Looks like Carol Porter is Hillary Clinton on steroids.

Porter has scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. Thursday at the state capitol. Matt Caseman, the spokesman for her husband, gubernatorial candidate and House Minority Leader DuBose Porter, sent out the announcement.

Caseman hasn’t returned a call asking what this is all about, but the only possible reason I can think of is that Carol Porter will say she’s running for lieutenant governor.

Some candidates – Bill Clinton and Sarah Palin, for example – rely heavily on their spouses for both political and policy advice. Never, though, have I heard of a husband and wife running together on a ticket.

An Insider Advantage poll released today (subscription only) shows that almost half of Republican voters haven’t decided who they’ll vote for for governor.

The poll shows Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine in the lead at 25 percent, followed by a statistical three-way tie between former Secretary of State Karen Handel (10 percent), U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal (9 percent) and former state Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (7 percent). State Rep. Austin Scott and states’ rights activist Ray McBerry are spinning their wheels at 3 and 1 percent, respectively. State Sen. Jeff Chapman, R-Brunswick, was not included. Forty-five percent are undecided.

Oh, election-year politics under the Gold Dome.

State Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, has scheduled a press conference for 1:30 p.m. tomorrow to announce proposed changes to campaign finance law aimed at the office of insurance commissioner.

Scott, as it happens, is running for governor as a reform candidate. The current insurance commissioner, coincidentally, is John Oxendine, the Republican frontrunner in the governor’s race. Oxendine, wouldn’t you know, is accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions from an insurance company executive who’s also his hunting buddy.

Georgia’s 100,000 teachers are a powerful block of voters who care deeply about education funding and policy, vote in droves and are never afraid to complain when they feel unappreciated or under attack.

Former Gov. Roy Barnes learned that lesson the hard way in 2002. Now, he’s launched a Web site aimed directly at teachers.

Retired teacher Vickie Carson of Atlanta says in a fundraising e-mail sent out today:

Attorney General Thurbert Baker didn’t get much ink in my story about the Democratic gubernatorial debate Tuesday. Roy Barnes and DuBose Porter had most of the best lines of the night. But Baker did give a good answer to a question about health care reform that didn’t fit in the article.

I finally figured out what Twitter is good for: Intelligent discourse among civil and serious people.

Wait, no. It’s good for jabbing political opponents in 140 characters or less.

Former Secretary of State and current Republican candidate for governor Karen Handel tweeted today, “It’s entertaining to hear candidates who think if they say the word ‘jobs’ enough, people will believe they know how to create them.”

Oh, snap! She’s cracking on former Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson for claiming to be the jobs governor!

Johnson replied, “Apparently some in this race think I’m talking about jobs too much. Bring it on.”

Don’t call it a comeback! See how he took Handel’s Bushesque campaign slogan and turned it right back around on her?

The Republican gubernatorial debate Tuesday night was sort of like a Little League T-ball game. It doesn’t matter what the score was. Everybody wins!

At least four of the six participating candidates – Eric Johnson, Nathan Deal, Austin Scott and Ray McBerry – all declared victory. Johnson didn’t even wait for the debate to end to print up his press releases.

Six Republican candidates for governor will be debating at 7 p.m. today at the University of Georgia.

The debate isn’t open to the public, but it will be broadcast on WNEG (channel 6 for Charter customers). No liveblog, since television makes them sort of redundant, but I’ll post here if there are any fireworks, so check back.

Confirmed candidates include state Sen. Jeff Chapman, R-Brunswick, U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Gainesville, former Secretary of State Karen Handel, former state Sen. Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, Cumming businessman Ray McBerry and state Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton. Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine says he has a scheduling conflict.

WNEG anchor Ray Metoyer will moderate, and panelists will include WALB anchor Dawn Hobby, WGCL anchor Stephanie Fisher and WGAU 1340 AM news director Tim Bryant.

For real, Deal.

The congressman from Gainesville just announced that “(t)he campaign has generated $1.8 million in the seven months since Nathan announced his bid to become the 82nd governor of Georgia.”

Nice try. What the press release neglected to mention is that only $600,000 of that $1.8 million came in the past six months. So, he raised $1.2 million his first month, then averaged $100,000 a month.

By comparison, fellow Republican John Oxendine raised $1.5 million in the second half of 2009 and $3 million total.

Team Deal went on to say that, “I'm ready for the primary campaign and after that, we will turn our sights on Mr. Barnes, or anyone else President Obama and the Democrat party should nominate."

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Barack Obama is not a resident of the great state of Georgia, and therefore he is ineligible to vote in our Democrat(ic) primary.

Roy Barnes who shattered records by spending $20 million on his failed re-election bid in 2002, reported raising $2.7 million in the second half of 2009 to fund his bid to take back the governor’s office.

Campaign finance disclosures are due by the end of Friday. The only other gubernatorial candidate to report so far was Republican state Rep. Austin Scott, who said he raised $375,000.

In other governor’s race- and money-related news, Democratic Party of Georgia Chairwoman Jane Kidd is questioning Karen Handel’s newfound commitment to ethics.