Democrat Jason Carter's pitch to voters in the last weeks of his bid for governor will sound familiar to anyone who's thus far tuned into his campaign: A warning of the impending "destruction" of the state education system capped with a message of hope if he's elected.
Just like his opponent Gov. Nathan Deal, who unveiled a sunny pro-jobs ad earlier this month, the Carter campaign is returning to the message it started with (and rarely strayed from) in the final stretch of the campaign.
For the uninitiated, Carter's plan involves creating a separate education budget that would be protected from the tinkering of lawmakers. He also plans to significantly boost education funding with an across-the-board audit to cut wasteful spending and a vow to more vigorously pursue tax cheats.
Deal took a shot at Carter's funding plan at a campaign stop on Monday. He told a Marietta audience that in Alabama, which features an education budget silo similar to the one Carter plans, the governor is considering calling a special session to tap fund new economic development incentives.
"We don't need to get ourselves in that kind of posture," Deal said. "I think that was a shorthand way of saying Georgia is eating our lunch."
Carter's aides won't say how much will be spent to air the 30-second spot, called "Reap," but his campaign has reserved at least $50,000 in air time in Atlanta. Deal's campaign has snapped up more than $100,000 worth of ads in Atlanta and Savannah, and the Republican Governors Association, which has invested $1.5 million in the race, is expected to up its ante.
Deal's campaign pushed back at one point in particular in Carter's ad - his assertion that 45,000 students left tech schools. The governor's aides pointed to a letter sent to Carter by Ron Jackson, the head of the tech school system, who attributed the decline to the improving economy and a "national trend among technical and community colleges."
Here's the transcript of Carter's ad, complete with the campaign's cites:
This year, there will be fewer HOPE recipients, and I worry that we're going to reap what we sow from that destruction of our education system.
When I'm governor, we'll have a separate budget for education, and we're going to protect it not just in the good times but all the time."
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