Election endorsements
I'm not particularly happy with many of the candidates running this year, so I'm not endorsing several races. I take a little different view of some races than many of my fiscally-conservative friends. I'm fiscally conservative, but I'm also socially liberal. In my opinion, these two things go together very well. I think that there are a limited number of areas the government should be involved in, and regulating what people do on their own time in their own homes is out of their jurisdiction. I think the recent focus of the government on the ten commandments, gay marriage, and flag burning is a complete and utter waste of time and money. And so I can't support any legislator who runs for office on a platform of "vote for me and I'll ignore real issues while bloviating about things that don't matter one bit!".

The quick crib sheet for people in the 4th District: Write in Loren Collins for Congressional District 4.

Secretary of State: Karen Handel. She's fiscally conservative and not a nut on social issues. Say what you will about her backpedaling on some issues during her campaign, this is politics and in order for her to get elected she has to appeal to voters. She's already made her real opinions clear, IMHO.

Attorney General: Thurbert Baker. His opponent makes silly statements like he will "stand up to the ACLU to stop them from preying on Georgia’s communities" He's on the record as equating gays with pedophiles. And he wants to spend state money to defend any government in Georgia who decides to post the ten commandments on public property. I think the state has more important things to focus on, as well as better ways to spend the public's tax dollars.

State Supreme Court: Carol Hunstein. Her opponent Mike Wiggins is ex-Homeland Security. He's an advocate of his own flavor of judicial activism. He's never been a judge. He's too socially conservative. And he's pro-"giving the president whatever powers and tools he needs to do whatever he wants". Plus, some of his under-the-board campaign activities are highly distasteful. And did I mention that he's ex-Homeland Security?

House Rep, district 4: Loren Collins (write in candidate). Let me make a plea for people to consider Loren. First, Catherine Davis is never in a million, zillion, zillion years going to win. Hank Johnson has this in the bag. But Hank's main platform was "I'm not Cynthia McKinney". While that's a great platform for the Democratic primary, he has yet to really expand beyond this for the election. Loren is a fiscally conservative, socially liberal candidate. In fact, he may actually be the candidate I most support this year, and certainly the one I'm most excited about voting for. His website is: www.voteloren.com. Just remember to write his name down and take it with you to the polls to make sure you spell it right. And besides, don't you want to see how write in candidates work with our new electronic voting system? :-)

State Senate district 41: Steve Henson (D-Tucker). He's a good guy, and his the postcards his opponent has been mailing me get more and more amusing (implying that allowing illegal aliens to drive will cause you to die in a horrible car crash and that Henson apparently supports child sex slavery). Auman isn't even a serious candidate- he ran simply so voters would have a choice, his campaign mailings are all funded and mailed by the state Republican party, and he doesn't even have a website. The Republican party is insulting the intelligence of voters in my district if they think that people will vote for someone just because there's an "R" after his name on the ballot.

State House district 82: Steve Schultz, but just barely. His website is incredibly skimpy when it comes to issues (He's for education and against taxes and traffic- that's his entire platform). But he signed the RLC's Liberty Compact, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he'll be a good representative.