Via Tim Bryant:

“Athens Area Habitat for Humanity director Spencer Frye says he'll have an announcement one way or the other within the next two weeks on whether he is a candidate for Mayor. Frye has been considering a campaign to replace a term-limited Athens Mayor Heidi Davison.”

All signs point to Frye running, but the wait continues. At this point, I'm halfway expecting Pozzo and Lucky to stop by.

In other news, potential Commission District 1 candidate Sara Bickerton said her campaign is not official yet, but she is seriously considering running. Beyond the Trestle has a brief interview with her, and look for more info here as soon as I get the final word that she’s in.

Spencer Frye is not running for mayor – yet. Sure, he attended a forum for mayoral candidates in July, and he raised more than $11,000 for his potential future campaign that he’s supposedly not running right now. Because he’s not an official candidate – yet.

Come to find out, Frye consigliere Bo Mabry started a Frye for Mayor Facebook page. With almost 800 members. On which his dad wrote, “This is really great. Being mayor is a really great thing. I believe you will do a fantastic job.”

Candidates lay groundwork before publicly announcing all the time, but enough is enough! Spencer, come out of the closet!

The latest rumor sweeping the city is that a Trader Joe’s grocery store is coming to Athens.

Apparently the lack of somewhat drinkable $3 wine in Athens has become a political issue, because mayoral candidate Brandon Shinholser is jumping on the bandwagon.

Shinholser released a letter today he says he sent to the president of Trader Joe’s. It reads, in part:

In recent months, there have been groups of individuals popping up all over Facebook. Some of those groups totaled as many as 1, 500 local members.

Local businesses, as well as individual patrons, are circulating petitions to show their support for making your company a part of our community. If there is any place that needs a Trader Joe's, any place that is ready for a Trader Joe's, any place that should have a Trader Joe's-it is Athens, Georgia.

Right now, states regulate the insurance industry, and every state has its own set of laws that dictate what types of policies insurance companies must offer consumers. Under Democrats’ plans for health care reform, the federal government would take over much of that regulatory burden.

Obviously, conservatives don’t want that. A centerpiece of Republicans’ alternatives is allowing insurance companies to sell plans across state lines. In Georgia, Senate Bill 309 would allow Georgians to purchase plans from out of state.

As Stephen Northington, a Republican candidate for state insurance commissioner, pointed out today, that’s a really bad idea.

The local nonprofit Common Ground is sponsoring the first forum of the election season for Athens-Clarke mayoral candidates.

Candidates Nancy Denson, Glenn Stegall, Brandon Shinholser and Charlie Maddox are confirmed, according to organizer Johanna Nicol.

The forum is at the downtown movie theatre Cine on Saturday and runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dondero’s Kitchen and 1000 Faces Coffee are providing refreshments.

Common Ground is asking attendees to donate a few dollars to cover costs, so as they say on Sundays, dig deep.

Facebook. Twitter. E-mail.

Long-shot candidate for Athens mayor Brandon Shinholser continued his barrage of attacks on Charlie Maddox today. Unlike the hands-off Maddox, Shinholser says he wants the elected mayor to be the boss, not the appointed manager.

In his platform, Charlie Maddox says that he “seeks to be the Mayor of Athens, not the manager,” and he goes on to say that “the administration of this City’s core activities cannot ebb and flow with the fad politics of the week.” We can all agree that elected officials need to set the policies, and then let the departments carry them out, but Charlie completely ignores a key part of governance. The city charter requires Athens-Clarke County to have a manager and lays out what the manager does, but charters can be changed and ours needs to be changed.

Charlie Maddox kicked off his 2010 campaign for mayor on Tuesday – odd, since he already kicked it off once back in April – and the new Charlie looks pretty much the same as the old one.

Maddox is clearly trying to build a broad-based coalition of people who feel neglected by the city government, including the black and Republican base he appealed to in 2006, but also seniors and young people. His new slogan has an Obama-esque ring to it: “Together we can. Together we will.”

The theme is unity, something sorely lacking during the divisive Heidi Davison era. “Everybody is important,” Maddox said during his stump speech. “Everybody deserves an opportunity. Everybody deserves good government, whether they’re for us or against us. We’ve got to come together.”

Clarke County Tax Commissioner Nancy Denson will run for mayor of Athens in 2010, she told the University of Georgia Young Democrats Wednesday night.

I wasn’t there, but Young Dems president Louis Elrod passed along word that Denson made the announcement. She’s been testing the waters for months now, so it’s no surprise.

I put in a call to Denson but haven’t heard back. I should have more information tomorrow.

Blake.aued@onlineathens.com