Posted on 11/12/2002 3:43:21 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj
November 12, 2002 at 14:05:15 PST
GOP Widens Lead in Georgia Senate
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA- A fourth Democrat in the Georgia Senate has changed parties, bolstering the Republican majority and giving a boost to GOP Gov.-elect Sonny Perdue.
State Sen. Jack Hill's decision Tuesday gives Republicans a 30-26 edge over Democrats in the chamber and it reversed the Election Day results that gave Democrats a four-seat majority.
Republicans have not controlled a legislative body in Georgia since Reconstruction, and Perdue is the first Republican in 130 years to become governor of the state.
Democrats still control the Georgia House with 106 members to 73 Republicans and one independent.
The new majority means Republicans could strip Democratic Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor of his power to appoint committees and assign legislation to committees, leaving him only with the power to preside over debate.
Taylor has called on party switchers to resign and run for re-election as Republicans.
Right, words can't adequately describe how evil and corrupt the GA Dem party was and still is. But at least it has now had it's wings clipped.
People not familiar with GA don't know it of course, but getting rid of house speaker Tom Murphy was equally as great a victory for Georgia Republicans (actually all GA) as getting rid of Barnes and Cleland. Unfortunately, the rabidly partisan Mark Taylor is still there, but now he won't have the power to run roughshod over Republicans in the state Senate. I hope he enjoys making paper clip chains, because I don't think there will be much else for him to do the next four years.
Phil Gramm is a very special case. In his second term he co-authored the Gramm-Latta tax bill that enacted the Reagan agenda in 1981. Tip O'Neil was furious and had him removed from the budget committee in 1983 after he was re-elected in 1982. As a result Gramm had absolutely no political future as conservative Democrat in the House.
Fortunately Tip O'Neil's famous line "all politics is local" proved to be very true in Phil Gramm's district. Because he represented narrow gerrymandered district, he was able to run a campaign that foreshadowed his Senate campaign in 1984. His district ran from Northwest Houston to Southeast Dallas with College Station in between.
The idea when it was created in 1970 was to use yellow dog votes in the rural areas to cancel out the Republican votes in the suburbs of Houston and Dallas. Texas A&M which was located in the 6th district not only is one of the most conservative public universities in the country, but it also was the fastest growing university in the country. Enrollment grew from 13,000 students in 1970 to 32,000 students in 1982. The growth of Texas A&M and the ratification of the 26th amendment (allowing 18 year-olds to vote) created the conditions allowing Gramm to switch parties. The fact that the district included two top ten US media markets meant the special election got lots of media coverage in the most important cities for a Republican candidate for statewide office to carry.
After spending over a million dollars campaigning in his special election, Phil Gramm won back his seat with a majority in the first round against the son of the longtime Democrat Congressman he had unseated in the 1978 Democrat primary. About a month after Gramm won his House seat back, four-term Republican senator John Tower announced he would not seek a fifth term. Gramm almost immediately announced his candidacy for Tower's senate seat which he won in 1984.
In Georgia there is no official party registration to run for office. You can be a dues paying member of one party, and register to run as a candidate in the opposing party. It happens sometimes here in Gwinnett County. It is always funny to see copies of Party contibution reporting forms in campaign ads against that person. You can run for office without ever having been to a meeting or given a dime to that party. The primaries aren't conducted by the parties, but through district wide elections conducted by the state.
Dues paying members of any party can select a primary ballot for any party they choose (Hence, Cynthia McKenney whining about her race.) This is done because it is known that only one party has a chance of winning on election day. So, to get elected, you must "claim" to be from that party. This happens in both Republican and Democratic districts. In my county 85+ % of the primary ballots were for Republicans, but the general election split was closer to 60-40.
Look up the policital life of Vinson Wall. Gwinnett went Repub - so did he. After redistricting new candidates were always asked why Vinson wasn't running. These people didn't care what party he was in. All they knew was that he actually answered their letters and checked on their problems. The average voter isn't partisan - and if they have any general bias on that front, most would say that they vote for that party in charge, becasue their elected official will have power. In that case, the official is giving them excactly what they asked for!
I say the welcome mat is out...what matters right now capitalizing on the momentum that was created during the election...this is one way....there are a lot of guys who were on the fence...and they are jumping on our train...emotions are still high right now....
Also are these jumpers all "newley" elected?...got to make sure of that....either way...surfs up and our party is making swells..
The Republicans literally have not been in power for 5-6 generations. They have no idea how to run the state. They'll have to stop being back-bench bombthrowers and actually DO something. And the Dems can't even comprehend being out of power. I think Mark Taylor is beginning to dimly see what he's in for, hence his ongoing hissy fit.
I was just telling somebody today that if I were the new Repub floor leader I would be over talking to Tom Murphy's staff and trying to hire on one or two of them to show me the ropes.
Of course, if enough Dem senators switch over, it won't be a problem. They already know how things work.
I tend to agree with you. If you want to be a Republican, run as a Republican. I do not, however, fault any RAT who switched over to the GOP during the Clinton times. Theirs was a reasonable position because the head of their party was a criminal and the party would not do anything about it. They did the right thing.
They know the old ways about how things were done. What's the point of getting control if you run things exactly the way the RATS did. In 1994, the abuses of power by the Democrats in the US House were some of the main reasons for supporting a Republican takeover. The Wall Street Journal reported that polls showed the more people watched C-SPAN, the more likely they were to vote for a Republican House candidate in 1994. Congressman Obey from Wisconsin thought the biggest mistake Democrats made was allowing cameras to document how Congress actually works. I think that viewpoint is very cynical.
One rule I hated that the Republicans abolished immediately was voting by proxy in committee. You would see the Democrat chair of the committee vote the proxy votes of other Democrat members who were absent or attending other committee meetings. What this really meant was the real meeting occurred prior to the televised meeting. The Republicans were able to eliminate proxy voting because they started using commercially available off-the-shelf software to schedule committee meetings so they would not conflict with each other.
While there might be teething problems in figuring out how to be the majority party and be responsible for the outcume of legislation, I would much rather Republicans have that problem than the opposite problem which the Democrats have. The Democrats made the mistake in 1995 of electing the same leaders they would have elected if they were still in the majority. They then elected that same leadership in three additional consecutive terms. The Democrats have just failed to retake the House for the fourth consecutive election cycle. They are just now realizing they need to change their leadership. Fortunately for Republicans, they seem to want to really go off the deep end and elect Pelosi as minority leader.
Or Trent Lott, Mr. Pom Pom Boy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.