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2006-07-24T11:00:00.000-04:00

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Victory for Cagle

2006-07-19T07:40:00.000-04:00

Cagle wins, awaits challengerReed concedes;
Hecht, Martin in Democratic runoff Aug. 8

By HARRIS BLACKWOODThe Times
Paula Stuhr The Times
Sen. Casey Cagle, with wife Nita Cagle, acknowledges the crowd before his victory speech Tuesday night at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. The Chestnut Mountain Republican defeated Ralph Reed for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor.
Paula Stuhr The Times
Sen. Casey Cagle greets the crowd as he steps onto the podium to give his victory speech Tuesday night at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. The Chestnut Mountain Republican will face the winner of a Democratic run-off election for the state's lieutenant governor post.
Paula Stuhr The Times
Sen. Casey Cagle, seated, and Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, watch the returns on television from Cagle's suite Tuesday night in the Arena at Gwinnett Center. Cagle, who has represented Hall County for six terms in the state Senate, earned the GOP's nomination for lieutenant governor.
Lt. governor* - Republican
Casey Cagle, 222,523 votes, 56.1 percent,
Ralph Reed, 173,938 votes, 43.9 percent
Winner faces Democratic runoff winner in Nov. 7 general election.
* Results are with 94 percent of precincts reporting statewide.
Candidate profile
Casey Cagle (R)
Age: 40
Residence: Oakwood
Occupation: State senator. Member of board of directors of Gainesville Bank & Trust. Owns various real estate investments. Former tuxedo rental store owner and weight-lifting instructor.
Personal: Wife Nita, three sons.
Education: Attended Georgia Southern University in 1984, where he was a redshirt football player but dropped out after repeatedly tearing his Achilles tendon. Attended Gainesville College, 1985-1986.
Political experience: Campaign manager for state House candidate James Mills in 1992. First elected to state senate in 1994 at age 28, defeating an incumbent Democrat. Re-elected in 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2002.
Religious affiliation: Blackshear Place Baptist, Flowery Branch.
Web site: http://www.caseycagle.com/
Casey Cagle, a 40-year-old state senator from Hall County, defeated former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed on Tuesday to become the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor.
Cagle, beaming brightly, came to the podium just before 10:15 p.m. and thanked God, then his family and his supporters for his victory.
"This is a humbling experience," said Cagle to the crowd assembled in the concourse of the Arena at Gwinnett Center. He said that Reed had called earlier in the evening to concede and pledged to help Cagle in his general election bid.
"But the good guys won tonight," said Cagle.
The rumors of the concession began swirling around 9:45 p.m. and the excitement of the crowd reached a fever pitch as Cagle and his family came to the podium amidst chants of "Ca-sey, Ca-sey." With 94 percent of precincts reporting, Cagle had 56 percent of the vote to Reed's 44 percent. In Hall County, Cagle took 78.67 percent.
While cordial in his comments about Reed, Cagle seized an opportunity to take a gentle jab at his opponent.
"I remember the first meeting I had with (Reed) in my office, when he informed me he was going to be the next lieutenant governor," said Cagle.
Cagle said that despite being the lesser-known candidate, he eclipsed fundraising goals throughout the campaign.
Tom Pridemore, a former player for the Atlanta Falcons who lives in South Hall, said Cagle's victory is positive for Hall.
"This is a big night for Hall County," said Pridemore, formerly a member of the West Virginia legislature. "Georgia has now got a great man to serve as lieutenant governor with integrity."
State Sen. Eugene "Chip" Pearson, R-Dawsonville, said that he was not surprised by Cagle's strong showing on Tuesday.
"We thought it was either going to be big for Casey or narrow for Ralph," said Pearson, who is chairman of Cagle's campaign. Pearson and 22 of his senate colleagues supported Cagle in the race.
"Each one of us (senators) represents 150,000 people, and when they are undecided and we make a personal appeal, they trust us," said Pearson.

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20060719/localnews/111438.shtml

THE SINS OF RALPH REED GQ article

2006-07-14T06:25:00.000-04:00

From star foot soldier for the religious right to GOP lobbyist with questionable ties to Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed is finally losing his Teflon luster

The morning begins with a prayer in Jason’s Deli, a strip-mall joint in Atlanta, and we all bow our heads and say amen. We—me, the Atlanta reporter, and all the Buck Springs Republicans—stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and the ﬁne a cappella rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and then we—me and the other reporter—sit down in our booth and scribble notes throughout the short, civil debate between the two candidates who are seeking the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor of Georgia. One of the candidates is state senator Casey Cagle, who was a businessman before he was first elected twelve years ago. The other is Ralph Reed.
Remember Ralph Reed? Executive director of the Christian Coalition. Hardball Republican operative. Cherubic embodiment of the religious right. He may not have created the movement, but he was the one who mainstreamed it. After a decade of TV-preacher scandals and jowly old scolds wagging moralizing ﬁngers, Reed was slick and sensible. He was young and smart and erudite, and he had that face, that unlined diamond under a swoop of Big Boy hair that had writers struggling for something, anything, other than choirboy or altar boy or angelic to describe it. Time magazine put that face on its cover in 1995 next to the words THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. Just 33 years old, and Reed was an icon.
But that was eleven years ago, a lifetime in politics.
No one then would have guessed that Ralph Reed would end up chasing a second-tier office in a down-ballot race in an off year in Georgia. Or that he might lose.
The debate ends. The BuckSprings Republicans are pushing back from their tables, and Reed is right there in the aisle next to our booth, shaking hands and clapping shoulders. He’s slight, maybe ﬁve eight in the cowboy boots he’s taken to wearing. The hair has calmed down since the ’90s, but he still has that face. Reed’s 44 now, but in his blue blazer and open collar, he could pass for a graduate student. He’s smiling and friendly, and we start to stand up so we can say hello and begin with our questions.
At which point, a guy appears at the edge of our table. His name is Art Morris, and he’s Reed’s ﬁnance chairman. Chatty fellow. Loves Reed. Says lots of nice and not particularly interesting things about him. But mainly, he’s got us pinned in our booth, and he keeps us there until Reed has worked his way up the aisle to the front of the room and into a thick, insulating knot of Republicans.
Art’s a blocker. Maybe it’s an eager coincidence—his timing, his body placement—but it works out well. Because Reed doesn’t talk to reporters anymore. His campaign manager, a boyish redhead in a turquoise golf shirt named Jared, has already made that clear. “We don’t do anything with out-of-state press,” he said earlier, striding across the parking lot with a can of Tab in his hand.

Read the rest
http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?id=content_4608

Reed Tries to Buy Election With Lobbyist Fees

2006-07-12T07:30:00.000-04:00

Watchdog Group Blasts Reed For Using Christian Groups As Fronts For Abramoff's Clients

WASHINGTON, July 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today Campaign Money Watch questioned Ralph Reed about where the $500,000 he loaned his campaign for lieutenant governor of Georgia came from.
According to Campaign Money Watch, Reed made millions of dollars as a lobbyist for American Indian casinos and the Northern Marianas Islands, where employers forced female employees to become prostitutes and to have abortions if they became pregnant. He used Christian organizations as front groups for his lobbying activity paid for by disgraced, convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his clients.
"Ralph Reed spun his relationships with Christian organizations into personal gold by using them as fronts for convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's sleazy clients," said David Donnelly, director of Campaign Money Watch. "Now he's taken that money to try to buy the election. Campaign Money Watch will tell voters exactly where he got it: Lobbying against legislation that would have protected female workers from being forced to have abortions and to become prostitutes."
"Thousands of Georgia voters have already responded to our demand that Reed once and for all release the complete list of who he lobbied for and how much he made. But what is already known should be evidence enough: Ralph Reed values cash and little else," said Donnelly.
Campaign Money Watch is a national nonpartisan watchdog group that holds politicians publicly accountable for doing favors for their big money supporters. It ran a radio ad linking Reed to Abramoff's casino clients earlier this election.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/redir.asp?ReleaseID=69056&Link=http://www.usnewswire.com/

