Oconee County, GA Politics

A fire destroyed former state Rep. Bob Smith’s house in Oconee County early Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the State Fire Marshal’s Office said. The fire was reported at 8:53 a.m. at the brick home located on Porter Creek Drive in Watkinsville. No one was in the home at the time of the blaze. “Someone called the police reporting smoke in the area. The police and fire department went out and discovered the fire,” the spokesman said Fire destroys former State Rep. Bob Smith's house in Oconee County

The process of municipal government approval of expenditures varies greatly given the gamut of getting done what needs to be accomplished. The agenda is what controls the course of the evening's activities, and it has been done flawlessly and expertly by Julie Sanders at the City of Watkinsville for as long as I can remember. Tonight was no exception to her consistency and rule I have always enjoy attending the Watkinsville City Council meetings and finding out what happens in our county seat. This evening they added white plastic chains to keep the adoring media throng from taking photos behind the city council members' backs during the meetings. I would hope that council continues to do so well without the annoying media snooping around behind them at their meetings. The meeting seemed to flow well regarding of any artificially constructed barriers to prevent any unnecessary media intrusions. Some smart aleck in the audience actually dared to tell Clerk Sanders of an ap...

More Dems raising money for Quick | Online Athens

The list doubled since I had to file an open records request to get the list the other day. My rankings of the likelihood of being appointed based on little more than practical educational experience. 1. Franklin Shumake - nobody comes close to the amount of time he has spend working on the education of Oconee County children. Here is Legislative proclamation proof from a couple years back as if you needed this: 07 LC 28 3128 House Resolution 73 By: Representatives Smith of the 113 th and Coleman of the 97 th A RESOLUTION Commending Dr. Franklin Shumake; and for other purposes. WHEREAS, Dr. Franklin Shumake has been recognized by the citizens of this state for the vital role that he has played in leadership and his deep personal commitment to the education and welfare of the citizens of Georgia; and WHEREAS, he has diligently and conscientiously devoted innumerable hours of his time, talents, and energy toward the betterment of his community and state as evidenced ...

Athens Banner-Herald's letter to the editor author pegs the political right in Georgia and nails them in no uncertain manner about stupid meddling in higher education. Well written letter, Grady especially about our State Representative Bob Smith. Grady L. Cornish: Higher-ed meddling is political || OnlineAthens.com

State Representative Bob Smith is trying to something in his first term since his chairmanship wings were clipped Bill would bar legislators from local government work | Gold Dome Live Posted using ShareThis

 The Georgian Republican lawmakers have heard the roar of the masses, and people are not too happy with the idea of shutting down the State Botanical Gardens, 4H and County Extension offices, among other ill advised ideas. Our own Representative Bob Smith finally makes a comment about the current situation, the first time we have heard from him since the new Speaker of the House David Ralston switched him off the chairmanship of some powerful committees. Colleges, lawmakers seek ‘balance' in dealing with cuts  | ajc.com Posted using ShareThis

I do not agree with the insurance industry led protests of these misguided buffoons, but I support their right to peaceably assemble, even next to my beloved soccer field. Wonder how many Nazi and Communist symbols will be on display? Sounds like the nuts will be out in force for this one, not just the birthers and deathers. No Death Panel discussions? Support your President, people. Congressman Paul Broun will be in the house. The following was swiped from the Athens GOP blog. Somebody tell Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann quickly. Oconee Healthcare Reform Protest Exercise you First Amendment rights by joining The Citizens for Ethical Government in a peaceful demonstration against the various healthcare “reform” proposals being put forth by congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration. The event, slated for Saturday, August 29, will take place at 10:30 a.m. at Oconee Veterans Park, located on Highway 53 in Watkinsville. Invited speakers include State Representative Bob Smit...

Thursday is the day for the weekly newspapers to come out in Oconee County. For some reason the local newspapers seem to never want to mention that we have our Oconee County Democratic Committee meetings at the Government Annex on Highway 15 in the southern part of Watkinsville. Let me spell it out and maybe it will help the local newspapers. I just sent them an announcement or press release for the rest of the meetings of 2009. I hope they will at least call if not include us in their calendar listings. We learned a lot about continuing efforts of the Oconee County Democratic Committee this evening. For instance, the Mayor of North High Shoals Jeff Thomas has postponed his long promised resignation until the pending re-election of city council members Violet Dawe and Fred Johnston in November. We also learned all about a book being written by a North High Shoals journalist resident about her murdered attorney husband "Memoirs of a a Dead Lawyer's Wife", the sign in th...

State Representative Bob Smith has introduced legislation to attempt to convene Georgia's first Constitutional Convention since 1787 , and I think this would be the worst possible scenario for this State on any number of reasons. Smith's rationale is to rework the State Tax Code, which is fine, but why he does not introduce legislation to do just that is beyond me. Once we open Pandora's box with a Constitutional Conversion there is no telling what ridiculous legislation will be passed. Criminalize abortion and birth control? Sure, give women and their doctors 10 years in jail for exercising control over their own reproductive systems. School vouchers? Why not, let's kill all the public school systems and make the Taliban proud with every kid having to study the Bible. Get rid of all the Halls of Fame and every State sponsored everything. You get the idea. Basically once we start a Constitutional Convention then every crack pot idea ever introduced will have a short cut...

