A lame qualifying week just got a lot lamer.

Former state Sen. Brian Kemp passed along a note this morning saying he won't be running against Ralph Hudgens in the GOP primary.

"After a great deal of reflection over the last several months I have decided not to seek re-election to the State Senate this year," he said. "Several business opportunities have opened up for me and I have decided it is best for me and my family to pursue those opportunities at this time. I look forward to continuing my public service in the near future."

I’ve got a story running in tomorrow’s paper about the Paul Broun mass mailers that are driving everyone crazy.

Ann-Marie blogged about it. Jim Thompson editorialized on it. Frankly, I’ve been ignoring it for weeks because I don’t see what the big deal is.

Barry Fleming’s campaign put out an attack earlier this month: “Paul Broun claims to be a staunch advocate for cutting federal spending, so much so that he refuses to use taxpayer dollars to fund needed local projects, and yet he continues to spend tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars each month on campaign related activities.”

Rather than prayers for rain this year, why not pray that in November the state General Assembly is washed clean of the Republican leadership as well as politicians on both sides of the aisle who seem to relish the idea of having the state call all the shots for local governments. The state's stumbling attempts to get our drought and water situation could only be classified as water torture.

The latest power play is packaged in the ridiculous bill that would require state Environmental Protection Division approval before local jurisdictions could enact stronger water restrictions than the state’s rules.

Happily, it appears that the opening-day spasm of veto overrides in the Georgia House of Representatives will represent the sum-total of House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s nose-thumbing at the governor.

Following the Banner-Herald’s Tuesday editorial criticizing Richardson and the House for using the first day of the General Assembly session to concentrate on overriding Gov. Sonny Perdue’s vetoes of legislation from last year’s session, instead of getting an early start on water, transportation, education and taxation issues, I got a call from Richardson’s spokeswoman, Clelia Davis.

Saying she was sure she wasn’t going to be able to change the newspaper’s frequent criticism of the speaker, Davis added that the Tuesday overrides of a dozen of the 41 bills vetoed by Gov. Sonny Perdue (approximately 30 of which originated in the House) represented all of the overrides that the House would pursue.

The General Assembly picked up where they left off last April, with the House leadership, lieutenant governor and governor biting their thumbs at each other. Unity tour, we hardly knew ye.

Some of you may be wondering why House members are bothering. If you believe Doug McKillip, it’s because hey, they actually like those dozen bills Sonny Perdue vetoed last year, so they voted to override the vetoes.

“We voted for them the first time, and we want them now,” he said.

For those keeping score at home, the bills are:

• HB 69, which allows people to get a free copy of their driving record (the 15 Minutes Can Save You 15 Percent Act).

•HB 91, which requires state agencies to submit detailed budget information to the legislature (the Screw You Sonny Act).