Voted ugliest flag ever designed.
Posted on 09/22/2002 11:16:17 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
ATLANTA - It was a tough choice for legislators when Gov. Roy Barnes challenged them a year ago to change the state flag: face his wrath by voting against him or vote with him and risk a potential voter backlash in the elections of 2002.
Most backed the change. A few who didn't felt his anger when he stripped their pet projects from the budget. Now some who voted with Barnes and face November challenges are raking in grants from the governor's emergency fund that could help their re-election bids.
The governor's chief adviser, Bobby Kahn, contends the grants have nothing to do with the flag vote and everything to do with the aggressiveness of particular lawmakers in seeking state grants. But Eric Johnson, the leader of Senate Republicans, isn't so sure.
``He's certainly using the fund to help Democrats who are in trouble. And the flag may be what has gotten them in trouble,'' said Johnson, who led the GOP opposition to the flag redesign which all but removed the Confederate fighting symbol from the state banner.
The governor's emergency fund is designed to allow the state's chief executive to meet unforeseen needs across the state, usually in response to legislative requests. In the budget year which ended June 30, Barnes had $4.7 million to spend. In this year's budget, the figure is $3.8 million.
Three Democratic senators who voted to change the flag and now face sharp Republican opposition Nov. 5 have reaped a windfall from the emergency fund, state records show. A loss of three seats could leave majority Democrats with a precariously narrow margin in the Senate.
One of the three is 28-year veteran Sen. Nathan Dean of Rockmart whose Republican challenger, James Garner, is an outspoken opponent of the new flag. Garner says on his Web site the new flag is ``ludicrous'' and that the change was ``a deal designed and brokered in secret back room negotiations.''
Dean, no slouch at winning appropriations for his district when the Legislature writes the budget bill, has gotten $234,500 in grants from the governor's emergency fund in the last 15 months. Although the comparison isn't exact, in the 12 months before that, he got $89,672 in grants from the governor.
``He's on the front page of the local newspaper every week giving one group or another money,'' said Garner, the GOP challenger. ``I see it as (the governor) buying them off. People who support him and do what he wants done, he rewards them by giving them our tax-paid money.''
``I represent the people of my district,'' said Dean. ``When I have a police department tell me it does not have adequate equipment or a fire department call me and tell me the same thing, I do what I can to help them.''
Dean's grants, indeed, include money for fire department and police department equipment, the record shows. But they also include $13,500 for band equipment and $20,000 for uniforms for Cedartown High School and $7,000 for improvements to a Confederate veterans memorial park.
Dean says the vote to change the flag was ``tough on everybody'' but that Barnes never promised him help in exchange for his vote. ``I've been helping people ... (with grants) for years. It didn't just start.''
Sen. Harold Ragan of Cairo, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is another major recipient of gubernatorial grants: $256,500 in the last 15 months compared to $33,976 in the 12 months before that. In the November election, he faces Republican state Rep. John Bulloch of Ochlocknee.
Bulloch, who voted against changing the flag when the issue was before the House, said the grants show Democrats are worried about the election.
``He (Ragan) is running scared. The governor is running scared. They're doing everything they can to try to retain their elected positions,'' Bulloch contends. Even so, he said the grants Ragan has brought to the district ``makes it harder'' to campaign against him.
Ragan was asked if the grants were intended to help Democrats who voted to change the flag. He replied: ``I have the third-poorest district in the state of Georgia. If I can get resources for my people, I do so. I don't try to analyze and interpret for the press what the motivation is.''
Among the grants he got from the governor: $20,000 to resurface city tennis courts; $20,000 for an athletic facility in Seminole County; $15,000 for air conditioning a senior citizens building and money for a variety of fire department and police agencies.
Sen. Faye Smith, D-Milledgeville, also faces Republican opposition after surviving a primary challenge. She got $292,000 from the governor over the last 15 months, up from $196,000 the previous 12.
Kahn, who took leave of absence as the governor's chief of staff in order to manage Barnes' re-election campaign, said Barnes is assisting cooperative legislators to win re-election through the Democratic Party, not through state government.
``Is he helping in their campaigns? Yes. In terms of the emergency fund, the two have nothing to do with each other.''
To support that argument, he said Barnes also has given grants to Republican leader Johnson and to other legislators of both parties who opposed changing the flag.
Johnson acknowledged the governor gave him a grant of $20,000 for the city of Pooler and one for $15,000 for Chatham County. But the grants to Republicans and other flag opponents were merely to allow the governor to claim he wasn't playing politics, Johnson charged.
``The whole problem is, tax dollars are used more for holding onto power than to improve the economy or health care,'' he said.
Voted ugliest flag ever designed.
If you want on/off the Dixie list, FReepmail me.
I traveled through Atlanta's airport a couple of times in the last two years. Even before the flag change, the mayor of Atlanta refused to fly the state flag anywhere in the city, raising instead -- and how stupid is this? -- the old, pre-50's flag, the real Jim Crow flag. Duhh?
So there it was, a huge flag of Jim Crow Georgia, floating on its pole next to the national colors at Hartsfield Airport. What a bunch of maroons. They ought to make a new, maroon flag just for those guys. Maroon, with a little pink weenie in the middle. Or maybe a little pink rhinoceros.
Ahaha, good one there. The weenie would be my vote. After all, liberal socialist republicans are the real repubs. Conservatives in that party are the actual RINOS. ;-)
Unfortunately, that's the view that many Gerogian's have of our great state - Atlanta, and everything else.
Sen. Harold Ragan would not even return phone calls (he was my state senator). His opponent, Rep. John Bulloch is a fine and honorable man, I talked with him many times. I hope and pray that Mr. Bulloch wins.
Well said. How sadly true.
free dixie,sw
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