Is Keith Gross back in for House District 80?

August 19, 2009 16:45 pm

by Pete Randall · 23 comments

Oh, please let it be so. While reading this review of what’s been up in House District 80 for the last few campaign cycles which was posted over at Aikido School of Savannah, I noted one commenter indicated that Keith Gross (D-Florida, Georgia, Maryland, His Mom’s House, Wherever) filed preliminary campaign registration documents with the State Ethics Commission on June 10. It now appears that the whole gang may be back including campaign manager Steve Acuna, who you’ll recall wouldn’t even release Gross’ resume the last time around because of ‘fears’ for the safety of the candidate. And there were Gross’ alleged handgun charges in another state. We could go on and on…and on…and on.

Evidently the public embarrassment of being so incompetent that he couldn’t establish a simple thing as residency during his first campaign for House District 80, coupled with how his convoluted story was unraveled in a scathing opinion from State Administrative Law Judge Michael A. Malihi, may not be enough to keep our intrepid candidate from perhaps throwing his hat again into the race (albeit this will be the first time he’s done so legally).

So what’s Gross been up to in the interim? According to this, he’s still the President/CEO of the mysterious and covert Opifer Group. In addition, he owns the Green Sprouts Cafe in the Emory Village shopping center in Atlanta where Classic Sprouts Burritos are going for $6.75.

Gross has made sure to keep some mystery around with this potential second run for office, though. In filings with the State Ethics Commission, he has listed his address as a “Sunglasses Hut” in Atlanta.

Should be another exciting race in House District 80.

[UPDATE] A comment with this post suggests that, point in fact, Gross is not living in a “Sunglasses Hut” but that his address does correlate to actual residential dwellings. If so, I congratulate him on achieving such a long sought after goal of actually living in Georgia.

{ 23 comments }

Icarus August 19, 2009 at 4:52 pm

O.K. Pete, now you’re just being cruel.

I refuse to believe that Christmas has come so early for bloggers this year.

Bill Simon August 19, 2009 at 5:14 pm

Mmmmm…burritos.

drjay August 19, 2009 at 5:52 pm

i thought he was donning the white belt that signals a challenge to paul broun in athens?

John Konop August 19, 2009 at 8:43 pm

Do they have coupons?

macho August 19, 2009 at 9:10 pm

Is Gross a member of the “human community” as well.

rugby August 19, 2009 at 9:17 pm

Isn’t it terribly inappropriate to link to a personal Facebook page the way Pete did?

macho August 20, 2009 at 6:11 am

No. Once you put something up on the internet it’s there for the world to see. That’s what a lot of these idiot kids don’t understand when they post a drunk picture of themselves from the frat house and a potential employer looks at it.

It’s not like Pete stole pages from his personal diary and posted it.

rugby August 20, 2009 at 7:31 am

Uh the separation is that you can’t just use a personal page willy-nilly. It is inappropriate (and unethical) for a potential employer to review a Facebook page of a job applicant and decide if he or she will hire the applicant, I can’t fire an employee for something non-work related on a Facebook page…you see where I am going with this?

Doug Deal August 20, 2009 at 7:54 am

In Georgia, you can fire an employee for any petty reason you want, as long as it is not based on race, religion, sex, age, etc.

drjay August 20, 2009 at 8:10 am

i’m not sure how that would be that different than a standard background check–i think if someone has a facebook page and you “google” them it will hit on the fb content…

rugby August 20, 2009 at 8:38 am

There is a difference between can do and ethical.

A background check involves information that no one ever intends, hopes, or expects to remain private, or stay within a select social group. All of which are assumptions that go into a private or personal web page. Which is why you have privacy settings on these social networking programs.

At any rate, was there any real purpose to linking to the CM’s page (I am not he, for the record)? Does it serve to bolster the story? Does it provide any context? Does it offer any insight? Does it offer any particular meat otherwise lacking in the story? No. It frankly seems just like a sh*thead thing to do. Let people have their privacy.

Doug Deal August 20, 2009 at 11:28 am

I agree that people should have their privacy. The main reason we end up with the undeserving trolls we have as leaders is because no one who is in any way normal wants to deal with the invasions to privacy. My argument was not about morality, which nearly every lawyer and politican fails, it was about legality.

I guess we agree that it was wrong, what leftist crusaders did to the Palin family.

;-)

rugby August 20, 2009 at 12:33 pm

To an extent. Actually I don’t really know. She made them part of the campaign so some of it was in bounds. I don’t know really (or care). Someone could convince me either way. Levi though, clearly has an ax to grind.

Doug Deal August 20, 2009 at 2:43 pm

Levi has an axe to grind?
I think that might just be in his jeans.

I was really thinking about the “Trig is not Palin’s son” nonsense.

rugby August 20, 2009 at 2:45 pm

Forgot about that. Shows how opinionated I am about it

I’ll just say I agree with you without even knowing what you think. Should be that way anyway all the time.

Doug Deal August 20, 2009 at 2:47 pm

I agree, I guess.

Mike Hauncho August 19, 2009 at 9:21 pm

We should be thanking Jane Kidd for this guy. Wasn’t he part of her campaign to challenge all Republicans? What a joke.

BuckheadConservative August 20, 2009 at 8:27 am

I drive by there everyday. Not a Sunglass Hut. Condos, or apartment complex or something.

Do we give him points for tenacity, or is this already just pathetic? Either way, the good guys look safe here.

LoyaltyIsMyHonor August 20, 2009 at 9:52 am

This must be a very vulnerable seat since Peach Pundit front pagers exhaust so much energy and time to beat down the Deomocratic challenger. I think last year we were averaging about 1.2 Keith Gross threads per day. Guess we have the power to stop Keith Gross, but not GA Power :(

BuckheadConservative August 20, 2009 at 10:40 am

Whoa, an update that links to one of my comments. That’s like a first step toward becoming a front page poster.

I think Barack Obama has served as an inspiration to aspiring politicos everywhere with diminutive qualifications and murky residency status.

Wait, did he go there? Why yes, yes he did.

Matt Schafer August 20, 2009 at 1:06 pm

I’m not hugely surprised by this Gross came to our Best of Gay Atlanta Party last month and so that was a pretty big hint to me that his political future wasn’t done with in this state.

Here’s a link to our story, I should talk with Steve Acuna and have it updated before the end of the day

http://www.sovo.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=26828

Romegaguy August 21, 2009 at 7:19 pm

Gross should just release his Hawaiian birth certificate

rugby August 21, 2009 at 7:47 pm

Keith Gross is a man?

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