Blogging for Max

Since we’ve been open for business, we’ve received a couple of e-mails from “concerned voters” of the 12^th District and I hope we will receive more. If you have an e-mail you would like to send us, please send it here and we might post it for you. Here is the first of what we anticipate will become a series that – for now anyway – we’re calling the “Dear John Letters.”

Dear John Barrow:

I voted for you, and you let me down.

I am a mother of three, a graduate of Armstrong Atlantic State University, and a former educator. And until recently, I was a lifelong Democrat. I like to think I’m a level headed, moderate to left-of-center voter; against abortion but against the death penalty; in favor of tax reform, but opposed to privatized social security; for free trade but for school vouchers.

During your first year in office, you were insignificant but tolerable. But this year you did something I couldn’t believe. In April you voted against the College Access and Opportunity Act.

I was astonished, frustrated and hurt. Our Congressman, our “Great Representative,” the man “on our side,” showed that he was nothing more than a lawyer catering to his own financial interests. That I voted for you and even – yes, I’ll admit it – campaigned for you, against my better judgment, is something I deeply regret.

The College Access and Opportunity Act – which passed, no thanks to you – offers the dream of college education to millions of kids who otherwise cannot afford it. As a single mother who works very hard to support her children, I thank God every day that we have a system in Georgia that will assist my children’s generation with tuition.

But not all Americans have access to programs like HOPE and have to rely on weak programs like Pell Grants and individual student aid programs. So the College Access and Opportunity Act aimed to strengthen those programs and open the doors of higher education to anyone who wanted in. As someone who voted for you, I am ashamed that you would deny others that all-too-necessary right.

You and other Democrats told us this act would “raid student aid.” But it was a lie. It didn’t touch student aid but rather it strengthened Pell Grants and other essential programs for those who cannot otherwise afford tuition.

And even worse, the act helped non-traditional students – like military veterans – meet individual needs in their pursuit of higher education. Again, why would you deny our HEROES this opportunity?

John Barrow: I voted for you, and you betrayed me. You turned your back on Georgia and I’m done with you. You voted against me. You voted against Georgia. You voted against our future.

Katherine T.

Garden City, GA

*Note: all letters are edited for punctuation and some grammar. Links are added by BloggingforMax.com.

2 comments

From the campaign:

(Savannah, Georgia) – Max Burns will conduct an Agriculture Listening Tour across Georgia’s new 12^th District Tuesday, August 1 through Friday, August 4. The tour will take Burns to various farm facilities in the new district from Vidalia to Davisboro to Waynesboro to Statesboro and locations in between.

“It’s always good to get out in the community and listen to the farmers talk about the issues facing the agricultural community on a daily basis,” said Burns. “These visits with folks in the ag country will provide me an opportunity to hear firsthand what is working and what’s not working for them. I look forward to taking what I hear back to Washington and applying it to my work on the House Agriculture Committee during this next Congress,” Burns added.

Burns, a former 12^th District Congressman and member of the House Committee on Agriculture, is the only farmer and rural candidate in the race. Burns and his wife Lora still live today on the family farm in Screven County, where they have spent a lifetime working in and around agriculture, growing corn, soybeans, hay, oats, and timber, and raising beef cattle.

A complete listing of Burns’ Agriculture Listening Tour is listed below, and 12^th District farmers and agribusiness community members are invited to attend.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Members of the media are invited to attend all events. Please contact Tim Baker at (912) 353-9626 for more information.

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

8:00AM     Emanuel County Listening Session

Webb Brothers Transfer

3728 Highway 80 East ~Twin City

Coffee and Biscuits will be provided.

6:30PM     Toombs County Listening Session

Frogs Pad – South of Vidalia on Highway 15/29

Fish Fry Dinner will be provided.

Wednesday, August 2, 2006

9:00AM     Washington County Listening Session

AGrowStar

12389 Highway 24 East ~ Davisboro

Coffee and Biscuits will be provided.

