As Republicans brace for a bruising runoff between Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the state GOP is trying to ratchet up the pressure on Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams.
At a press conference Wednesday to be hosted by the Georgia GOP, two of the party’s top women leaders -- Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones and state Sen. Renee Unterman -- intend to urge Abrams to release 10 years of her tax returns.
They are seizing on an ethics complaint filed by a watchdog group questioning about $84,000 in reimbursements from her campaign committees over several years that lack details about how the money was spent.
The Abrams campaign has said it expects the complaint to be dismissed but that it would cooperate with the board's decision.
Abrams also has disclosed that she owed more than $50,000 in taxes to the IRS. She has said she's on a payment plan and tried to turn her debt into a selling point during the primary contest.
The questioning at today’s gathering could get awkward.
In his 2010 race for governor, despite doubts raised about the state of his personal finances, Nathan Deal initially declined make public his tax returns -- though he eventually released some documents related to his filings.
(He withheld the supplemental schedules that would have detailed sources of his income. His opponent, former Gov. Roy Barnes, released more than 1,500 pages of documents outlining his personal finances.)
Neither Deal nor Democrat Jason Carter released income tax returns in the 2014 race for governor.
Then there’s the whole matter of President Donald Trump, who has refused to offer up his income tax returns.
And never mind the question that Kemp posed during a final primary debate earlier this month -- intended to raise doubts about the source of Cagle’s income.
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On the editorial page of today's Marietta Daily Journal, you'll see some back-and-forth between Cobb County GOP chair Jason Shepherd and local Republican activist Justin Tomczak, over the state of the Republican party in their neck of the woods.
It's not clear what they're worried about until you delve into the numbers. Last night, we posted a column about down-ballot drop-off in statewide races and how that could prove fruitful for victory-starved Georgia Democrats, particularly in one of two contests for the state Public Service Commission.
If you take a look at the same phenomenon, but restrict it to Democratic and GOP ballots cast in Cobb County alone, you can see that this bastion of Republican votes is no longer unassailable. And why GOP operatives might be worried. Consider:
-- Governor: 41,719 Republican ballots to 41,540 Democratic ones. A 179-vote difference, favoring the GOP.
-- Lieutenant governor: 38,159 Republican ballots to 38,549 Democratic ones. A 390-vote difference, favoring Democrats.
-- Secretary of state: 36,609 Republican ballots to 38,548 Democratic ones. A 1,939-vote difference, favoring Democrats.
-- Attorney General: 32,738 Republican ballots to 34,655 Democratic ones. A 1,917-vote difference, favoring Democrats.
-- Agriculture commissioner: 32,336 Republican ballots to 32,403 Democratic ones. A 67-vote difference, favoring Democrats.
-- Insurance commissioner: 36,291 Republican ballots to 36,053 Democratic ones. A 238-vote difference favoring the GOP.
-- School Superintendent: 36,793 Republican ballots to 35,639 Democratic ones. A 1,154-vote difference favoring the GOP.
-- Labor commissioner: 32,782 Republican ballots to 34,294 Democratic ones. A 1,512-vote difference favoring Democrats.
-- PSC, District 3 (Eaton): 32,055 Republican ballots to 35,820 Democratic ones. A 3,765-vote difference favoring Democrats.
-- PSC, District 5 (Pridemore): 36,643 Republican ballots to 35,880 Democratic ones. A 763-vote difference, favoring the GOP.
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Gov. Nathan Deal spoke publicly for the first time about the ongoing corruption probe into Atlanta City Hall, telling our Channel 2 Action News colleague Richard Elliot that he's confident the investigation won't hinder Georgia's chances of landing Amazon's second headquarters.
“The new mayor has been very active in working with us at the state level and very proactive in terms of new business development,” Deal said Tuesday. “I think she has the right attitude and the right approach to it.”
He cited the state's investment in a cybersecurity center near Fort Gordon in Augusta, saying the proximity to a hub of research around the emerging industry has become a central part of Atlanta's recruitment strategy.
"It is an issue that is not going away soon," Deal told Elliot. "We just want to make sure we provide trained people who know what to do about it."
Deal wouldn't comment directly on the federal investigation - except to say the probes will "take care of themselves."
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Over at WSB Radio, our friend Jamie Dupree notes that a Donald Trump stalwart, U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., threw cold water on the president's assertion that the FBI had spied on his 2016 campaign – shortly before Trump repeated the accusation at a rally in Nashville last night:
"I think when the President finds out what happened, he's going to be not just fine, he's going to be glad that we have an FBI that took seriously what they heard," Gowdy said. "He was never the target – Russia was the target."
Not long after Gowdy appeared on Fox News, President Trump was holding a campaign rally in Nashville, Tennessee, where he drew big cheers as he slammed the FBI, again making the case that the feds had been out to get him during the 2016 campaign.
"How do you like the fact they had people infiltrating our campaign?" the President asked, as the crowd cheered him on, and Mr. Trump turned up the heat on the FBI for a fourth straight day on Twitter.
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University of Georgia football standout Herschel Walker will be at the White House today mingling with President Donald Trump and a bevy of local schoolkids. The legendary running back, whom Trump recently tapped for a two-year position as co-chair of the President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, will be on hand for a White House field day to highlight the benefits of youth sports. We're told Walker will be playing flag football with "The Hulk" actor Lou Ferrigno, blind USC long snapper Jake Olson and more than 250 children, parents and coaches.
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Most Georgia politicos steered clear of ABC's decision to cancel the "Roseanne" reboot after star Roseanne Barr posted a racist tweet about one of President Barack Obama's former advisers. But U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, backed the network's decision, tweeting on Tuesday that it "did the right thing." "There is not any room in our society for racism or bigotry," the civil rights hero said.
