Did you know that Henry Geisinger once ran for Governor? I didn’t until I read it in his biography. I suspect it was a laid-back campaign.

Geisinger is now a three-term member of the House, whose district  should be reliable Republican territory, covering the northernmost corner of Fulton County through Alpharetta to the Forsyth and Cherokee lines.

But it’s apparently not Republican enough for Geisinger’s liking. He has sponsored HR 1137 to make it even-more Republican. This is partly because Democrat Jan Hackney ran a fairly close race in 2004, falling by 1,172 votes.

But it’s also because Geisinger isn’t much of a fund raiser.

According to his campaign disclosures he raised just $5,250 in the first half of 2005, and $12,410 in the second half.  This despite spending nearly $1,000 for food from Sally’s Catering and another $600 for fund-raiser invitations. (You’d think folks didn’t like flower pot sandwiches anymore.)

Where’s the love? Probably with his big donors. They include Alpharetta real estate investor Michael Dvorscak and attorney Cecil McLendon of Marietta, Roberts Development of Atlanta, Richard Morley of Traditions in Tile in Roswell, and consultant Dillion Fries of Roswell, who are all in for $1,000.

What’s missing from the list? PACs! Actually, Geisinger raised nearly $7,000 from PACs during 2005, and had $15,626.01 on hand at the end of the year. But compared to many of his Republican colleagues, especially those in the leadership, Geisinger is a piker. Doesn’t raise much, doesn’t spend much.

Other than his own political survival, Geisinger’s main legislative interest seems to be MARTA. He’s a member of the MARTOC group that audited the agency’s books, and he has two bills in the hopper on the subject. HB 954 lets people re-sell their MARTA tokens, while HB 955 would let MARTA hide from public view documents related to its new fare system.

There was a little boomlet from Democrats recently about making Doraville Rep. Jill Chambers, who chaired MARTOC, the head of the agency. Maybe instead of changing the maps they could name Geisinger and get a more energetic character in there.