Thursday, August 3, 2006

7:30AM     Screven County Listening Session

Old Gold Kist Store

201 Industrial Road ~ Sylvania

Coffee and Biscuits will be provided.

6:30PM     Burke County Listening Session

Southern Auto Store

551 Academy Avenue ~ Waynesboro

BBQ Dinner will be provided.

Friday, August 4, 2006

8:00AM     Bulloch County Listening Session

Agribusiness Center

151 Langston Chapel Road ~ Statesboro

Coffee and Biscuits will be provided.

Athens Congressman John Barrow received a score of 0-out-of-19 on the Club for Growth’s “435 Districts - 435 Blogs Against Pork.” The score is based on yes-or-no votes on Congressman Jeff Flake’s (R-Ariz.) 19 “anti-pork amendments.”

The amendments are part of Flake’s personal crusade to end runaway spending “for things that really we shouldn’t be doing.” With an estimated $350 billion deficit and a debt well-over $8 trillion, Flake says Congressional pork-barrel projects, specifically in the form of “earmarks,” need to end.

The amendments were added by Flake to 19 pork projects including $20 million earmarked for the Leonard Wood Institute, $500,000 for a swimming pool in California, $1 million for the Juniata Locomotive Demonstration, $1 million for the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, $100,000 for unnamed “facilities” in West Virginia (do I even need to mention the King of Pork Bobby Byrd?) and a multitude more for other projects.

And Barrow isn’t doing much to help the problem. In fact, according to the Club for Growth’s list, Barrow voted “no” on all 19 amendments – receiving a bottom-of-the-barrel score (pardon the pun) and signifying an exposed position in favor of all of the pork projects.

Not only is Barrow clearly toting the Democratic Party line and revealing his impotence to party persuasion, but he’s doing so in a manner that demonstrates fiscal irresponsibility.

From the article:

435 Districts - 435 Blogs Against Pork

Thanks to Congressman Jeff Flake’s 19 anti-pork amendments, we now have every House member on record regarding their positions on earmarks. Before now, House members have been able to avoid scrutiny because their pork was co-mingled with other projects and tucked into the dark corners of big spending bills. Or they were able to withstand the scrutiny because they were attacked as a whole chamber and not directly attacked themselves.

But because of Flake’s amendments, they were recently forced to cast up-or-down votes on specific projects. They could no longer deflect attention. Below is a summary scorecard of how they voted (below the scorecard are the actual vote descriptions). If you want an itemized list, you can click on any one of the following PDFs. A “YES” vote on any of the Flake amendments is a good, anti-pork vote. A “NO” vote is a bad, pro-pork vote. Therefore a score of 19-for-19 is a perfect, pro-taxpayer record. A 0-for-19 record means hostility to taxpayers.

So this is our call to “Pork Barrel Barrow” to publicly denounce his actions… to apologize to the people of the 12^th District, Georgia, and America for his wasteful practices.

We know it’s not going to happen, so hopefully the good people of South Georgia can make it happen by giving Barrow the boot in November.

Max will be speaking at the Savannah Exchange Club luncheon on Monday, July 31 at 12 pm.

KingOfBenHill here, live from the Ken Mehlman event at Johnny Harris’ in Savannah. As promised, we’re working hard to bring YOU the ONLY real coverage of the 12th. And with that… let the first of many, many Blogging for Max live blogs of this election cycle begin:

8:44 am: I am in position, Mehlman is here.

8:49 am: After a whole lot of handshakes and the usual, we are getting started.

8:56 am: Max has taken the podium.

8:57 am: Max is telling a great story… more on this later…

9:03 am: Max’s speech has ended and Mehlman is now speaking. He’s talking about Max’s achievements.

9:08 am: Melhman is drawing a parallel between the challenges faced by leaders of the past to those of today’s leaders.

9:15 am: “John barrow believes that when we listento terrorists we should hang up when they call there sleeper cells.” - Mehlman.

9:16 am: “Our troops should come home on a military time table not a political one.”

