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2010 PRIMARY GUIDE
They may not all know it yet, but the
Georgia Republican Party is faring something
of a crisis. After eight years of solid GOP rule,
the state is out of money and seemingly out
of options. The party can either back off of
its long-held, most cherished ideas—to slash
taxes and cut even more money from schools,
for instance—or double down and argue that
our current crises are only because we weren't
conservative enough. Feeling that pressure,
Georgia's candidates for governor are taking
the latter course, offering more and more
conservative solutions for the crisis. While
Republicans elsewhere in the country are
beginning to reevaluate the dogma that deliv
ered us to where we are, Georgia Republicans
are going for broke. Literally.
Governor
The frontrunners on the Republican side
are relatively well-known veterans: three-term
state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine,
former Secretary of State Karen Handel and
former U.S. Congressman Nathan DeaL Each
candidate seems to be trying to outdo the
other when it comes to cutting taxes and
making the state more "pro-business'' (which
means cutting taxes for corporations, espe
cially foreign ones). In the wake of Arizona's
controversial immigration law, the candidates
flirt with similarly hardline approaches to
undocumented workers. And until we're issued
assault rifles at birth, Republican candidates
will push toward the frontiers of Second
Amendment liberalization—as if that's our big
problem: the availability of 50-caliber street
sweepers. The candidates are certainly feeling
the pressure that the ultra-devout Tea Party .
exerts on Republican politicians, especially
Southern ones.
John Oxendine offers a Contract with
Georgia, modeled after Newt Gingrich's 1994
Contract with America. While a full document
all decked out with Roman-numerated sections
and footnotes would be expected to satisfy
nearly every query a voter might have about
the candidate, Oxendine's contract produces
as many questions as answers. The docu
ment promises to repeal income taxes, both
on individuals and corporations, but unlike
Handel and Deal, Oxendine proposes no tax to
make up for the nearly $9 billion shortfall that
would result Such a shortfall is equivalent to
the entire state education budget plus about
75 percent of the Board of Regents budget
(how UGA and the other state universities are
funded).
Karen Handel and Nathan Deal appear
a little less radical. Deal offers a better
thought-out approach with a handful of actual
numbers, and his tax cuts don't necessarily
spell imminent disaster for the state. His is a
package of tax code tinkering, avoiding the
wholesale slash-and-bum of Oxendine. Handel
is somewhere in between: she wants to repeal
the income tax, but unlike Oxendine, she at
least offers something in its place: the Tea
Party-championed Fair Tax.
Savannah state Senator Eric Johnson is
perhaps the race's witd card—che dark horse.
CES
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Late polls show him rising toward the front
runners, with a huge number of undecided
votes still in play. Johnson rose to join the
Darty leadership in Atlanta on an ultra-conser
vative, Tea Party-type platform before the Tea
Party had come into being. He has been the
most active proponent of privatizing Georgia's
public schools—allowing, or inviting, edu
cation corporations to come in and teach
Georgia chU-'is*.a. The sort of full privatization
Johnson offers is only championed by the
most devout Tea Partiers. Johnson also cele
brates his "Know Thy Neighbor" bill, a plan to
have every parolee register his or her address
publicly. This sort of bill relies on the assump
tion that one's punishment for a crime should
never end: that even after the nightmare of
a prison sentence, official marginalization
ought still to await the citizen. It excises that
quaint notion of forgiveness from state power.
Johnson is the real deal, and it's'not improb
able that he could make a late run at viability,
especially in a run-off scenario.
Glynn County's Jeff Chapman, Constitution
enthusiast Ray McBerry, and Otis Putnam
are seen in polls to be in a second pack
behind the better-known candidates above.
Chapman is something of a moderate, which
partly explains why he dwells in obscurity this
election cycle. His website is cool, though:
it plays the sort of music you'd expect before
a battle in a movie like Braveheart. McBerry
founds his platform of 'states' rights" on
a remarkably paranoid fear of the federal
government. If you think President Obama
actually wishes the death of your grandma,
McBerry is your guy. Putnam was led by the
Lord to institute prayer in school. A vote
against Putnam is a vote for Satan. Keep that
in mind.
Let's be honest: on the Democratic side, it's
former Governor Roy Barnes and everybody
else. Barnes was beaten by Sonny Perdue in
2002, as Georgia was purging the last rem
nants of the Democratic Party's presence from
the state government Barnes now returns
with a message of restoring Georgia to the
relative wealth and security of the pre-Bush,
pre-Perdue years. The former governor prom
ises to reduce school class sizes while elimi
nating furloughs for teachers. He proposes an
ambitious, comprehensive transportation plan
that includes high-speed rail to connect cities
like Athens and Atlanta. His approach to the
impending water crisis is pleasantly proactive
sounding, especially considering that some of
the Republican candidates don't even address
the issue of water availability. Noticeably
absent from Barnes' proposals is talk of sweep
ing tax cuts. He apparently intends to be
able to actually pay for some of his proposed
projects’.
