Jeff Mullis
SB 10 would allow local communities to hold voter referendums on whether to allow the sale of alcohol on Sundays in retail stores starting at 12:30 p.m.
Mullis says:
“Let me first state that I am against the sale of alcohol on Sundays. I highly doubt that this referendum would ever come to a vote in our district. If it did come to a ballot, I would vote against Sunday sales, and I am certain it would fail.”
“The main issue in this particular legislation is my belief in local control of public policy. I have supported local control since my first day in office. Every single decision on the sale of alcohol in Georgia has been decided at the local level, and Sunday sales should be no different. Senate bill 10 would allow for every community to decide for themselves if they want to sell alcohol or not. My passion for local control is why I voted in favor of SB 10.”
“Another major factor for my ‘yes’ vote is my belief that giving local communities the power to hold their own referendums more than likely frees rural counties from being mandated to sell alcohol on Sundays. Currently, the Georgia General Assembly is controlled by mostly urban and suburban members. If SB 10 failed, there could be a chance that the legislature could form a coalition and mandate the state as a whole sell alcohol as many of the metro counties support Sunday sales. Instead, we now have given every community, regardless of their stance on this issue, to decide if it is in the best interests of their citizens.”
SB 10 now heads to the Georgia House of Representatives for consideration. If SB 10 passes the House, it will need to be signed by Gov. Nathan Deal before becoming law.
Mullis is an INCREDIBLY ambitious ,back room, back scratching political insider that could sell you your own car.Like blalock61 there,I have often wondered if the Walker/Catoosa papers are getting paid for the fawning,noncritical pieces that they run on this guy.
Maybe it's just me, but his whole schtick seems to be that keeping him in office will turn on the $$$ taps from Atlanta. Not even any pretensioon that he is looking out for the state as a whole,but basically if we elect and reelect him,we'll all be wading in gravy (paid for by people in the next district over,of course).
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The Evolving Mr. Mullis
Opinions - Jimmy Espy
http://bit.ly/icRO6q
I MET State Sen. Jeff Mullis several years ago when he briefly represented part of Whitfield County where I was editor of the local daily newspaper.
I liked him. He was down-to-earth and very much willing to talk about local issues. We bumped into each other some time later at a downtown festival in Ringgold and sat for awhile under a shade tree talking politics, parades and the price of scuppernongs or some such.
Now, just a few years later, he won’t even return my phone calls. I should be insulted, but have found comfort in the fact that apparently I’m on an ever-expanding list of people in the 706 area code who can’t get the senator on the phone for even a few minutes.
Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) seems to have morphed into Jeff Mullis (R-Atlanta).
Mullis has never been comfortable with criticism, which is a major weakness in politics. A politician who can’t roll with the punches tends to end up absorbing more punishment. The best politicians handle criticism with grace and firmness; lesser pols whine and pout.
During the last election, when Mullis’ only opposition was a couple of inexperienced, under funded Tea Party types, I was surprised at how sensitive he was when anyone dared to question his record. It was as if he expected no opposition, or opposition that made no case.
Mullis, who many believe plans to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in the near future, is particularly perturbed with the news media. He seems to swim in the school of thought that freedom of the press properly defined means he should be free from the press, unless the transaction comes in the form of a self-serving press release. The press is supposed to accept that handout and keep its nettlesome questions to itself.
But that’s not how a free press should work.
The nature of our political system demands public access to the people’s business and nobody yet has invented a better way to see that the public is informed.
Founding Father and former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, no slouch when it came to deep thinking, once wrote, “The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by a despotic government.”
Jefferson also made the clear link to the public good.
“Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”
State Sen. Mullis seems to disagree.
This fundamental difference in opinion couldn’t be more clearly illustrated than in Mullis’ recent touting of Senate Bill 159, as sorry a piece of legislation as your likely to see proposed in Atlanta.
Veiled as an economic development and jobs creation bill, SB 159 would allow private companies to negotiate and close deals with state and local governments that could include a wide range of tax benefits, infrastructural improvements and other goodies. The public would have no right to know what was going on until it was too late. Meetings, agreements and records would be kept “in the dark.”
Crucially, the definition of “economic development project” is so broadly defined; governments would be tempted to slap that secrecy-granting designation on many of their currently public dealings.
The legislation decimates the concept of the public’s “right to know.”
It’s strange that Mullis was chosen to be the front man for this proposal. As a taxpayer-paid economic developer with the Northwest Georgia Joint Development Authority, he can hardly be looked at as a disinterested party. Mullis stands to benefit personally in his career if SB 159 (or even a watered down version of it) becomes law.
The bill quickly came under fire. It’s weaknesses were obvious, yet Mullis wasted no time in blaming opposition on “the newspapers.” (Its responses like that which make me proud to be a newspaperman.)
But the firestorm of criticism seems to have had some effect. The word as of Wednesday was the senator was trying to work out a compromise with concerned Georgia newspaper publishers. Rumors that the bill was dead for this session were also floating. As of press time, we still don’t know.
Jeff Mullis would not be the first rural politician to fall in love with the Atlanta establishment and the trappings of power. And he would not be the first to make the assumption that his grip on a seat in the General Assembly was unshakeable.
Nor would he be the first to forget who put him in office and gave him access to the glitz and material benefits that can come to those in close proximity to the centers of political power.
In fact, history is littered with the wreckage of many such wasted careers.
Jimmy Espy is staff writer for The Summerville News.