9:24 am: Mehlman’s speech just wrapped up, he’s now taking questions.

9:26 am: “Max winning makes it almost impossible for the Democrats to take the House.” - Mehlman

9:29 am: Mehlman thanks everyone for coming out.

9:30 am: Max and Ken shake hands… let the mingling begin.

10:06 am: Max is doing a radio interview… not sure with whom.

10:18 am: Things are wrapping up here… I might be back later with a few parting shots, thoughts, etc. That’s it for the first of a boatload of live blogging coverage on Blogging for Max! - KingOfBenHill.

Although we have already covered this, it’s just too good to pass up another opportunity.
During last week’s so-called “debate over debates,” Monday’s Savannah Morning News carried perhaps out favorite zinger from Max thus far.

Barrow suggested holding four debates in three cities (Augusta, Savannah and Milledgeville) on the outskirts of the district and one city (Atlanta) that isn’t even in the 12th - completely ignoring the heart of the district and insulting voters in the 19 excluded counties.
In response to Barrow’s offensively meager suggestion, Max fired back this zinger:

“Since you just recently moved from Athens and are a new resident of the district,” [Burns] replied, “I propose additional debates in each of the remaining counties so … the electorate may get to know you and your positions better.

“Limiting debates to just the three metropolitan areas reduces … participation … for the folks in the rural communities that make up over half the registered voters in … (the) district.”

PRICELESS MAX, PRICELESS! We here at Blogging for Max find this to be one of the best, most effective responses of the campaign.

Your move Harper Lawson (Barrow’s bumbling spokesman)… good luck!

Our first press release:

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Bloggers for Burns, an independent grassroots organization today announced the creation of BloggingforMax.com, a web log – or “blog” – featuring news, commentary and other information on the hotly contested 12^th U.S. Congressional District race between Republican Max Burns and Democrat John Barrow. Although the site is not affiliated with the Burns campaign, it was established to support his bid to unseat the incumbent Barrow in the November elections.

“Our campaign is building the broadest-based and most-focused grassroots organization this part of Georgia has ever seen and Blogging for Max is an important part of this effort,” said Burns’ campaign manager Tim Baker. “Max is glad to see young people take the initiative and get involved in the political process.

“This type of campaign will help us reach out to voters, spread Max’s positive, hopeful vision for the new 12^th District and expand the reach of our campaign.”

This year’s race is a rematch of the 2004 election when an unknown Barrow upset then-incumbent Burns. Featuring a newly-drawn district that includes an expanded Democratic voting block in Augusta, the current make-up of the 12^th excludes Barrow’s home base of Athens and Clarke County.

“Blogging for Max is an approach that’s unprecedented in this district and it could help deliver Max a win,” said Adam Fogle, a contributor to the blog. “It shows the renewed spirit of local Republicans who are dedicated to putting the right man in office.”

Because of the re-drawn district and the history between Burns and Barrow, many consider this race to be one of the top U.S. Congressional races to watch this election cycle.

A poll released Wednesday by Public Opinion Strategies showed Burns has pulled even with Barrow. Of the 400 likely voters surveyed, 43 percent said they will vote for Burns, 44 percent for Barrow and 15 percent are undecided. The margin of error was given as plus-or-minus 4 percent.

“We are at the forefront of the campaign covering this as it happens – delivering the people of the 12^th District first-hand information,” said Fogle.

Bloggers for Burns plans to operate the site until the Nov. 7 elections, with more expanded coverage as Election Day draws closer.

For more information on Blogging for Max, go to http://www.bloggingformax.com.

# # #

According to congress.org , John Barrow is the weakest member of the Georgia Delegation. His power ranking is even below that of fellow do nothing but hit capitol police officers with a cellphone Democrat Cynthia McKinney. That’s something to be proud of John!

