Blog Stories Of 2009: #9 - Senate Bill 31

It is as insider baseball as it gets, but any bill which unites the Republicans of Peach Pundit, the libertarians of Jason Pye and SWGApolitics, the Democrats of Left On Lanier and Blog For Democracy and Clark Howard is worth noting.

The notorious bill allowed Georgia Power to bill current customers for the construction of future power plants.

SB31 was complex but the breakdown of hate was pretty simple: Republicans didn't like it because the math didn't add up, Libertarians hated it because it re-enforced a government sponsored monopoly, Democrats hated it because it exempted big business and Clark hated it because it screwed the consumer. This type of convergence is rarer than a blue moon in February.

And normally it would have sailed through committee and floor votes with little noise or commotion. This is just the way of complex bills supported by armies of lobbyist and the largest utility in the state work.

But not this time. Although ultimately SB 31 passed, the furor brought by the top blogs in the state generated a fierce public debate and ultimately forced the suits under the gold dome to answer some very difficult questions.

In previous years, a SB31 would have never made it off page 5 of the local section. Due to the diligence and passion of the Georgia blogs, it rightly emerged as a front page story.