Eight years ago, we were still feeling the aftershocks of the Great Recession and former congressman Nathan Deal was the Republican nominee for governor.
That fall, it came to light that Deal’s personal finances were in a perilous state.
Among many other challenges was the fact that by Feb. 1 the next year, he was required to pay off a $1.6 million loan he had guaranteed for a failed sporting goods business belonging to his daughter and son-in-law.
Digging through the files, we came across a September 2010 article in the AJC that quoted an unshaken Deal supporter:
Paul Rish of Macon, an entrepreneur and former chairman of the Bibb County Republican Party, said the situation puts Deal in a better --- not worse --- light for him.
"He wanted to help his family out, and I can't fault him for that," said Rish, who said his parents have helped his telecommunications business, which has been harmed by the economy. "He's trying to honor his commitments, and I think that just shows that he has character."
Stacey Abrams, the current Democratic nominee for governor, also has a challenging resume when it comes to personal finances. She has confessed as much – and made it a part of her stump speech.
"I owe the IRS over $50,000 in deferred tax payments (I am currently on a repayment plan) and hold more than $170,000 in credit card and student loan debt," she wrote in an article for Forbes magazine a few months ago.
We say all of this as a prelude to some “unsolicited advice” published Wednesday by state Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, on his Facebook page. McKoon called on his fellow GOPers to “immediately stop criticizing Stacey Abrams for having financial problems in her past.” His points:
1. We have excused Republican candidates for office with financial problems who got behind the eight ball helping family members — which is what Abrams said is her situation.
2. Many, many people have experienced financial crisis since the Great Recession. People already see us as the party of rich people. Why play into that stereotype by appearing disconnected from the plight of everyday folks?
3. There are many other more attractive avenues to explain why Abrams is a poor choice for governor. Prosecuting the "debt" argument means less time to talk about her far left politics and out of state backers.
McKoon didn’t mention Governor Deal in his Wednesday post. But when we caught up with him this morning, McKoon said he recalls campaigning with Deal in October 2010 – it was a sweltering day in Columbus.
At that event, he was button-holed by a reporter on the GOP nominee’s finances. “I remember saying, ‘There but for the grace of God go I,’” McKoon said. And so he put up that Facebook post.
“It doesn’t seem consistent to do otherwise,” he said.
We’ll see how McKoon’s advice plays out. We often find that, in many people, memory begins to blur after seven-and-a-half years.
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By the way: The Gainesville Times reports that Hall County Superior Court Judge Jason Deal, son of the governor, has withdrawn his name from consideration for a Georgia Supreme Court seat to avoid "allegations of political favoritism."
A vacancy was created this week when the U.S. Senate approved the nomination of state Supreme Court Justice Britt Grant to a spot on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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The U.S. Senate may have just adjourned for two weeks, but David Perdue is hanging around Washington this afternoon. The first-term Republican will be huddling with his ally President Donald Trump at the White House. Among the items the two are likely to discuss, he said, is trade.
The Georgian has adopted one of the more nuanced stances on the subject among Senate Republicans. Despite voicing criticism about Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs -- Perdue, a former Fortune 500 CEO, says they're far too broad -- he's also vehemently defended the president against bipartisan attempts to halt them. Undercutting Trump's ability to negotiate on trade, he said, will harm the U.S. in the long run.
Perdue on Wednesday said he's been encouraged by a recent opening in trade discussions with the European Union and that he hopes similar "off ramps" can be found with other trading partners. "Anytime you have a tariff conversation with someone who's one of your largest trading partners you have to look for off-ramps. Right now Europe has given us that," he said Wednesday.
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U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., is taking a different tack on trade. David Perdue's colleague signed onto a bipartisan bill this week that would block Trump's Commerce Department from instituting tariffs on imported cars and auto parts until a comprehensive study proves there's been harm done to the U.S. automotive industry.
“Anytime the rules of the game start changing, it makes it challenging for businesses to decide to expand and invest," Isakson said. "Businesses could be forced into tough choices that may be unnecessary."
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Newsweek writer Peter Roff uses Stacey Abrams as an example of why he believes Democrats have gone "too far left." From his story:
Consider the campaign the national political media is running on behalf of Stacey Abrams, the first African-American woman to win a major party gubernatorial nomination. She's an inch or two from being an outright socialist, but we're supposed to believe she has a chance to win in conservative Georgia.
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The Georgia chapter of the NAACP is calling on Brian Kemp, the Republican nominee for governor, to resign as secretary of state, citing a "clear conflict of interest" regarding Kemp's practice of putting links to his gubernatorial campaign on his official state website.
We are not holding our breath on this one. The Kemp campaign said the secretary of state would deactivate the links this week, after one state Democratic lawmaker said he was drafting legislation to halt such connections.
However, the state Democratic party reports that as of last night, the links to the Republican campaign still worked. Democrats have lodged an official complaint with the panel formerly known as the state ethics commission.
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More reverberations are following that Wednesday column on CEO Tom Fanning and a recent talk he gave on how Southern Co. intends to survive a digital Apocalyse, should it come. Fanning said his company's final defense, dubbed Project McGyver, would be the severing of the power grid from the internet and other digital controls.
A cybersecurity summit was held in New York on Tuesday. This morning, The Hill newspaper has this:
Security analysts have discovered a new hacking group that has been successful in breaching networks of electric utilities in the United States.
The new research from cybersecurity firm Dragos is yet more evidence that hacking groups are looking for ways to penetrate networks of critical infrastructure – potentially with the intention to stage disruptive or destructive attacks.
On Wednesday, Tricia Pridemore, a Republican incumbent on the state Public Service Commission facing re-election, sent us a note on additional preparations being made by the U.S. Army. Which apparently prompted Dawn Randolph, her Democratic opponent, to weigh in later that afternoon. From the press release:
"The very first concern I uttered when entering this race was cyber hijacking of our energy grid. As an Army brat with an international political science degree [and] a minor in military affairs, I know this threat is real," said Randolph. "As commissioner, I will demand plans and proof that Georgia's utility production and delivery system is safe."
"While I love a good MacGyver plan, we must be looking to the future rather than relying on old school skills to save us. There are new school ways to protect our power systems which require new ways of thinking about how we use energy."
"Distributed generation is another answer to a 'digital Apocalypse'" Randolph continued. "By creating a system with smaller pockets of energy – from creation to end user – we can limit impact of large scale system outages. Distributed generation is also cost effective with lower environmental impact."
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