Vanquished insurance commissioner candidate Gerry Purcell is backing state Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Hull, in the runoff.

Of the remaining candidates, Ralph Hudgens is the one candidate who is prepared to lead this office through the difficult times ahead. I have the utmost respect for him. He is a successful small businessman and leader. While others have been pushing paper, Ralph has created jobs and made payroll, year after year.

His opponent is an Atlanta insurance lawyer/lobbyist who was mentored by and maintains close ties to Commissioner Oxendine. After 16 years, we need a fresh start. Ralph's positive and clean primary campaign further demonstrates he has the ethics, the honesty, and the character that the people of Georgia deserve. Ralph took the high road in the campaign, while his opponent ran a divisive and toxic campaign.

Insurance commissioner candidate Maria Sheffield, in a runoff with state Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Hull, picked up endorsements today from two former candidates, Stephen Northington and state Sen. Seth Harp, R-Midland.

They released a joint statement: “We support Maria because we can personally attest to her credentials as a true person of character and a candidate who has offered positive policy solutions for the issues facing Georgia’s next Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner. Throughout the campaign, we have had the chance to see the true character of Maria Sheffield and know she will serve with honor and distinction in this office.”

The other candidates piled on Hudgens for playing fast and loose with campaign money. So this is a roundabout way of saying “Hudgens is a scumbag.”

Facebook. Twitter. E-mail.

A good rule of thumb to remember in politics is whoever’s under attack is probably winning.

Candidates for insurance commissioner have been coming after state Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Hull, for a long time. Just today, state Sen. Seth Harp, R-Midland, issued a news release accusing Hudgens of failing to return $106,000 that he illegally transferred from his state Senate campaign account to fund his run for insurance commissioner.

Republican insurance commissioner candidate Maria Sheffield sent out an e-mail today pointing readers to Gainesville radio host Martha Zoller’s interview with one of her opponents, state Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Hull.

Hudgens, apparently believing the mic was dead during a commercial break, told thousands of listeners that the insurance commissioner “can’t do squat about health care.” The AJC’s Jim Galloway picked up on it.

"There are countless cases of career politicians who while parading as a conservative in public often get caught expressing their true feeling when they think the voters are not listening," Sheffield's campaign manager, Kathryn Ballou, wrote in the e-mail.

One of the major distractions of 2009 is about to become one of the major distractions of 2010.

House Speaker David Ralston told the academic and business group Georgia Bio today that the House will take up Sen. Ralph Hudgen’s so-called Octomom bill this year.

Hudgens, at the time, said the bill would simply stop a woman from having Lord knows how many children and going on welfare. Critics said it would pave the way to outlawing abortion, make it impossible for any woman to undergo fertility treatment and short-circuit our nascent biotech industry by inhibiting research into stem-cell therapy, or at least making Georgia seem really backwards.

During the first day of the General Assembly’s 2010 session on Monday, we heard lots of words like openness, transparency, independence, bipartisanship, character, honesty and integrity. New Speaker David Ralston promised more civility and more debate. He even spoke to reporters – something Glenn Richardson hadn’t done for two years.

Today, House leaders kicked the media out of a Republican caucus meeting. Has anything really changed?

High praise for Murphy

After accepting the gavel from former Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter on Monday, Ralston showed he’s a student of history.

Ralph Hudgens is in trouble in his own backyard.

The Oglethorpe County GOP took a straw poll on Saturday, and in the insurance commissioner’s race, Alpharetta health care consultant Gerry Purcell beat Hudgens 79 votes to 56 (five other candidates combined for 84 votes). Hudgens represents Oglethorpe County in the Senate.

The man who thinks stem-cell research is evil is deftly using the Intertubes for publicity.

State Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Hull, sent out a message to his Facebook group today announcing that Guy Millner, the former candidate for governor and U.S. senator, has joined his campaign for state insurance commissioner as co-chairman.

So far as we know, Facebook has never killed any babies. Therefore, it does not need to be banned.

In all seriousness, though, Hudgens is looking more and more like the front-runner to replace John Oxendine. He's also out-fundraising the other candidates and won the endorsement of the Georgia Medical Association's political action committee. So to add a big name like Millner, who currently serves as chairman and CEO of the insurance company AssuranceAmerica, to his team is a boost.

Sorry, folks, I've been out sick for the past couple of days. The swine flu's been going around, you know. Here's what you missed while I was gone:

• The talk of the town last summer was Athens-Clarke Commissioner Kelly Girtz’s effort to legalize urban chickens. And, no, that’s not a metaphor for pot.

Girtz never got anywhere. Good thing, too, because Slate media critic Jack Schafer says the in-town poultry movement is a myth.

Conservative Christian activist Tim Echols has changed his mind about running for state Senate.

Echols had planned to run for the north-of-Athens seat Ralph Hudgens is leaving to run for state insurance commissioner, but said he doesn’t think he can effectively serve his constituents with seven children at home commuting from Winterville to Atlanta during the session. He still wants to run for office someday, he said, but not for six or eight years.

Speaking of Hudgens, he was at a Clarke County GOP meeting Monday and said Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine has convinced him he is absolutely, positively running for governor – something many observers have doubted, given Oxendine’s history of entering, then dropping out of races for higher office.

Blake.aued@onlineathens.com