Ralph Reed and Immigration

2006-07-08T16:53:00.000-04:00

Published by Erick of the Peach Pundit
July 7th, 2006 in Primaries, Republicans, Lt. Governor

There are many other things I could have given as the title to this post, but that seems to be the most objective. There are many interpretations one could give to the information herein, but it seems they all come down to one thing — more than once has Ralph Reed been opposed to tightening immigration laws and it appears that this is another example of Ralph Reed following Grover Norquist and getting into trouble.
In 1996, it was actually the Democrats who were pushing to curtail immigration levels. Democratic heroine Barbara Jordan, on behalf of Bill Clinton, chaired a bipartisan commission and concluded that immigrants were taking jobs poor Americans actually would do, were doing them cheaper, and consequently were hurting the abilities of poor Americans to get gainful employment.
A bipartisan coalition gathered around the idea that illegal immigration must be stopped and legal immigration must be curtailed. A Wired Magazine article described the situation this way:
On Capitol Hill, Congress was poised to pass the most severe anti immigration legislation since the 1920s. Significantly, measures designed to crack down on illegals were paired with plans to slash legal immigration by 40 percent. Senator Alan Simpson and Representative Lamar Smith, the two leading Republican voices on immigration, were pushing the bills hard. The White House was sounding supportive, having been given cover to back the cuts by a set of similarly restrictive recommendations from a bipartisan commission chaired by the late, famously liberal Barbara Jordan. It was a powerful, if unlikely, alliance. And with no politician daring to risk being called “weak” on immigration in an election year, it seemed an unstoppable one as well.
Six months after the measure made it to Capitol Hill, Ralph Reed helped kill it.
The proposal was supported by every Republican in the Georgia delegation. Unfortunately, a lot of tech companies, including Microsoft, were opposed to the law. Grover Norquist, then on Microsoft’s payroll, set about rallying conservatives to oppose the law. Congressman Dick Chrysler was proposing an amendment to the proposal that would gut it. He wanted to split the bill into multiple components dealing with different areas of immigration — one of which would have dealt with “chain migration,” the issue of whole families immigrating together.

Read more
http://www.peachpundit.com/?p=1578#more-1578

Babies against Ralph Reed

2006-06-30T09:51:00.000-04:00

Ralph reed has coerced endorsements from a few conservative leaders, babies, and two Georgia State Senators. The babies are now fighting back demanding that their families vote for Casey Cagle. With the loss of Baby support Ralph's grassroots supporters have dropped from 5614 to 124.

When asked about the future of Georgia if Ralph Reed were elected, Baby H, who wishes to remain anonymous, replied "When even babies who like the big guy now hate the little guy, then you know its serious"

2006-06-30T08:57:00.000-04:00

BABIES HATE RALPH REED!!!!

Story developing.............

Report Links Ralph Reed To Abramoff

2006-06-23T13:36:00.000-04:00

Indian Gambling Interests Sent Millions To Christian Coalition Founder
ATLANTA, June 23, 2006

(CBS/AP) Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed was paid more than $4 million by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's influence peddling operation on behalf of Indian gambling interests, a Senate report released Thursday said. The money was sent through intermediaries to satisfy Reed's "political concerns," according to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee report (.pdf). "Ralph Reed did not want to be paid directly by a tribe with gaming interests," Nell Rogers, a Mississippi Choctaw official, told the Senate panel. "It was our understanding that the structure was recommended by Jack Abramoff to accommodate Mr. Reed's political concerns." Reed reportedly received more than $4 million from the Choctaws and the Louisiana Coushattas to direct campaigns against efforts to expand gambling. The report said tax-cut advocate Grover Norquist served as a buffer between Abramoff's casino gambling money and Reed. Norquist's Americans for Tax Relief served as a conduit for the payments from the Choctaws to Reed's operation, while Norquist, a close White House ally, took a cut, the panel said.

Read the rest of the story

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/23/politics/main1746140.shtml

Report: Ralph Reed's 'political concerns' diverted payments

2006-06-22T07:29:00.000-04:00

Candidate for lt. governor worked with Indian tribes to protect gambling interests

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs has just released their report entitled Gimme Five - Investigation of Tribal Lobbying Matters.

Open report and do search for Ralph Reed to narrow down document.

AJC article.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/0622abramoff.html

Houston Chronicle

Here is the summarized facts and Reed’s spin all in 4 paragraphs.
Houston Chroniclehttp://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/3993675.html
“”The report also highlighted the work of former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed on behalf of Indian gambling interests. Reed, seeking the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor in Georgia, was paid more than $4 million by two tribes between March 2001 and February 2002, the report said. The money was sent through intermediaries to satisfy Reed’s concern that he not be linked to Indian casinos, the report said.
Reed, a longtime friend of Abramoff, received the bulk of the credit for shutting down the Tigua’s casino, a campaign carried out to benefit another Abramoff client’s gambling operations.
In a statement, Reed said, “The report confirms that I have not been accused of any wrongdoing.”
Reed said he was assured he would not be paid with money derived from gambling. “While I believed at the time that those assurances were sufficient, it is now clear with the benefit of hindsight that this is a piece of business I should have declined,” Reed said.”"

Power of 'lite gov' depends on its occupant

2006-06-19T06:55:00.000-04:00

By Brandon Larrabee Morris News Service
Monday, June 19, 2006

ATLANTA - Calling the office of lieutenant governor "lite gov" is becoming less of an inside joke at the Gold Dome and more a description of the office.
The Georgia Constitution spells out two duties for the office, created in the mid-20th century: The lieutenant governor serves as governor should something happen to the state's highest elected official, and presides over the Senate.
"The powers of it in the constitution are almost zero," said Mike Digby, a political science professor at Georgia College and State University.
The fact is not insignificant for the seven men and women currently running for the office in their party primaries. How much they are able to move their own agenda - if they are able to do so at all - could come down to the strength of the office.
the power of the office has ebbed and flowed, depending on who held the position and the political circumstances of the day. After ceding some power initially, then-Lt. Gov. Zell Miller eventually gained quite a bit of sway over the Senate when he held the office in the 1970s and 1980s.
"Until Zell Miller, it was pretty much seen as a part-time job," said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia. But something not anticipated by those who added the office of lieutenant governor decades ago happened in 2002. Through electoral victories and party switches, the GOP took control of the Senate for the first time since Reconstruction.
Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, a Democrat, won re-election.
Something had to give.
Mr. Taylor was stripped of some of his most significant duties. The ability to appoint, and fire, committee chairmen was transferred to a three-member Committee on Assignments, which also included the Senate president pro tem and the Senate majority leader, both of whom were Republicans. The administration of the chamber went to President Pro Tem Eric Johnson, R-Savannah.
BUT MR. JOHNSON SAID a lieutenant governor of his party might see at least some of that authority returned.
"I anticipate it being a Republican, and I anticipate there being a cooperative agreement in the Republican caucus that gives the lieutenant governor most, if not all, of the powers back," said Mr. Johnson, noting that the rules spell out additional duties of the lieutenant governor.
Because they run the chamber, the majority party essentially dictates the rules for either chamber. Republicans and many Democrats believe that the Senate is almost certain to remain in GOP hands after this year's elections.
"I would expect that the powers would probably go up," Mr. Digby said.
The plum, of course, is the ability to appoint committee chairmen, because those lawmakers have enormous influence over which bills make it to the floor.
"I'd be surprised to see (the next lieutenant governor) regain all of it," Mr. Bullock said.
Part of that is because the entire Senate will control which powers the lieutenant governor gets. And, especially if Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed gets the job, there could be a perception that the lieutenant governor is something of an outsider.
"It may also be that senators, by and large, would prefer to have it administered by this committee of three, two of whom are colleagues," Mr. Bullock said.
MOST OF THOSE RUNNING for the job seem undeterred.
When he officially qualified in April to run for lieutenant governor, Mr. Reed said he believed that the problems with powers could be solved simply by getting the right person in the job.
"I think the people of Georgia desire and deserve an effective ... lieutenant governor," Mr. Reed said. "I think part of that is changing the occupant."
Sen. Casey Cagle, R-Chestnut Mountain and Mr. Reed's opponent in the GOP primary, says he has an edge because a vast majority of his colleagues in the upper chamber have endorsed him.
For his part, Mr. Taylor has been able to get bills passed despite his diminished sway. Those cracking down on online predators and creating new benefits for National Guardsmen passed to bipartisan acclaim.
From the Monday, June 19, 2006 edition of the Augusta Chronicle

Ralph Reed supported amnesty to all illegal aliens

2006-06-16T18:40:00.000-04:00

Reed submits to illegal aliens and then flip flops.

