On Background By Dick Pettys:

Even Some Critics Credit Richardson With Putting Bold Ideas On The Table

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(8/6/07) Some observations for a Monday morning:

* House Speaker Glenn Richardson seems to be full of ideas this summer, with few - if any of them - lacking in controversy.

His proposal to eliminate the property tax and replace it with an enhanced sales tax – not yet even fully developed – seems to be kicking up quite a fuss in a good portion of the media, and now he’s reported to have offered another idea that will surely draw fire: replacing the current motor fuel tax system with a flat 30 cents per gallon levy on the product.

We’re told he he’s not through yet and more proposals will be rolled out soon.

As they say, the devil’s in the details and until he puts the finished legislation on the table it’s too early for anybody to guess how these proposals will fare, even in Richardson’s own House - much less the Senate, where they will have to pass muster with Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle. There still are many who see a possible battle between Richardson and Cagle for the executive mansion on West Paces Ferry in 2010, although the signals remain mixed about Richardson and that potential race.

Even so, he’s getting credit from friends and even from detractors for at least putting some big issues on the table. (And he's getting a lot of newspaper ink. He's on the front page in today's Marietta Daily Journal and he's in the Savannah Morning News.)

“Tax reform is the boldest idea to come along not just in Georgia but nationally since the Reagan revolution,” said one friendly lawmaker. “The Speaker’s ideas, whether controversial or not, are at least bold and recognize Georgia needs to make a change. There’s been a vacuum of new ideas from the governor’s office. I haven’t seen a big idea out of the executive branch in five years.”

That was roughly the same sentiment that another lawmaker expressed.

“I’m not a fan of Glenn’s, but I’m a fan of people thinking. At least he’s throwing ideas out there. Now, maybe saying everything that comes to his mind is a luxury politicians cannot afford. We sort of learned that from Gingrich. But there’s a vacuum because the governor’s not leading, and nature abhors a vacuum.”

A Perdue supporter, however, said: "The Governor’s big, bold idea was to finally govern the state in a fiscally conservative way, erase the debt he inherited and build reserves - - which is the only reason there is money in the coffers for the Legislature to spend.”

* Sam Nunn’s name is still golden in Georgia to those who know who he is. That’s why the idea of him flirting with a third-party bid on an independent ticket next year is so intriguing.

But he’s largely been out of the public spotlight for a decade now, and with the kind of growth we’ve experienced in Georgia – as well as the passage of time – a lot of folks may not know who he is. We’ve lost a lot of institutional memory in the electorate at large, just as we’ve lost it at the statehouse and in Congress as an older generation has departed the scene – some, like Nunn, willingly; others not so.

There was a time a lot of Georgians identified themselves as “Sam Nunn Democrats,” which basically meant they weren’t too fond of the national Democratic Party but thought Sam Nunn hung the moon. He didn’t play to the cameras and you never got the impression he’d just gotten a $400 haircut. In fact, he was pretty wonkish-looking most of the time. He had something to say when he spoke, and it wasn’t easy to disagree with him because he’d put in the time to study the issues seriously.

What happened to the “Sam Nunn Democrats?” Those who are still around are more than likely voting Republican these days – not because their views have changed but because they think the parties’ positions have changed. But more than likely they’d pay some attention if they heard the name Sam Nunn again.