Monday, March 9, 2009
News Sine Die shift helps one mayoral hopeful
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 7:01 PM
Late last week, the Georgia General Assembly finally caught up with CL's informed prediction that lawmakers would announce a new schedule that sets the end of the session for April 3, rather than sometime in June.
The news that Georgia will not be forced to suffer through a prolonged sausage-making season was welcome to all sentient beings, but none more so than state Sen. Kasim Reed, D-Atlanta,
Reed, you may have heard, is running for mayor and, like all state lawmakers, he's barred from any kind of campaign fund-raising while the General Assembly is in session. He entered the session in January with his campaign finances in good shape, with more cash on hand than his closest opponent, Councilwoman Mary Norwood. But not being able to resume fund-raising until mid-June would've been a campaign-killer for Reed.
If the session schedule hadn't been changed, Reed confirms, he would've resigned his Senate seat. Now, folks leave office all the time to run for other posts – Reed will need to do that in August when he qualifies for the mayor's race – but I've never heard of a state legislator abandoning his seat mid-General Assembly, unless it's been for health reasons or imminent criminal charges (see Ron Sailor). Heck, even Sen. Charles Walker, D-Savannah, showed up for work while under federal indictment a few years back.
Reed has dodged a big bullet.
Comments (2)
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Do us a favor and stop with the horse race BS, CL. Those of us who live and pay our taxes in this fair city need better than that. Tell us what Kasim "Call me Shirley" Reed would do to get us out of the mess that the mayor whose campaign he ran has gotten us into. Like a deficit so massive her incompetent finance dept can't measure it. And a police force that is understaffed and poorly led. We want some honest answers, not the usual bland runaround we get from the local pols.
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