In January of 2004, Reed told a national talk show audience that granting a blanket amnesty to all illegal aliens in the U.S. was a responsible policy because "we have got eight to 12 million illegal aliens in our country right now and we need to know who these folks are."(Ralph Reed, MSNBC, January 21, 2004).

Now that lobbyist Ralph Reed is running for Lt. Governor he has jumped on the band wagon and has changed his views.

Photo of Ralph Reed and Jack Abramoff lobbying on Scotland golf trip.

2006-06-02T06:43:00.000-04:00

Rep. Bob Ney and several other participants in an August 2002 golf trip to Scotland pause during play at one of the courses within the historic St. Andrews links. They are (from left) convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, golf organizer Jason Murdoch, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, former Bush administration official David Safavian and Ney, R-Heath.

In the group photo above, Abramoff's Champions are shown prior to boarding the Gulf Stream jet. Neil Volz, pictured on the far left, was chief of staff to Bob Ney. He is considered a star witness for the prosecution. Standing next to Volz is Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition. Congressman Bob Ney is 4th from the left. He is the short guy wearing the grey shirt. Jack Abramoff is on the far right.

Ralph Reed's Campaign in Hot Water

2006-05-31T22:20:00.000-04:00

Another Stumble for Ralph Reed's Beleaguered Campaign

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post
Monday, May 29, 2006; Page A05

In August 1999, political organizer Ralph Reed's firm sent out a mailer to Alabama conservative Christians asking them to call then-Rep. Bob Riley (R-Ala.) and tell him to vote against legislation that would have made the U.S. commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands subject to federal wage andand worker safety laws.

Now those seven-year-old words are coming back to haunt Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition and a candidate for the Republican nomination to be Georgia's lieutenant governor.

"The radical left, the Big Labor Union Bosses, and Bill Clinton want to pass a law preventing Chinese from coming to work on the Marianas Islands," the mailer from Reed's firm said. The Chinese workers, it added, "are exposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ" while on the islands, and many "are converted to the Christian faith and return to China with Bibles in hand."

A year earlier, the Department of the Interior -- which oversees federal policy toward the U.S. territory -- presented a very different picture of life for Chinese workers on the islands. An Interior report found that Chinese women were subject to forced abortions and that women and children were subject to forced prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry.

Click below to read the rest of the story.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/28/AR2006052800964.html

2 more Ney aides subpoenaed in Abramoff bribery case

2006-05-26T06:06:00.000-04:00

Friday, May 26, 2006
Sabrina Eaton
Plain Dealer Bureau
Washington- Two more Capitol Hill aides who worked for U.S. Rep. Bob Ney have been caught up in the federal bribery investigation wrought by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Paul Vinovich, who served as Ney's top aide with the House Administration Committee, and Will Heaton, Ney's current chief of staff, have received subpoenas to appear as witnesses and provide testimony, congressional records show.
But at least one, Vinovich, is exercising his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and won't testify at a trial that started this week involving favors allegedly given by Abramoff to a former government official.

Vinovich and Heaton accompanied Abramoff and Ney on an August 2002 golf trip aboard a private jet to Scotland, along with former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed and former Ney aide Neil Volz. David Safavian, then a General Services Administration official, also was on the trip.

Read the rest of the story.
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1148632821130040.xml&coll=2

Ralph Reed linked to gambling again

2006-05-25T13:40:00.000-04:00

Unconfirmed rumors are that lobbyist Ralph Reed has been posing as a high stakes horse racing jockey using the Alias Edgar Prado. Both Prado and Reed are the same height and weight.

Barbado is held by jockey Edgar Prado (really Ralph Reed) after injuring his leg at the start of the 131st running of the Preakness Stakes yesterday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

Ralph Reed is running for Georgia Lt Governor against long time senator Casey Cagle.

Casey Cagle Commercial

2006-05-24T07:05:00.000-04:00

Here is Casey's new commercial.

http://www.caseycagle.com/commercial_2.cfm

The commercial is now on Cable on the Fox Network in Georgia.

50% of the electorate is still undecided. So Casey needs help to get his message out and counter Ralph Reed. Please CLICK HERE and contribute online. Contribute what ever you can and make a real differnce in Georgia politics.

Ralph Reed Parody

2006-05-16T17:28:00.000-04:00

http://www.ralphsgreatesthits.com/

Stoneridge group doing some good work for Casey Cagle. The wheels are falling off the Ralph Reed Campaign.

Ralph Reed a Burden on Sonny Perdue

2006-05-16T10:22:00.000-04:00

Hutchinson And Purdue Share A Burden

By Steve Barnes

ATLANTA -- Here's what mainstream Republicans in Arkansas and Georgia have in common: a gnawing fear that their voters will select nominees for lieutenant governor in their respective states who not only will fall short in November but sandbag the party's candidates for governor. In Arkansas the source of the angst is state Sen. Jim Holt of Springdale. In Georgia it's Ralph Reed. Both men are darlings of the Christian right -- or, in the case of Reed, were.Holt was an unknown two years ago but his opposition to gay marriage, his sole issue, gave him an unexpectedly strong showing in a failed race against U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln. Holt's pinched, far-right conservatism has kept him at odds with Gov. Huckabee, his colleagues view him with amusement at best and not a seasoned Republican operative in Arkansas believes he can win the general election.Not that long ago Reed looked golden. A Pat Robertson acolyte, Reed was the first executive director of the Christian Coalition, and he parlayed his Rolodex into a political and public relations consultancy that has made him a millionaire. Reed's net worth -- about $4 million -- is roughly the amount routed to his firm over the past several years by Jack Abramoff, the now infamous Washington lobbyist, who sought his friend Reed's help in rallying fundamentalist opposition to gambling proposals in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Okay -- except Abramoff's clients were other gambling interests seeking to protect their turf. Reed, who has called gambling "a cancer on America," says he didn't know. His critics ask how he could not have known. Abramoff and Reed have been close associates for a quarter-century. Abramoff's wife is a former Reed employee. More to the point, numerous e-mails involving the gambling business have been disclosed, including a choice one in which Abramoff, referring to an Indian tribe with casino operations, tells Reed: "I wish those moronic Tiguas were smarter in their political contributions. I'd love to get our mitts on that moolah."Enough said, except more is being said -- as in, "Guilty, Your Honor." It's been said by Abramoff and by three former congressional aides, two of them once employees of Rep. Tom DeLay, another Reed ally. A lot of golf is involved. In Scotland. Reached by private jet. Abramoff paid. Reed played.
"You can't spell 'Greed' without' Reed,'" proclaim posters critical of him, although they are not (it is insisted) the work of Reed's opponent, state Sen. Casey Cagle, who represents an Atlanta suburb. A fiscal and cultural conservative, Cagle is essentially Reed without the scandal baggage. Despite some high-profile defections among religious conservatives, "Ralph still has the Christian Coalition on his side," says Jim Galloway, a political ace for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "but the Republican establishment has given up on him and they're lining up behind Cagle."No wonder. Reed's dilemma may delight Georgia Democrats and discomfit his fellow Republicans, but both parties are more concerned for how it could affect a rather more important race. The talk of the Peach State's political class the other day was a poll which showed that Gov. Sonny Purdue, at best an even bet for re-election, losing a dozen percentage points if he shares space with Reed on November's ballot. The prospect sent a chill down GOP spines: by only a single point did Purdue upset incumbent Roy Barnes four years ago to become Georgia's first Republican governor since Reconstruction, and he is now fewer than five points ahead of his likely Democratic opponent.Rather than go away, as Purdue & Co. had hoped, Reed will host a party next week, and the guest of honor is none other than Rudi Giuliani, "America's Mayor," the hero of 9/11. What strange seating arrangements, not to mention compromises, can politics demand: a southern Red State, anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-Brady Law avatar of "traditional values" seeking assistance from a twice-divorced Blue State advocate of abortion rights, gay rights and gun control.Reed's Arkansas soulmates, the pragmatic among them, understand. Four years ago at Fort Smith Giuliani tried unsuccessfully to rescue Republican Sen. Tim Hutchinson, whose conservatism mirrored Reed's but whose personal life, like Reed's, suggested hypocrisy. Purdue's Arkansas soulmates, the pragmatic among them, understand that electing Hutchinson's brother, Asa, is a sort of rescue mission, as defined by the most reliable public and private polls, which show him trailing the Democratic gubernatorial nominee although not by much.
In Georgia, Purdue must maintain a lead; in Arkansas, Hutchinson mustovercome one. The men on the ballot line beneath them are not making their work easier.

