Gov. Perdue approves a statewide smoking ban.

After I did a 4-6-05 post entitled "Will the real George Ervin Perdue from Bonaire, Georgia please stand up . . . . - To veto or not to veto. That is the question, Part II," I did some checking about current thinking on whether Gov. Perdue would or would not veto the smoking ban legislation. It was unanimous that he would not veto it.

I noted that I thought he would based on my thinking that the Governor may feel that he should not do anything to weaken his shakey base among Georgia farmers, and that I was sticking with my prediction. But I wrote that if you are a betting person, know that the odds favor the opposite opinion.

Today the Governor approved the smoking ban legislation as most predicted he would, ending a guessing game he had fueled for weeks by saying he was undecided over the measure.

According to a story by Dick Petty of the Associated Press, "[o]f 14 tobacco-growing states surveyed by the National Conference of State Legislatures, only Florida has as broad a ban as the new Georgia law provides."

I assume the Governor's handlers think there was some political gain from the waiting game that the governor put us through, but it escapes me.