From the Campaign:

A poll released this week in Georgia’s new 12^th Congressional District shows Max Burns in a statistical dead heat with Athens Congressman John Barrow. The survey was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies (POS) on July 9-11, 2006, among 400 likely voters in Georgia’s new 12^th District and had a margin of error of ±4.9 percent. Burns, a former Congressman and candidate for Georgia’s new 12^th District, trailed Barrow by just one point four months before Election Day.

“We are very encouraged by these poll results,” said Burns. “It just confirms what our grassroots campaign is telling us: the new 12 ^th District wants a Congressman with a positive, hopeful vision that will get this country back on track. Our campaign will continue to each out to each and every community in the district to earn their support.”

“Max Burns remains in a statistical dead heat with John Barrow, trailing by just one point,” said Glen Bolger, POS pollster. “Despite having the advantages of incumbency, Barrow has not been able to establish himself with voters in the district, as his re-elect and image have declined in the past few months. Voters are ready to bring Burns back to Congress.”

In a memorandum of key findings prepared for Burns, Bolger reports:

• Max Burns and John Barrow remain in a statistical dead-heat on the ballot test – 43% to 44%, with 15% undecided. Despite having all the advantages of incumbency, Barrow has made no gains in the past several months. Not only is Burns within the margin of error, but Barrow is under 50%, and undecideds typically break to the challenger.

• John Barrow’s re-elect has gone from bad to worse – 26% say they will re-elect Barrow while 43% want a new person, and 30% say it depends – a net 10 point drop from February’s poll.

• John Barrow’s image has worsened – Typically, incumbents see their positives go up at this time as a result of their franked mail and constituent service efforts, instead Barrow’s have worsened by a net nine points - Barrow has 67% name ID, with just 25% favorable - 18% unfavorable.

• Max Burns has a significantly better image - 87% name ID, with 47% favorable and 16% unfavorable.

• The new 12th Congressional District is much more favorable to Max Burns and Republicans - When running in the old 12th Congressional district two years ago, Burns lost just 48%-52%, while President Bush lost by eight points, 46%-54%. Under the new lines, this district swings nine points; Bush won by one point, 50% - 49%. This nine point shift in the Republicans’ favor will be a significant help to Burns this fall.

In a moment of realization - or reflection, or change-of-heart or whatever it is that incumbent, pink-pants wearing liberals do when they’ve lost touch with their base - John Barrow has announced that he is holding an open house on August 7 for his brand-spanking-new campaign headquarters in Savannah.

It appears that after representing the district for nearly two years and while running a re-election campaign exclusively from Clarke County, Mr. Barrow has finally located the 12th on a map and has realized that Athens can no longer vote for him.

Now that he has come to terms with the new, un-gerrymandered- by-Democrats 12th District, the congressman would apparently like to move to a place that is actually located within the district. Better late than never, eyy John?

Maybe Blogging for Max will attend the open house and live-blog from it… but probably not.

Blogging for Max’s own KingOfBenHill will be blogging live from the Ken Mehlman event on Friday morning at 8:30 am in the first of many live blogging events throughout the remainder of the campaign on BloggingforMax.com.

So for those of you that cannot attend the event, stop by BloggingforMax.com Friday morning for full coverage on the only web log devoted to covering all the news, events and information you need on the Georgia 12th!

The next big Max event will take place this Friday, July 28, at 8:30am, when Max will be hosting the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ken Mehlman. The breakfast will be held at Johnny Harris’ Restaurant in downtown Savannah. Tickets are $10 and are more than worth the price.

Mehlman, born in Baltimore, Md. in 1967, is a Harvard Law graduate and served as the Campaign Manager for President Bush’ 2004 re-election campaign.

For more information call Barbara at (912) 353-9626.

From the campaign:

BURNS AGREES TO DEBATES IN NEW 12TH DISTRICT

July 20, 2006

(Savannah, Georgia) Max Burns, former Congressman running to represent Georgia’s new 12^th District, sent Congressman John Barrow’s Athens-based campaign a letter agreeing to a debate schedule and challenged Mr. Barrow to join him in debates or forums across the new 12 ^th District.

