In Albany, Georgia, the American Red Cross stood strong with disaster relief when the city was flooded twice. This important organization almost shut it’s doors this week due to a 85 to 90% downturn in donations—people who would normal give $100 were giving $25 and people who gave $25 were giving nothing. An area private Christian school is experiencing the same giving dire straits and a friend with a youth sports program near the Georgia coast is facing a serious budget crisis.
It’s the economy, weak stock portfolios and the job cuts. Of course, state and local governments can’t help because their tax revenues are down. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, I thought political candidates would reduce their solicitation; deferring to more pressing needs. It did not happen.
As we prepare for the 2010 elections, parties and candidates should use technology and new media to publicize their positions on issues before the public in a fiscally sound manner. And if you are running just to be running, you are taking contributions from needed programs.
Senate candidates need big money to run ads in several media markets but most Georgia House candidates are safe. House candidates in contested races should stay lean and raise money from a few companies and industries with direct connections to our state. Do you really need a million dollars to beat someone if you are doing your job?
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will talk someone into running against Senator Isakson of Georgia. What a waste of money and energy in a clearly red state. Both Georgia senators caught heat from the far right in recent years for working with Democratic colleagues on immigration, energy, farm and bailout proposals. In a state as diverse as Georgia, statewide officials must build bridges while their House counterparts answer to a more narrow demographic.
In 2004, Isakson face a successful Black businessman and former congressman in the GOP primary and won without a runoff. In the general election, he received 58% of the vote against Black former congresswoman Denise Majette, a former judge with an undergrad degree from Yale and a J.D. from Duke. If he won against Herman Cain and Denise Majette, there is no one on the Democrat bench who can seriously challenge him in a state that McCain won over Obama. If you have money to give to an Isakson opponent, give it to the Red Cross so they can help with a real disaster.
They are going to take my original Blue Dog Democrat pin for that last statement but I am more concerned with giving GOP senators the leeway to discuss issues with President Obama than party politics. Despite the talk radio chatter, Obama is not partisan anyway; check his cabinet and his Super Bowl party list. Members of Congress should vote against legislation and budgets their find wrong but have a civil dialog first.
Project Logic Ga 
Would Sanford Bishop make a credible candidate for Senator?
Lunchcountersitin: Are you kidding? Sanford Bishop should have been senator when Senator Paul Coverdell passed away too soon. SBD is cut from the same Alpha male cloth as top gun pilots and Annapolis grads—big egos.
It sad to say that Black males pre-Obama had to adjust our ambition deal with the reality of the South. After the elections of a Black president, Black males still must make the same adjustments. Winning a statewide in a diverse state is difficult but not impossible. In Georgia, the Attorney General and Labor Commissioner are Black but Governor and Senator is another ballgame altogether.
If you get a time machine and go back to the late 60s, ask young Sanford Bishop what will be the high point of his public career. That lad would say President of the United States. Check the footage on Bishop at the Obama inauguration and the State of the Union to see Bishop warmly greeting Obama but looking like, “That should be me.”
I will finish by saying that Georgia’s racial climate did not hold Bishop back—maybe, he just got to comfortable in the House to reach for the brass ring. Maybe he got married too late because behind every good man is a woman who encouraged (nagged) him into being his best. Maybe I should get married who I can finally get paid and pick out an E-Class Benz. Married men live long but sometimes that is prolonged agony.
Back to your point, Bishop could have given his friend Saxby a good race last year with the Obama wave and all. But, Isakson is a shoe-in for 2010. Yes, Bishop waited his time and grew his experience but senate is not the one that got away. Agriculture secretary in the Obama White House would have been the better position.