Wall Street Journal Article on Abramof and Reed Ties

2006-04-20T07:06:00.000-04:00

The Abramoff Effect
Ties to Lobbyist May Hobble Ralph Reed's Bid for Georgia Office

By JEANNE
CUMMINGSApril 20, 2006;

HAMILTON, Ga. -- Ralph Reed, White House confidant and an architect of the Religious Right movement, was favored to win the nomination in the Georgia lieutenant governor's race when the 2006 campaign season began. But his work with Jack Abramoff, the former lobbyist who has admitted to trying to bribe lawmakers, is becoming a drag on Mr. Reed's first bid for public office. Several surveys show Mr. Reed still holding a narrow lead, but with high unfavorable ratings and many voters undecided. While the Abramoff scandal has affected other campaigns, such as the re-election bid of Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, the Georgia race appears the most competitive. So Mr. Reed's dilemma raises the question: Will Mr. Reed, a star of the national Republican Party, become the first campaign casualty of the Abramoff scandal when he squares off with state Sen. Casey Cagle in the July 18 primary? Mr. Reed hasn't been charged with wrongdoing and his campaign manager says he is cooperating with Washington investigators. But he is having trouble squaring his opposition to gambling with his work for Mr. Abramoff's Indian casino clients. On the campaign trail his answer to queries about the matter has been: "If I had known then what I know now, I would not have done that work." Sadie Fields, head of the Christian Coalition chapter in Georgia, considers Mr. Reed a friend and champion of the religious conservative cause in politics. "He's apologized," she says, and the chapter is closed for her. But other Republicans once close to Mr. Reed aren't satisfied with his explanation of his role in Mr. Abramoff's work. Maurice Atkinson, a Christian Coalition activist, quit the Reed campaign after the scandal became public and signed up with Mr. Cagle. "Nobody likes to be a hypocrite and nobody likes to follow a hypocrite," he says. Erosion of support from religious activists could signal trouble for Mr. Reed as he heads into the primary's home stretch. The pastor of his church has teamed up with Richard Lee, senior pastor of the First Redeemer Church, a large Southern Baptist church in Atlanta's Republican suburbs, to organize a get-to-know-you session with hundreds of other pastors. Asked if the Abramoff scandal is likely to come up, Mr. Lee said: "I would think so." Mr. Reed first worked alongside Mr. Abramoff in 1981 when they were active in the College Republicans National Committee. Mr. Reed went on to make his political mark in the 1990s by orchestrating the rise of the Christian Coalition political action group, as executive director to founder and evangelist Pat Robertson. In 1997, he returned home to Georgia to open a lobbying firm, Century Strategies, and emails show he turned to his old friend to juice up earnings. "I need to start humping in some corporate accounts!" he wrote in 1998 to Mr. Abramoff. Between 2001 and 2003, Mr. Reed collected more than $4 million in fees from Abramoff clients with gambling interests, including Indian tribes. Mr. Reed's specialty was ginning up opposition from religious leaders to tribes trying to elbow into Abramoff clients' turf. Payments to Mr. Reed's firm were funneled through organizations such as tax-exempt or charitable groups aligned with Mr. Abramoff, which obscured their source. After Mr. Reed complained about a tardy payment in 2001, Mr. Abramoff emailed this explanation: "The originating entity had to transfer to a separate account before they transferred it to the entity which is going to transfer it to you." Mr. Reed's work -- and his emails -- came to light last year during hearings by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and became a campaign issue. The Abramoff affair even shadowed the campaign kick-off, headlined by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. In 2002, when the two men's lobbying firms had been on opposite sides of a Louisiana gambling fight between Indian tribes, Mr. Abramoff had bragged in an email to a colleague that Mr. Reed would get James Dobson, head of the conservative advocacy group Focus on the Family, to attack Mr. Barbour. "Let me know when Dobson hits him. I want to savor it," Mr. Abramoff wrote in a separate email to Mr. Reed. Mr. Dobson ultimately didn't criticize Mr. Barbour. Mr. Reed declined to comment publicly on the matter. Gov. Barbour's office didn't return telephone messages. Ed Rogers, a partner in Barbour, Griffiths & Rogers, Gov. Barbour's former firm, calls the email from Mr. Abramoff "petty and deceitful" but doesn't blame Mr. Reed. "Ralph Reed and Haley Barbour have been friends for a long time," Mr. Rogers says. "Ralph gets the benefit of the doubt." Although the Reed campaign says it has weathered the worst of the Abramoff news, the candidate's position remains precarious. The Senate Finance Committee is considering holding hearings on Mr. Abramoff's use of shell groups to pay entities such as Mr. Reed's lobbying firm. New revelations -- or even rehashing of events -- could be fuel for his political opponents. Mr. Reed is counting on a big turnout by his loyalists to mute any effect of the Abramoff scandal. He is applying the skills he used to build the Christian Coalition and, as Georgia's Republican Party chairman, to create a turnout operation that in 2002 elected the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction.

But his opponent, Mr. Cagle, isn't dismissing the Abramoff matter, which helps him emphasize differences between the two Georgia natives: the balding Mr. Cagle's down-home style, soft twang and local ties compared with Mr. Reed's matinee looks and national alliances -- former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in May will be top draw for a fund-raiser. "I am not going to be a lightening rod," Mr. Cagle says. Mr. Reed "is defined" by his ties to the Christian Coalition and Mr. Abramoff and "that puts him in a very narrow box that is difficult to get out of," Mr. Cagle says.
A majority of elected officials in the Georgia Legislature and hundreds of county commissioners and sheriffs have endorsed Mr. Cagle. Here in Hamilton, state Rep. Vance Smith Jr., the governor's House floor leader, held a reception for him. "I don't know Ralph that well. I've met him," Mr. Smith says. "But Casey has been on the front lines."

State Senator Eric Johnson to run again

2006-04-17T16:45:00.000-04:00

Apr 17, 2006 – Savannah Morning News BREAKING NEWSEric Johnson to run againScott M. Larson reports that State Senator Eric Johnson told supporters this morning that he will seek election in November. "I have been reflecting on my past service as I contemplated whether to run again," Johnson, the Senate President Pro Tempore, said. " I looked deep within myself and found a heart that still wants to serve." Johnson will face former Democratic State Sen. Mell Traylor, who served in the 1970s.