“As you already know, our campaigns have agreed to participate in a televised debate in Milledgeville on August 29^th at 7:00 p.m. hosted by GeorgiaCollege and StateUniversity,” wrote Burns. “We also agree to participate in televised debates in Savannah and Augusta, as well as the Atlanta Press Club’s debate on Georgia Public Television.

“Since you just recently moved from Athens and are a new resident of the district, I propose additional debates in each of the remaining counties so the majority of the electorate may get to know you and your positions better. Limiting debates in just the three metropolitan areas reduces the participation in the political process for the folks in the rural communities that make up over half the registered voters in Georgia’s new 12 ^th District,” wrote Burns.

“To that end, I will join you in the debates you outlined in your letter and hope you will join me in other parts of the 12^th District so voters may see the clear distinctions between our positions, values and the way we want to represent their interests in Washington,” wrote Burns.

Burns’ letter is in response to a letter from Barrow outlining a debate schedule for the general election.

A July 14 article in Congressional Quarterly by Rachel Kapochunas highlights the potential impact of the re-districting on the election. From the article:

GA 12: Different Map, Same Messages in Rematch From ‘04

The contenders differ on the partisan impact of the remap. Republicans argue that the removal of Clarke County has made the 12th more inclined to vote for Burns and for GOP candidates in general. Democrats counter, though, that Barrow will benefit in a slight uptick [sic] in the share of the district’s population held by the already substantial minority constituency — mainly African-Americans who tend to vote Democratic in overwhelming numbers.

Republican Rep. Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina framed the GOP view in a Thursday conference call, which he convened in his role as the National Republican Congressional Committee’s communications chairman.

“I think this is going to come down to a traditional conservative versus liberal race where you have someone who’s a mainstream, reasonable conservative versus someone who’s out of the mainstream, funded by the trial lawyers and comes to Washington and toes the line for [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi [of California] and the liberals,” McHenry said.

Better than the mention of Barrow’s only strength in 2004, is the remark about “trial lawyers” by Patrick McHenry. Following the John Barrow money trail shows how truly “out-of-touch” the man is, not just on the issues but in the cookie jar.

A simple search through Open Secrets shows that as of June 2006 the two sectors contributing the most to Barrow’s campaign were, by far, Lawyers/Lobbyists, $327,654, and Labor, $233,700. Combined, that is $561,354, or nearly 40% of his campaign contributions, from two sectors that do not in any way represent the interests of South Georgia.

Barrow proudly wears the stench of beltway nepotism and the result is a derelict disregard for the welfare of his constituency. Barrow left the straight and narrow quite a few turns ago, and he wants to take the whole 12^th over the cliff with him.

And then there was this:

Burns’ 2002 win was viewed by many as a fluke since the district — as designed by Democrats who then controlled the Georgia legislature — had been drawn to elect a Democrat. Burns defeated Charles Walker Jr. that year after the Democratic nominee’s past brushes with the law were publicized late in the campaign.

We won’t even get into Champ Walker… that’s for another post. But as alluded to above, the biggest reason Barrow won in 2004 was undoubtedly the inclusion of Athens/Clarke County in the then-gerrymandered 12th… few will argue with that point.

To put things in perspective, the omission of Clarke from the new, more proportionately representative district should put a dent in Barrow’s support now that the playing fields are leveled and we can have a fair election.

Max is one of the few Republicans willing to expose the Democrats’ use of minimum wage as a “political ploy” in the upcoming elections:

Few GOP hopefuls commit to raising minimum wage

July 20, 2006

By Aaron Blake, The Hill

Former Rep. Max Burns (R-Ga.), who is running against the man who replaced him in the last election, Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.), agrees that the minimum wage needs to be increased but said a 40 percent jump is too big and would lead to inflation and a loss of jobs.

Burns is one of the few Republicans using the issue in his campaign. He said Democrats are using it as a political ploy, and he has criticized Barrow for circulating a discharge petition in recent months to force a vote. Burns suggested that Barrow is playing politics because he waited longer than most supporters to co-sponsor the minimum-wage bill and then took a lead on the issue with the petition.

