We complete another State Convention for Georgia Republicans last weekend. As a newly “out of the closet” Republican since my run for Congress, I decided to jump in with both feet. I covered the convention for www.ZPolitics.com and had a team of 6 interns walking the halls signing folks up for the site. That was my business hat for the convention.

I was a delegate for Hall County and the 9th District. There was a glitch with the list that was sent out and my email and phone number weren’t sent out with the list of other delegates. That saved some of the calls you get when you are a delegate, which is a good thing. I served on the Resolutions Committee as the representative from the 9th District and I helped to nominate John Padgett for State Chair. I was busy.

The best part of the convention was being in Athens. I like to say you get younger and better looking the closer you get to Athens. So from that standpoint it was a great weekend. I’m on the “Bring the GAGOP State Convention to Jekyll Island Committee” for 2015. I’m a committee of “1” right now, but I think we can make this movement grow.

Here are the 5 things I learned in this Convention:

Editor's Note: This first appeared on my own website, GaPundit.com as a two-part series. Allen West had enough to say about politics that I think it's worth sharing with InsiderAdvantage subscribers as well.

Todd Rehm: “You're not coming here to announce that you're running for the U.S. Senate from Georgia, are you?”

Allen West: “No, I think if I were to do that, I'd have everyone from Paul Broun to Phil Gingrey to Jack Kingston, and who's this other...Karen Handel.... I don't know if I could fight my way out of that. I mean it's bad enough that I'm in Athens, Georgia, and I'm a University of Tennessee graduate, from Georgia, so it is tough being here, but that's okay.”

Todd Rehm: “One of the big issues that we're beginning to struggle with as a party is outreach to African-Americans....”

Allen West: “First of all, I would rather you say Black American, because when people say ‘African-American,’ that is a collectivizing term. I have friends in South Florida who are Caucasian and they're from the former Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, they're from South Africa, and now they're American citizens, and they consider themselves what? I think that we have to be careful about that because the other side does a good job of balkanizing us and so I don't like to hyphenate. I'm an American Black. That's how I like to be referred to.”

Todd Rehm: “One of the problems that we as white Americans have is we're afraid to say ‘Black,’ we're afraid we're going to offend somebody.”

Allen West: “You're terrified. But you see, Todd, that's the exact thing we need to look at and talk about. The other side has been so successful at managing lexicon and the language that they have white Americans afraid. Afraid to say anything.”

Collins, son of ex-Rep. Mac Collins, R-Jackson, made the announcement at the trucking company in Jackson where he had already followed his dad into the business world. And like his father, he stressed that his business background would be useful in Washington fighting government waste and regulation.

"I'll put my twenty years of business and managerial experience to work for the people of central Georgia," said Collins.

The younger Collins is a graduate of Georgia State University and is involved in industry and civic organizations, but he says he learned his main lessons at home.

"My father taught me about public service, but more importantly he taught me the values of hard work and getting the job done," the candidate said. "My first job was sweeping the floors in the truck garage for a dollar an hour. Now, we ship millions of metric tons throughout the U.S. each year."

In a story from yesterday's InsiderAdvantage, Walter Jones wrote that affordable energy makes American manufacturing competitive against the rest of the world, according to a Federal Reserve Bank economist.

In Georgia, our affordable, reliable, and innovative energy markets help us be competitive for manufacturing jobs against other states, and demands for energy have even sparked some jobs of their own.

In 2012, Governor Nathan Deal, the five Republicans on the Georgia Public Service Commission, and the legislature prioritized energy competitiveness by removing the state sales tax on energy used in manufacturing.

And the dividend has been new high-paying jobs across Georgia.

Governor Deal has publicly credited the removal of the sales tax on energy used in manufacturing as part of the impetus for many of the new jobs he has announced.

"When those liberals start mixing into policy, it's murder."

That quote came from none other than John F. Kennedy in 1962, taken from a source in a Newsweek article, and later discussed with his friend Ben Bradlee, then of Newsweek and later the head of The Washington Post during the Watergate years. It seems, looking back at Watergate and observing the events unfolding at lightning speed in Washington, that Kennedy was correct — not only about pointy-headed liberals, but about any political crowd that becomes either so dogmatic or so comfortable with power that they begin to feel "too cool for school."