65 additional elected officials endorse Casey Cagle

2006-04-13T15:42:00.000-04:00

State Senator and Lt. Governor candidate Casey Cagle today welcome the support of 65 additional elected officials to his team, bringing his total number of endorsements by Georgia elected officials to 267. Cagle has previously announced endorsements from 23 state senators, 41 state representatives, 21 sheriffs, 42 county commissioners and numerous other elected officials. By contrast, Cagle’s opponent - lobbyist Ralph Reed - has announced the support of only a handful of elected officials.
Additionally, five former members of Ralph Reed’s Statewide Steering Committee announced today that they are backing Cagle. All told, 14 Reed Steering Committee members have asked to have their names removed from the list and are fully backing Cagle.
“Georgia’s elected officials understand how important it is to elect conservative leaders our citizens can trust. I am proud to have the strong support of these leaders and the grassroots political networks they will be engaging for our campaign in their communities,” said Cagle.
The elected officials endorsing Cagle today are:
Representative Henry Geisinger (Roswell)
Representative Martin Scott (Rossville)
Representative Ron Stephens (Savannah)
Representative Steve “Thunder” Tumlin (Marietta)
District Attorney David McDade (Douglas County)
Sheriff Wayne Bennett (Glynn County)
Sheriff Bobby McLemore (Ben Hill County)
Sheriff Eddie Mixon (Haralson County)
Sheriff Howard Sills (Putnam County)
Chairman Brian Anderson (Whitfield County)
Chairman Charlie Bishop (Bibb County)
Chairman Rod Casey (Lowndes County)
Chairman Carlton Corbitt (Ware County)
Chairman Eddie Freeman (Spalding County)
Chairman Alvin Long (Gordon County)
Chairman Greg Tarbutton (Coweta County)
Sole Commissioner David Wills (Webster County)
Commissioner Judy Bailey (Gordon County)
Commissioner Joe Cornelius (Ware County)
Commissioner Ester Fleming (Newton County)
Commissioner Rick Gardner (Bibb County)
Commissioner Chuck Horton (Oconee County)
Commissioner Terrell Hudson (Dooly County)
Commissioner Deborah Hutcheson (Lumpkin County)
Commissioner Jim King (Dawson County)
Commissioner Karen Mahurin (Cherokee County)
Commissioner Harry Johnston (Cherokee County)
Commissioner Elmo Richardson (Bibb County)
Commissioner David Stevens (McIntosh County)
Commissioner Tony Thaw (Glynn County)
Commissioner Stanley Thomas (Madison County)
Commissioner Roger Waldrop (Polk County)
Commissioner Leo Whaley (Whitfield County)
Commissioner David Young (Dade County)
School Board President Gail Dean (Fulton County)
School Board Member Mark Banks (Muscogee County)
School Board Member Fife Whiteside (Muscogee County)
Mayor Tommy Allegood (Acworth)
Mayor Curtis Lewis (Rockmart)
Mayor Jimmy Pace (Forsyth)
Mayor Mark Reed (Baldwin)
Mayor Ken Steele (Fayetteville)
Mayor Pro-Tem Tommy Young (Adairsville)
Councilman Will Britt (Statesboro)
Councilman Jimmy Burnette (Suwanee)
Councilman Jeff Edgens (Irwinton)
Councilman Steve Edwards (Sugar Hill)
Councilman Mitchell Gailey (Baldwin)
Councilman Donnie Henriques (Woodstock)
Councilman David Little (Hartwell)
Councilman Nick Thompson (Sugar Hill)
Councilman Ken Vance (Milledgeville)
Solictor General Markette Baker (Troup County)
Tax Commissioner Tommy Ferrell (Coweta County)
Tax Commissioner Sylvia Hollums (Spalding County)
Tax Commissioner Patricia Malcolm (Walton County)
Tax Commissioner Andy Pipkin (Henry County)
Court Clerk Jay Stephenson (Cobb County)
Court Clerk Kathy Keesee Trost (Walton County)
Additionally, Cagle earned the endorsements of four police chiefs: Ken Brown of Georgia Southern University, Tim Callahan of Kennesaw, Randall Moon of Oakwood, and Roy Whitehead of Snellville.
The individuals listed on Reed’s Statewide Steering Committee who announced their support for Cagle are Brian Dart of Statesboro, Donovan Head of Marietta, Martin Sullivan of Savannah, Gerald Smith of Americus and Chairman David Wills of Preston.

Will Ralph Reed damage the Georgia GOP like he hurt the Christian Coalition

2006-04-11T20:05:00.000-04:00

Christian Coalition dogged by debt

April 10, 2006

WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- The conservative Christian Coalition organization is down to a single Washington lobbyist and is in more than $2 million debt, The Washington Post reports.

The 17-year-old movement was founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed as the political fundraising and lobbying engine of the Christian right. Both men have left the group, and last month, one of its most effective chapters, the Christian Coalition of Iowa, cut ties with the national organization and reincorporated itself as the Iowa Christian Alliance, saying it found it impossible to continue to carry a name that in any way associated us with this national organization.Ten years ago, the coalition employed 12 lobbyists in Washington but now has a single employee who works out of his South Carolina home, the newspaper said.Roberta Combs became the head of the Christian Coalition five years ago, and said the organization was in worse financial shape then with debts approaching $4 million.People have been writing our obituary for years, Combs told the Post. But you go out in the hinterlands and talk to the grass roots, and it's a whole different story. People call us every day and want to be involved.Copyright 2006 by United Press International

NASCAR LEGEND JOINS CAGLE RACE TEAM

2006-04-10T19:29:00.000-04:00

BILL ELLIOTT TO HEADLINE CAGLE KICKOFF

Gainesville, GA - Senator and Lt. Governor candidate Casey Cagle announced today that NASCAR legend Bill Elliott has joined the Cagle Race Team.

Elliott will headline a campagin kickoff BBQ for Cagle's Lt. Governor campaign at the old Thunder Road facility at 415 Highway 53 in Dawsonville, GA on Saturday, April 29th. Additionally, Bill Elliott's brothers - Ernie and Dan - will also attend and show their support for Cagle.

"Bill Elliott literally helped build the sport of NASCAR racing, and remains a living legend on the track today. I am thrilled to have him on our team, and look forward to an exciting day of fun and fellowship with the Elliotts and race fans and Republican activists from across Georgia," said Cagle.

The BBQ will begin at 12noon and last until 2:00pm, and will be preceded by a VIP reception and photo opportunity with the Elliotts at 11:00am. Tickets for the noon BBQ are just $50 and allow an entire family to attend. Anyone interested in obtaining tickets or serving as a host should contact Julie Reagan at mailto:Julie@caseycagle.comor 770-536-9998.

Racing legend Bill Elliott has built one of the most distinguished records in NASCAR Winston Cup history. Throughout his career he has radiated a modest and friendly personality that has endeared him to race fans of all ages. From cutting up car bodies in the early days to winning NASCAR's first million dollar bonus, Bill Elliott has seen and done it all. Though quiet and unpretentious, this NASCAR Cup champion has been dazzling fans with his racing ability for an amazing three decades. Elliott is a two-time Daytona 500 winner, and his 44 career wins rank him second in trips to victory lane among active drivers.

Raised by a single mom, Casey Cagle seized the American Dream to become a successful, self-made business leader and one of the most experienced Republican leaders in the State Senate. A devout believer, a devoted husband, and a proud father, Casey Cagle has been the champion for Georgia's families at our State Capitol for over a decade. As our next Lt. Governor, Casey Cagle will continue to passionately advocate our values and lead with a vision of opportunity for all of Georgia.

"cherub-in-chief" of American politics Ralph Reed

2006-04-06T08:37:00.000-04:00

Will Ralph Reed crap out?

The one-time golden boy of the Christian right did the bidding of Abramoff's casino clients. Will the unholy alliance be his undoing?

