Jason Carter's campaign has a TV answer to Gov. Nathan Deal's airwave onslaught asserting that the "silver tongued" Democrat plans to increase spending by $12.5 billion.
The response, a 30-second spot called "The Truth" which began airing over the weekend, calls those attacks by the governor false and says the Democrat "is a fiscal conservative who has never voted for a tax increase."
Both ads pivot on a key sticking point between the campaigns in the race's final weeks.
Carter has pledged to significantly increase K-12 funding and expand Medicaid, perhaps through an Arkansas-style option that uses federal funds to buy private insurance for the poor. But he vowed not to raise taxes, and instead said he could increase funding by cutting spending and more vigorously pursuing tax cheats.
Deal and his allies say the math doesn't add up, and his spokesman Brian Robinson said the $12.5 billion estimate includes $2.5 billion for expanding Medicaid and another $10 billion over 10 years to match the state's perennially underfunded education formula. Republicans say Carter will inevitably be forced to hike taxes to live up to his promises.
Here's the transcript of Carter's ad:
The truth? Jason Carter is a fiscal conservative who has never voted for a tax increase.
He'll fund our schools first and put an end for paying for politicians' pet projects with education dollars.
Nathan Deal's underfunded our schools by billions of dollars. Today we have 9,000 fewer teachers, 80,000 fewer HOPE recipients, 45,000 fewer technical college students.
Nathan Deal: Shortchanging education. And our kids are paying the price."
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