originally published October 1, 2008

Still for the Drill: A Texas senator and Bush fundraising bundler once colloquialized the process of buying politicians this way: “Ya dance with them what brung ya.” Meaning, if corporations fund a campaign and those funds are used to acquire votes, the politician’s first allegiance is to the corporations. Touchscreen hates to break it to you wallflowers, but Congressman Paul Broun’s dance card is plum full. (Who gets the slow dance? Koch Industries, bad boys of the oil industry. Koch (pronounced “coke”) is larger than Microsoft and Nike combined, and owned by Charles and David Koch, named the ninth and 10th richest Americans by Forbes magazine (and first and second scuzziest Americans by Touchscreen). Koch’s criminally reckless behavior has made it the target of numerous FBI and EPA investigations, resulting in record indictments and convictions for not only pumping known carcinogens into populated areas, but for conspiring to cover up what amounts to murder in order to “maximize profits.” (To extend a metaphor, campaign finance law is sort of like that gym teacher who made sure the kids at the middle school dance didn’t dance too close. But, while keeping proper distance, Broun and Koch are making eyes at each other as if to say, “meet me under the bleachers.” Koch has sent thousands of dollars Broun’s way and even got its front group Americans for Prosperity (founded and funded by the Koch brothers) to pen an op-ed in the Athens Banner-Herald extolling the virtues of our congressman, saying they were “thankful for Rep. Broun.” And Broun is thankful, too.

When Touchscreen asked Rep. Broun about Koch Industries’ generosity to his campaign, he made sure to code his response: “I will listen to anybody who wants to talk to me, but I’m here to represent the people of the 10th Congressional District.” That might seem like an innocuous statement at first, but it demonstrates that Broun associates “listening” with receiving stacks of campaign cash. I hadn’t asked him about listening to anybody; I had asked about receiving thousands of dollars from Koch. Is Broun only interested in a pay-to-play democracy?

---

Back to the School Board: Political newcomer David Huff is facing off with Chinami Goodie for Sidney Waters’ vacant school board seat. Like his opponent, Huff is pleased with the quality of education offered already-advantaged children (he and his wife have two children who’ll be going to Clarke schools once they’re old enough, he says), but he would like to explore ways the school system can address underperforming students with charter and magnet school options. He is encouraged by the possibility of having a career charter academy out at Athens Tech, and he would like to see other initiatives aimed at getting students into the types of well paying and “recession-hardy” careers that vocational academies provide.

“Appointing a permanent superintendent is one of the biggest issues facing the new board,” Huff says. Among the skills needed will be, he says, “the financial acumen to stay on budget, because that’s going to be challenging and dicey in the coming months and maybe years.” Huff, a self-employed businessman, hopes to bring his own business insight to the board, especially in light of any future budget cuts coming as a result of the troubled economy.

---

Ed or Red: The only vacant seat on the Athens-Clarke County Commission, that held by Carl Jordan in the sixth district, will be fought for by Ed Robinson and Valdis “Red” Petrovs. Readers may remember Robinson from his 2004 attempt at the 10th super-district seat. Petrovs has made a name for himself in town serving tirelessly as co-chair of Partners for a Prosperous Athens/OneAthens and as a board member of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce, among other groups.

Inasmuch as it is applies to Athens politics, the right-left political binary places Petrovs on the right and Robinson on the left. But that’s an oversimplification. Both candidates occupy some fairly unique political ground. Robinson promises to continue Jordan’s ideological juggling act of advocating for environmental and quality-of-life issues while stressing fiscal austerity. Petrovs is a pro-business, pro-growth candidate with an impressive volunteer record on bleeding heart-type causes. (A Really Unified Government: Both Red Petrovs and David Huff envision much more cooperation among government entities in town, including a close partnership between the county commission and the school system. The details are, of course, still vague, but it might be something worth looking into should the two get into office.

---

Still Obamamatic: It’s apparently been assumed, after the news of a couple of weeks ago, that the Obama campaign has pulled out of Georgia entirely. Not quite so, says state campaign spokeswoman Caroline Adelman, who told Flagpole last week, “We still feel like the state is very winnable.” On the local level, the campaign’s Athens office is still staffed, not to mention being downright abuzz with volunteers. Just following up.

Matt Pulver