Especially since the incomparable georgia10 has just this morning recognized Karen Handel, the Republican Secretary of State of Georgia, as the ignonimious loser of the 2008 Katherine Harris Award, I would be utterly remiss in not bringing this Breaking! news to the community.
As a small bit of introing, I offer this morsel:
To the extent any or all may believe this sorry excuse for a public servant might limit herself to mere voter suppression efforts, you are just so wrong. You see, if Democratic candidates can be kept off the ballot entirely, that is even better (from her standpoint, of course) than voter suppression.
So what has happened is down below.
A Democrat by the name of James R. ("Jim") Powell had the audacity to throw his hat in the ring, seeking the District 4 seat on the Georgia Public Service Commission ("PSC"), of a rare pro-consumer Republican, Angela Speir, who chose not to run for re-election and actually then endorsed Powell.
Powell - who if successful, will be the only Democrat on the PSC - is opposed by a former Democratic, now Republican politican and longtime inside fixer by the name Lauren ("Bubba") McDonald.
The PSC, by the way, is a quasi-legislative, quasi-judicial regulatory agency that is supposed to actually protect the public interest vis-à-vis the rates charged by telecommunications, gas, and electric companies and also enforce some nominally reasonable standards for quality of service.
Of course, in the world of reality, as good buddy blogger, trial lawyer, and general all around hell-raisin' asskicker Wilson R. Smith rather mildly puts it:
...it seems consumers and their interests don’t get much consideration from or at the PSC, or at least less and less.
Anyways, a question came up as to whether Jim Powell, a 59-year-old retired regional director for the U.S. Department of Energy, was a legitimate resident of District 4. This is the type of question that can and does from time to time legitimately does come up and fall into the proverbial wide lap of the Secretary of State. So, Handel did what she should have done, which is to refer the issue to a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, who ruled that Powell was a resident of District 4.
Handel disagreed and overruled the ALJ's advisory opinion, which in turn forced Powell to appeal the matter to the Superior Court of Fulton County, which ruled in Powell’s favor. Powell wins?! Hell No, of course not!
Handel - rather clearly trying to drive Powell out of the race - then appealed the Superior Court ruling to the Supreme Court of Georgia.
As my main man Wilson R. Smith put it:
Arbitrarily overruling the ALJ and then pursuing an adverse decision by the Superior Court to the Supreme Court gives the distinct impression of partisanship and is a waste of taxpayer money.
Well, today, a unanimous Supreme Court of Georgia served up full measure of justice and dumped it right into Handel's wide lap.
Powell announces the happy news at his campaign website:
... In her appeal, Handel argued that under state law, the trial court should have given deference to her interpretation of the law on residency that she is in charge of enforcing.
But in today’s unanimous decision, written by Justice Robert Benham, the Supreme Court disagrees. "It is the role of the judicial branch to interpret the statutes enacted by the legislative branch and enforced by the executive branch..., and administrative rulings will be adopted only when they conform to the meaning which the court deems should properly be given," 8-page opinion says. The facts of the case are not in dispute, merely the interpretation of the law, the opinion points out.
In 2006, Powell purchased a second home in Towns County, which is in District 4. In 2007, he attempted unsuccessfully to transfer his homestead exemption from Cobb to Towns County, but he missed the filing deadline. Evidence shows Powell spends more than 60 percent of his time in Towns County, where he has voted three times, attends church and pays taxes.
The residency law, which is Section 21-2-217 in the Official Code of Georgia, lists 15 rules for determining a candidate’s legal residence. At least seven apply to Powell, the Supreme Court has found, "but the Secretary’s decision did not take into account any of the applicable rules other than the homestead exemption rule."
"We agree with the superior court that the Secretary committed an error of law that authorizes reversal of the Secretary’s decision," today’s opinion says.
The full decision by the Court is here.
The original article via excellent countercultural, progressive rag, Creative Loafing, is here.
The News-Tribune newspaper of lovely Rome, Georgia, which in previously endorsing Powell had quite accurately referred to the case as "the vendetta", has today tied a nice concluding bow around it, thusly:
Powell accuses Handel, a Republican, of allowing partisan politics to guide her decision, a charge Handel denies.
Sweet.