I told you so.
Naturally he’d want to make it official on my birthday.
Now will Thurbert Baker take the next step and move to Lt. Gov.?
From Buzz: Here’s what Tom Houck said via Twitter last night:
A overnight rumor. Roy Barnes run for gov, Thurbert Baker gets a Fed Judgeship and leaves the race.
Any chance Baker get’s a Judgeship?
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Thurmond will announce for Lt. Gov. next week.
Happy Birthday Erick!
David will withdraw from the Gov race. He was a place sitter anyway. Michael Thurmond will run for LT. Gov. Baker will stay in the Gov race.
Erick finally got a prediction right. Congrats!
Oops, maybe I’m wrong. Nancy Schaeffer ran for PSC last year…
I”m a republican. I’ll vote for the ticket, but i’m pretty much convinced we’re going to lose next year.
Sonny Perdue has been a total failure as a governor. his only agenda has been undoing anything and everything Barnes. we have spent 6 years in the middle of some kind of childish, petty temper tantrum.
on the positive side, a barnes administration will be a nice balance to our gop legislature. maybe we’ll stop fighting amongst ourselves and not accomplishing anything – and actually provide some leadership. A good adversary in the governor’s office might get us back to basics.
Is there a website that ranks states according to their financial soundness? Kind of like mutual funds or stocks? I would think Georgia is in a lot better shape than other states.
“not accomplishing anything – and actually provide some leadership.”
I don’t even know what to say about this quote.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124398568837379031.html
This will be a tough ticket for The GOP(Barnes /Baker) to beat if they do not get it together. This campaign will be about jobs, healthcare, transportation and education. And the GOP should focus on solutions not personal attacks on each other.
How’s this for a birthday present, Erick? Happy birthday!
Wow. Way to predict something that alot of folks have known for months. I can’t wait for the three months from today it will be Sep. 3 prediction to come true.
“This campaign will be about jobs, healthcare, transportation and education”
The problem for Barnes on these issues is that he has a record of lack of accomplishment.
Macho
You are kidding yourself if he does not blame the current GOP leadership and presents new ideas. You are right that is the counter punch the GOP will use but it is difficult when you are in charge.
That is why in this race it must be about a new direction with a real plan. If the debate is about defending the last 8 years with personal attacks and no plan it will be a tough road for the GOP.
Are we forgetting the fiscal unsoundness that the Barnes Administration left us in? Keep in mind Sonny took office in 2003 the middle of a state financial crisis, having to slash the bloated Barnes’ budget. The first thing the new GOP Governor and new GOP Controlled Senate (House was still Dem controlled) had to do was work to slash millions to meet the budget shortfall. As Sonny said in 2006, why would we ever want to go back to that again?
Barnes will be easy to defeat because of his record. If the Dems want any chance of winning, they will go with someone seen as something new rather than some old has-been.
“I”m a republican. I’ll vote for the ticket, but i’m pretty much convinced we’re going to lose next year.
“Sonny Perdue has been a total failure as a governor.”
I didn’t know Sonny was running again.
I just don’t get excited about Barnes again but you can bet the walking around money will be flowing like the Flint River. If Baker could get a federal judgeship, that would be better.
the first thing the last dem governor did was attempt to raise taxes, not slash the budget. goober sonny was stopped by gop legislators when he attempted to increase property taxes by about $2b, but he did get his sin taxes on cigs and alcohol.
since then, the budget increased from around $16b to over $21b which is why the gop is in trouble across the country.
and john, what gubernatorial race is not about jobs, healthcare, education and transportation?
3J, when factoring inflation, the state budget is less now than it was in the late ’90s. How many states can claim that?
I’ve also heard the judgeship rumor from several sources.
The idea is that the Obama Administration wanted Baker to run to keep the African American vote mobilized and voting and that the Baker campaign could feed off the current Obama wave within those circles and then in 2 yrs when that wave starts to die down – as if it hasn’t been already – the Obama campaign could feed off the energy created by having GA’s first AA Gov.
Prob: Baker won’t win.
Joshua, do you have some kind of documentation for that claim? Not saying you’re wrong, just wondering if you have hard numbers?
I am undecided as to which GOP candidate to support.
The two that are not in the running are Deal and Oxendine.
Under no circumstance will I vote for either of those two.
16 X 1.04 x 1.04 x 1.04 1.04 X 1.04 x 1.04 x 1.04 x 1.04 = about 22 add in rise of polulation and he’s right. This assumes inflation of 4% which is reasonable.
joshua, ditto what dantes wrote.
if you are comparing 90s to today after the legislature was forced to cut the budget by a few billion, then you might have a case. but if you are talking about last year as i referenced when free spending republicans annually increased the budget by billions, then i think you are incorrect.
This does not include deflation this year.
The US Inflation Rate – 1948 to 2008
1998 1.55
1999 2.19
2000 3.38
2001 2.83
2002 1.59
2003 2.27
2004 2.68
2005 3.39
2006 3.24
2007 2.85
2008 3.85
http://www.ask.com/bar?q=united+states+rate+of+inflation&page=1&qsrc=121&ab=5&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.miseryindex.us%2Firbyyear.asp
The CPI went from 177.1 in Jan 2002 to 211.1 in Jan 2009. An annualized increase of approximately 2.5% per year (some years higher than others). In the same span (estimating here because census estimates go from 2000 to 2008) population went up by about 2.1% per year.
