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.

Local political observers like blogger Hillary Brown want to know more about Tuesday night’s vote to delay a $2.7 million renovation of the old Athens First building next to City Hall for a Public Utilities Department customer service center.

I will try to oblige.

There are some underground politics going on here that briefly emerged during an exchange between commissioners David Lynn and Andy Herod.

Lynn had made a motion to approve the renovations minus a drive-through window. Commissioner Kelly Girtz made a motion to hold off, seconded by Herod, arguing that they could make better use of the space if another department occupied the building along with PUD.

Contrary to what I reported last week – it was accurate at the time – the Democrats did not put up Minority Leader DuBose Porter for speaker today, the first day of the year’s legislative session.

"This year, Democrats in the House are going to break with traditional legislative procedure by not nominating a candidate for Speaker of the House,” Porter said in a news release just before the House voted Glenn Richardson a third term by acclamation. “The Republican leadership has chosen who they feel best represents their views and their values by placing Glenn Richardson's name in nomination.

Last week, a judge threw out Gwinnett County’s plan to consolidate private garbage haulers and force customers to recycle.

A similar proposal for exclusive franchising is in the hopper in Athens-Clarke County. Dividing the county into zones and picking one hauler for each zone would allow county officials to more easily mandate how much trash Athens residents recycle.

The Athens-Clarke Commission had its monthly work session tonight, and Mayor Heidi Davison and commissioners let newbies Ed Robinson and Mike Hamby sit at the adults’ table.

Commissioners Carl Jordan and Elton Dodson are now officially out; the work session was the last scheduled commission meeting of the year. Their replacements, Robinson and Hamby, won’t be officially in until Jan. 6, but they got their first taste of the action.

The agenda was light – an update on SPLOST projects and an overview of a future Pulaski Creek greenway – and neither newbie had much to say.

Jordan showed up with potato salad, but for once in his life stayed quiet. Dodson, as has been his wont of late, stayed away.

A blogger at Tondee’s Tavern suggested Saturday that state Rep. Alan Powell, D-Hartwell, ought to run against U.S. Rep. Paul Broun in 2010.

That would be a great race, but it’s not gonna happen.

Democrats have been recruiting Powell, one the last old-school rural Democrats left, to seek higher office for years. He’s never shown any interest and I doubt he ever will.

Powell’s name came up in 2004, 2006 and again in 2007. He may be the one guy who could beat Broun.

He said as recently as a couple of months back, though, that he’s not interested in leaving the state House. He’s the one guy in a GOP district Republicans will never be able to dislodge, and you know that gets in their craw. Powell would rather throw spitballs from the back of the class in Atlanta and sow dissent there than move up.

Elton Dodson almost won re-election, and he didn't even try.

Dodson, who dropped out of the race in September, probably got more votes than his would-be opponent, Mike Hamby.

Breaking down precinct-by-precinct election results last week, I noticed that Hamby, the lone District 10 commission candidate, received just 10,730 votes. Other unopposed candidates received around 35,000 votes, so Hamby should have received about 19,000 or 20,000 votes (turnout was slightly higher in District 10 than other parts of the county).

In the District 6 Athens-Clarke Commission race, Ed Robinson got the nod today from the Athens Grow Green Coalition, a local environmental group.

“Ed has been involved in local environmental protection efforts for many years, serving on the Community Tree Council and promoting the protection of the ACC greenbelt,” Grow Green said. “Environmental issues are a prominent aspect of his platform, including a stronger tree protection ordinance, expanded controls on mass grading, strengthening the transit system, reducing emissions from the ACC government’s vehicle fleet and facilities, and improving water conservation rates.”

State and local candidates turned in their campaign contribution disclosures by Wednesday, and as usual, there’s a lot we can glean from them.

• State Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Hull, is playing it cool. Hudgens must not think he has much to worry about, because other than those PAC checks that show up in mailbox periodically, he didn’t raise any money and didn’t spend any money, except to give it away to other candidates he thinks have tougher races, like Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens. It costs $200,000 to run a state Senate race these days, and it’s especially in a sprawling six-county district like the 47th. Hudgens’ challenger Tim Riley doesn’t have a tenth of that.

The ads are on the air, the signs are up and now the endorsements are starting to roll in.

Democratic Party of Georgia Chairwoman and former state representative Jane Kidd, an Athens resident, gave Ed Robinson the nod today, endorsing him over Red Petrovs to replace Carl Jordan.

"Ed is a good Democrat, a hard worker and a great Athenian," Kidd said. "I know he is committed to the future of Athens and to constituent service for the citizens of his district. Ed will make an excellent representative for the 6th District of Athens-Clarke County."

In case you didn't already know, that officially makes Robinson the "real Democrat" in the nonpartisan race.