As usual, some reader will disclaim JFK's dislike for liberals during much of his term. But it is a fact, and friends such as Bradlee — who certainly morphed toward the liberal side of things in his later years — chronicled the struggle in his diary of conversations with JFK.

Of course, a liberal in 1962 and one today are likely two different animals. But the concept of those who feel their own sense of "manifest destiny" to be that of imposing their better judgment on everyone else remains a problem in 2013.

That brings us to the topic of likely every column to be written in the next few days, the "trifecta" of edited Benghazi talking points, IRS targeting of conservatives and the DOJ's decision to seek the opportunity to have a look at phone calls made to and by Associated Press reporters. Of course, we all know in the world of the media establishment which of these sins is the biggest — that of snooping on The Associated Press.

But regardless, all three issues highlight the same general problems. As Kennedy noted (he did want to tell one of his liberal White House scholars that the quote had come from his close aide Kenny O'Donnell, but he never denied saying it), those who operate from a left-of-center philosophy generally see the world as one in which the unwashed, uneducated masses must be led toward enlightened policy.

William Strauss, senior economist at economic advisor at the Fed's Chicago branch, told members of the Georgia Automobile Manufacturers Association that while factory hiring has indeed been declining for 60 years, output and profits are growing faster than the overall economy.

"Really, what it comes down to -- how well manufacturing is doing -- depends on the metric you use," he said.

Output has consistently grown an average of 3 percent annually for the last 60 years. At the same time productivity has soared where 167 workers today can produce as much as 1,000 people at the end of World War II.

There is currently a movement to at least hold open discussions about moving the Georgia Republican Party to nominate candidates by caucus instead of primary elections.

Dale Jackson, recently-elected Chairman of the Third District Georgia Republican Party, penned an editorial advocating such a move, and it is rumored that a resolution on the issue may be dropped in the hopper for possible consideration by this weekend's Georgia Republican Party State Convention. All of the candidates for state GOP Chair have spoken in favor of at least studying the idea.

I suspect it's doomed to fail. But it may widen the breach between some in the grassroots of the party and Republican legislators.

One theme that has emerged from the debates for GOP Chairman is that many believe the party should have some way of holding legislators accountable for adherence to conservative principles. But if that means office holders should be accountable to anyone other than their constituents, it runs into the principles of representative government.

When Republican gather at their statewide convention in Athens this weekend, one thing is for sure—no one will enter Saturday’s open race for Chair of the state GOP as a clear frontrunner.

Here is the rundown on the candidates and where they are as of this week.

InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery, a past GOP statewide convention chairman observes “I think it most likely that Van Gundy and Padgett emerge in the final round but Johnson may have a surprisingly strong early showing."

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Three women appear on the move on the political front.

The pace of announcements for Congress and United States Senate hasn't slackened, and a flurry of announcements for the Gold Dome seats being vacated in favor of Washington, DC's bigger dome is sure to follow.

To no one's surprise, Tricia Pridemore announced last night that she's running for Congress in the Eleventh District, where Congressman Phil Gingrey is leaving to run for the Senate. Pridemore was the candidate for Georgia Republican Party Chair supported by Governor Deal in 2011, and has also worked in the Deal administration as Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development.

In Savannah, David Schwarz joined the race to replace his former boss, Jack Kingston.

This morning, David Perdue announced his exporatory effort for the US Senate via twitter and his website came up as well. So far, Perdue, cousin to former Governor Sonny, is the most intriguiing outsider candidate. A former Fortune 500 CEO, he presumably brings both personal money and a valuable rolodex to the primary.

Since President Barack Obama's November re-election, party operatives have talked about how demographics changes are challenging the Republican Party, nationally and in Georgia. The voters in the Democrats' corner, such as blacks and other ethnic minorities, are growing faster than the whites the GOP relies on.

Higher birth rates and in-migration rates tell the story.

Now comes a report from the U.S. Census Bureau that compounds that by revealing the turnout rate of racial and ethnic groups in presidential elections. Nationally, blacks have been voting at an increasing rate while the turnout rate among whites has been declining.

That pattern is the same in the Southeast, including Georgia.

The difference sounds small; 66.2 percent of eligible blacks voted compared to 64.1 percent of whites in the 2012 election. But the trend is what's interesting.

In presidential elections since 1996, black voter turnout has steadily risen from 53.0 percent. At the same time, white turnout started higher than blacks at 60.7 percent in '96, then peaked at 67.2 percent in 2004 before dropping the next two elections.

