State Rep. Austin Scott (R-Tifton) will be walking as well as running for the Republican nomination for governor.
The veteran lawmaker said Thursday he will launch a 1,000-mile “Walk of Georgia” tour that will start June 27 in Chickamauga and head for points south over a route that will take him through 48 counties and finish at the state capitol.
“I intend to walk right into a runoff alongside whichever candidate purchases the other slot,” said Scott, one of five major candidates running in the Republican primary.
“Candidates talk of listening to the voters of Georgia but never give them a chance to be heard,” he added. “I’m changing that with my walk with Georgians.”
For those who can’t or don’t want to walk, they will be able to check the progress of Scott’s listening tour by checking the internet at www.WalkingWithAustin.com.
Scott’s walk across the state is a tactic used with varying degrees of success by other candidates. In 1970, Lawton Chiles walked more than 1,000 miles across Florida to campaign for the U.S. Senate. The 91-day trek won him the nickname “Walkin’ Lawton” as well as the Senate seat.
In Georgia, Bill Burson also put on some hiking boots as he campaigned in 1972 for the Senate, but with less success than Chiles (Sam Nunn was the eventual winner of that race).
Democratic takeovers?
Georgia is one of four states where the Democratic Governors Association thinks Democrats will have an opportunity to take the governor’s office back from Republican control in the 2010 elections, writes Rachel Kapochunas in CQ.com. The other states are Florida, Alaska and Minnesota.
"We know we can take back the governor's mansion in every one of these states. But these are historically Republican seats, and in this crucial election, we won't win them without a fight," the DGA said in a fundraising email.
Gov. Sonny Perdue is leaving office in Georgia because of term limits, popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is running for the Senate, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty says he will not run for a third term. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has not announced her intentions yet but there has been speculation she might not run again so that she can concentrate on a presidential campaign in 2012.
Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg takes a more extensive look at Roy Barnes’ campaign for governor in a column written for Roll Call and says Barnes has a difficult task ahead because of Georgia’s Republican tilt.
“Unfortunately for Barnes, the primary is likely to be his easier challenge,” Rothenberg writes. “While the GOP field is not intimidating, the state has changed considerably since Barnes’ last campaign, and it is not to his advantage.”
Rothenberg adds: “The state’s Republican bent means that Barnes starts off as an underdog. But depending on who wins the GOP nomination, how the state’s finances look 15 months from now, and whether Barnes can control himself and not sneer at his adversaries, the former governor may find himself with an opportunity to prove he has learned his lessons.”
GOP blues
The media’s coverage of politics this week has been dominated by the sexual escapades of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who disappeared for five days and flew to Argentina to visit a woman who was not his wife.
The Sanford affair followed hard on the heels of Nevada Sen. John Ensign’s disclosure that he had an affair with the wife of one of his staffers.
Both Sanford and Ensign are “family values” Republicans who, while members of the U.S. House, voted to impeach President Bill Clinton because of his extramarital dalliance with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
The publicity surrounding the latest sex scandals has, in the opinion of several pundits, set back the Republican Party’s efforts to rebuild and rebrand itself after the disastrous 2008 elections.
“Coming a week after Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) admitted to an extramarital affair, the [Sanford] scandal will impact the Republicans in several ways,” wrote Dan Balz in the Washington Post.
“First, it further damages the GOP brand, potentially driving away more voters or at least making it more difficult to win back some of those who abandoned the party in the past two elections,” Balz wrote.
“Second, it could disillusion social and religious conservatives -- a critically important part of the Republican coalition -- who may now wonder whether those who share the Republican label truly share their values. Third, the Sanford saga removes one more new-generation GOP leader from the field of prospective 2012 candidates, adding to doubts about the strength of the party's bench.”
Jim Rutenberg writes in the New York Times that the Sanford matter “was another jolt of bad news for a party that has struggled to get off the ropes all year . . . senior Republican strategists and leaders said they were concerned that their party’s large segment of evangelical voters makes the party more vulnerable to political damage from scandal, especially when it involves politicians like Mr. Sanford and Mr. Ensign, who had both been harshly critical of the infidelities of former President Bill Clinton and others.”
Parole board officers
The State Board of Pardons and Paroles has re-elected L. Gale Buckner board chair. She was appointed to the board in 2005 and has an extensive law enforcement career, including service as a special agent for the GBI.
Board members also re-elected Robert Keller as the board’s vice chairman. Keller was district attorney of Clayton County for 28 years before being appointed to the board in 2007.
Putting the heat on the energy bill
Georgia Chamber of Commerce President George Israel is turning up the heat on the clean energy bill now being considered by Congress, a bill he contends will be too costly and have only a “negligible impact” on carbon emissions.
“This bill would essentially impose a multitrillion-dollar energy tax on all Americans – over $1,600 a year for the typical household – while reducing the United States’ contribution to global CO2 emissions by only four percent, resulting in a minimal change in worldwide climate,” Israel claimed in an op-ed column distributed this week.
“The rush to get this bill to the floor is a blatant example of placing political expediency ahead of long-term economic stability and the success of our people and our nation.” Israel added.
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