In total, about 38%. A $16 billion budget would grow to…$22 billion. But that also includes billions of dollars in cuts to education, made up by property tax payers at the local level. In other words, the $16 billion budget in 2002 is about the same as the $22 billion budget in 2009 (price wise). But for the same price, you get less than you did in 2002.
Great argument you got there. True, the new budget is less but includes a lot of gimmicky math that they’ll use to “make it up” either in the mid-year budget or in a future budget once the economy turns around a bit. Compare that to the 90′s when they cut taxes and added Peachcare and HOPE among other things. Voters are right to ask what kind of value are they getting for their government in Georgia and as a Democrat I hope they start asking that question.
Being that Barnes was a huge supporter of his fellow trial lawyer John Edwards and Thrubert endorsed Hillary, I don’t know if Obama is going to go out o his way to help either one of them.
Chris Huttman
If what you said is true that the budget is the same less education spending than what areas in the budget grew that off set less education spending?
Casey should consider stepping down from his reelection campaign. If we had someone in the senate who knew who to get things down, we would have a transportation plan and funding.
Shafer only suspended his campaign, so he can start it up again.
ready2rumble -
You are an idiot.
“who knew who to get things down.”
I think you meant – “Who KNOWS HOW to get things DONE.”
Not sure if you were at state convention – but it doesn’t look like Cagle will be dropping out. His sea of red shirts looked more active that Shafer’s empty suite. Just saying.
Were the shirts red?
They looked scarlet to me.
John,
I didn’t dig that deeply. I’m familiar with the top line and also pretty familiar with the budget cuts. Maybe someone can make the case that services have increased in other areas that balance it out. I just don’t see what that case is to be made…Go fish?
“Joshua, do you have some kind of documentation for that claim?”
Yes, I got it from a state legislator sometime last fall. I don’t have it right in front of me, but I can dig it up later.
“But that also includes billions of dollars in cuts to education, made up by property tax payers at the local level.”
This is true only if you define ‘cut’ as ‘an increase that’s not as big as democrats would have preferred.’
Or that state law mandates the county taxpayers have to pay for if the state doesn’t.
Happy birthday (for real) Erick!
Cute, Icarus.
Still putting in long days at the rumor mill I see. I’ll at least give you “clever points” on that one.
Macho, Obama hasn’t sought much retribution. He brought Hillary into the cabinet and by all indications the relationship is working well. Lieberman campaigned for McCain, but Obama quashed an attempt to strip him of his seniority. He may not go out of his way for Barnes in a primary, but you can bet he’ll help in a general election. Also if Baker gets an federal appointment, clearing the path for Barnes – that would be a pretty big favor.
He’s just such a disingenuous liar. This from the AJC’s article on his news conference:
“And for all those who say we ought to secede from the Union and we ought to start our own nation, that’s about what drove me into this race.
On the issues, Barnes said transportation and education top the list. First priority, he said, is to stop the bleeding in education but to immediately get to work on solving transportation. Water and the future of the resource for the growth of the region is also a top need. ”
If the “talk of starting our own nation” was what drove him into the race, then why isn’t stopping it part of this priorities. He’s been out there lying about the GOP candidates talking about secession, name some folks Roy, give some quotes.
“Barnes showed the fire that helped him go from country lawyer to state lawmaker to governor (and back to country lawyer).”
You’d think after his populist, hypocrite buddy John Edwards was nationally embarrassed, he might want to stop emulating him with this cliched crap. “Country lawyer”, give me a break, since when is Cobb County in the “country.” The AJC did a major article on his new mansion (very similar to Edwards) on the Marietta square. Seriously, does anybody buy this used car salesman crap?
He can keep telling himself that he was thrown out of office because of the “flaggers” and it will be to his peril, because the flaggers came after Sonny in his second term as well.
Chris Huttman
For us to truly understand the budget issue would not be important to understand the shift in spending priorities verse cuts?
The GOP isn’t ging to enjoy it, but every time one of its candidates says “nullification”, a Democrat is going to hit them with “secession”. Running a campaign based upon an interpretation of the 10th amendment that is well outside the mainstream of judicial precedence is not going to fly. Democrats will gladly hit you with that 2×4 and particularly when you ask for it.
Barns isn’t naming names because if he doesn’t do that correctly, he will have me calling him a lair at every post. His new title could be “King Roy, the liar hearted”
PD, I could run a campaign in Georgia on a strict interpretation of the constitution verses a living breathing document and win a statewide election, if that is the ONLY issue.
Yeh Erick, and if your chosen one Handel loses to Oxendine, then you’ll support Barnes because you hate White, Conservative, Christian males!
GOPG, I’m certain the Barnes camapign will be intimidated by your posts.
And, I’m certain a Dem campaigning on being “progressive” for Georgia will fly over like a lead balloon.
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