.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Zell Miller: Will America Survive?
Zell Miller, former Democratic Senator from Georgia, said that the United States is in a crisis of morality that could destroy the country. Miller served in the Senate four years, serving out the term of Senator Paul Coverdell, who died in July of 2000.
He made his remarks on the Right Hour, an Internet radio program hosted by Paul M. Weyrich, CEO and Chairman of the Free Congress Foundation, where he discussed his new book, "A Deficit of Decency” and other national issues.
"Recent generations have been more interested in giving their children the material things that they did not have when they were growing up. But they have failed to give them the spiritual things that they had when they were growing up; the valuable things like family, and Faith, and love of country, and duty. Duty to family, duty to country. These are the things that seem to be missing so much right now,” said Miller.
Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who recently compared the American military to fascists on the floor of the Senate, did not escape Miller’s sharp eye. "As far as what Senator Durbin did, that’s a national disgrace. He should have apologized, and the U.S. Senate, in my opinion, ought not to let him get away with just an apology. He deserves some kind of reprimand or censure. What he did is to put our men and women in uniform further into harm’s way than they already are."
Miller also continued to be critical of his own Democratic party and its current chairman Howard Dean.
"Probably the Republicans ought to be cheering him on, because he’s doing more harm than good for the Democrats. Here is a man who should be trying to broaden the base of his party, a party that has been shrinking now for many, many years. Instead, he is narrowing the base even more. How can you broaden the base of a party when you are talking about independents and Republicans having no sense, being evil, not working a day in their life? It is ridiculous.”
In his book, Miller cites examples of the country’s ruinous moral decline taken from the entertainment industry, professional athletics, tolerance of a corrupt United Nations, a flaunting of immigration laws, and a dysfunctional tax code.
Miller’s father died when Zell was two weeks old, and he was raised by his mother. He believes that his religious upbringing in the Appalachian mountains of north Georgia, a "very patriotic part of the country,” was, in part, responsible for the development of his character. But his experience in the United States Marine Corps was the key building block. Miller’s first book, "Corps Values,” is still available today.
The former Senator expressed strong support for the nomination of John Bolton to be Ambassador to the United Nations. "I want a man up there who will aggressively defend the interests of the United States, not tiptoe through the tulips. I want a John Wayne kind of character, not a Woody Allen,” he said.
Miller noted too that the country’s immigration problem was a bipartisan "dereliction of duty” that is unrivaled in the history of the country.
Miller, 73, has been married for 51 years, and lives in Young Harris, Ga. His previous book, "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat,” was on the New York Times best seller list in 2004.
He made his remarks on the Right Hour, an Internet radio program hosted by Paul M. Weyrich, CEO and Chairman of the Free Congress Foundation, where he discussed his new book, "A Deficit of Decency” and other national issues.
"Recent generations have been more interested in giving their children the material things that they did not have when they were growing up. But they have failed to give them the spiritual things that they had when they were growing up; the valuable things like family, and Faith, and love of country, and duty. Duty to family, duty to country. These are the things that seem to be missing so much right now,” said Miller.
Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who recently compared the American military to fascists on the floor of the Senate, did not escape Miller’s sharp eye. "As far as what Senator Durbin did, that’s a national disgrace. He should have apologized, and the U.S. Senate, in my opinion, ought not to let him get away with just an apology. He deserves some kind of reprimand or censure. What he did is to put our men and women in uniform further into harm’s way than they already are."
Miller also continued to be critical of his own Democratic party and its current chairman Howard Dean.
"Probably the Republicans ought to be cheering him on, because he’s doing more harm than good for the Democrats. Here is a man who should be trying to broaden the base of his party, a party that has been shrinking now for many, many years. Instead, he is narrowing the base even more. How can you broaden the base of a party when you are talking about independents and Republicans having no sense, being evil, not working a day in their life? It is ridiculous.”
In his book, Miller cites examples of the country’s ruinous moral decline taken from the entertainment industry, professional athletics, tolerance of a corrupt United Nations, a flaunting of immigration laws, and a dysfunctional tax code.
Miller’s father died when Zell was two weeks old, and he was raised by his mother. He believes that his religious upbringing in the Appalachian mountains of north Georgia, a "very patriotic part of the country,” was, in part, responsible for the development of his character. But his experience in the United States Marine Corps was the key building block. Miller’s first book, "Corps Values,” is still available today.
The former Senator expressed strong support for the nomination of John Bolton to be Ambassador to the United Nations. "I want a man up there who will aggressively defend the interests of the United States, not tiptoe through the tulips. I want a John Wayne kind of character, not a Woody Allen,” he said.
Miller noted too that the country’s immigration problem was a bipartisan "dereliction of duty” that is unrivaled in the history of the country.
Miller, 73, has been married for 51 years, and lives in Young Harris, Ga. His previous book, "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat,” was on the New York Times best seller list in 2004.
