Southern Political Report

Hope for Drinking Water Wells

By Sarita Chourey

COLUMBIA -- Signaling progress toward saving area drinking water wells, Georgia has placed a moratorium on new groundwaterpumping from the Floridan Aquifer.

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Environmental Group Has Questions for Utility Execs

Walter Jones

ATLANTA - Members of the environmental group the Sierra Club plan to use today's Southern Company annual shareholder meeting as an opportunity to grill executives about construction overruns and renewable energy.

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	*5/21/2013 — Walter Jones:* Georgia's Inmate Population Declines**
	ATLANTA -- A year after relaxing sentencing for minor crimes, Georgia is seeing the first hints of an inmate-population decline.

	*5/21/2013 — Morris News Service:* New Georgia GOP Chairman Elected**
	ATHENS -- Athenian John Padgett is the new chairman of the Georgia Republican Party.

	*5/20/2013 — Hastings Wyman:* Florida: Governor’s Race Up In the Air**
	“I have no plans to run for governor. I have no intention of running for governor,” US Sen. Bill Nelson (D) told Tampa Bay Times Bureau Chief Alex Leary recently. “Why can’t you accept the King’s English?” That of course begs the question, Why not a Sherman statement? “If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.” And that Nelson has not said.

	*5/20/2013 — Morris News Service:* Georgia GOP Convention**
	ATHENS -- Appealing to minority voters was ranked as key to the Republican Party's survival at the second day of the state convention in Athens.

	*5/17/2013 — Morris News Service:* Sonny Perdue's Cousin Considering Run for Senate**
	Former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue stumped on Tuesday for a cousin considering a run for the U.S. Senate.

	*5/17/2013 — Walter Jones:* Southern CEO Says Vogtle Overruns Won't Impact Customers**
	ATLANTA - Cost overruns on the construction of two nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle won't end up making a significant impact on customers' monthly electricity bills, the chief executive officer of Southern Company said Thursday.

	*5/16/2013 — Walter Jones:* Fed Economist Says Manufacturing Strong, Growing**
	ATLANTA -- Gloom and doom pronouncements about the state of American manufacturing are uninformed and wrong, according to a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank.

5/16/2013 — Matt Towery: 'When Those Liberals Start Mixing Into Policy ...'

"When those liberals start mixing into policy, it's murder."

That quote came from none other than John F. Kennedy in 1962, taken from a source in a Newsweek article, and later discussed with his friend Ben Bradlee, then of Newsweek and later the head of The Washington Post during the Watergate years.

	*5/15/2013 — Sarita Chourey :* DNR Chief Has Brush With Saltwater Plume**
	COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s top natural resources official drinks saltwater. He doesn’t do it to show solidarity with the Bluffton-Hilton Head area, where some drinking water wells have been tainted by saltwater intrusion. Rather, S.C. DNR director Alvin Taylor’s well has been contaminated for about two years.

	*5/15/2013 — Hastings Wyman:* North Carolina: GOPers Circling Around Hagan**
	The last time an incumbent Democratic US Senator was reelected in North Carolina was 1968, when the legendary Sam Ervin won his fifth term with 61% of the vote. Since then, under the onslaught of the growth of a vibrant, if not always victorious, conservative Republican Party, a GOP challenger has managed to unseat every freshman Democratic senator.

	*5/14/2013 — Hastings Wyman:* Obama and an Overreach of Power**
	Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. These powerful words, penned by British moralizer Lord Acton in the 19^th Century (thank you, Google), came to mind when I first saw the Huffington Post story that the Department of Justice has been collecting data on telephone calls made by Associated Press journalists, including some of those in the House of Representatives press gallery.

	*5/14/2013 — Walter Jones:* Voting Trends can Alter Political Landscape**
	ATLANTA -- Adding to the Democrats' delight and the Republicans' woes is new data showing the voter-turnout trends are tipping the partisan balance.

	*5/13/2013 — Sen. Buddy Carter:* Enough is Enough**
	The public is beginning to lose its faith in the Environmental Protection Division and its projects.

	*5/13/2013 — Walter Jones:* GOP Meets in Athens to Pick Chairman**
	ATLANTA -- More than 2,000 Republican delegates will vote May 18 on the state party's new chairman, potentially setting the path for the next generation of campaigns.

	*5/10/2013 — Morris News Service:* Ga. Tax Collections Up 13% in April**
	ATLANTA -- An improving economy pushed Georgia tax collections up 13 percent in April, Gov. Nathan Deal's office announced Wednesday.

	*5/10/2013 — Morris News Service:* South Carolina Celebrates Confederate Memorial Day May 10**
	COLUMBIA -- South Carolina state government will be closed Friday, May 10, in observance of Confederate Memorial Day.

	*5/9/2013 — Walter Jones:* Echols Holds Social-Media ‘Town Hall Meeting’**
	ATLANTA – One statewide officeholder is using social media as a forum for discussion with citizens who know the right “hashtag.”

5/9/2013 — Matt Towery: Republicans Prevail in South Carolina, but Can Democrats Take a Prize in Georgia?

ATLANTA -- Despite on onslaught of national press that seemed to be pushing Elizabeth Colbert Busch toward a victory in the South Carolina special congressional election, former Gov. Mark Sanford, baggage and all, prevailed with a resounding victory. And while I never judge personal lives, it is fair to say that voters in that district overlooked quite a lot in giving Sanford a pass on his past and into the U.S. House.

	*5/8/2013 — Walter Jones:* Deal Signs Budget With 4.6% Increase, Pledges Continued Conservatism**
	ATLANTA – Pledging to remain tightfisted as tax collections rise, Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law the 4.6 percent increase in state spending Monday that the General Assembly passed two months ago.

	*5/8/2013 — Morris News Service:* State Plan Would Boost Caregivers**
	COLUMBIA -- Unpaid caregivers may receive some relief, if an initiative through the Lieutenant Governor's Office on Aging wins support from state leaders.

Around the South

North Carolina, Virginia, & Florida

North Carolina: Demonstrations, arrests continue at Capitol. “Moral Monday” demonstrations, led by the Rev. William Barber, state NAACP president, are growing larger each week, reports the Raleigh News & Observer. The demonstrators, protesting repeal of the Racial Justice Act, public money for private schools, and the legislature’s refusal to expand Medicaid, gather on the second floor rotunda in an area off-limits to the public. So far, 160 have been arrested.

Virginia: McAuliffe now leads. It’s 43% for former Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe to 38% for state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) in this fall’s race for governor of Virginia. The survey, taken May 8-13 by Quinnipiac University, shows a small but significant gain for McAuliffe since the same firm’s March poll, which gave Cuccinelli a 40% to 38% lead.

Florida: Crime on the decline. Unemployment numbers aren’t the only ones that reflect how well a state is doing. According to numbers released by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and reported in The Hill, the state’s crime rate decline 6.5% over last year, to the lowest level the Sunshine State has experienced in the 42 years since the state began keeping the figures.

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