Thurbert Baker offers a fairly thorough
set of Democratic ideas, but it's his plan to
add bingo to the Georgia Lottery that really
gets me excited. I'm tired of having to go to
the VFW every time I want that thritL Under a
Baker administration, bingo would be admin
istered by the state to pay for education. Why
tax the wealthy when you can tap into all
that fixed income? Gold Dome veteran
Porter cites the state's education woes as
his primary motivator for running. Porter is a
former chairman of the two big House educa
tion committees. David Poythress is a retired
three-star general who has been in and out of
various offices in Georgia since Jimmy Carter
was governor. Like Baker, Poythress offers a
solidly Democratic platform without being
particularly gutsy. Poythress does offer to
take a salary of Si until the state's unemploy
ment rate falls below 7 percent. To a hardened
cynic, however, this only announces that
Poythress is rich enough to live comfortably
on his accumulated wealth. A quick stop over
at the State Ethics Commission confirms this
suspicion: Poythress owns five homes and is
worth in excess of $1.5 million. Can we borrow
some of that General?
Who are the also-rans? Randall Mangham,
who represents the Stone Mountain area in the
state legislature, brings an Obama-flavored
campaign to potential voters. Five-term Ray
City mayor Carl Camon hopes to bring his
local experience to the state's top office.
Camon is also an author, with one of the best
titles I've heard in a while: Poetic Infinity.
Marietta's Bill Bolton is a computer program
mer with a curiously bad website.
Lieutenant Governor
Early on in election season, Georgia
Democrats got pretty jazzed about the possi
bility, however unlikely, that the husband and
wife team of Dubose and Carol Porter would
win the offices of Governor and Lieutenant
Governor. Ironically, it is 28-year General
Assembly veteran Dubose who appears least
likely of the two to advance past the prima
ries. Political rookie Carol, meanwhile, appears
all but unchallenged in the Democratic pri
mary, the winner of which will face Republican
incumbent Casey Cagle in the general elec
tion. Porter's opponent Trida Carpenter
McCracken will appear on the primary ballot
on July 20, but no one's heard a peep from
her campaign. She has no campaign website,
and she's remained unreachable by the media.
Porter confessed to The Atlanta Journal-
Constitution that she has not yet even laid
eyes on McCracken. Weirder than the fact that
no one has seen the mysterious McCracken is
that she will probably feceive a good many
votes on primary day, as studies show that
being listed first on the ballot (McCracken
before Porter, alphabetically) increases one's
chances of winning.
Attorney General
It looks like the Republican race for attor
ney general candidacy has turned into a con
test to see who hates "Obamacare* the most
Each of the GOP candidates up for the office
announces his or her opposition to the health
care industry reforms as the primary reason for
running: the bullet-pointed "issues" section
of each candidate's website places at the top
of the list the candidate's eagerness to bring
a lawsuit against the federal government to
keep all that health owe out.
Max Wood calls 'Obamacare" an "egregious
piece of legislation" that 'threatens our fun
damental individual liberties." Preston Smith
says he's going to 'join other attorneys gen
eral from across the nation" to stop the 'big
government intrusion." And Sam Olens calls
it the "health care battle," implying that the
feds are trying to hurt us to only then fix us
up for free. The long story short is that any
vote for a Republican attorney general is a
vote against President Obama trying to kill us.
Two Democrats are vying for a chance to
run in November, both graduates of UGA's
law school. Ken Hodges looks impressive,
having spent 12 years as the district attor
ney of Dougherty County and serving as
president of the Georgia District Attorney
Association. He has compiled an impres
sive list of endorsements, including those
of Andrew Young and Sam Nunn. Contesting
Hodges is the Rob Teilhet, a young politician
representing Marietta in the state House of
Representatives. Being such a young guy, his
list of accomplishments is a bit thin compared
with Hodges'. But I bet he has better music on
his iPod.
Secretary of State
Athens' own Brian Kemp was appointed
interim Secretary of State when Karen Handel
stepped down to run for governor. He has
been at the post since January and he is run
ning to return for a full term. Republican
Doug MacGinnite will challenge Kemp, citing
the difficulties soldiers face in voting while
overseas as a primary reason for running.
Turns out that both candidates, of course,
agree that the voting process for soldiers
should be made as simple as possible. Who
doesn't? The rest of their ideas are virtually
indistinguishable from the other's.
Like their GOP counterparts, the Democratic
candidates for the office share many of the
same ideas. Establishing a verifiable paper
trail in the state's voting system seems popu
lar across the board, following the alleged
Republican chicanery of Bush-era elections.
It's all about honesty and transparency among
the Democratic candidates. Gary Horlacher
has taken a polygraph test to prove his ver
ity. Michael Mills published a book this year,
Battling Democracy's Decline: Lessons from the
Trenches, to prove his devotion to free and
fair elections. Atlanta State Rep. Georganna
SinkfieUfs website trumpets her commitment
to 'guarantee that elections are open to all
qualified voters." Angela Moore mixes it up a
bit and reminds us that the Secretary of State
oversees a range of state functions, including
acting as state Boxing Commissioner. Bringing
high-profile bouts to Georgia would help
boost the economy, Moore reasons. Retired
State Sen. Gail Buckner, showing the chops
she learned being elected as 'a Democrat in a
conservative district," promises to 'help, pro
vide picture IDs for all citizens... to protect
personal safety, not just for voting."
School Superintendent
The two Republican contenders for State
8 I FLAGPOLE.COM • JULY 14,2010
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