Fayette | News

Early voting begins, forum tonight

Tue, 12/11/2007 - 6:00pm
By: John Munford

Two polling sites will be open today, Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the four-way special election to fill the 72nd District seat in the Georgia House of Representatives.

Undecided voters will get a chance to gauge the candidates at a political forum tonight at City Hall at 7 p.m. Voters will have the chance to write down questions for any or all of the candidates; the event is hosted by the Youth Council of Fayette County.

The early voting sites are at the Peachtree City Library’s bottom floor and at the office of the Fayette County Board of Elections at the Stonewall government complex in downtown Fayetteville.

The candidates are Republicans Heidi Becker, a publicist; Steve Brown, former Peachtree City mayor; and Matt Ramsey, an attorney, along with Democrat Kevin Madden, who is in the air freight business.

The winner will finish the remaining year on the term of Dan Lakly, who died unexpectedly in October.

At tonight’s forum there will be five drop boxes for questions to be submitted. Each candidate will have their own box, and the fifth box will be for questions to be asked of all candidates.

Candidates will have one minute to respond to direct questions, and any candidate whose name is mentioned in the question also will get 30 seconds to respond. Each candidate will also get a four-minute opening statement.

The questions will be reviewed by the Youth Council before they are used to insure that the questions are relevant.

Seating at City Hall will be limited, so participants are asked to come early to avoid standing.

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Longtime reader keeping the Ramsey mud slinging going
Submitted by johenry on Wed, 12/12/2007 - 10:22pm.

Get ready with the mud bucket! Brown proved he was the only candidate who had any real experience. The others did a good job as well. Heidi Beck was sick.

The people are getting tired of the mud slinging from the Ramsey people. I think it's going to hurt them.

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Heidi Becker admits she doesn't know anything about Legislature!
Submitted by Bulldogs91 on Wed, 12/12/2007 - 10:17pm.

I just got back from the debate, and let me tell you that Heidi Becker's performance was absolutely embarressing!! She was asked about her understanding of the legislative process and what committees she would like to be on. Her answer? "I don't know." I'm not making this up!!

She ADMITTED that she has no clue about this stuff!! First of all, that alone should disqualify her from running. Second, what does this say about her intelligence? She was at a debate about a seat in the Legislature. What did she think she was going to get asked about?? Has she never even logged on to the Legislature's website to see what committees there are? Has she no curiosity? Did she not think she would get asked about how a bill becomes a law at some point?

She couldn't be on student council from what I saw. It was so awkward that people were squirming uncomfortably in their seats.

Why is she running? Just for a power trip? Unreal!!!

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Bulldogs91 -- Heidi
Denise Conner's picture
Submitted by Denise Conner on Wed, 12/12/2007 - 10:31pm.

But she's a woman . . . she understands how I feel! Laughing out loud

Also, she runs late and that boosts my self-esteem to know that I'm not the only one!


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Chuckle....
Git Real's picture
Submitted by Git Real on Wed, 12/12/2007 - 10:27pm.

Man, I wish I could have saw that. Did you keep a straight face?


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Surprise!! Brown makes a fool of himself...AGAIN
Submitted by longtime reader on Wed, 12/12/2007 - 10:17pm.

The comedy of errors that is the Steve Brown campaign hit a new low tonight. At the debate, Brown didn't answer a single question, he just talked about himself ad nauseum. The only thing he has going for him is that this Heidi Becker person is even worse! She told the audience that she doesn't know how the legislative process works and had no idea what committees she'd prefer! I thought she was kidding at first, but she wasn't! I was stunned. She is the only thing that distracted from what a fool Brown made of himself.

It's pretty obvious that Ramsey and Madden are the only good candidates. If you are a conservative, you have to vote for Ramsey. If you are a liberal, you have to vote for Madden. The other two are like Dennis Kucinich...no chance and an embarressment!!!

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You must be a spin doctor or you didn't go to the same forum
Submitted by Doug on Thu, 12/13/2007 - 6:51am.

This longtime reader person is obviously trying to spin the forum away from Steve Brown. Of course, he "talked about himself ad nauseum" because he was the only one who had actual political experience. He had the advantage of having a record to base his responses on.

It looks like the Ramsey camp is going heavy negative to back people away from Brown, but I don't think it will work.

Matt Ramsey has some possibilities if he'll get a new set of friends. The developer set is only going to drag him down. Mayor Logsdon was proof you can't go with that bunch.

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What A Petty Hack You Are
Git Real's picture
Submitted by Git Real on Wed, 12/12/2007 - 10:25pm.

Did you just read the same news release that I did?

Did you happen to read the solutionless babble that Lawyer Ramsey spewed out? Did he read his answers off his website? Shocked

From what I can read (with my own two eyes) is that it was Steve that offered up the most solutions. When it comes to being a 'longtime loser' like you, Steve Brown could cure cancer, eliminate so-called global warming, personally cut Osama Bin-Laden's throat, pay off the national debt and you'd still be wetting your pants over him.

I can't even compliment you with a 'Nice Try' on your pitiful post. Evil


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My Thoughts on The Debate
Submitted by wdd5885 on Thu, 12/13/2007 - 7:50am.

I was at the "debate" last night, and although I thought it went well, I doubt any of the candidates changed anyone's mind. I didn't think Steve Brown was mean at all. He is a gifted speaker and knows his positions well, however he did do what I thought he would, and that's continually tell us all how wonderful he is. His 4 minute opening speech was all about him and what he had accomplished, nothing on his positions or why he was running.

Kevin, Matt, and Steve all did a good job. They each represented their positions well, were very cordial to one another, and very few shots were taken at opponents. There were two questions that I thought were cheap shots and shouldn't have been asked.

The first one went to Kevin Madden. The question was "Do you beleive in the sanctity of life from conception to natural death". I don't think that type of question has a place in a State House race. I understand the strong feelings on the issue, but it was a loaded question for the lone democrat. His answer was very good and he received applause from all the audience. They did go back later and ask all the candidates their view on the subject.

The next one went to Matt Ramsey. He was asked his views on immigration, and since a lot of his contributors were developers, did he know how many illegal immigrants they had used? I paraphrased becuase I do not remember the exact question. Like Kevin's question on abortion, this one was so loaded it got a chuckle from the audience. He answered it well and the event moved on.

As to the blogger's response above about canned applause, I disagree. Each candidiate received applause from the entire audience when their answer was something the audeince liked. When Matt Ramsey said "Thanks Mom" it was when only one audience member made one clap to his answer. It was quite funny.

Overall, it was a pleasant "debate". Each candidate reiterated his/her positions on the various issues. District voting came up. Kevin is for it, Matt and Heidi are against it, Steve wanted the issue to go to a referendum, but in his answer about the issue, he made it quite clear he is in favor. TDK didn't really come up unless the candidate brought it up. Only Kevin mentioned it specifically and he said he was against it.

When asked about transportation issues, only one candidate had a viable answer, and it was Ramsey. The others stumbled and bumbled and had no solutions at all. The question was, "How do you plan to improve PTC's traffic problems." Matt's answer about speeding up DOT projects was the only good one. The others had nothing to say. I thought it made them look a little silly, since our traffic situation is only going to get worse.

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