House candidates to be questioned at public forum Dec. 12

Mon, 12/03/2007 - 5:17pm
By: Cal Beverly

Residents of Ga. House District 72 will get a chance to question the four candidates in the upcoming special election at Peachtree City Hall the evening of Dec. 12, thanks to the Youth Council Serving Fayette County.

Each of the candidates in the Dec. 18 special election will be asked questions submitted by the public during the meeting, according to Art Sivertsen, youth leisure program director for Peachtree City.

All four candidates have been invited, Sivertsen said. The four are Republican candidates Heidi Becker, Steve Brown and Matt Ramsey and Democratic candidate Kevin Madden.

The format for the “Meet the Candidates” forum will consist of a four-minute opening statement by each candidate, and then members of the Youth Council Serving Fayette County will pick random questions submitted by the public. Each candidate will have one minute to answer each question.

There will be five boxes for questions, Sivertsen said, one for each candidate and one for general questions for any or all candidates.

A member of the public may pose a written question to one or more of the candidates, Sivertsen said, plus any candidate mentioned in the question or answer will be given a rebuttal opportunity.

The forum will be at City Hall Wednesday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. and is open to the public.

The Dec. 18 special election is to fill the unexpired term of Rep. Dan Lakly, R-Peachtree City, who died in late October.

The election is officially nonpartisan, although each candidate may list a party affiliation. If no candidate receives over 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held in January, after the General Assembly convenes.

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mapleleaf's picture
Submitted by mapleleaf on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 6:12am.

Matt Ramsey and Kevin Madden have set up websites at www.votemattramsey.com and www.electkevinmadden.com respectively. Looking that up can be a good first way of getting acquainted with these two candidates.

I am not aware that Steve Brown and Heidi Becker have yet set up websites, but I am personally painfully aware that Heidi Becker has already started pestering voters with requests for vote from automatic dialing and recorded message (ADAD) equipment. (That's the kind of robotic phone equipment where you pick up the phone, say Hello, and then you get complete silence. You say Hello again, and the recording begins. Of course, this equipment deletes all Caller ID information so you can't know ahead of time who might be calling.)


Sniffles's picture
Submitted by Sniffles on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 6:39am.

That's quite an "information source" for Matt Ramsey. Golly, he wants to cut taxes and git tough on crime. Who knew? Seriously, his red white and blue website is almost a parody of generic Republican talking points, feigning concern and saying essentially nothing.

Oh, and he "wants to reduce classroom size in Georgia"...newsflash, Matt, Sonny Perdue already reduced class size to 18 and if you go much lower than that we're going to have to raise a LOT of property taxes to pay for more schools!

I also noticed he's touting his experience as a legislative aide to State Senator Mitch "TDK" Seabaugh. I was unaware that our part-time state legislature employed legislative aides.

Finally, the one area where Ramsey departs from the generic Republican feel-good script is transportation. His Logsdonesque platform:
I intend to work with the DOT and the members of the Georgia General Assembly to remove bureaucratic road blocks that hinder the timely completion of vital infrastructure projects.

Translation: Brother Harold couldn't ram TDK down PTC's throat at the city level...but *I* can short-circuit the process at the state level. That road is gonna get built and mah buddy Mitch and his friends will be soo happy.


Git Real's picture
Submitted by Git Real on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 9:49am.

I don't know if that's scarier for you or me. Puzzled I'll just say me. Smiling


ptctaxpayer's picture
Submitted by ptctaxpayer on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 9:06am.

Hey, Sniffles....Well put when you said "parody of generic Republican talking points, feigning concern and saying essentially nothing." It reminded me of Westmoreland.

You were wrong on the do-nothinger Congressman. He did something. Look on the front page of the AJC. While in Congress, Westmoreland has voted to increase our deficit by $300 million.

Good job Lynn. You and Sonny keep on porking.


Submitted by TTT on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 7:00am.

I don't think so. This is just more anti-TDK B.S. The current council voted TDK down 5-0. GRTA said if PTC builds TDK, it has to be 4 lanes. Harold Logsdon told them 2 lanes or no lanes and voted accordingly. The city even appealed GRTA's decision, but lost the lawsuit.

All the anti-Ramsey folks want to make an issue of TDK. It won't be built with the current council, and the state can't force a city to build a city street. If there is precedence on this, let's see it. Remeber, TDK will be a city street, not a state or county road.

Sniffles's picture
Submitted by Sniffles on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 7:11am.

Straight out of the Harold Logsdon/Hollis Harris playbook, yet another Ramsey termite comes out of the woodwork. Registered all of 14 minutes, this termite declares TDK has to be a "city street". It cannot be a "state road" even though it will run from Fayette to Coweta.

My friend, Matt Ramsey will build TDK. That's his entire reason for running.


birdman's picture
Submitted by birdman on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 10:58am.

You know a lot seems to be revolving around city issues for this state seat, especially TDK and the "Evil Developers." Don't really know if any other district reps really care enough about lil ol' PTC to worry about TDK. But my real question is this: You guys throw up a lot of allegations with no real foundation. So could you please tell me why Ramsey will ramrod TDK? Seems to me he's an attorney who lives here in PTC and works here in PTC. Don't know him, but why would he want to go to all the trouble to get elected to a state office only to push through an unpopular project already rejected by our city council? He needs to live with the fallout too.
Seriously, you, Steve Brown, et.al continue to publicly state all these horrible "facts" but never really state why Ramsey, or anyone else for that matter, would push this issue.
How about some serious reasoning. Or are we to just assume that since Ramsey (or any other candidate) isn't Steve Brown, then obviously he must be simply a "developer," "developer friend," or "developer puppet," (you know, one of those 11,000 who voted against Brown for Mayor), and he simply is trying to end run our "developer friendly" City Council and ramrod TDK. Then what? Does he simply walk away from the State Legislature and stop representing us?
Please, some facts to back your allegations.


Submitted by TTT on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 7:24am.

More name calling from the Steve Brown camp. Who would've thought. You ignore the fact that TDK will run exclusivley through PTC. It will connect McIntosh Trail to Crosstown in PTC. Keep spreading your half truth messages and hopefully informed citizens will see through your rhetoric. And once again, you bring no proof to your argument, just rhetoric.

If you know of a case where a state took over several county and city streets and made them a state highway, let's hear it. TDK is dead as long as this council is in office. And Haddix and King/Sturbaum have come out strongly against it.

So no, your friend Matt Ramsey is not going to build TDK.

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