Editor, Speakers are elected by House members to lead and serve them. Speakers tend to shape the majority agenda and protect their party’s interests.
Since Speaker David Ralston took the helm in January 2010, Republican House members have voted in proportions not seen historically for the agenda advanced by Speaker Ralston. Problem is, that agenda is a failed agenda.
Look at the TSPLOST debacle, where conservatives all over the state turned it down — a tax bill that the rank-and-file Republican base rejected. Speaker Ralston had to back off the ethics debacle after he tried to force Georgia citizens to register as lobbyists and pay a $300 fee in order to discuss issues with their elected representatives at the local and state level. This infuriated the Republican base and Georgia citizens. This year, his budget fully funds Obamacare in Georgia.
Make no mistake, Republican members of the House are growing weary of Speaker Ralston’s tactics. He is responsible for getting them primaried in their districts, and the realization David Ralston is a failure is growing. The hospital-bed-tax vote is a good illustration, as 18 Republican House members voted no.
Speaker Ralston dismisses House members and doesn’t schmooze them. Ralston shoves his agenda down their throats in order to please his cronies. And it’s clear Ralston’s agenda is taxation, growing the size of government and punishing newcomers that he doesn’t like.
Now, he is the conductor of a psychodrama, along with his clapping seals on a beach ball, intended to humiliate freshman Rep. Sam Moore. Ralston erroneously claims Moore wants to allow sex offenders to loiter around playgrounds. Ralston said, “It’s disgusting, frankly.”
What I find disgusting is that David Ralston is a defense attorney for child molesters and has argued in court that a 13-year-old girl initiated sex with a 63-year-old man (Dayton v. State of Georgia).
In reality, David Ralston has brought discredit upon himself, the House leadership and the Republican Party in Georgia. David Ralston has proven he is unable to lead the great and historic Republican caucus in the Georgia House.  

— Bill Evelyn, State of Georgia Tea Party