It’s a little-known fact: if Tim Riley had beaten incumbent Ralph Hudgens, he would’ve become Georgia’s first openly gay state senator.

I had no idea Riley was gay until Thursday, when Dan Matthews, chairman of the Oconee County Democrats, tipped me off to an Oct. 17 article in Southern Voice, an Atlanta newspaper that caters to the GLBT community.

Keep in mind that “Who are you sleeping with?” is not a standard question I ask political candidates, and since Riley doesn’t frost his hair or wear women’s jeans, I had no way of knowing he’s of the Barney Frank persuasion. Although, when he first met, he did talk about how much he likes musicals and Elton John, so maybe I should’ve guessed.

I don’t know what Atlanta’s problem is.

I was voter No. 18,177 in Athens – almost a third of registered voters came before me. I didn’t wait but 15 minutes at lunchtime at the Classic Center. Voters in metro Atlanta are waiting two or three hours.

Waits were up to an hour and 45 minutes in Athens yesterday due to computer problems, poll workers said, but the short line moved quickly today.

Tit for TAD

The issues I had the most trouble with, like a lot of people, were the three constitutional amendments on the ballot.

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.

House Speaker Glenn Richardson, like predecessor Tom Murphy, has a reputation for sending lawmakers who cross him to a legislative version of a Soviet gulag.

With two local representatives among a dozen or so mounting a palace coup, what does the Athens area have to lose?

Not much, really.