In just over a week’s time, the federal government will once again reach its statutory debt limit. This will trigger what the Treasury Department terms as “extraordinary measures” to continue operating.

If past is precedent, the coming days will feature campaign-style speeches from President Obama saying that congressional Republicans are threatening default and economic calamity by refusing to give him a blank check.

There is something on which we can all agree: defaulting on the national debt would wreak havoc on our economy and have a lasting, negative impact on the future of this country.

It would almost certainly send us back into the throes of a recession and would send interest rates skyrocketing. As a result, the cost of servicing our national debt would begin to crowd out every other program.

The President’s threats, however, ignore the fact that only one person could decide to force America into default. That would be the President himself.

Deal signs ethics legislation, credits media

Gov. Nathan Deal credited the news media with ethics legislation as he signed it into law Monday.

"The issue of ethics is something that you in the media led the charge on," he told reporters gathered in the Capitol for the brief ceremony.

Home Brew Legislation — Home brewers can legally make more, transport

Amateur brew masters no longer have to break the law to compete with the signing Monday of legislation that doubles their limit and allows them to transport their beer for the first time.

New law limits red drum to recreational fishing 

Fans of blackened redfish or fresh red drum will either have to catch it themselves or buy it from someone out of state now that Georgia has a new law prohibiting its commercial harvest.

New law eases sheriff-candidate requirements 

Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law House Bill 139 Monday that will allow candidates for sheriff to submit transcripts in place of a diploma to prove high school graduation.

Most Americans are familiar with the Rorschach test, in which a subject's interpretation of the pattern in an inkblot is said to reveal their mind's inner workings. For many politicos of both parties, Democratic Congressman John Barrow and his Twelfth Congressional District in Georgia have become sort of a Rorschach test, revealing their assumptions and aspirations.

The last white Democratic Congressman in the Deep South, Barrow has frustrated Republicans at both the national and state levels for years, beating a parade of GOP nominees.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has a new program aimed at ousting Barrow and several other Democrats thought to be vulnerable, while some in the Democratic Party hoped Barrow might run for the United State Senate and help put another seat in the senior chamber into Democratic hands.

Liberal columnist Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that Barrow's ability to cobble together enough Democrats with a smattering of moderate and Republican white voters does not represent the future of the party, which in his mind is considerably to the left of Barrow.

But after his reelection in 2012, Barrow heralded his victory as a step toward bringing the middle back to the Democratic Party or the party back to the middle-of-the-road.

The Republican National Committee recently released its “Growth and Opportunity Project Report,” a much-touted post-mortem of the 2012 Presidential election. But I don't think they expected, or even understand, the level of pushback they're getting from Georgia. And there's a reason for that.

I've been in Washington for three days, and yesterday the group I'm traveling with met with two political officials from a major party organization and a private political pollster. Both treated the Report as though it contained the keys to the salvation of both the Republican Party and our Republic.

Now granted, the meetings were both billed as opportunities for us to hear from DC experts, but I'm struck by the fact that neither the GOP officials nor the pollster had much interest in what actual voters, here described as Republican leaders from Georgia, had to say about their plans.

During the meeting with the party representatives, I brought up the fact that as our state prepares to elect a new Republican Party Chairman, who will have a seat on the Republican National Committee, I have yet to hear any of the candidates or any activists say anything positive about the report, although the criticism is vociferous and public. They seemed both shocked and dismissive, although it sounded like a majority of my fellow Georgians were at least in agreement that none of the candidates like the Report, if not necessarily unanimous in their rejection of its top-down approach.

"We believe this is a budget that will maintain the fiscal conservatism of the other budgets I have signed," said the governor, who is in the third year of his term.

Deal waited until the last day before the measure would have become law without his signature. Most governors postpone signing the budget because it delays announcement of line-item vetoes that might anger legislators or special-interest groups, but Deal didn't exercise his veto power. It's the first budget in recent memory that allowed all legislative spending proposals to remain.

He did offer a cautionary note for next year in light of rising tax collections due to economic improvement.

"In the hard times, restrain is a matter of necessity. In the good times, it is a matter of discipline," Deal said, adding that he'll ensure legislators don't go overboard with new spending in the future.

He didn't keep the cap on his veto pen completely. He canceled five separate bills to prevent them from becoming law.

