Whither Roy?

icon_barnes.jpgAs I wrote earlier on Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report, it looks like Roy Barnes won’t be making the big announcement on June 1 – he has a trial that starts on that date, so it may be another week or two before he tells whether he will run for governor or not.


Some random speculations I’m hearing about Barnes and other political figures – accuracy not guaranteed:

If Barnes does get into the race, he may try to work around the Bobby

Kahn issue by having Chris Carpenter be the “front man” for the

campaign while Kahn stays deep under cover, out of the public eye. 

It’s difficult to say whether that would appease the folks who think

Barnes should completely cut his ties with Kahn – and that group is

composed of quite a few Democrats.

If Barnes announces he’s running for governor, Labor Commissioner

Michael Thurmond will supposedly wait two weeks and then announce that

he is running for lieutenant governor.  It would be a key part of

Barnes’ strategy to put a unified slate of Democratic candidates on the

ballot.

Some political operatives are giving odds and making bets on how many

days it will take for Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine to be forced

out of the Republican primary by the publication of more Atlanta

Journal-Constitution articles about his past fundraising activities

(Oxendine has already been compelled to return $120,000 in questionable

insurance PAC contributions).  One of my colleagues has set the

over/under at 75 days.  

Questions have been asked for years about the

amount of money Oxendine has raised from people whose businesses are

subject to his agency’s regulation, but the AJC (and the rest of

the traditional media) have never really made a big deal about it.  That appears

to be changing.  The AJC still has a few good investigative reporters

on the payroll and two of them (James Salzer, Cam McWhirter) have been

poking around Oxendine’s disclosure reports.  If the AJC also assigns

Alan Judd to the story, Oxendine may have some vexing media problems

ahead.


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