Monds forms ‘frugal, efficient campaign’

By Bill Torpy

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Libertarian John Monds was once again playing his role as the Rodney Dangerfield of the Georgia gubernatorial race last week.

Monds had been snubbed, his staff complained, by not getting invited to a televised debate in Albany that night. Now they learned that Albany State University also was holding a candidate forum that same evening and they were chafing at the last-minute invite — especially since the candidate’s wife is a dean at that institution.

Jumping in a car and driving 180 miles to the south was an option. But they didn’t want to blow off the tea party folks in Dalton, who Monds was set to meet that evening. Rent a plane or helicopter? Monds smiled at such extravagance. No, the staff decided to have Monds’ wife, Kathaleena, fill in at the forum. And they hit the blogs, telling the faithful that, once again, they were overlooked and disrespected.

Monds shrugged when asked about the perpetual indignity of being the third pony in a two-horse race. He didn’t want to take a poke at the organizers of the debate, just as he has avoided saying much of his opponents, Republican Nathan Deal and Democrat Roy Barnes. “Those who are there [at the debate] will hear the same old rhetoric,” he said.

John Monds campaigns like the financial planner he once was. Even-keeled, low key, always on message, Monds is steadily crisscrossing the state on a shoestring budget trying to get people to notice him and his party.

Monds did that in 2008 when he got nearly 1.1 million votes —a third of the votes cast — running for a Public Service Commission seat, making him that party’s largest vote-getter ever, even including presidential candidates. But the milestone was somewhat of a fluke because there was no Democrat in that race and Monds surely got many “Anybody But the Republican” votes.

So far this time around, Monds’ campaign had received, as of Sept. 30, $30,000 in donations (compared to $7.7 million for Barnes and $6.3 million for Deal). That’s no problem, said Monds, who has taught financial literacy courses back home in southwest Georgia’s Grady County. “We run a frugal, efficient campaign,” he said. “We get $10 and $20 donations.”

His frugality runs deep. He stays with family across the state to save on motel costs. He eats cheap; he’s a vegetarian. And his “media blitz” is confined to on-line videos and maybe a handful of last-minute radio spots. This is how government should operate — on the cheap, he said.

“You have to get rid of wasteful projects and programs,” he likes to say, without ever mentioning which ones. “I look at zero-based budgeting.”

He said horse racing, casino gaming and Sunday liquor sales could bring in more revenue. Income taxes should be lowered and offset by a bump in sales taxes, which he said is a more fair method.

The 45-year-old, 5-foot-7 Monds is a man of little pretense. A banking and finance major at Morehouse College, Monds worked in the financial world for a while — Lehman Brothers was one stop — before deciding to put his career on hold so he could home school his four children.

Monds gets glowing reviews from those who know him.

“This is the guy you want to drive your grandmother from the East Coast to the West Coast,” said Vincent Marcus, a metro Atlanta firefighter who attended Morehouse with Monds. His daughter is Monds’ godchild.

Monds lives in Cairo, a town of about 10,000 near the Florida border. He enjoys the quiet, steady life a tight-knit community offers. He likes to bring the children on outings as part of their daily classes, whether they are 4-H club and Girl Scout meetings or city council sessions. Campaigning is part of their civics lessons.

“In home schooling, you can integrate everyday life into their classes,” he said. “They know how to cook. They have to measure to do recipes. They learned to read at 4.”

His teaching role and some local public service — he was president of the Grady County NAACP and on the planning commission — gave Monds the political bug. In 2006, he ran unsuccessfully for school board there and, two years later, ran for the PSC. The million-vote total gave Monds some momentum going into the 2010 contest, so he announced he was running for governor early in 2009.

“We’re hoping that getting that type of support will have some residual effect,” he said. So far, it hasn’t. Monds has generally hovered at or below the 5 percent mark in polls.

“I keep hearing about the disgust in voters across the state,” he said. “There’s going to be a runoff [in the governors race]. But the first time out, voters can vote their conscience.”

Monds said rampant voter anger means voters may give him a second look. He’s gone to tea party meetings to drum up support, but some tea party leaders express the age-old criticism of third party candidates: that casting a ballot for them is a wasted vote.

Julianne Thompson, state coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots in Georgia, said a few tea party members may support Monds, “But by and large, most people active in the tea party are supporting Nathan Deal.”

Libertarian candidates, more often than not, get Republican leaning voters. But Jason Pye, a Libertarian blogger who worked on Bob Barr’s 2008 presidential campaign, said Monds, who is black, may help the party gain some African-American voters.

That is to be seen. LaFaye Copeland, a friend and fellow Grady County NAACP member, extolled Monds’ pedigree and ethics as a person and fledgling politician.

“I’m not a big Libertarian, but John is,” she said.

Asked if she is supporting Monds, Copeland was purposely ambiguous.

“I will vote in this election,” she chuckled.