By Michael Scherer
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April 6, 2006 ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- On the campaign trail in south Georgia, Ralph Reed, the Republican strategist who created the Christian Coalition, wears shiny black cowboy boots -- full quill ostrich leather -- to help give him the swagger of a man still on the make. He is running for lieutenant governor in the Peach State, his first campaign for public office, but he wants everyone to know that he is not just another local boy trying to break into state politics. As we mingle at a private reception at Sea Palms Resort on the state's eastern shore, he tells me, "This isn't my first rodeo."
It just may be his last, however. Reed has been weathering a blizzard of revelations about his partnership with the convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Prominent state Republicans have called for him to drop out of the race before the April 28 filing deadline. A recent poll showed that his candidacy might even hurt other Republicans, like Gov. Sonny Perdue, who are on the ticket in November. Matt Towery, a pollster who is a former aide to Newt Gingrich, said the Democrats could easily skewer Reed with an ad campaign. "He could just be tattooed by the Democrats with paid media," Towery explained. "Most people in this state don't know who Ralph Reed is."
As we now know, Reed, the former "cherub-in-chief" of American politics, traded his halo to work as a gun for hire in Abramoff's operation, secretly rallying conservative Christians to do the bidding of Abramoff's casino clients. This was, in many ways, an understandable role for Reed, a political prodigy, who started in politics as a disciple of Abramoff, the former chairman of the College Republicans. "I used to tell people he was going to be either president of the United States or Al Capone," Reed's mother, Marcy, once told USA Today. By the end of the 1990s, when Abramoff came calling, Reed seemed destined for the White House, at least as a top political aide. He was known as the organizational mastermind of the religious right, joining with televangelist Pat Robertson to bring the GOP to Jesus.
Those exploits, as well as his recent public career as an advisor to President Bush, have given him an aura of celebrity in Georgia political circles. He led the state Republican Party in 2002, during the phenomenal upset that unseated Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, a wounded Vietnam veteran. Two years later, Reed led George W. Bush's 2004 Southern campaign, delivering every state of the former Confederacy. "Until you have seen it firsthand you won't appreciate it," Glynn County's GOP leader Kevin Gough had warned me. "He is like a rock star."
In person, Reed, 44, doesn't look anything like a rock star. If it were not for his boots, his tie and the folded four-cornered handkerchief in his sport coat, the Rod Stewart of Southern politics could easily be mistaken for a gangly teenager. He stands about four-fifths the size of a full-grown man, with a doll's nose, bronzed skin and a wide smile. He can easily disappear in a crowd. But when he speaks, he can also command the room, instantly transforming himself from a choirboy to a statesman, the NASCAR fan's Bill Clinton.

"I'm a mainstream, balanced-budget, tax-cutting, pro-family, pro-life conservative," he told a crowd at a candidate forum last month on St. Simons Island. "You are here for the same reason why I am here, because you love your state, and you love your country, and because you want to see good government, and because you want to see people of integrity and conservative principles in office."
The integrity line has worked well for Reed in the past -- Time magazine once called him the "Right Hand of God" in a cover story. But in recent months, with the release by Senate investigators of hundreds of Reed's e-mails, "integrity" has not been a concept that many have associated with Ralph Reed. Back in 1998, the e-mails reveal, Reed contacted Abramoff to beg for new work in decidedly un-Christian terms. "Now that I am done with electoral politics, I need to start humping in some corporate accounts," Reed wrote.
Over the next five years, Reed humped the corporate accounts of just about every company that crossed his path -- Microsoft, Enron and Verizon, to name a few. He also raked in more than $4 million from Abramoff clients, including an online lottery company and two Indian tribes with casinos. In return, Reed worked, as he put it in one e-mail, to get "our pastors all riled up" -- organizing his unwitting followers to oppose gambling regulations and new casinos that would have competed with Abramoff's clients.
Through radio and mailings, Reed mobilized more than 100 congregations to do Abramoff's bidding. "We want to bring out the wackos to vote against something," Abramoff's partner Michael Scanlon explained in a proposal to one Indian tribe. "The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the Internet and telephone trees." The arrangement paid huge returns for both Abramoff and Reed, who had worked together during the Reagan years for the College Republicans.
Before long, the partners were scheming to find even bigger paydays. At one point, Reed e-mailed Abramoff, asking for a contribution to his campaign for Republican state chairman of Georgia. "Sure," replied Abramoff. "Give me the name of the entity." Reed responded by joking that the check should be made out to "the Reed Family Retirement and Educational Foundation" and gave a fake address in the Grand Cayman Islands. "Ha ha ha," Abramoff wrote back, promising to send Reed a check for $10,000. In one e-mail exchange with Reed, Abramoff cited a prospective tribal casino client and gushed, "I'd love us to get our mitts on that moolah!!" Reed replied, "Got it."
By early 2002, even Abramoff was complaining about the greed of Reed. "He is a bad version of us!" the lobbyist exclaimed in an e-mail to Scanlon. "No more money for him." But the money kept flowing -- and Reed wasn't exactly upfront about where it was coming from. When gambling clients sent in six-figure checks for Reed, Abramoff would pass them through several groups, including a bogus think tank chaired by a yoga instructor and a lifeguard, and a phony outfit called the Faith and Family Alliance. It was a shoddy operation all the way around: Robin Vanderwall, the 37-year-old Republican "director" of the Family Alliance, is currently serving a seven-year sentence for trying to solicit sex over the Internet from a 13-year-old boy.
On the stump, Reed regularly claims that he knew nothing about the scandalous operation that his close friend Abramoff was running. "I was approached by one of the most respected law firms in America and a friend of 20 years," Reed said during the same St. Simons forum, explaining his cooperation with Abramoff. "I said sure I would be glad to do so as long as I could be assured that I wouldn't be paid with revenues from another casino. I was assured that wouldn't be the case. And we know now for the most part that I was not."

This is a careful non-denial denial. "For the most part" is the key phrase, a lawyerly dodge that Reed uses to obscure the mountains of e-mail evidence against him. At the St. Simons event, I asked him about a recent story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that quoted e-mails Reed responded to that clearly mentioned one of Abramoff's clients, an online gambling firm called E-Lottery. Reed told me he never noticed the name of the company, which paid Abramoff for Reed's services. "It was at the bottom of a long e-mail," Reed said, in what was either a lie or faulty recollection. In fact, the reference to "elot" comes in the first paragraph of a May 23, 2000, e-mail Abramoff forwarded to Reed. A year later, on Jan. 30, 2001, Reed wrote an e-mail to Abramoff referring to the convicted lobbyist's "elottery friends."
Other luminaries of the religious right are not fooled. For many anti-gambling activists, he is nothing less than the second coming of Judas, a one-time apostle who violated the first rule of the battle: Never take money from gambling interests. "The Bible says you can't serve God and Mammon," Robertson told the New York Times, in one of his only public comments on Reed. "It's sort of the betrayal of a basic value," says Rev. Tom Grey of the National Coalition Against Gambling. "Ralph is running for office on the basis of his values." As a result Reed's stature among Georgians has taken a beating, with his unfavorable ratings rising from 35 percent to 44 percent among the state's Republicans, according to a poll in early March by Strategic Vision. "It's frightened a lot of people, and it's sad," said Jerry Loupee, a longtime Republican activist who is helping the Reed campaign. "They are all, 'Hey, I'm for Ralph, but there are these things out there that bother me.'"
Nonetheless, polls still show Reed with a slight, if dwindling, lead over his July primary opponent, Casey Cagle, a well-meaning local boy -- think Woody Harrelson with a Southern accent -- on the stump. But the primary is different from the general election. Democrats across the state say privately that a Reed race could be manna from heaven, allowing them to tar all Georgia Republicans with the "culture of corruption" taint.
Following the Republican playbook, Reed has attempted to overcome bothersome facts by taking aim at the messengers -- the liberal media. "What I am confident that the voters of this state are going to reject," Reed announces on the stump, "is an attempt by the liberal media or by others in this campaign to engage in guilt by association." Bashing the big city newspapers is a well-worn pastime in south Georgia, where folks tend to trust what they see firsthand and what their friends tell them. "You know who is going to decide the outcome of this election," Gough, the Glynn County GOP chair tells me. "Bubba." By that, he means that the hypothetical swing voter in the region: a middle-aged white guy who graduated high school and hunts when he can, but does not trust much of what he reads from journalists.
Bubba, in other words, is the kind of voter who might notice a shiny black pair of cowboy boots, but might forgive the fact that Reed traded on his ideals to make a buck. If that happens, Reed, one of the most natural and brilliant political minds in the Republican Party, will be able to count himself one of the lucky ones. If it doesn't happen, then Reed will find himself the latest in an ever-lengthening list of Republicans whose own hubris was their undoing.

