A look back at some of the inside moments in Georgia Politics being expanded upon for a book entitled, GEORGIA BEAT - The Book by Joe Sports

An Early Preview: My good friend, Charlie Graves, whose career is very similar to my own, knew I was thinking about writing a book about people I have known in Georgia politics, and he suggested that I should make sure it is published "posthumously." Before it is finally published in hardback book form, that might be the case. At least I am very much alive for now as I begin putting down some thoughts about some of the people/politics that I have observed during the past forty years.

Iris F. Blitch photo taken in 1969 (Joe Sports Photo)

The book, and many accompanying photographs, will be "published" first on our Georgia Beat website on the Internet. It will be presented a chapter at a time, starting with the early years as a reporter in my hometown of Douglas, GA. (Coffee County.) We'll move on to our three years on the staff of Congresswoman Iris F. Blitch, to our TV years at the station in Albany owned by James H. Gray, who gave me the job of executive director of the Democratic Party of Georgia when he was named chairman by Gov.-elect Lester Maddox. We may skip over elections lost and move to the best political jobs ever - being administrative assistant to U. S. Senator David Gambrell, who could have been better for Georgia on some issues than Sam Nunn, and press aide to Congressman Dawson Mathis, a good guy with great leadership skills who just ran statewide at the wrong time against the wrong person, Herman Talmadge.

By putting our recollections down first on the Internet, our "readers" will be able to help write the book by sending us questions about some of the people and events we mention. We'll answer these questions at the end of each chapter.

Check back at this location often and follow the progress of Georgia Beat - The Book. Send us your comments and your questions through the E-Mail portion of the newsletter, joesports@mindspring.com.

Here are some of the notes for items that will be expanded upon and unveiled her on the Internet and included in GEORGIA BEAT - The Book

* In the 50s, Joe was working at the newspaper when it's editor, Thomas Frier, wrote an editorial which criticized the new governor elect, Marvin Griffin for naming T.V. "Red" Williams of Douglas to be the State Revenue Commissioner. Some thugs came by the newspaper a couple of times wanting to beat up on editor Frier, so for about a year we had to make sure that no one went into Frier's office unless accompanied by another member of the newspaper staff. Before the Griffin term ended, Williams got into serious trouble with the law, and left the office of Revenue Commissioner.

* A favorable item in Joe's column, Street Beat, in the Douglas Enterprise in 1954

about Iris F. Blitch, who was then thinking about a race for congress against

incumbent congressman Don Wheeler, ultimately led to Joe's becoming a member

of the congresswoman's staff in 1959, after he served in the U. S. Army.

Although Mrs. Blitch was ill most of the time and made few public appearances, Joe often filled in for her which included the dedication of the EMC building in her hometown of Homerville. An attorney who was scheduled to introduce the featured speaker, had little notice of the substitution, and introduced the congressional aide as Mr. Joe SPOOTZ

* During the inaugural ceremony of John F. Kennedy, Joe had press and photographer credentials from The Albany Herald (where he had worked as a stringer) and was right in front of the platform when Kennedy made his great Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You speech. Sports also took some special pictures as he walked right beside the new President and First Lady from the Capitol to the White House.

* Accompanied Congresswoman Blitch to the White House for an award ceremony, and held a photo of Kennedy in hand as it was autographed by the president. It says "To Joe, Best Regards, John F. Kennedy." Joe also has a letter dated March 28, 1961 from then U. S. Senator Herman Talmadge who says, "as I told you at the luncheon last week, I will be glad to vouch for the authenticity of the autograph the President gave you."

* Joe was scheduled to fly to Atlanta to bring a check for Congresswoman Blitch's re-election in 1962, instead at the last minute she wrote out a statement saying she was going to retire. Joe worked in the campaign of State Senator Wallace Jernigan one of about six running for the seat. Russell Tuten, who had been mayor of Brunswick, ultimately won in a run-off with Country Johnston of Valdosta. Mrs. Blitch supported Country Johnston. Tuten lost to Bill Stuckey four years later. Sports managed the Stuckey campaign, Mrs. Blitch endorsed Stuckey too.

* When James H. Gray, owner of the TV station where Joe was working in 1966 was chosen as chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, he selected Joe Sports to be executive director.

