GABEO – Candidate Forum

10:48 am – I’m at the GABEO (Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials) candidate forum. Not that many candidates are here. Unfortunately not many candidates are here. The assumption is that the missing candidates are at the Georgia Municipal Association meeting.

10:52 am –

US SENATE

RJ Hadley nor Michael Thurmond are here.

GOVERNOR

Only Governor Barnes is here – and he is looking fine in his seersucker suit. Roy gets the stage for 5 minutes – all by himself. He’s giving thanks and memories of Hosea Williams – GABEO will be honoring Hosea’s work at lunch. Roy is talking about preparing Georgia’s kids for economic development and creating jobs. Says the Republicans are making a laughingstock out of Georgia and is preventing businesses from coming to Georgia. Says Georgia is standing at a crossroads now. Says Georgia is going to become a progressive state once again to educate the next generation and give hope and promise to the people of this State.

Question for Gov. Barnes: what is he going to do about illeteracy (it’s always good for the blogger to spell “illiteracy” correctly. hahaha). Answer: Intensive reading skills from Pre-K to third grade – says there is a direct correlation to lack of kids reading to prision numbers. Small class sizes will help improve the situation. Retraining adults will also be a factor.

Question for Gov. Barnes: Why doesn’t Georgia more charter schools. Answer: Barnes says he is a big supporter of charter schools as long as they follow the same strict regulations as public schools. Doesn’t believe that charter schools should be used to re-segregate the schools system.

Question for Gov. Barnes: How do you plan to find the money to end furloughs. Answer: Barnes says this isn’t the 1st economic crisis Georgia has faced. Keep teacher (direct) instruction should remain whole and secondly, stop giving everybody a tax break that can hire a lobbyist. Thirdly, point of sales – allow local government to collect the sales taxes (and he fully gives Dubose Porter credit for this idea).

Question: what can cities look forward to revenue sharing and transportation. Answer: Barnes will stop the impending blocks that are being forced on cities. Will try to pass a regional sales tax to pay for commuter transportation. Says the state needs to gets serious about commuter rail.

Question: what is his position on health care and immigration. Answer: Barnes will implement the national program but says that there needs to be some amendments and criticizes Oxendine for not wanting to help Georgians who have pre-existing conditions. Says he can’t solve immigration because Georgia’s army just can’t march to the Rio Grande. Believes everybody should obey the law. Says a national solution is needed. Says the Republicans are bringing it up to serve as a wedge issue.

Question:  what will he do to keep equal justice to all. Answer: says that the money currently being set aside for the indigent defense system is not being used. Says the system has been starved to almost a mockery. Will make sure that the money generated will get to the system. Says the State shouldn’t set fees so high where it limits folks to access to the courts.

LT. GOVERNOR:

Only Carol Porter is in attendance. Carol is calling out Tricia McCracken for being invisible. Says Cagle has corrupted the voting process under the Gold Dome. Says it is wrong to threaten folks with his power. Says she knows the issues and is passionate about turning this state around. Says small businesses in Georgia are going to go under because of Republican governance under the Gold Dome. Says the Republican slashed the education budget and doesn’t help Georgians.

oooh she has a new slogan “CAROL CUTS CORRUPTION”

Question: what do you believe about the cuts to HBCUs. Answer: Says HBCUs are very important and will do what she can to keep them open.

Question: what are your priorities for human services. Answer: needs to completely refocus what Georgia is doing and we need to step up to help those who needs help because we are a godly state – a Christian state.

SECRETARY OF STATE

Only Gary Horlacher and Georgianna Sinkfield are in attendance. Sinkfield is the longest serving woman in the state legislature in the history of Georgia – I did not know this. Apparently Gary Horlacher believes Karen Handel is still running the SoS office cuz he’s just going off on everything she has done wrong – yeah I feel like I’m in a time warp. Horlacher says “there is a cabal that has access to corporate money”. OK I gotta inject my personal opinion here – I have no damn idea what Horlacher is talking about. The dude keeps switching subjects faster than a high speed rail train.

Question: How do ya’ll deal with voter id. Sinkfield – says she voted against it as a state legislator. Believes that voting without intimidation is critical to the role of democracy. Plans to fight it. Horlacher – says and I quote “ditto to everything except the voting part”. Says it’s time to turn the page on photo id since the court system approved it.

Question: what will you accomplish in the first 90 days. Sinkfield – to have fair and open elections. Have a 2 prong approach to stop companies from fraud and abuse. Would like to spruce up the fraud investigation team. Can’t say it will all be done in the first 90 days.  Says she has 28 years of working hard. Horlacher – says his first 90 days will be spent on restructuring the management team. Says every unit in the SoS is in dire need to be fixed. Still rants on Karen Handel.

ATTORNEY GENERAL

None in attendance. Nice boys.  Real nice.

SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT

Joe Martin, Beth Farokhi, and Brian Westlake are in attendance. Beth says education needs to be the paramount issue in this State. Says Georgia has changed from a value of learning to a value of testing. Gives a shoutout to er baby daddy Dr. Farokhi for being a leader at an HBCU. Joe Martin is talking about his service on the Atlanta Public Schools for 20 years. Westlake is coming out strong off the block – says he is the only candidate who has recent classroom experience and has miltary and leadership experience.

Question: how can we reach the people who really need the Hope scholarship. Martin – says there needs to be a phase out plan after a person’s income gets to certain level – needs to be a means test. says Georgia need to shore up funds for Pre-K. Farokhi – saying something about changing the student’s GPA level (yeah I’m not sure she grasped the question). Westlake – its about investing early because it becomes an economic development issue.