Burns did not suggest a more appropriate increase, saying the issue needs hearings and a full debate.

Good for Max… we’re sick of Democrats using minimum wage as a campaign issue, often pulling the wool over voters eyes by ignoring the true economic impacts. It’s good to see a strong Republican voice throw it back in their faces.

Chuck Todd of The Hotline, one of the brightest political minds inside the beltway, has Max’s race at 22nd, down two spots in his 2006 House Rankings. Coincidentally - or not - the race is one spot behind the Georgia 8th race, which pits Jim Marshall (D) against Mac Collins (R). Most interestingly of all, Todd’s blurbs on the 12th race mentioned this:

One of these two Georgia races is going to pop and the other is going to fizzle, we’re just not prepared to decide which one.

Hmm… we’re not quite sure what to make of this, as that’s all he says, but we’re more interested to see whether or not he’s right. Our bets is that the 8th fizzles, but we shall see.

Make up your mind, John. Do we need even mention the “straight-and-narrow?”
From the campaign:

BARROW VOTES TWICE AGAINST PROTECTING “ONE NATION UNDER GOD” BEFORE VOTING FOR IT

July 19, 2006

(Savannah, Georgia) Max Burns, former Congressman running to represent Georgia’s new 12^th District, today questioned why Athens Congressman John Barrow would vote two times against allowing a bill to be debated on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives that would protect the Pledge of Allegiance and the phrase “one nation under God.”

“I am glad to see Congress take the necessary steps to protect the Pledge of Allegiance from the activist judges who use their power to make laws from the bench rather then interpreting them,” said Burns. “But it puzzles me to see John Barrow vote two times against allowing the bill to be debated in the House prior to voting for it. If you support the legislation then why in the world would you vote two times against allowing it to be considered on the floor of the House floor? You can’t have it both ways.”

H.R. 2389, the Pledge Protection Act of 2005, would restrict the jurisdiction of lower federal courts and the Supreme Court from ruling on the constitutionality of the Pledge. The bill, which was introduced by both Congressman Todd Akin (R-MO), and U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), uses the power granted to Congress by Article III of the Constitution to establish the jurisdiction of federal courts. Burns was an original co-sponsor of the bill when it was first introduced in May 2003, and voted for The Pledge Protection Act when it passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in September of 2004. Congressman Akin introduced the legislation in response to the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declaring the phrase “under God” unconstitutional.

“If John Barrow had been successful, the Pledge Protection Act of 2005, would not have been debated in the House and activist courts, such as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, would be free to strip ‘one nation under God’ or even outlaw the pledge of allegiance altogether as courts have done so it the past,” said Burns.

The bill passed the full House of Representatives with bi-partisan support, 260-167, and now awaits action in the United States Senate.

From one of our favorite writers down in Bulloch County:

Bulloch residents, families of troops enjoy festivities

By Luke Hearn, Statesboro Herald

July 17, 2006

Despite the extreme heat and impending clouds that hovered over Mill Creek Regional Park on Sunday afternoon, Bulloch county residents and military family members came out to celebrate the homecoming of troops from the 648th Engineering Battalion.

…

Former congressman Max Burns said after the ceremony that he was very thankful for the service of the soldiers.

“I’m proud of America and I’m proud of Bulloch County and Statesboro, but I’m very proud of the 648th and what they’ve done. This is America and this is what it’s all about.”

Burns said Sunday’s event was absolutely important, and was a very small way to honor the sacrifices of the troops.

“I’m grateful for their service,” he said.

The primaries are tomorrow and that means it’s time for us to start blogging for Max Burns.  For those that don’t know, Max is the Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia’s 12th District. This blog will be ground zero for all of your information on this key race - one of the top 10 most heated races of the 2006 election cycle. So buckle-up, get yourself and gear, and prepare yourself for an exciting 111 days!