Gray said he though Bo Callaway would be elected governor but that Sen. Talmadge had asked him to take the job as chairman to "keep the party" so he and others could remain Democrats.

* Initially Lester Maddox felt that Chairman Gray should have consulted him about who should be executive director and was not initially close to Joe. After a shaky first few weeks, Joe was accepted on the"team" and traveled the state in support of the Democratic nominees. He says that Gray's first appearance during the campaign was in Tifton to introduce the new nominee, Lester Maddox, who had been an earlier opponent in the primary, Gray made a great speech which turned out to be originally written a few years earlier to introduce Sen. Richard B. Russell.

* On his first day in Atlanta, there was turmoil at the party office because congressman Charlie Weltner had just announced he would quite the Congress rather than run on the same ticket with Lester Maddox. If Gray and Talmadge and Sports, and Sanders and other loyal democrats had chosen to do the same, there very likely would not be a single Democrat holding office in Georgia today.

* Joe was one of only a handful of political leaders and friends invited into the governor's office to witness a private swearing in of Lester Maddox as govenor after he was finally "elected" by the legislature.

* The Democratic Party was $280,000 in debt when Joe became executive director. At the end of the four years, the debt had been cleared and Joe turned over $40,000 to Jimmy Carter, the new nominee which was used for billboards about the state.

* As executive director, Joe worked closely with some of the national leaders. He became especially close to Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Joe and his wife, Dee, were asked to accompany VP Humphrey to Athens for a speech at the University of Georgia and it was Joe who filled Humphrey in on the popularity of football coach Vince Dooley. Humphrey called for Dooley to come to the stage and it was a great ovation for both.

* The Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968 provided a series of memorable moments. Joe was interview on national TV about the challenge to the official delegation.

In the confrontation that Dan Rather had with the security people at the convention, which resulted in Walter Cronkite saying, "Dan, it looks like there's a bunch of thugs down there."

Joe Sports was caught up in the audio cord between Rather and his cameraman, and can be heard saying, "Wait a Minute- Wait a Minute." Joe often shows this sequence during civic club appearances around Georgia.

* Because of a challenge that the Delegation had been "Hand picked" the credentials committee decided to give credentials to both the official Georgia Democratic Party delegation and the challengers led by Rep. Julian Bond. It was Joe Sports that Bond faced when he came down to the floor of the convention on Monday evening. It was a nationally viewed confrontation but Bond said he just came down to "find out why we had all the credentials and he was having to sit way up in the peanut gallery."

* Newsman Doug Kiker did a report on Huntley-Brinkley saying that Gov. Maddox had returned home from the convention and had "fired Joe Sports" because he did not withdraw the party staff and machinery from Chicago. Sports talked to Maddox by telephone and he explained that the buses and hotel rooms were all signed out by him and that a number of the governor's friends wanted to stay at the convention and he just couldn't walk away and leave them." Maddox agreed and Sports remained on the job, but made speeches called "The Battle of Chicago."

* In 1970, Joe Sports selected a Viet Nam hero to give the invocation at the Jefferson Jackson Day Dinner in Atlanta. That person was Max Cleland. Later Max called Joe and asked him to meet him for lunch. They made at the Playboy Club Restaurant, and Max asked for advice about politics, saying he was thinking about running for the State Senate in his home area of Lithonia.

Max ran and won, and later would become head of the VA in Washington, Georgia Secretary of State and now U. S. Senator.

* Joe played a very important role in the political career of Zell Miller. Joe had remained as executive director when Jimmy Carter became governor and David H. Gambrell became state chairman. When Joe was asked by Gambrell to go to Washington as his administrative assistant, Joe privately mentioned his decision to Zell Miller, then working upstairs at the Capitol as assistant to Lt. Gov. Lester Maddox. Zell left the office, walked downstairs and told Gov. Carter he would like to be executive director of the party. Gov. Carter said he was happy with Joe, but

Miller gave him the information that Joe was going to Washington with David.

