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PRESS RELEASE
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND BIG BUSINESS
CONTROL OF LEGISLATURE
By Andy Rice
Candidate for Georgia Senate District 37
www.ElectRice.org
www.RiceGang.com
“No
man’s life, liberty, or property is safe when the legislature is
in session,”
Mark Twain.
I am a candidate for Georgia Senate District 37. My
wife, Taffy Rice, is a candidate for Georgia House District 36. Our
opponents, Incumbents John Wiles (S37) and Earl Ehrhart (H36) are
controlled by big business, big lobbyists, the legal “profession,”
and the Chamber of Commerce.
Earl Ehrhart was elected national Chairman of the
American
Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), in
2005. John Wiles is a past state Chairman of ALEC. For those of
you not familiar with this organization, lend me your ear. ALEC is
a pawn of ExxonMobil. Between 1991 and 2005, ExxonMobil “gave” over
$1.2 Million to ALEC so the “Oil Mammoth” could control legislation
around the country. (http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=10).
An article in the AJC last year reported ALEC provides “cookie
cutter” legislation to its legislative members from every state in
an effort to control the direction of new laws. While we pay almost
three times as much for gasoline as we did a couple of years ago,
Exxon is recording record profits. Personally, I don’t
want ExxonMobil writing laws for me, how about you?
In 2003, Forbes published an article entitled “Buying
Justice:”
https://www.keepmedia.com/Auth.do?extId=10022&uri=/archive/forbes/2003/0721/064.html,
which exposed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s attempts to “buy”
judgeships around the country, spending hundreds of millions of
dollars to buy elections. According to Forbes, this idea was the
brainchild of Atlanta’s own Bernie Marcus, of Home
Depot fame. Recently, we have seen how John, Earl, and Sonny have
threatened to control the Georgia Supreme Court for their own
political gains. Bill Shipp’s article ,
June 18, 2006 ,
http://www.mdjonline.com/276/10222021.txt, exposed the Georgia
Chamber of Commerce’s current plan to hijack and control the Georgia
Supreme Court.
Our opponents, Wiles
and Ehrhart , are Chamber of Commerce pawns.
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s web site shows you which
incumbents vote with the Chamber, almost all the time. Except for a
few votes John an Earl missed altogether ,
John voted with the Chamber’s position
100%
of the time, in 2005 and 2006. And Earl voted with the Chamber in
every bill except one:
http://www.gachamber.com/gov/votingref/voting_ref_2006.pdf
http://www.gachamber.com/gov/votingref/voting_ref_2005.pdf.
Why do these Incumbents vote with the Chamber and not
with you, the average citizen? Take a look at their campaign
disclosures to see who pays their way, and then you will see why
they vote the way they do. Visit:
http://www.ethics.state.ga.us/GAEthics/Reports/Campaign/Campaign_byName.aspx
to look up their reports, which show most of their campaign funding
comes from big banks, insurance companies, oil companies, utilities
companies, law firms, political action committees, and generous
lobbyists.
John Wiles derives most of his personal income from
legal representation of big developers, particularly the developers
who are inundating our formerly green county side, in
Cobb County, with shopping center after shopping center. I have
fond memories of Dallas Highway when it had no Giant Cancer Sticks (aka
GTC power lines), only one or two small strip malls with a grocery
store and a few other local businesses. Now it saddens me to drive
down Dallas Highway and see the few remaining houses sporting for
sale signs, touting the label “potential commercial.” You can thank
the Incumbents for this new view of our formerly beautiful land.
John brags on his law firm web site,
www.EVICT.net, “95%
of Practice Devoted to Litigation.”
As for the
power lines, what did Earl and John do to help the good citizens
whose property was directly affected by them? NOTHING!
View the campaign disclosures, mentioned above, and
add up all the money this Chamber tag team gets from executives of
power companies.
In fact, view the Chamber web site to
see Atlanta Gas Light executives at a recent luncheon:
http://www.gachamber.com/story-60621B8E90E189E26.html.
Now Wiles
and Ehrhart want to implement so-called
“Improvement Districts.” Earl voted for HB 1323 last session, and
John co-sponsored SB 414 (the Senate version of the same
legislation). If you have the time to read this 43 page bill, go
to:
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2005_06/versions/sb414_Committee_sub_LC_36_0230S_4.htm.
SB 414 is temporarily tabled, but it
will be back if these boys get reelected. This terrible legislation
would allow John’s developer buddies to levy property taxes on
private homeowners. Read that sentence again. It doesn’t say the
elected Tax Commissioner can levy taxes. It says
private developers can issue bonds and then levy
new and higher property taxes on homeowners to pay back the bonds.
This would be the epitome of
Taxation Without Representation. And John says he
wants to protect private property and reduce taxes. We need to say
“Goodbye Earl , ”
and we need to “Evict Wiles.”
Mark Twain’s words were
never truer than now! It’s time for a change.
If you want true
conservative representation by candidates who will always strive to
protect YOU from increased taxes, new taxes, intrusive government,
and big oil
companies and developers, please cast your
vote on July 18, 2006 for
TAFFY RICE (House 36) and
ANDY RICE (Senate 37).
Thank you.
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