Ken Steele, GMA President

 

The restoration of a strong and trusting state-local partnership is an underlying theme for city officials interested in the outcome of the 2010 gubernatorial election. To get this message across, GMA has embarked on an aggressive and ambitious effort to connect with all candidates so that issues important to cities are not lost in the noise of the campaign rhetoric.

GMA’s leadership has already met with eight of the candidates and has sent a 10-question survey to all of the candidates asking them to respond in writing. Their responses will be posted here on our Georgia Cities - 2010 Connection web site. This site will also include news articles about the candidates, candidate postings relating to the issues important to cities and, beginning in January 2010, commentary from outside experts on three major areas of interest to city officials:

During Mayors’ Day in January, 2010, five of the Democratic candidates and six of the Republican candidates participated in two separate debates to be moderated by Matt Towery of Insider Advantage. As we approach the primaries in July, GMA will also feature a “political insiders” roundtable discussion at the GMA Annual Convention in Savannah in June.

In the meantime, we encourage city officials and visitors to the GMA web site to visit the Georgia Cities - 2010 Connection link daily to see what the candidates are saying about city issues. We believe that strong cities mean a healthy and prosperous Georgia. We need a Governor that places value in cities and a strong and sustainable state-local partnership.

I encourage you to get involved!