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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 2010
Named the best weekly editorial page in the nation for 2007, 2008
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
- Henry Ward Beecher ~
Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com
our views
Ga. should
opt out of
‘Race’ game
I T ALL comes down to
money. Georgia barely
lost out in its bid for fed
eral “Race to the Top” funds.
Now, the state is going to make
another push in Round 2 of the
bidding contest.
The question is, why are self-
styled “conservative” Georgia
leaders so anxious to become
dependent on federal dollars
and to accept additional federal
rules?
It’s the money plain and sim
ple.
The “Race to the Top” pro
gram will prove, in the end, to
be a colossal waste of taxpayer
dollars. If Georgia should get
those funds, they would only
last for four years. Then what?
Who will pay the cost of keep
ing the new programs created
by the initiative going?
The problem in education
today isn’t a lack of money.
Taxpayers throw billions of dol
lars each year at education in
this country.
The problem is an education
system run by bureaucrats who
1. Have little background in fis
cal accountability; and 2. Who
are blinded by theories and pro
grams that have little impact in
improving education, but which
employ an army of consultants.
Oh, educators are good at
spending money. And why not?
They play on the heartstrings
by saying that more “resources”
are needed “for the children.”
But in reality tax dollars are
being wasted on high salaries of
those at the top of the education
food chain.
There is little to be had from
the “Race to the Top” program
other than a quick influx of
dollars. But in return, Georgia
would be bound by federal man
dates forever; and when the
federal dollars run out, Georgia
taxpayers will see tax hikes to
pay for the continuation of the
programs.
It’s a financial shell game,
one that Georgia’s “conserva
tive” legislators are too willing
to play.
Georgia should not pursue
the “Race” program; chasing
federal dollars is not the same
thing as improving education.
The Jackson Herald
Founded 1875 • The Official Legal
Organ of Jackson County, Ga.
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher & Editor
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher &
Advertising Manager
News Department
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Jana Adams Mitcham Features Editor
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Sharon Hogan Reporter
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“...Must be from the Deal campaign!"
Election starting line is close
APRIL 26 is what I call “put up or shut up time” in
state politics, because it’s the date when candidate
qualifying begins for the July 20 primary elections.
As the official start of the 2010 election season gets
closer, let’s look at some of the questions hanging
over Georgia politics.
How badly was gubernato
rial candidate Nathan Deal
hurt by a congressional eth
ics investigation into a lucra
tive arrangement between
his car salvage company
and state government?
Deal probably suffered sub
stantial damage from the
report compiled by the Office
of Congressional Ethics that
reviewed the details of his
business transactions and
concluded the recently
resigned congressman may
have violated House ethics rules.
The man from Gainesville keeps saying over and
over, “I have done nothing wrong,” and insists that
he is not going to be forced out of the governor’s
race.
I think Deal completely misses the point here.
It’s true that the House cannot punish him because
he’s no longer a member of Congress, and I doubt
that anybody is going to jail over this, but the ethics
report is still very damaging.
House investigators confirmed earlier media
accounts that Deal used his congressional staffers
and his political friendship with Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle
to try to pressure the state’s revenue commissioner
to continue sending business to Deal’s car salvage
shop.
That is not something a member of Congress
should be doing and it leaves Deal open to criticism
that he tried to use the influence of his office to
benefit himself. In a state where you’ve already had
scandals and ethical misconduct ripping through
the leadership of the General Assembly, you don’t
want to have that hanging over your campaign.
Cagle got dinged a little by the same ethics report,
which said he declined a request from congressio
nal investigators to sit down for an interview about
the Deal incident. The report recommended that a
subpoena be issued for the lieutenant governor.
What about Thurbert Baker?
On the Democratic side of the governor’s race,
Attorney General Baker got a campaign boost last
week from state Rep. Mark Hatfield’s introduction
of an impeachment resolution seeking Baker’s
removal from office.
The impeachment threat, which stemmed from
Baker’s refusal to sue the federal government over
the new healthcare reform law, provided valuable
TV exposure for Baker and raised his political pro
file accordingly. It made him a hero to Democratic
Party activists, which could help him in the primary
election against former governor Roy Barnes.
The attack by Republican lawmakers on Baker,
the first African American to be elected attorney
general in Georgia, could also generate higher
turnout from black voters in November, similar
to 2008 when they came to the polls in record
numbers to vote for Barack Obama. That turn
out among black voters could end up hurting
GOP legislative candidates in competitive districts.
What will Thurmond do?
Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond has
toyed with the idea of running for lieutenant gov
ernor for several months now but has still not
announced whether he will actually run for that
office or not.
Thurmond’s silence has already drawn one
Democratic candidate into the race for the state’s
second highest office: Carol Porter, a Dublin
newspaper executive and the wife of gubernatorial
candidate DuBose Porter.
“I wasn’t thinking about it two weeks ago,” Porter
said when she announced her candidacy in late
February. “But nobody would get into the race.”
Thurmond is an eloquent campaigner who’s
already won three statewide races for labor com
missioner and would be a very credible candidate
for lieutenant governor. If U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson,
who’s now been hospitalized twice in a two-week
period, turns out to have health issues that prevent
him from running for another term, Thurmond
would also be a strong contender for that seat.
The issue with Thurmond, as always, lies in get
ting him to make a decision. He has become the
Hamlet of state politics, always sitting back and
mulling the options available to him but never taking
that final leap to action.
If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on
Thurmond staying home and running for a fourth
term as labor commissioner. We’ll find out for sure
during the week of April 26.
Tom Crawford is the editor of The Georgia
Report. He can be reached at tcrawford@capito-
limpact.net.
On their shoulders
rode a county
B ETWEEN Feb. 1 and March 30, three
notable men and former Jackson
County public officials died.
On Feb. 8, former Jackson County Clerk
of Superior Court Billy Elder died, followed
by former Probate Judge J.T. Wilkes on
March 1 and former Tax Commissioner
Henry Doster on March 30.
These three
were remarkable
men, not just
because they
were public offi
cials, but also for
their individual
commitments
to serving their
community in
other ways as
well. All were
involved in their
churches: Doster
and Elder at
Galilee Christian
Church and Wilkes
at Jefferson First United Methodist; all were
involved in civic clubs — Lions, Kiwanis,
VFW, Tumbling Waters Society just to name
a few.
If you could chart all three men’s fami
lies, they would in some way or another be
related to about half of Jackson County’s
citizens, at least those who lived here before
1990. And if they weren’t related, they were
friends with the other half of the population.
Elder was (no pun intended) the elder
statesman of the three, having served as
Clerk from 1953 until he retired in 1991.
Wilkes served for 20 years in his public
office until his retirement in 1992 and Doster
served as tax commissioner in the late 1970s
into the late 1980s. All three men were on
the 1984 ballot (we found a copy) and were
together in other years as well on the ballot.
So what was important about these three
men?
They represented — embodied, really — a
key transition generation in Jackson County.
Until the 1960s, Jackson County had
lost population. It was a rural, some would
say backwards county known mostly for
its moonshine and bootlegging and car-
thieving.
But that began to change following the
murder of Solicitor Floyd Hoard in 1967. The
county’s ingrained political establishment
was shaken to the core.
It was in the wake of these changes that
Wilkes and Doster took office. Although
Elder was already in office, he was in age a
contemporary of Wilkes.
Other new faces followed and by the
mid-1980s, a new county government had
emerged. Henry Robinson, who had been
tax commissioner, was county commission
chairman. And Stan Evans, Wilkes’ nephew,
was elected sheriff in 1984.
By 1985, Jackson County was on a new
path as it began to shed its lawless image.
The opening of the Mitsubishi plant that year
in Braselton marked the beginning of the
“growth era” as both industrial and housing
growth became the norm. (Although all was
not well as the county’s former textile indus
trial base began to decline with changes in
federal law and massive amounts of offshore
imports.)
These three men were part of that bridge
generation who held a steady hand on the
rudder even as the county got tossed about
in the turmoil of change.
And that wasn’t just in political office, but
also in their personal and private efforts.
They were involved in the preservation of
Hurricane Shoals Park and other events that
have since come to define Jackson County.
A lot of good people have served, and
continue to serve, in Jackson County gov
ernment. A lot of people also serve this
community with volunteer efforts in the
larger civic community.
But J.T. Wilkes, Billy Elder and Henry
Doster served in those roles at a time when
there were fewer people to carry the burden
and a much smaller pool of people from
which to draw community leadership.
Jackson County was fortunate. On their
shoulders these men carried much of what
the county has become today. They loved
Jackson County deeply and in ways large
and small, made a huge difference in this
community over a span of many, many
years.
And while their deaths within a two-month
span is pure coincidence, there is something
of a poetic emotion to it, as if their work had
been done, the torch passed and the circle
of life completed.
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson
Herald. He can be reached at mike@main-
streetnews.com.
mike
buffington