He peeled off some of the bark, if you will, in a media briefing staged Thursday at the state Democratic Party’s new offices in the IBEW building in Atlanta.
Aside from participating in an Atlanta Press Club debate a few weeks ago, it was Barksdale’s first real interaction with a scrum of reporters.
He presented an interesting mix of philosophies from several different points along the political spectrum.
“I’m a conservative — I think I’m a conservative, I’m tight with money,” said Barksdale, a millionaire who made his money by running an investment firm. He said later: “I’m not for raising taxes. I’m for auditing the government, reducing our spending. I think there’s just plenty of areas of waste.”
Barksdale also went off on a populist tangent, declaring his willingness to stand up to Wall Street and criticizing the cost of recent wars in the Middle East:
The deregulation of the financial markets that was supported by Senator Isakson led the economy right off a cliff. And these were policies that were done at the behest of Wall Street. There’s millions of Americans and Georgians who still have not recovered from the terrible crisis that that brought upon us.
The trade deals have been used as a hammer against fair labor and against incomes. It’s been used to offshore jobs and have our workers compete with dollar an hour labor. And this has depressed our wages . . .
We spent trillions of dollars on war, and wars in the Middle East, that were completely unnecessary and that have not have not made us safe. And I oppose those wars, and I oppose deregulation of the financial markets.
For all that, Barksdale seemed to be firmly in the Democratic camp: “I think President Obama has done a fantastic job and I’m not here to hang any of that on him.”
Barksdale won the Democratic primary without a runoff over Cheryl Copeland and John Coyne, so he and Johnny Isakson (who easily won the GOP primary) will now have more than five months to campaign against each other.
Allen does a little bible-thumping
U.S. Rep. Rick Allen (R-Augusta) annoyed some of his GOP colleagues by reading “death to homosexual” passages from the bible prior to a floor vote on a controversial LGBT discrimination amendment.
Here’s the account from Roll Call:
House Republicans at a conference meeting heard a Bible verse that calls for death for homosexuals shortly before the chamber voted Thursday morning to reject a spending bill that included an amendment barring LGBT discrimination.
Whether the freshman member who gave the prayer intended to condemn members of the LGBT community has left Republicans and Democrats deeply divided. What’s certain is that the Energy-Water appropriations bill that came to the floor later in the morning was defeated on a resounding 112-305 vote, with a majority of the GOP caucus in opposition.
Georgia Rep. Rick W. Allen led the opening prayer by reading from Romans 1:18-32, and Revelations 22:18-19. An aide to Allen told CQ that Allen did not mention the upcoming vote on the Energy-Water spending bill or an amendment it included from Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York that would prevent federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Passages in the verses refer to homosexuality and the penalty for homosexual behavior. “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet,” reads Romans 1:27, which Allen read, according to his office.
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them,” read lines 28-32, which Allen also read, according to his office. . . .
The primary scorecards
The Georgia Chamber’s Political Affairs Council and its affiliate, the Georgia Coalition for Job Creation, supported a slate of pro-business candidates and tried to oust legislators they opposed in the primary elections.
Their success rate was very good. The Georgia Chamber spent money on direct mailings in support of Sens. Brandon Beach and Steve Gooch, along with House Majority Leader Jon Burns. All three won their primaries.
The Coalition for Job Creation backed winning incumbents Beach, Rep. Greg Morris, Rep. David Wilkerson, and Rep. Howard Maxwell. It also supported winners in Clay Cox, Mark Newton, Matt Brass and Miriam Paris. Rep. Tom Dickson (R-Cohutta), who had coalition backing, drew 49 percent of the vote but was still forced into a runoff.
The coalition whiffed in supporting Kevin Moore against Rep. Scot Turner (R-Holly Springs), who drew the wrath of business groups by voting against last year’s motor fuel tax increase. Turner won his primary by a two-to-one margin.
Another group with some successes on primary night was Georgia’s WIN List, which supports women candidates.
WIN endorsed Gwinnett County attorney Brenda Lopez in House District 99 and she won, putting her on a path to become the first Latina to serve in the General Assembly.
WIN also supported Renitta Shannon, who ousted Rep. Rahn Mayo (D-Decatur), a four-term incumbent. Mayo was targeted because WIN said he took a walk to avoid voting on an anti-abortion bill that authorized funding for “crisis pregnancy” centers.
The organization supported Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur), who survived a primary challenge, and Janine Brown, who made it into a runoff in House District 59.
Berry appointment
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle has named Mark Berry to the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District (MNGWPD). Berry is vice president of environmental affairs at Georgia Power, which uses enormous quantities of water in its nuclear and coal-fired generating plants.
© 2016 by The Georgia Report