Question: creating a vehicle to make all schools high performance. Farokhi – need to make she we have highly trained teachers and that teachers have the time tio engage children in learning. Says the testing requirements are taking up too much time for teachers. Says the standards do not allow teachers to have teachable moments. Westlake – says Georgia needs leadership that allows teachers to become leaders in the classroom. Says survey the teachers and make their comments public to empower the teachers and the public to help seek input into solving problems on a day to day basis. Martin – will target those schools that are in need of assistance and provide the needed resources to assist.

Question:  school suspensions and the lack of learning when kids are suspended. Farokhi – give principles the room to make common sense decisions instead of having a zero tolerance policy. Wants to be an advocate to children being removed from a traditional class setting and moved to alternative schools. Martin – says he was on a commission that set forth the alternative school policy but says Georgia hasn’t followed the law. Says he is an proponent of second chance. Westlake – says we need to use teachers to help develop a better approach to make sure kids are adjusted.

Question: do you have recent classroom experience. Westlake – Says we have to end down the “top down” style to empower teachers and parents. If it is going to be a top down approach then teachers and parents must be at the top. Farokhi – says her most recent teaching was at a middle school girls leadership program. Says its all about the teacher-ratio mix. Says its more about having a good administrator who can build strong constituencies. highlights her 15 endorsements from legislators. Martin says the school super is not about being the best classroom teachers. Its about being the best advocate for students. Says he knows how to be a team player and that is what is needed – someone who can pull everyone together for the best interests of the students. Highlights his GAE endorsement.

Questions: special needs students and classroom size. Farokhi – wants to focus on the special needs students to give them the same opportunities as other kids. Martin – says he wrote the law on classroom sizes and special needs children. Says he will work on the implementation of the law and preserve the resources. Westlake – says its about knowing how some kids get into that situation and understanding how schools react to situations.

Farokhi says she’s against “pay for performance” for teachers.

Question: Do Farokhi and Martin agree with the alternative schools systems. Martin – says alternative schools should be about more options and not just a holding tank for kids in trouble. Says there needs to be a better approach to reach out to the kids to find out what barriers they are facing and develop the education proficiencies so kids can learn on their own. Farokhi – need to redefine the definition of the alternative school systems. Says she will address this in his 1st year of office.

LABOR COMMISSIONER

Darryl Hicks and Terry Coleman are here today.

 Darryl is first up with opening remarks talking about his strong business background. Says that he brings a strong business background to the office. Wants to set up regional offices around Georgia to help small business owners. “This job is about how you can be creative to bring jobs to Georgia.”

Terry Coleman’s turn. It’s about jobs. Helping people find jobs. Running on a platform of jobs for the jobless, jobs for the underemployed and jobs for the disabled. Wants to create a taskforce to bring 21st century jobs to Georgia.

Question: what is your plan for dealing with people re-entering the workforce (prison, unemployed) Darryl is talking about a program he came up with while Chief of Staff of Fulton County. Wants to work with companies to hire people getting out of the criminal justice system. Terry wants to “beat on the congress” to change some laws for kids wanting to join the military with criminal records.  and work with the prison system to teach work skills to prisoners.

Question: what is it that kids that has GEDS and a criminal record to get jobs. Terry says that it is going to take working with business and finding personal placement for folks. Darryl wants to hit the road running and work with small business owners to see the “value of a person and not the criminal record”

Question: What do you have in terms of plans  for international connections for our farmers. Darryl touts his experience growing up on a farm. Wants to make sure that we are importing jobs for farmers and exporting goods. Terry talks about experience at Ag Dept. and a Liberian connections to export goods to that country from Georgia.

Question: What will you do about Right To Work? Terry will work to make sure that people are not wrongly fired. Darryl wants to sit down with employers to make sure that they know what they have to have in order to make sure that they are following the law and not arbritary fire someone. He will be an advocate for workers across the state.

Question: I have no idea what this question is because I cannot hear here. But Terry is talking about a program that will encourage partnerships with private indrustry. Darryl will find Federal funds out there that Georgia is not trying to go after. Question must have been about Federal funding.

Question: Another questions about Right to Work and min. and living wage. Terry blames legislature for Right to Work. Georgia needs to keep the state min. wage inline with the Federal min. wage. Darryl state does not value employees by not bringing the state min. wage up to Fed standard. Wants to bring jobs to the state that will pay more than the min. wage.

Judges up next.

Judge Barnes, presiding judge of Court of Appeals speaking. Thanking GABEO for helping her get elected. She is here for two reasons: to thank GABEO for thier support and to inform people about the budget crisis with in the State Justice System. Talking about the crazy fee increases. A filing that used to cost $1000 now will cost $10,000. It was nice to see a candidate with nobody running against her to show up and show support.

Candidate Adrienne Hunter-Strothers is speaking. She is running for Judge Johnson’s seat who is retiring. Born and raised in SW ATL. Daughter of a school teacher. She was a ligator for 10 years and now pracitces family law. Grad from Brown Univeristy and Harvard Law. Wants to have the law applied fairly to everyone. Points out that if elected she will be one of two African American women on the court in Georgia. Endorsed by Amb. Andrew Young. She is the only candidate today who has asked for the crowds vote.

gotta head out to the lunch. Will try to blog that. Thanks to Gunner for helping out on the blogging.