Overview:

Could this be the sleepiest race on the primary ballot? Yeah, probably. Pity the poor candidates for Secretary of State; at least in 2006, they had Karen Handel to run against. So far in 2010 - snoozefest.

Democrats have five choices, and two (Buckner and Moore) of them have run for this office in the past; Buckner was the 2006 Democratic nominee. A third, Michael Mills, shares a name with a certain bass player from a certain well-known Athens band, and the fourth, Gary Horlacher, led off his campaign with a lie detector test. Georganna Sinkfield has a well-deserved reputation as a passionate and outspoken state representative. With creds like these, you'd think this thing would be fun to watch. It isn't.

One interesting thing to note is the candidate's platforms. Horlacher wants to talk ethics. Buckner and Sinkfield are all about voting rights. Moore and Mills are, well, a bit light on the issues, at least judging by their websites.

Check the bottom of this post for video of the 2010 Atlanta Press Club debate.

Key endorsements:

Hank Johnson, Congressman from metro Atlanta's 4th District is set to pick up a big endorsement tomorrow from civil rights icon Rev. Joseph Lowery. Lowery helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and served as its president for 20 years. You might also know him from his benediction at President Barack Obama's inauguration.

Johnson faces a three-way Democratic primary against former DeKalb Commission Chair Vernon Jones, and former DeKalb Commissioner Connie Stokes. The winner will go on to obliterate a Republican sacrificial lamb in November.

In the world of individual endorsements, Lowery's is about as big as they come in metro Atlanta and around the South. It's right up there with Shirley Franklin and Andrew Young in terms of endorsements. (Please note, if you're going to claim Andy Young endorsed you, make sure he actually did *coughKenHodgescough*)

So, congratulations to Hank Johnson. He's a good representative, and definitely worthy of the support.

Overview:

One of your typical low-interest downballot primaries, the Democratic race for School Superintendent was looking to be a battle between two candidates of roughly equal strength - Beth Farokhi and Brian Westlake - until the last-minute entrance of Joe Martin turned the race on its ear. Martin started with a slight advantage on name recognition - his brother is 2008 Senate candidate Jim Martin, and Joe ran for this office in 1998 and 2002 - as well as a deeply rooted network from his work with the Georgia School Funding Association.

This one is still off the radar for a lot of voters, even though education routinely shows up in the top three issues that are on the minds of Georgia voters.

Check the bottom of this post for video of the 2010 Atlanta Press Club debate.

The polling:

There has been some polling in this race - a SurveyUSA poll conducted in mid-June showed Joe Martin leading the field handlily. The results:

Per Blake, Democratic candidate for the 10th District Russell Edwards would like you to avoid Paul Broun, Jr.'s Toun Hall, please. Instead, go hang out with the guy we want to win, since he won't, you know, make us a laughingstock. You can chill with Team Russell at Transmet on Thursday at 6pm and avoid all of the Broun froun madness.

It's a smart move for Edwards (who is, by the way, slowly putting together a good campaign team). After all, if his central message is that Broun is out of touch, embarrassing, and a little bit loco, then it makes every bit of sense in the world to keep your own crazy off the stage. And yes, Virginia, there are crazy progressives too.

Here's the new teeveeness from Nathan Deal, and it is a masterpiece of gutter-politics-style pandering.

Are you at least a little offended? You kind of ought to be. As far as it goes, Deal's campaign clearly gets the fact that, in a primary, you play hard to your base. After all, you've got to win in July (or August) before you win in November.

And heck, I guess it's easier than explaining any of the things that Deal ought to be talking to the voters (including the ones pulling a GOP ballot on July 20) about, such as:

Per El Otro Athens, Congresscritter Paul Broun (R-Chamomile) will be girding his loins for a visit to our little blue island on Thursday. He'll be addressing the unwashed masses at the Holiday Inn downtown, at 6:00 pm.

And I quote:

This town hall is part of a nationwide strategy, known as America Speaking Out, designed to gather ideas from the American people to craft a new agenda for America. During the town hall, Congressman Broun will listen to ideas from 10th District residents and demonstrate how they can participate throughout the year as issues and events unfold.

No word on whether Kool-Aid will be served.

If Rob Teilhet was the first Attorney General candidate to go up on TV, he won by no more than a nose, since within 5 minutes of putting Teilhet's spot on the blog, I got a self-congratulatory release from the Hodges campaign.
So, here's their spot:

What's interesting is the difference between what the two candidates are saying, as well as perhaps how they say it. Hodges, if nothing else, is on message. You know the guy is a prosecutor, at least. (For those of us who get his press releases regularly, it's really obvious - the guy throws around "prosecutor" the way I throw around indefinite articles.)

Democratic candidate for Attorney General Rob Teilhet is the first of five AG candidates to go up on TV. The spot is below; no word on the size of the media buy.

A few weeks ago, I jumped on the soapbox and asked - nay demanded - that you vote for Georgia peanuts in Roll Call's "Great Peanut Debate," held in conjunction with the annual Congressional Baseball Game.

I'm proud to tell you that Georgia has the best peanuts in all the land, according to 43% of America, narrowly beating out Virginia. Frankly, I didn't know they grew peanuts there. Bunch of nouveau nut-growers, if you ask me.

As far as the game itself goes, Democrats won 13-5, thanks largely in part to a 7th-inning pitching meltdown by Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) who let Democrats hang seven runs on him. Oh, and speaking of Democrats, Jim Marshall suited up, marking the first time he's allowed himself to be publicly associated with Democrats in - well, maybe ever.

Even though we're good friends, Johnathan and I do tend to disagree from time to time, and today, we're disagreeing about this:

Electricity bills for Georgia residents would rise more than 10 percent next year under a rate proposal the Georgia Power Co. filed Thursday as the utility copes with slumping sales and the increased costs of upgrading plants during a recession.

This has the potential to be a pretty big deal. I don't trust it, and I'm pretty sure you shouldn't either. Let's fire up the Wayback Machine and head to the year 2009. Back then, we were all talking about SB 31, better known as the Georgia Nuclear Power Financing Act of 2009, or the "Great Big Georgia Power Giveaway," if you prefer.