Earlier this month Georgia Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson was in Cartersville to speak to a breakfast gathering at the local chamber of Commerce... and introducing Speaker Richardson to the crowd was none other than freshman State Representative Paul Battles.

Now why is this a big deal? Well let's go back a few months to the summer of 2008 during a debate held here on NewsTalk AM 1270... At that time Paul was running against former State Representative Jeff Lewis and had this to say when asked if he would vote to reelect Richardson as Speaker: (audio inserted here - use player above to listen)

What a difference a year makes. Of course this should really come as no surprise... I mean how many times have we all seen candidates do a 180 on an issue once they're elected?

Paul made a lot of promises during that campaign and he also hammered away at then sitting State Rep. Jeff Lewis... claiming that Jeff wasn't bringing home enough bacon. Paul is now finding out how difficult it is to grab some state dollars for your home turf... especially when you've attacked the very leadership that controls the purse strings.

Richardson was very up front with those gathered at the chamber concerning the dire shape of the state budget. He said that if current economic trends continue, the annual state budget would drop to $15 billion... way down from 2008's $19.1 billion budget. And he added that 2010, and 2011 could be even worse.

I've watched Glenn Richardson in action for a long time and something tells me he kind of thought it was appropriate to have Paul Battles present when he delivered the bad budgetary news to Bartow County leaders... almost as if to imply that, "things are bad for all areas of Georgia, but they're even worse for Cartersville because you elected someone who ran on a platform of opposing me."

So now Battles has to spend enormous amounts of time and energy trying to build a relationship with those he offended during his campaign... and that's less time he has to work for the citizens of Cartersville and Bartow County.

That's my opinion, we welcome yours. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next Monday. For a complete transcript of this morning's comments or to replay the audio, go to NewsTalk1270.com (End of complete transcript of commentary that aired on NewsTalk AM 1270 - WYXC at 7:35 AM Monday, October 26, 2009)