* Charles Kirbo, close confident to Jimmy Carter had succeeded Gambrell as chairman of the Party. Kirbo called and told Joe to come over to his office in the Trust Co. building. There he introduced "Your successor." Zell Miller was sitting next to Kirbo, and Jody Powell, press secretary to Gov. Carter was dictating a news release about Zell's appointment. Zell said during an event at the Mansion that "If Joe hadn't given up the job, I may have still been upstairs working for the lieutenant governor."

* Joe Sports was asked to accompany David Gambrell to Washington when he was selected to be the U. S. Senator upon the death of Richard B. Russell. After a luncheon at the Capitol that was quickly arranged by Sen. And Mrs. Herman Talmadge, Gambrell was briefed by the secretary of the Senate about how to get on the payroll, how much he had to pay a staff, etc. Accompanying him to his new office, which already had a sign on the door, "Mr. Gambrell of Georgia." Joe said the new senator's first major decision came when he had to decide which side of the antique desk in the room would be the side he sat behind. It was identical on both sides.

* On Joe's first day as Administrative Assistant, which came about 4 months after Gambrell became Senator, Joe was called upon to greet a legislator from Georgia -- Julian Bond.

* Joe says that David Gambrell made a fine U. S. Senator during his one and a half years in office, but he was just not a politician. One political mistake made by Gambrell, he agreed to serve on the Speaker's Bureau for George Wallace after Wallace was shot. However, he said he had only agreed to be on the list and did not really agree with the Wallace platform. Liberals got made that Gambrell had agreed to serve as a Wallace surrogate speaker, and the conservative were made that he didn't announce his support for the Wallace platform.

* Joe points out that the first "negative TV Ads" that he noticed were placed on the air by a Gambrell opponent when he said election to the office. Sam Nunn of Perry, a state representative who enter the race for U. S. Senate only after he was unable to carve out a House district to run in from his home area of Perry. Nunn's TV ads suggested that Gambrell's appointment by Carter was a payoff for contributions made to the Carter campaign for governor -- that Gambrell had "bought" the seat. Actually Gambrell had contributed only $5000 to the Carter campaign. The negative ads drew enough attention that Nunn was able to move ahead of former Gov. Ernie Vandiver in the race who previously had been considered as the one that Gambrell would have to beat. Nunn made a run-off and defeated Gambrell.

* Joe Sports took Senator-elect Sam Nunn to lunch in the private Senate Dining room on the day he came to Washington after winning the election and beginning his duties as a U. S. Senator. Sports was asked to stay on the staff and he did so until the end of the year. One Sen. Nunn's first official day, he asked Joe Sports to write special thank you letters to some of the people who had given special help to him in the campaign. These included Former Gov. Marvin Griffin, Former Gov. Carl Sanders and Congressman Carl Vinson.

* Jim Gray offered Joe a job back at the TV station in Albany, but he decided to remain in Atlanta.. He worked for a while as press assistant to U. S. Congressman Dawson Mathis, who had actually once worked for him as a TV newsman. Joe and Dawson remain close friends and even share a client, The University of Phoenix.

* Joe Sports owns his own governmental consulting and has a large number of national clients.

* He serves as vice chairman of the Friends of Max Cleland for U. S. Senate, Inc.and communications director, helping Cleland publish a FRIENDS newsletter and other projects helpful with the "message" of the U. S. Senator.

* Georgia Beat, a political newsletter, published twice monthly by Joe Sports, strives to be an accurate political record of the political scene.

A REAL POLITICAL INSIDER

Joe Sports -- currently publisher of Georgia Beat, the state's oldest political newsletter.

Also a legislative consultant, owner of Joe Sports & Associates, Inc.

He was a newspaper reporter for five years and a TV newsman for three.

Political positions held during past 40 years.

Special Assistant to U. S. Congresswoman Iris F. Blitch of Georgia.

During three of the eight years she served in Washington.

Managed campaign of Bill Stuckey's successful race for Congress

Executive Director, Democratic Party of Georgia for five years during

administrations of Lester Maddox and Jimmy Carter

Administrative Assistant to U. S. Senator David Gambrell and then remained

For a brief time on the staff of Senator Sam Nunn.

Press Assistant to Congressman Dawson Mathis of Albany.

Currently serves as vice chairman of the Friends of Max Cleland for U. S. Senate, Inc.