Here is a link to Bobby Saxon's personal blog writing about his qualifying expedition to Atlanta the other day. His story about Bob Smith running away is hilarious. Anyone want to tackle a fund raiser for Bobby at Ashford Manor Bed and Breakfast? Let me know. Here is a secure link to the ActBlue online donation site for Bobby's campaign. C'mon people, cough up some bucks for a Veteran from Oconee County who deserves our support. Now somebody tell Onlineathens.com commenter Jacob Durden that Bobby has qualified already.

State Representative Bob Smith may think everything is rosy back home in 113th district, but disgruntled constituents have approached a well financed couple to ask either one of them to consider taking on the House Appropriations Committee member. This could make local races rather interesting in the fall. More than one person has approached a former candidate for Mayor of Watkinsville to run against Board of Commissioners chairman G. Melvin Davis, but so far this person has declined to accept the offers. There are a lot of angry voters in Oconee County, and it will be no small feat to organize that anger into a viable political movement. So stay tuned, intrepid reader, and I will attempt to gather every shred of gossip, innuendo and hearsay and turn it into facts that will have incumbents quaking in the beds from Farmington to Bishop to Washington to Watkinsville.

Lord knows I do not read the Catoosa County News newspaper on a regular basis, and could not have told you if it even was owned my Morris or just subscribes to syndication of their editorial writers. Their Atlanta writer Walter Jones takes on the powerful local legislator and chair of the House Appropriations Committee in Watkinsville Republiucan Bob Smith in his campaign to derail the Board of Regents with countless controversial Constitutional adjustments he thinks can be hammered through this remaining half session of the legislature. Good luck Representative Smith, I do not share your confidence in trying to do to the Board of Regents what Speaker of House Glen Richardson tried to do to local control of property taxes and countless "un" Fair Tax proponents have tried to do the IRS. Professing one's ignorance of the local media does not do one any favors in the eyes of the public or even your voting constituency.

State Representative Bob Smith may be exacting revenge on Oconee County resident and Board of Regents member Donald Leeburn's proclivity for controversy and fights, but that is the only reason I can fathom for trying to reign in the governing body of Georgia's schools of higher education. The Banner-Herald institutional editorial makes a strong case for Smith's grandstanding and largely impractical reaction to the fact he was last to learn about the Medical College of Georgia opening a satellite campus at the Navy School property in Normaltown on Prince Avenue. Admittedly the Board of Regents is a largely unknown and anonymous organization with a lot of power to set policy, and needs some more democratization in their governance, but Smith's bill opens up all Georgia public college students to more exploitation and less bang for their educational buck.

Diane Cronin is a concerned homeowner in the Eastern part of Oconee County, much closer to the river than Watkinsville. She has battled clear-cutting developers tearing virgin forests and rare old growth tree thickets to no avail, but now she has State Representative Bob Smith in her sight . Her rage stems from Smith's approach to the exceptional and historic drought crisis, which is give back to landscapers the right to water the lawns. Even the slightly yellowed lawn at Athens Academy's Slaughter football field has survived the drought and frost reasonably well. Now I do not know if the fine landscapers at Athens Academy or elsewhere have used lake water or gray water to keep their fields and lawns reasonably hydrated. I hope no more area landscapers have to deal with the drought to the point of going out of business, but I also know the plans for the Charmar closing were in works for years. Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties are forever joined at the hip legislatively, ec...

Some of our elected leaders have shown their lack of leadership and foresight again on issues important to all residents, not just folks in Oconee County. 10th district U.S. Congressman Dr. Paul Broun wants to outlaw all women's reproductive rights (which is surely doomed to fail and be another huge waste of time and effort and tax payer money) and State Representative Bob Smith can only complain about Athens - Clarke County's watering ban (not realizing his own county has basically done the same - excellent take on this at Jonathan McGinty's must-read-daily Safe as Houses ) and not stand up for the Navy School's transition to a new campus of the Medical College of Georgia. Blake Aued points out how one of Broun's prospective primary opponents in Barry Fleming is already being led down the path of pitting Augusta versus Athens in the whole Medical College of Georgia debate.

In the wake of Dr. Paul Broun's win over Jim Whitehead for Congress, suddenly something seismically changed in the political power structure around here. Within a period of less than a half an hour, I conversed politely with local Republican leaders Melvin Davis (Board of Commissioners chairman) and Jim Luke (Board of Commissioners and former Planning Commission member) and had State Representative Bob Smith shake hands with me and ask me about my soccer playing son in Publix. I was astonished, but they all know we vote as well, sometimes with our noses held, and do occasionally have to vote G.O.P. in dire circumstances. Melvin made some feeble excuse for his vote on the Barnett Shoals rezone about a 30,000 square foot lots adjacent to the development as why he cast the vote to break the tie. Jim Luke, who voted against it, made it clear he is a property rights person "as long as it is reasonable" but also thumped his chest from the planning commission days about sidewalk...