Democrat Jason Carter senses an opportunity in the wake of last week's ethics jury verdict and he's trying to make the most of it. The state senator from Atlanta on Tuesday called for the reopening of an investigation into Gov. Nathan Deal's 2010 campaign that he said led to an "ethics catastrophe."
"We have to get to the bottom of the investigation that lost her her job," said Carter. "We still do not have a credible resolution to that ethics complaint because it was clearly tampered with."
Deal, who had long sought to distance himself from the ethics turmoil, announced a surprising about-face on Monday by backing plans for an expanded 12-member ethics commission tapped by members of the judicial, legislative and executive branches. Carter pronounced that move an "election-year ploy" to try to distract voters from the ethics woes. Said Carter:
"It's like the country song 'He's a Brand New Man.' We've been talking about the ethics commission for years and he's been doing nothing, failing to lead on the issue, and suddenly once he gets caught, once he gets challenged for re-election, he all of a sudden wants to delve into this issue."
Some quick backstory: Former ethics commission head Stacey Kalberman won a $700,000 jury verdict on Friday in a lawsuit claiming that she was forced out for too zealously investigating Deal's 2010 campaign. The complaints claimed he personally profited from his campaign's aircraft rentals and illegally used campaign funds for legal bills.
The state ethics commission cleared him of major ethics violations in July 2012 but found he made "technical defects" in personal and financial campaign reports. Deal's campaign agreed to pay fees totaling $3,350. Yet whistleblower lawsuits by Kalberman and two other former staffers claimed the agency's new head, Holly LaBerge, was trying to help Deal by making more serious complaints go away. Deal and LaBerge have both denied those claims.
For Deal, though, Kalberman's case isn't simply a one-and-done scenario. Two other whistleblower lawsuits from former ethics staffers are pending, and a lawyer for a third told us today she would also soon file a complaint.
Carter, whose well-financed campaign poses a threat to Deal's re-election bid, backs his party's call for an ethics commission whose funding is tied to a percentage of the state budget so it can't be tampered with by lawmakers. His plan calls for the judiciary to oversee agency. He also wants Deal's campaign to pay the jury award for Kalberman, which could exceed $1 million with legal fees and other costs. Said Carter:
"There is no reason for the taxpayers of Georgia having to pay for Gov. Deal's supporters covering up the ethics problems that he had in 2010. I think there are serious issues ... I think it would be much more appropriate for the people who benefited from the cover-up and orchestrated it to pay for it."
Who should investigate 2010 complaints is another question. Carter said, at the minimum, the ethics agency should reopen the case despite the ongoing concerns about the agency's integrity. When asked whether he would support an inquiry by Republican Attorney General Sam Olens, Carter offered this:
"I don't know who we can trust. That's one of the reasons we have to have an ethics commission that's independent."
Deal's camp contends that Carter's proposal simply shifts the conflict of interest from one branch of government to the other. Spokeswoman Jen Talaber took a shot at Carter's background working for the firm that sued the state over voter ID laws and his no-show for a vote to create a new north DeKalb city. Said Talaber:
"Gov. Deal won't be taking ethics advice from someone who has made his living suing the state of Georgia or from someone whose idea of leadership is giving speeches and then running away from votes or making tough choices."
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Our AJC colleague Chris Joyner points out that even as Carter was holding his press conference outside the statehouse, ministers and social activists were inside, knocking on the governor's office door.
Ebenezer Baptist Church Senior Pastor Raphael Warnock and Rev. Rob Wright, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, delivered a purple, 18-gallon plastic container with 50,000 signatures on petitions urging Deal to reverse his decision to no expand healthcare coverage under Medicare.
The last time Warnock paid a visit to Deal's office, he was arrested when he sat down in front of the office door and refused to leave. This time, he and Wright delivered the petitions, gave statements to the press and left without incident.
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