Gubernatorial hopeful Karen Handel of north Fulton brought her bus caravan to Marietta Square for a rally Friday afternoon. And the star attraction at this morning's Cobb Republican Breakfast at Williamson Brothers Barbecue is her runoff opponent, former U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal of Gainesville.
Handel will skip the breakfast due to a scheduling conflict, which prompted one of Cobb's more active Deal supporters, a Cobb County Republican Women member, to grouse, "She came to Marietta Friday for the rally, but skipped the party breakfast. I find that very interesting."
Also expected at the breakfast are Maria Sheffield of Marietta and Ralph Hudgens, who are in the runoff for state insurance commissioner. Cost of the breakfast is $10.
Deal will go from the breakfast to the studios of WSB-TV for a live televised debate with Handel, then head to Gov. Sonny Perdue's fish fry this afternoon in Perry, his home town. Meanwhile, the Cobb Women for Deal have chartered a bus that will leave directly from Williamson Brothers after breakfast to head to Perry.
DEAL AND NEIL: Meanwhile, Deal has picked up a last-minute, high-profile endorsement from one of Cobb's most popular elected officials: Sheriff Neil Warren.
"I endorse Nathan Deal to be Georgia's next Governor because he understands that public safety is a primary function of good government," Warren told Around Town. "Nathan Deal is a man of strong character and will lead this state with respect to the rule of law."
Warren has attracted plenty of praise in Cobb for being one of the first, if not the first, sheriff in Georgia to make use of the federal 287(g) program that allows his deputies to check the immigration status of those arrested on other charges and brought to the jail. Former U.S. Rep. Deal, meanwhile, was one of the most outspoken members of the Georgia congressional delegation when it came to illegal immigration.
Said Deal, "Sheriff Neil Warren is one of the most respected law enforcement officers in our state, and his opinion carries a lot of weight in Cobb County. We are thrilled to have him join our Cobb team. We already had the strongest team in the county and now we've added another heavyweight. Sheriff Warren is a leader and I look forward to working with him as governor."
Warren's endorsement of Deal comes just days after Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin endorsed Handel.
SPEAKING OF ENDORSEMENTS, Deal has the backing of most of Georgia's Republican congressmen and General Assemblymen, while Handel has garnered the preponderance of endorsements from county commissioners and mayors.
Of the 99 Republicans in the state House, 70 have endorsed Deal and six have endorsed Handel. One of those 70 is state Rep. Earl Ehrhart of Powder Springs, who had been supporting Handel but this week switched to Deal.
Of the 34 Republicans in the state Senate, 28 support Deal and two support Handel.
Meanwhile, Deal has the backing of five of Georgia's Republican Congressmen: Phil Gingrey of Marietta, Jack Kingston of Savannah, John Linder of Gwinnett, Lynn Westmoreland of Newnan and Paul Broun of Athens. U.S. Rep. Tom Price, who like Handel hails from north Fulton, is her sole congressional endorser. And Price is slated to introduce former Alaska Gov. Sara Palin when she headlines a pro-Handel rally Monday in Atlanta.
While Handel has the backing of Palin, Deal has that of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has been doing robo calls on Deal's behalf. Deal also was endorsed on Thursday by former presidential candidate and now Fox News host Mike Huckabee, who'll appear at a Deal rally in Gainesville on Sunday.
THOSE HEADING THE FALL TICKETS for both parties will be back in Cobb Aug. 28 for a 1 p.m. candidate forum that Saturday at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre at the Galleria. Both Handel and Deal have committed to attend (depending on who wins on Tuesday), as has Democratic gubernatorial nominee Roy Barnes of Marietta. Nominees for lieutenant governor have been invited as well to the event, which is being sponsored by the Medical Association of Georgia, United Networks of America, the Georgia College of Emergency Physicians, the Georgia Society of Dermatology, the Georgia Orthopaedic Society, and the Georgia Neurological Society.
MUCH WAS MADE of Barnes’ reluctance to appear at the president’s Atlanta fundraiser, and even though President Obama has come and gone, the fallout continues.
The Charleston Post & Courier reported Thursday that House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American member of the U.S. House, had sharply criticized Barnes for declining to share the stage with Obama.
“I think one of the mistakes we continue to make, especially as Democrats, is we buy in, too often, to the conventional wisdom,” Clyburn complained. “This stuff of ‘not being seen with the president’ is just crazy.”
That, in turn, prompted a slyly worded press release from Nick Ayers, executive director of the Republican Governor’s Association, saying that Clyburn “should lay off. No one in Georgia has a deeper commitment to national Democrats than Roy Barnes …” It went on to note that Barnes had been a financial supporter of Obama, John Edwards, Harry Reid and Cynthia McKinney.
CURIOUS as to why Marietta Mayor Tumlin wasn’t part of the party of elected dignitaries waiting to welcome Obama to Georgia when he stepped off Air Force One on Monday at Dobbins Air Reserve Base? So was Around Town. So we asked him why he was a no-show for the group, which included Gov. Perdue and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
“I’m still waiting for my invitation,” Tumlin quipped on Wednesday.
LOCAL GEORGIA POWER exec David Connell of Marietta was sporting an unwanted new look this week: two black eyes and various other contusions on his face and arms. The cause? He let himself get dehydrated last weekend, then took his blood-pressure medicine and went out to work in the yard in the near-100 degree heat.
Connell eventually passed out and slammed his face on his driveway as he fell. He spent two days at WellStar Kennestone Hospital, but civic trooper that he is, made a beeline for a Marietta Kiwanis Club committee meeting Monday evening just hours after being released.
“I always tell my linemen to stay hydrated, but I guess I didn’t do a good job of taking my own advice,” he said afterward of his mishap. …
Also back out and about this week was Joel Siegel, who had gall bladder surgery last month but who once again is happily squiring wife Dr. Betty Siegel, KSU president emeritus, around town.
THURSDAY’S DEDICATION of Kennesaw State University’s new $56 million health sciences building, dubbed Prillaman Hall after longtime KSU Foundation trustee and past WellStar Health System chairman Bob Prillaman, was a perfect occasion to revisit and honor the work of those who did so much through the years to build that school into what it is today.
President Dr. Dan Papp says that enrollment for the fall quarter when school starts Aug. 12 will be at 23,000-plus, a record. And just think: KSU is just three years away from celebrating its 50th birthday. That school has come a long, long way from its founding as Kennesaw Junior College in what a year earlier had been a cow pasture. A huge part of that legacy is the dynamic leadership it has enjoyed, and it’s worth remembering that KSU has been headed by only three presidents during those 47 years: founding President Dr. Horace Sturgis, Dr. Siegel and Dr. Papp.
And KSU likely is on the brink of another turning point: the creation of its own football program. Legendary former UGA coach and athletic director Vince Dooley, who is heading KSU’s football exploration committee, is expected to announce his findings early next month. And if those findings say football is a no-go at KSU, it will be the biggest upset since Truman beat Dewey or Joe Namath’s New York Jets beat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.
WORSHIPPERS at Marietta First United Methodist Church will miss the warm smile and firm handshake of Bob Wagner, an usher there for 44 years who died Thursday after suffering a recent heart attack.
Wagner, who would have turned 95 in October, is survived by his wife, Marge, to whom he was married for 70 years.
“We have a lot of ushers at First Methodist, but none of them loved ushering more than Bob,” remarked head FUMC usher Darrell Baxter.
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