When Mark Sanford was reportedly caught at his ex-wife's house in violation of their divorce agreement, national Republican Party officials left him for dead, but conservative organizations poured money into the race, and last night Sanford won with 54% of the vote in what is normally an overwhelmingly red district that borders Georgia.

After Missouri's GOP Primary nominated Todd Akin, whose rape comments made him toxic to Independent women, it's not surprising that Washington Republicans are gun-shy and concerned about sending a message that resonates against the party's nominees and has the potential to turn off a generation of female voters.

Unfettered by such concerns and cut free by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, SuperPACs now have both the freedom to back favored candidates without fear of national repercussions, and the money to do it.

With an active 2014 Senate campaign in which two incumbent Members of Congress have already raised in the neighborhood of $2 million each and a popular Governor Nathan Deal seeking reelection, not to mention at least three open Republican Congressional seats, the Georgia GOP is likely to fave fundraising challenges.

Perhaps never before in American history has K-12 education experienced such a huge shift from local to federal educational control with less involvement of elected legislators. The Race to the Top (RTTT) grant process bypassed a fundamental principle of constitutional government, "the consent of the governed." 

This grant was developed entirely within the federal executive branch, without federal or state legislative review. Executive branch state officials unilaterally committed their states to implement the mandates of the RTTT grant, including the adoption of the Common Core standards, even though the standards were not yet written, the tests undeveloped, and the costs unknown.

In a nation of supposedly self-governing people, bypassing the legislative body violates the very foundation of this constitutional Republic. The legislative branch is the branch of government that reflects the will of the people. The consent of the governed is non-negotiable in a nation of free people.

Across the nation, people are realizing that they have been excluded from exercising one of their most treasured rights: the right to control the education of their children. Their voices, as well as those of local educators and school boards, have been muted by federal strings attached to grants for too long. However, this latest grant has taken the situation to a new level.

2013 is clearly the year of the “quiet leaders.” Both Co-Georgian of the Year, Sen. David Shafer, and our James’ corecipient, Attorney General Sam Olens are both known for their quiet and deliberate approach to their public and political lives. But their paths to power and influence vary greatly.

Olens was born in Florida, grew up the northeast, moved slowly southward, earning his his undergraduate degree at American University in D.C., and settled in Georgia as a student at Emory University’s highly ranked law school.

Olens became a Cobb County Commissioner in 1998 ushering in what many in Cobb believed was the start of a sweep towards a less volatile and more businesslike commission. In 2002 he was elected County Commission Chairman, a post which he held until 2010, when he was elected Attorney General of the State of Georgia.

The position of Attorney General usually does not merit a position as one of James’ “Georgians of the Year.” While the job is important, others are significant as well. But Olens is not your typical AG. Having chaired the Atlanta Regional Commission, Olens brought a unique business and civic background to a position that often comes more from the legislative or government legal community. Olens has never served a day in the state legislature and maintained a private legal practice for many years.

“Sam is extremely cool under pressure” says James publisher and InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery. “Cobb was a hotbed and breeding ground for controversial actions at the county level during the 1990s and when Sam was elected, everyone began to breathe a sigh of relief.”

The Savannah congressman announced last week that he's running for the Senate. He hopes to take the seat of fellow Republican Saxby Chambliss who signaled his retirement three months ago and set off a mad scramble in both parties.

Of the three announced candidates, Kingston is both the youngest at 58 and the one with the most congressional seniority, having served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1992. Phil Gingrey, a 70-year-old Augusta native, has represented Marietta in the House since 2002 and is older than the retiring Chambliss. Paul Broun, a 61-year-old Athens native who represents his hometown, has only been in the House since 2007.

Kingston was born in Bryan, Texas, but grew up in Athens where he went to high school with a likely candidate for the Democratic Senate nominee, Rep. John Barrow. At least Barrow began his law career in Athens where his father was a judge, and he was elected to the Athens-Clarke Commission before congressional redistricting prompted him to move his home to Savannah and then Augusta.

Kingston says he's confident of his ties to voter-rich North Georgia.

"I'm an Athens boy," he said in an interview with Morris News, adding that he had insurance clients in Atlanta two decades ago.

Chambliss won his Senate seat as a congressman from Moultrie in 2002 when he and gubernatorial hopeful Sonny Perdue of Bonaire focused their campaigns on South Georgia. Atlanta-based political observers were caught off guard by their success.