A familiar face is on the list of nominees to replace Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears on the state Supreme Court.

Former state Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, is one of 26 names on a list released today by Judicial Nominating Committee Chairman Michael Bowers. Fleming has been working as an aide to House Speaker Glenn Richardson since his bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Paul Broun ended in defeat.

He wanted to be a congressman, but Supreme Court judge ain't a bad gig, either.

Fleming is the closest thing to an Athenian on the list. No surprise, since all of Clarke County’s judges and most of our lawyers are Democrats.

The nominating period ends Thursday. The committee will vet the nominees, then send a short list of five names to Gov. Sonny Perdue for consideration.

Blake.aued@onlineathens.com

Rep. Paul Broun is back in Augusta Republicans’ good graces.

Broun’s opponent in the Republican primary, Barry Fleming, and state Rep. Ben Harbin are among a dozen prominent Augustans who are hosting a fundraiser for Broun on Wednesday.

Fleming declined to endorse Broun immediately after the primary. But Team Broun quoted Fleming today as saying: "We must work this fall to send every Republican back to Congress to fight the Democrat's assault on our freedoms. Congressman Broun will be a fighter for us against the Barack Obama/Nancy Pelosi policies that are harmful to America."

The announcement is a blow to Democratic opponent Bobby Saxon, who had hoped to win over Fleming supporters.

Blake.aued@onlineathens.com

Good morning, all.

Paul Broun didn’t just win last night, but he trounced an opponent who had more money, full party backing and called the largest metro area in the district home. Sound familiar?

We broke down Broun’s 70-30 win this morning. You’ll find Broun took 85 percent of GOP voters in Clarke County, 78 percent in Oconee and boasted 3- and 4-to-1 margins across the rural portions of the district. The closest Barry Fleming came to a county victory was in Richmond County, where he won 48 percent. Columbia County, where twice as many voters cast ballots as any other county in the district, went for Broun 58 percent to 42 percent. Amazing stuff.

In November, Broun will face Democrat Bobby Saxon, a businessman and Army veteran from Nicholson. No question, Saxon will lose by a similar margin. Perhaps even more (if that’s possible) as Saxson continues the proud tradition of Democratic sacrificial lambs in the 10th.

With election day around the corner, the candidates are all out making one last push. There’s not much left to be done except try to turn out the voters.

This is the time, though, when the shenanigans are at their peak. The push polls and whisper campaigns will be in high gear over the weekend.

I inadvertently found myself caught up in this sort of mess on Friday, when I heard that Paul Broun went on Austin Rhode’s radio show in Augusta and told him that I told Broun (follow that?) that Team Fleming is spreading around rumors about the circumstances surrounding Broun’s departure from the Sumter County hospital long ago.

Not only is Barry Fleming a liar and a closet Democrat, he’s not even a Christian.

At least, that’s what Paul Broun said today during a Georgia Public Broadcasting interview.

“It’s unfortunate that he doesn’t understand redemption and salvation and a changed life in accepting Jesus as lord and savior,” Broun said on WACG 90.7 FM in Augusta. “It’s not about religion but about a relationship with Jesus.”

“Paul is wrong on that,” Fleming replied in an interview scheduled to air Friday. “My Christian faith is the center of my life and I’ve tried not only to witness to other people in my life but I’ve tried to live a life as an example for others, and I’ll continue to do that.”

Barry Fleming has one more problem.

Rep. Paul Broun and Fleming both filed their second-quarter FEC reports today, 12 days early. Broun out-raised Fleming almost two-to-one, but Fleming has $344,000 on hand compared to Broun’s $202,000. Still, that’s great news for the Team Broun.

It’s bad news for Democrat Bobby Saxon, though, whose report is not online yet. Team Saxon had hoped that, assuming Broun won, he’d be essentially bankrupted by the primary, putting them on more or less even footing. But Broun is learning how to raise money like an incumbent.

Peach Pundit has video of the Atlanta Press Club debate. You’ve probably heard most of it before. Fleming did haul out the bankruptcy/tax lien angle, which I expected him to do Monday in Athens but he did not.

Barry Fleming implies that Paul Broun is in favor of child molestation. Broun responds by calling Fleming something even worse – a Democrat.

Broun issued a response today to Fleming’s TV ad portraying Broun as soft on child molesters. In it, Broun points out that Fleming has worked for two Democratic congressmen, and says his primary challenge is playing into the hands of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (who’s replaced Hillary Clinton as Republicans’ ur-bitch) by diverting funds from other tight races.

Barry Fleming also thinks Paul Broon is the Worst ... Person ... in the Wooooorld.

Fleming's campaign manager, Cam Kirbo, said Broun's exaggeration, ridiculed by the Washington Post and Keith Olbermann, that 40 percent of illegal immigrants crossing the border are not Mexicans, is just another example of a tendency to stretch the truth.

"Every time Paul Broun makes factually absurd statements about our country’s problems he will rightfully be attacked, especially by liberals determined to undermine conservative principles," said a statement from the campaign. "In order to effectively initiate conservative changes, the 10th District needs a Congressman who knows the facts and does not set back our cause with statements that become the subject of ridicule."

At least some of the movers and shakers in Augusta seem to have decided that getting a hometown boy in Congress beats getting all it can, as fast as it can, out of the planned expansion of medical education across the state.

For a couple of years now, Augusta has been more than a little paranoid about the sorely needed effort to get more doctors trained up in Georgia, believing that the planned establishment of a medical campus at the University of Georgia is the first signal that the Augusta-based Medical College of Georgia will be all but neglected in the coming years, and will gradually fade into insignificance.

The AJS’s Jim Galloway says state Sen. Nancy Schaefer might jump into the 10th Congressional District race.

Galloway notes that Schaefer, R-Turnerville, represents the northern end of the district, where Rep. Paul Broun drew much of his support in last year’s runoff. Broun is from Athens, in the center of the district, and state Rep. Barry Fleming is from Harlem, near Augusta, on the southern end.

She’s also a Christian conservative, so she could take some of those votes away from Broun as well. And she’s a senator, so it could turn into yet another Senate vs. House battle, since Fleming already has the support of about half the House Republican Caucus.