CAGLE RAISES $100,000 IN ONE DAY

2006-04-03T17:14:00.000-04:00

Atlanta, GA - The Casey Cagle for Lt. Governor campaign announced today that it raised over $100,000 on Friday, March 31st despite having only a single day to raise funds. The $100,000 Cagle raised came solely in response to phone calls and emails during the day on Friday.

Friday was the last day of the upcoming reporting period, and the only day in that period where Cagle was allowed to raise money following the conclusion of the legislative session. By contrast, Cagle's opponent - Ralph Reed -- is a lobbyist who is not elected to any office and has therefore been allowed to raise funds without any legal restrictions for the entire year.

"With just eight hours to raise funds, the response from our supporters during the last day of the reporting period on Friday was truly overwhelming. The level of excitement about our campaign builds across Georgia every day, and these outstanding results are yet another indication of how momentum continues to move our way," said Cagle.

"We know that we cannot match three months of fundraising by our opponent in a single day, and we do not intend to. However, there is no doubt we will have the resources we need to compete. Our job now is to continue building on the financial successes of last week with a sustained effort that secures a strong victory on July 18th," Cagle continued.

In the most recently concluded fundraising reporting period (which ended on December 31 of last year), Cagle outraised Reed by a wide margin. Additionally, 99% of Cagle's donors resided in Georgia, while roughly half of Reed's contributions came from out of state.
Cagle also leads the race in endorsements from Republican elected officials and is the only candidate current polling shows would beat the Democrat nominee in November.

Lynn Westmoreland: Hero of the Week

2006-04-01T05:50:00.000-05:00

By: The Directors · Section: GOP
“Westmoreland . . . chose principle over the party line.”
Seventeen hours after being named a deputy whip, Congressman Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia was kicked off the team. For that, Westmoreland is our RedState hero this week.
On March 14th, aided by 22 Democrats, the Republicans passed a rule for consideration of the emergency spending bill dealing with Iraq, Afghanistan, and hurricane relief. The vote was 218-200. Lynn Westmoreland, along with John Shadegg, Mike Pence, and 25 other Republicans, voted against the rule because, among other things, it failed to offset hurricane relief costs. Leadership had refused to separate out war spending to increase chances of their fiscal recklessness passing.
Westmoreland, along with John Shadegg who was also a deputy whip, was uncerimoniously kicked off the leadership team because, in the words of Roy Blunt, "You need an example every once in a while."
According to news reports, Westmoreland said he chose principle over the party line. Westmoreland, quoted in Congress Daily AM, said, "I'm not a martyr. You do what you got to do."
Blunt said Thursday that when members are removed from the whip team, the ban only applies to the current Congress, and members like Westmoreland or Shadegg could be asked back in the 110th Congress.
Blunt also marveled at Westmoreland's tenure.
"I don't think anyone will beat his record for a while," he joked. Blunt said he will likely ask other members to fill the slots, perhaps as early as next week. Blunt does not make public his whip operation, but members are generally allowed to announce it independently.
For putting principle over politics, Westmoreland is our RedState hero of the week.

Lynn Westmoreland for Governor 2010

Lucy Visits Capital on Final day of Session.

2006-03-30T20:04:00.000-05:00

Crazy Cat Terrorizes Connecticut Town

2006-03-30T08:02:00.000-05:00

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) - Residents of the neighborhood of Sunset Circle say they have been terrorized by a crazy cat named Lewis. Lewis for his part has been uniquely cited, personally issued a restraining order by the town's animal control officer.
"He looks like Felix the Cat and has six toes on each foot, each with a long claw," Janet Kettman, a neighbor said Monday. "They are formidable weapons."
The neighbors said those weapons, along with catlike stealth, have allowed Lewis to attack at least a half dozen people and ambush the Avon lady as she was getting out of her car.
Some of those who were bitten and scratched ended up seeking treatment at area hospitals.
Animal Control Officer Rachel Solveira placed a restraining order on him. It was the first time such an action was taken against a cat in Fairfield.
In effect, Lewis is under house arrest, forbidden to leave his home.
Solveira also arrested the cat's owner, Ruth Cisero, charging her with failing to comply with the restraining order and reckless endangerment.

Governor gets illegals bill

2006-03-29T14:26:00.000-05:00

Lucy upset that illegal immigrants do not abide by the leash law

By JIM THARPE, CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 03/29/06

The Georgia General Assembly's attempt to confront illegal immigration won final legislative approval Tuesday. But anyone expecting quick results will be disappointed.
Even the author of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act has stressed that his bill will not solve most Georgians' complaints about people who are in the country illegally.

"It took 30 years to get here, and we're not going to solve it overnight," said state Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), who wrote the 13-page bill. "This is a multiyear process."
The measure, Senate Bill 529, won final approval Tuesday in the Georgia House
119-49 in an anticlimactic, procedural vote. Gov. Sonny Perdue is expected to sign the bill into law but has not indicated when.
Many of the things the bill does address will not be dealt with for more than a year at the earliest. And some key provisions will not kick in until near the end of the decade.
The bill requires government agencies to verify the legal status of any adult applying for taxpayer-provided benefits. But the bill exempts things like prenatal care and treatment for communicable diseases.
And the bill did not even attempt to deal with what are estimated to be the largest costs: emergency medical care for illegal immigrants or the ability of their children to attend public schools. Those taxpayer-supported services have been guaranteed by the federal courts.
'This is the art of politics'
Major provisions of the bill are aimed at employers who hire illegal immigrants. The measure attempts to guarantee that employees of companies that hold public contracts hire only workers who are legally in the country, beginning July 1, 2007, for large companies. The provision for the smallest employers would not be triggered until July 1, 2009.
A centerpiece of the legislation, a provision that would attempt to make private employers hire only legal workers, would not kick in until the 2008 tax year. That means enforcement would not come until 2009.
Rogers said he wanted an earlier trigger date, but powerful farming and business interests weighed in with legislators in their districts. The message was clear: Activate this part of the proposal too soon and it won't pass.
"I would have lobbied for a much earlier date," Rogers said. "But this is the art of politics, and I'd rather have something rather than nothing."
The bill is expected to have little if any impact on the massive cash economy in which many illegal immigrants work. A landscaper who pays illegal immigrants in cash and does not attempt to claim their wages as a business expense on his state taxes would not be affected.
"I don't know how to solve that part of the problem," Rogers said as the bill neared final passage. The bill also does little to address the massive problem of bogus documents, which many illegal immigrants buy to make them appear legal. Rogers has bemoaned the lack of any viable solution to that problem, but said it has to be addressed to get a real handle on illegal immigration.
Earlier this week, lawmakers deleted a section of the bill that would have imposed a 5 percent fee for illegal immigrants wiring money out of the country, because they feared it could not withstand legal scrutiny.
Proponents say the legislation is needed because the federal government has failed to secure the borders, allowing waves of illegal immigrants to flood Georgia — estimates range from 250,000 to 800,000. Supporters of a crackdown say they have overburdened the state's taxpayer-supported services while paying few taxes.
Critics say those undocumented workers underpin many industries and take jobs Americans refuse to do. They view Rogers' bill as a misguided effort that has created fear and confusion in the immigrant community.
"It's unfortunate that the state thinks that they need to weigh in on immigration, particularly when it's a federal issue and the U.S. Senate is poised to act on this issue," said Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday approved a bill that would create a foreign guest worker program and put millions of illegal immigrants on track toward permanent residency and U.S. citizenship.
Georgia officials say they are acting because the federal government has failed to address the issue over the past decade. Polls show that more than 80 percent of Georgians want state lawmakers to deal with the issue, a powerful motivator in an election year when all 236 legislative seats are up for grabs.
"I'm not going to sit around here and wait for Congress or the Supreme Court or anyone else," House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) said following Tuesday's vote. "We've taken the lead on this issue."
Similar measures in U.S.
Georgia is not alone. The National Conference on State Legislatures reported last month that legislators in 42 states had introduced more than 360 bills related to immigration.
"I am very relieved that the Georgia Legislature has listened to the 82 percent of Georgians who demanded that something be done here to begin to address the illegal immigration crisis," said D.A. King, an illegal immigration opponent from Cobb County. "Many people will now see the true determination of the illegal alien lobby who will spend a lot of money challenging this in federal court."
Tisha Tallman, regional counsel for the Atlanta office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said SB 529 is potentially unconstitutional because it pre-empts federal law. MALDEF, which has challenged similar measures in other states, is considering a lawsuit if SB 529 is signed into law, she said.
Staff writer Ann Hardie and Knight Ridder Newspapers contributed to this article.

