InsiderAdvantage Georgia

Karen Handel enters race for US Senate

Thu, 17 May 2018 06:00:00 EST

This morning, former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel announced that she will run for the United States Senate seat being vacated by Saxby Chambliss. She joins Congressmen Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey, and Jack Kingston as announced candidates; David Perdue, a businessman and cousin of former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, has announced an exploratory committee to raise money for a potential race.

This announcement was well-timed for the start of the Georgia Republican Party State Convention this weekend in Athens.

Handel brings substantial advantages to the campign, though money will not likely be one of them.

In most campaign cycles, this might appear to be an early announcement for an election more than a year in the future, but with two of the Congressmen who have already announced for the seat bringing sizable warchests approaching $2 million each, it makes raising enough cash to fuel a competitive campaign more challenging.

Georgia's inmate population declines

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:00:00 EST

A year after relaxing sentencing for minor crimes, Georgia is seeing the first hints of an inmate-population decline.

The most visible signs are at the county level where the total number of inmates in county jails has shrunk from 39,825 in April 2010 to 35,978 last month, a 9.7 percent decline. Still, 19 jails have more inmates than they are designed to house, but in 2010, 31 of them were over capacity.

The impact is not yet obvious in state prisons. The 48,088 in government and private prisons and detention centers at the end of last year compares to 46,784 at the end of 2010, a 3.3 percent increase.

Gov. Nathan Deal said he didn't expect state prisons to shrink significantly for five years as he rolls out so-called accountability courts that offer local supervision for drug and alcohol offenders and those with mental illness. Keeping those offenders in their communities and out of state prisons will free up money for their treatment, he said.

"I'd like for us to be able to divert some of the money that we're putting into the corrections system now into more on the front end into diversion and treatment," he said. "Treatment is another important part in making sure we don't have an increase in recidivism, and treatment sometimes is very expensive. Anything we can save on the incarceration phase, then we will ultimately see those incarceration costs reduced."

An early season for Peach State Primary Elections

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:00:00 EST

Senator Saxby Chambliss announced earlier this year that he will not run for reelection in 2014, setting off a rush to succeed him, with four major candidates already announced for next year.

This weekend, former Fulton County Chair and Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel joined the fray, currently dominated by Congressmen Jack Kingston, Phil Gingrey, and Paul Broun.

Predictably, the announcements by three Congressmen in solidly Republican districts has in turn attracted candidates for those seats, ensuring that next year will be profitable for television stations, and Republican political consultants and direct mail firms.

As of this weekend's Georgia Republican Party State Convention, I count ten announced Republican candidates between the three Congressional seats being vacated with two more likely to join in the near-term. And that's before we consider the Twelfth District, where Democrat John Barrow already faces one opponent, while several top-tier candidates explore a second run for the GOP nomination.

In addition to primary elections and general elections for the voting public, two leadership slots in the State House Republican Caucus will open, as Caucus Chair Donna Sheldon runs for the Tenth Congressional District, and Majority Whip Edward Lindsey runs for the Eleventh. It is unclear whether either of these two state Representatives will vacate either their leadership positions or their seats in the state legislature in order to campaign full-time, but the jockeying for their positions has started.

In Sheldon's state house district in Gwinnett County, former county GOP Chair Chuck Efstration has announced he will run. InsiderAdvantage's Angelic Moore has announced for Lindsey's seat in the state house.

Five Things I learned at the 2013 GAGOP State Convention

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:00:00 EST

We complete another State Convention for Georgia Republicans last weekend. As a newly “out of the closet” Republican since my run for Congress, I decided to jump in with both feet. I covered the convention for www.ZPolitics.com and had a team of 6 interns walking the halls signing folks up for the site. That was my business hat for the convention.

I was a delegate for Hall County and the 9th District. There was a glitch with the list that was sent out and my email and phone number weren’t sent out with the list of other delegates. That saved some of the calls you get when you are a delegate, which is a good thing. I served on the Resolutions Committee as the representative from the 9th District and I helped to nominate John Padgett for State Chair. I was busy.

The best part of the convention was being in Athens. I like to say you get younger and better looking the closer you get to Athens. So from that standpoint it was a great weekend. I’m on the “Bring the GAGOP State Convention to Jekyll Island Committee” for 2015. I’m a committee of “1” right now, but I think we can make this movement grow.

Here are the 5 things I learned in this Convention:

Rep. Allen West interviewed at the Georgia Republican Party State Convention

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:00:00 EST

Editor's Note: This first appeared on my own website, GaPundit.com as a two-part series. Allen West had enough to say about politics that I think it's worth sharing with InsiderAdvantage subscribers as well.

Todd Rehm: “You're not coming here to announce that you're running for the U.S. Senate from Georgia, are you?”

Allen West: “No, I think if I were to do that, I'd have everyone from Paul Broun to Phil Gingrey to Jack Kingston, and who's this other...Karen Handel.... I don't know if I could fight my way out of that. I mean it's bad enough that I'm in Athens, Georgia, and I'm a University of Tennessee graduate, from Georgia, so it is tough being here, but that's okay.”

Todd Rehm: “One of the big issues that we're beginning to struggle with as a party is outreach to African-Americans....”

Allen West: “First of all, I would rather you say Black American, because when people say ‘African-American,’ that is a collectivizing term. I have friends in South Florida who are Caucasian and they're from the former Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, they're from South Africa, and now they're American citizens, and they consider themselves what? I think that we have to be careful about that because the other side does a good job of balkanizing us and so I don't like to hyphenate. I'm an American Black. That's how I like to be referred to.”

Todd Rehm: “One of the problems that we as white Americans have is we're afraid to say ‘Black,’ we're afraid we're going to offend somebody.”

Allen West: “You're terrified. But you see, Todd, that's the exact thing we need to look at and talk about. The other side has been so successful at managing lexicon and the language that they have white Americans afraid. Afraid to say anything.”