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I MET State Sen. Jeff Mullis several years ago when he briefly represented part of Whitfield County where I was editor of the local daily newspaper.
I liked him. He was down-to-earth and very much willing to talk about local issues. We bumped into each other some time later at a downtown festival in Ringgold and sat for awhile under a shade tree talking politics, parades and the price of scuppernongs or some such.
Now, just a few years later, he won’t even return my phone calls. I should be insulted, but have found comfort in the fact that apparently I’m on an ever-expanding list of people in the 706 area code who can’t get the senator on the phone for even a few minutes.
Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) seems to have morphed into Jeff Mullis (R-Atlanta).
Mullis has never been comfortable with criticism, which is a major weakness in politics. A politician who can’t roll with the punches tends to end up absorbing more punishment. The best politicians handle criticism with grace and firmness; lesser pols whine and pout.
During the last election, when Mullis’ only opposition was a couple of inexperienced, under funded Tea Party types, I was surprised at how sensitive he was when anyone dared to question his record. It was as if he expected no opposition, or opposition that made no case.
Mullis, who many believe plans to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in the near future, is particularly perturbed with the news media. He seems to swim in the school of thought that freedom of the press properly defined means he should be free from the press, unless the transaction comes in the form of a self-serving press release. The press is supposed to accept that handout and keep its nettlesome questions to itself.
But that’s not how a free press should work.
The nature of our political system demands public access to the people’s business and nobody yet has invented a better way to see that the public is informed.
Founding Father and former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, no slouch when it came to deep thinking, once wrote, “The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by a despotic government.”
Jefferson also made the clear link to the public good.
“Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”
State Sen. Mullis seems to disagree.
This fundamental difference in opinion couldn’t be more clearly illustrated than in Mullis’ recent touting of Senate Bill 159, as sorry a piece of legislation as your likely to see proposed in Atlanta.
Veiled as an economic development and jobs creation bill, SB 159 would allow private companies to negotiate and close deals with state and local governments that could include a wide range of tax benefits, infrastructural improvements and other goodies. The public would have no right to know what was going on until it was too late. Meetings, agreements and records would be kept “in the dark.”
Crucially, the definition of “economic development project” is so broadly defined; governments would be tempted to slap that secrecy-granting designation on many of their currently public dealings.
The legislation decimates the concept of the public’s “right to know.”
It’s strange that Mullis was chosen to be the front man for this proposal. As a taxpayer-paid economic developer with the Northwest Georgia Joint Development Authority, he can hardly be looked at as a disinterested party. Mullis stands to benefit personally in his career if SB 159 (or even a watered down version of it) becomes law.
The bill quickly came under fire. It’s weaknesses were obvious, yet Mullis wasted no time in blaming opposition on “the newspapers.” (Its responses like that which make me proud to be a newspaperman.)
But the firestorm of criticism seems to have had some effect. The word as of Wednesday was the senator was trying to work out a compromise with concerned Georgia newspaper publishers. Rumors that the bill was dead for this session were also floating. As of press time, we still don’t know.
Jeff Mullis would not be the first rural politician to fall in love with the Atlanta establishment and the trappings of power. And he would not be the first to make the assumption that his grip on a seat in the General Assembly was unshakeable.
Nor would he be the first to forget who put him in office and gave him access to the glitz and material benefits that can come to those in close proximity to the centers of political power.
In fact, history is littered with the wreckage of many such wasted careers.

Jimmy Espy is staff writer for The Summerville News.