Nathan Deal’s birthday is Aug. 25, and what better present for the man who has everything than a campaign contribution?

For a mere $25 per family, you can attend Deal’s birthday bash from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at The Arts Council Smithgall Arts Center in his hometown of Gainesville. Team Deal says they’ll have barbecued chicken, trimmings, live music and entertainment for the kids. No word on whether cake, ice cream and a clown are included with your generous donation.

Deal, as Karen Handel not-so-subtly pointed out, is turning 68 years old.

Nathan Deal may be in more trouble with the feds than he’s letting on.

Contrary to what Deal has said, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday that Deal is under an ongoing investigation, according to CNN.

At the White House briefing Wednesday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about the party nominating a candidate who had been linked to birther questions. Deal in January sent the White House a letter asking President Obama to answer more questions about this birthplace, after saying in an interview the documentation publicly available "leaves many things to be desired".

The latest results show Nathan Deal clinging to a slim lead over Karen Handel. He’ll probably hang on to most of it.

The number of precincts reporting in Gwinnett and Fulton counties is deceiving. It appears they’ve both reported most of their Election Day votes. What’s missing is the far smaller number of absentee and early votes. Handel is absolutely stomping Deal in Fulton, but I don’t think there are enough votes outstanding for her to take the lead.

But she will probably finish within 1 percent. Let’s see if she’ll drag it out longer by asking for a recount.

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I'll be blogging tonight's festivities, so check back here starting around 8 p.m., when results should be coming in. But first, an update on some of the goings-on today as candidates made their final push.

State Senate candidate Shane Coley issued an attack on opponent Frank Ginn based on Ginn’s comments about taxes in this article.

The Athens Banner Herald reported that Frank Ginn said the gas tax is not really a tax.

Ginn, who has proposed raising the gas tax, called it a user fee. Ginn said that only drivers who use the road pay the gas tax. He said the tax increase would pay for improvements.

Every time politicians raise taxes they justify it by selling improvements. What they don't tell you is that those improvements could be paid for by existing revenue if they would quit wasting your money. We don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem.

Nathan Deal, locked in a runoff with Karen Handel for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, unveiled an arsenal of small arms Wednesday to counteract Handel’s A-bomb.

Deal, a former state senator, announced endorsements from 70 state House members to add to the more than 20 state senators who’ve endorsed him. The list includes state Reps. Tommy Benton, R-Jefferson, and Terry England, R-Auburn.

While they were careful to be gentle with the woman who can make or break political careers with a mere Facebook wall post, House Speaker David Ralston and Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones made the case in a conference call with reporters today that those local endorsements mean more than out-of-state conservative celebrity Sarah Palin backing Handel.

With his candidate of choice, Eric Johnson, out of the race, U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston is throwing his support behind Nathan Deal in the gubernatorial runoff.

"I encourage conservative Republicans in Southeast Georgia to join me in rallying behind Nathan Deal to be Georgia's next governor. For those who supported Eric Johnson, Nathan is the natural fit for the Aug. 10 runoff.

"As a member of Congress, Nathan earned a perfect score from the American Conservative Union which speaks volumes for his conservative record.

"On immigration, he introduced legislation and led the fight to end birthright citizenship. His citizenship verification law slashed Medicaid fraud, cutting Georgia's Medicaid rolls by 160,000 and saving our state millions.

Nathan Deal and Karen Handel are virtually tied, according to a poll of 400 likely Republican primary voters taken Thursday night by McLaughlin & Associates and released today by the Deal campaign.

Be aware that Team Real wouldn’t have released this poll if it wasn’t favorable to them. That said, 39 percent of respondents support Deal, 38 percent support Handel and 23 percent are undecided. The poll has a 4.9 percent margin of error.

The poll also shows:

• Deal and Handel both have favorable ratings above 50 percent, but both Handel’s favorable and unfavorable ratings are higher than Deal’s.

• 38 percent think Deal has a better chance of beating Roy Barnes, compared to 33 percent who think Handel does.

• 56 percent called Deal conservative and 19 percent called him moderate or liberal. Forty-one percent said Handel is moderate or liberal, and 35 percent said she is conservative.

If you’ve been following the Republican race for governor lately, you're probably under the impression that they think gay people – not the economy, not unemployment, not education cuts – are the single biggest challenge facing the future of our great state.

Team Deal aired an ad attacking Karen Handel’s positions on gay issues – charges she vehemently disputes.

Team Ox set up a website devoted largely to alleging that Handel is sympathetic to gays – something she adamantly denies.

Now, Handel, who left her broken home at age 17, is saying gay parents are not as good as straight ones, and they should not be able to adopt children, according to 11Alive.

A good rule of thumb to remember in politics is whoever’s under attack is probably winning.

Candidates for insurance commissioner have been coming after state Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Hull, for a long time. Just today, state Sen. Seth Harp, R-Midland, issued a news release accusing Hudgens of failing to return $106,000 that he illegally transferred from his state Senate campaign account to fund his run for insurance commissioner.

Former Gov. Roy Barnes is just shy of winning the Democratic nomination for governor without a runoff, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey released today.

The poll showed Barnes with 49 percent of the vote, Attorney General Thurbert Baker with 19 percent and 21 percent undecided. Support for the other five candidates was negligible – they split the remaining 11 percent.

The survey of 600 Democratic likely voters taken July 2 and 3 did not include a margin of error.

A couple of interesting factoids: African-Americans supported Barnes over Baker, who is black, by a 51-28 margin. White voters were twice as likely to be undecided as African-Americans. The older the voter, the more likely he was to support Barnes. Women and men hardly differed at all in who they supported.