Atlanta Unfiltered

(Updated July 26, 2012 with another $2 million in donations) Advocates promoting the “Untie Atlanta” campaign for a transportation sales tax have raised nearly $6 million, topped by donations from real estate interests and highway contractors, newly released disclosures show. Four of the top six cash donors — the National Association of Realtors, the Georgia Highway Contractors Association, heavy equipment suppliers Yancey Brothers Co. and C.W. Matthews Contracting Co. Inc. — kicked in $981,000 among them.

Fellow travelers Vincent Fort and Jim Wooten are among those who think Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, needs to resign over the chamber’s complicity in covering up the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal. If he does, Williams will leave behind an annual salary nearing 7 figures.

Former Georgia legislator Pete Robinson put his lobbying clients on hold this month when he joined Gov.-elect Nathan Deal’s transition team. Those clients paid at least $320,000 (probably much more) for his services in 2010, state records show. That sum represents the amount paid to Troutman Sanders Strategies. Robinson, as chairman of the firm, receives an undisclosed portion of that sum.

State Rep. David Ralston’s campaign raised $137,750 in less than a month after Republicans chose him to be speaker of the House, disclosure reports show. He had less than half the fund-raising time as his predecessor, Glenn Richardson, before his first legislative session as speaker, but Ralston nearly reached Richardson’s total of $149,920. The most generous donors to Ralston: hospitals and the health care industry.

President of the Peach Bowl. Stokan’s salary is paid by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, which — as a non-profit business league — does not have to disclose his salary. But the Peach Bowl does, since it pays the chamber to run its affairs and Stokan works for both organizations. Peach Bowl records show […]