"arrogance across the aisle"

2006-03-29T06:59:00.000-05:00

By James Salzer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/28/06 12:43 PM
In a show reminiscent of some of the old battles of Democratic leaders, Republican House Speaker Glenn Richardson and GOP counterpart and Senate President Pro-tem Eric Johnson took turns publicly denouncing each other over a budget impasse that has the two chambers snarling at each other.
Lawmakers are set to adjourn the 2006 session on Thursday, and as of this morning, budget negotiators had made no headway toward agreeing to an $18.6 billion spending plan that must be approved before they go home.
A quick-tempered Richardson (R-Hiram), took to the well this morning and accused Johnson of trying to trade an agreement on the budget for Senate consideration of a House leadership-sponsored bill that would make it easier for Atlanta Gas Light to build a pipeline and charge ratepayers.
“I told him, hell no,” said Richardson. “I am not going to continue playing games with the budget. We are not going to trade bills for votes.”
Richardson said Senators want to insert language in the budget telling the judiciary how to spend money, a violation of judicial independence, he argued.
“This dispute is about a power play and about putting power over politics,” he said.
However, by telling House members about the AGL offer, Richardson broke legislative taboo against relaying private conversations.
Johnson (R-Savannah), reacted angrily, although he didn’t dispute Richardson’s characterization of the offer. He criticized the speaker for saying it was a mistake to allow the Senate to have its own budget office that, sometimes, works against the wishes of the House.
Johnson said, “There is an arrogance across the aisle in thinking the Senate should not have a seat at the (budget) table.
“We are down to hours of maybe getting out of here without a budget.”
Such threats, and arguments, are common over the budget. However, a few things make it different this time.
First, this is the first time the Republican leaders have publicly gone into the well to personally chastise each other. While Richardson and Johnson have had disagreements, they’ve generally aired them privately.
Also, this debate isn’t really about big items in the budget. Both sides agree to 7 percent raises for prison guards and patrolmen, 4 percent for teachers and most state employees, record education spending and $1 billion to build schools and roads.
And thirdly, it’s extremely late to not have started work on the differences between the two bodies over the budget. Budgets generally take a few weeks of negotiating. When House and Senate negotiators got together shortly before noon, they had 60 hours left to get their work done before the end of the session.
As of early this afternoon, leaders of the two chambers were considering proposals to break the impasse, and finally meeting in public.

Ralph Reed Hurting Sonny Perdue's bid for Governor

2006-03-28T18:11:00.000-05:00

From the Peach Pundit

GEORGIA. The latest Rasmussen Reports poll shows Governor Sonny Perdue (R) is rapidly losing his numerical advantage. Last month, Perdue held leads of 20-points over either Secretary of State Cathy Cox (D) or Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor (D). The new numbers: Perdue-49%, Cox-41% … and Perdue-51%, Taylor-41%. Political pundits are already attributing Perdue’s decline to the steady stream of news articles in recent weeks that closely link GOP Lieutenant Governor candidate and former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed with corrupt DC lobbyist Jack Abramoff. “The Democrats, radical left, and dominant media have made numerous unfair personal attacks against Ralph,” claims Reed’s campaign. Professor Marvin Olasky — the close associate of President Bush who conceived the “compassionate conservative” concept — said Reed “has damaged Christian political work by confirming for some the stereotype that evangelicals are easily manipulated and that evangelical leaders use moral issues to line their own pockets.” Some Republican activists worry Reed’s continued presence on the statewide GOP ticket could potentially doom Perdue to an upset loss. Race rating: GOP Favored (but on the verge of slipping into the “Leans GOP” category).

Cagle leads on property rights

2006-03-27T21:45:00.000-05:00

Senate passes strong eminent domain measure

Atlanta, GA (Mar. 24) - Senator and Lt. Governor Candidate Casey Cagle took to the Senate floor today to continue leading the fight for passage of "The Landowner's Bill of Rights and Private Property Protection Act." Cagle also succeeded in winning support from the Senate to pass additional provisions he introduced strengthening the bill. This legislation -- a top priority of the Republican Senate majority-- represents one of the strongest statutes restricting the use of eminent domain and protecting the rights of private property owners in the entire nation. The Senate also authorized a Constitutional Amendment which would further limit the use of eminent domain if approved by the voters.Among other things, the new law would: Ban the use of eminent domain for economic development purposes. Prevent local governments from seizing private property without an open vote by the top governing authority. Limit government seizure of blighted property to only those cases where an immediate threat to public safety is posed. Give citizens much greater opportunity to be made aware of and voice their opinions on exercise of eminent domain. Improve the ability of owners to get a fair price for their property. "The U.S. Supreme Court may have fired the first shot in this battle with its disastrous decision in the Kelo case, but today's vote by our Republican Senate majority ensures it won't be the last. This legislation puts Georgia at the forefront of the entire country in protecting the rights of property owners. Strong private property rights are the core bedrock of our economic system, and we cannot do too much to protect them," said Cagle. Cagle also pledged to continue fighting to protect property rights, saying "As long as government has the power to exercise eminent domain, we need to continue working to ensure that power remains limited and property owners have a fair voice in the process. This is yet another step in what has been a long battle. We must remain vigilant in the future, and ratifying the Constitutional Amendment we also passed today is absolutely essential to that goal."

Scoop Jackson reports "Ralph Rides On"

2006-03-27T13:28:00.000-05:00

Travis County Attorney David Escamilla announced today that the two-year statute of limitations governing Texas' lobby laws bars him from pursuing allegations that Ralph Reed violated Texas lobby disclosure laws four years ago. Recent probes of crooked federal lobbyist Jack Abramoff have produced evidence that Abramoff may have paid Reed in 2002 to lobby Texas officials on behalf of gambling interests and the in-school television network Channel One.Below is a link to a statement from Travis County Attorney Escamilla and a statement from TPJ Director Craig McDonald (TPJ, Texas Common Cause and Public Citizen Texas filed the Reed complaint with Escamilla in December 2005). To read that complaint: here. Statement of Craig McDonald:"The available evidence suggests that Jack Abramoff paid Ralph Reed millions of dollars in gambling money to lobby in Texas. Although this would rank among the largest lobby contracts ever to come to light in Texas, Mr. Reed failed to register as a lobbyist. Given the prosecutor's conclusion that the statute of limitations for such a crime grants Mr. Reed a walk, we reluctantly leave final judgment in this matter to higher powers."

Tucker Cagle attacks Ric Mayfield of Reed Camp

2006-03-27T12:48:00.000-05:00

By Lucy

March 23, 2006
Ric Mayfield
TreasurerReed for Lt. Governor

Dear Ric,

My name is Tucker. I don’t like it when you make up stories about Casey Cagle. Casey is my owner. He feeds me, and walks me, and scratches that spot I can’t reach behind my ears. Casey and his family are my best friends.
When you say Casey is dishonest, I know that you know it isn’t true and you’re just carrying Ralph’s water for him. But I still don’t appreciate it. It’s wrong to say bad things that aren’t true about good people, and you know it. C’mon, Ric, I’m just a dog and I know that.
I have never bitten anyone, but I’ve got to say … if you and Ralph and his buddy Jack ever came to visit, I just might have to try it out. You have been a bad human, Ric. Go to your kennel!

Sincerely,
Tucker CagleDog

P.S. I don’t want to go to Ralph Reed’s house. Everyone who goes near him gets subpoenaed, and I don’t have enough doggie biscuits to pay for a lawyer (and I sure don’t want to go to the pound, even if it is a minimum security country club pound!).