State Sen. Kasim Reed

Hey guys! I have had a recommendation to add Kasim Reed to http://www.dembench.org for Georgia. From what I have read, he seems like a talented guy and a good recommendation.

Can anyone local confirm this and/or give me the scoop?

Thanks!
Bill

He is a very aggressive politician and talented strategist.

... that's not a ringing endorsement, if I am reading you right.

Any other young Georgia candidates you like? We have Stephanie Stuckey Benfield.

:)

Senator Reid was terrific during the debate about the new Voter ID legislation in Georgia. He is passionate and reasonable. A very good speaker and, most important, he shows up. He's not my State Senator, but I wish he was!

A ringing endorsement from here.

I need this kind of info.


unfortunately I don't know much about Kasim Reed.


what are the requirement to get on the bench? Well aside form the Under 40 and currently holding a state position?

Polished, passionate, very smart. He has a bright future. A federal position in the near future would not surprise me.

You might also consider:
State Rep. Karla Drenner
Shyam Reddy (Sec. of State candidate)
Angela Moore (Sec. of State candidate)

...and if we could talk RubyDuby into running for something...

Thanks very much! I'll check these folks out ASAP.

We're still very much in the embryonic stages, so I welcome your input on matters large and small.

The formal criteria are few - the men and women must be under 40 and must be seeking or have won state or local elective office.
The informal criteria are that we want to find and spotlight the really talented young pols, the ones that have some sort of distinguishing characteristic, some glimmer in the eye, that makes you think that this candidate can go places. I think we are finding those men and women, but your referrals are a huge part of that.

Lives in my city (though she represents a neighbouring district). I WHOLEHEARTEDLY second you looking into her!

(Senate State and Local Governmental Operation). When activists for a voter verified paper audit trail were trying to get it added to the Diebold Election System before the 2004 General Election, there was a Republican bill, SB500, that was sponsored by Tom Price (who has gone on to win a seat in the US House) that came before the committee session before last . http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2003_04/sum/sb500.htm.

Activists had been trying to get Democrats to support a bill in the 2004-05 legislative session, since they controlled the House at the time and had the power to get something done. There were at least three Dems sitting on the SLOGO committee, Reid being one of them. None of them would take phone calls or talk to activists to discuss SB500 and they all refused to help get VVPAT passed.

The bill passed through that committee and passed in the Senate, because the Republicans voted for it, but was killed in the House Governmental Affairs Committee (where Alan Powell and other Democrats sat and ignored literally hundreds of phone calls, faxes and emails from Georgia voters begging them to support the bill.

The bill wasn't a good one, but it was a stopgap measure as the only hope to get some kind of paper trail before the 2004 election, so progressive activists were supporting it.

Cathy Cox, the SOS, led the fight to defeat SB500, and on several occasions I witnessed her giving the public and legislators misleading information in order to defeat it.

It is good for Democrats to stick together, but playing politics with our right to vote and have our vote counted is taking political games and one-upsmanship too far, especially because the Dems are harming themselves by protecting this seriously flawed voting system.

Tge issue has been a political football in Georgia with Cox (who bought the system) leading the Dems in opposition to fixing it (or even admitting it is fatally flawed) and Republicans supporting it to get even with Cox and the Dems but not really supporting it by actually fixing the system. After all, they passed up the opportunity to do so in the last legislative session, where they had the power since they now control the House and Senate, and where a number of bills were dropped, and one great piece of legislation, the Vote Count Protection Act (voterchoice.org) couldn't even get a sponsor.

Karla Drenner was going to introduce the VCPA, but withdrew support, probably because she got the word that the Dems were to support the Vince Fort Bill (SB222).

Sadly, SB222 was an almost exact revival of Price's SB500, only now it was sponsored by Dems (and favored by Cox) who opposed and killed it the year before. The bill still has all the flaws SB500 had, including the paper record not being the official ballot and the language about the "permanent paper record" being too ambiguous (much like the current HAVA language on a paper audit trail), so it isn't a bill that will fix the voting system, and now that the 2004 elections have come and gone, to have the Democrats revive that bill can only mean that they do not understand what is wrong with the system and what needs to be done to fix it.

When SB222 was dropped I could swear that it had language that would delay implementation until after EAC/HAVA recommendations had been made, but I see now online where that language was changed to "This Act shall become effective on July 1, 2005." http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2005_06/sum/sb222.htm.

The other language looked something like the following, which was introduced as an amendment to SB 500 by Hooks in :

"Senators Hooks of the 14th, Tanksley of the 32nd, Harbison of the 15th, Clay of the 37th, Thomas of the 10th, Starr of the 44th and others offered the following amendment: . . .

"Nothing in this Act shall be effective until such time as the federal Election Assistance Commission develops and adopts new voting equipment standards to govern the design of a voter verifiable paper record of a ballot for direct recording electronic voting systems and its use by all voters, including voters with disabilities, and until such time as the United States Congress appropriates adequate funds to pay for the addition of such voter verifiable paper record enhancement to Georgia´s direct recording electronic voting systems." http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2003_04/versions/sb500_Floor_amend_1_AM_28__6.htm

We as Georgia voters must hold each and every Democrat in the Georgia legislature responsible when they oppose having an auditible, transparent, secure voting system, making sure that they know they must get on board to secure our voting system, and suspend the political games for this issue or we will not support them in any way shape or form.

the reality is that we have voting machines in every county in the state. There was no way the legislature was going to throw those machines out and go back to paper. It just wasn't going to happen. All one had to do was ask around down there at the Capitol to find this out.

The next best thing would have been a smaller step of adding printing capability to the existing machines, but my understanding is that there were no compatible printers that were certified at that time. Now there is one.

Having said all that, I agree that Cathy Cox's opposition to that bill last year was full of misinformation and bad faith. And I have questions about why. But if Senator Reed is like other legislators, he was not responsive also because some activists alienated them with their own aggressive and sometimes counterproductive behavior. Certain actions are good for getting publicity, and the more vocal activists made a lot of progress in that area, but it also served to poison the waters for the legislative efforts.

From my point of view, what this means is that there is a lot of visibility about this issue now. People do NOT have confidence in the system. The time is ripe for a change. Kudos to the idealists for getting us this far. The legislature will probably WANT to pass a bill, we must let them. Ask for what we want, take what we can get, and come back next year if we don't get it all.