The Twitter reaction from Chris Riley, chief of staff to Gov. Nathan Deal, rolled in early this morning, and was immediately repeated by senior staff.
Riley had apparently just read today's print column on Stacey Abrams, which examined whether the frontrunner's chances in the Democratic race for governor had been damaged by revelations contained in a state-mandated personal finance disclosure – including $54,000 owed to the IRS. From the column:
Her financial troubles are complications, not disqualifications. Not these days.
For proof, we need only look to the autumn of 2010, which became an eye-opening season of wonder for Georgia voters.
That's when they discovered that Nathan Deal, a former congressman just elected as the Republican nominee for governor, was in dire financial straits.
In Deal’s case, a bankruptcy in the family, the family abode put up for sale, and some self-dealing with state government – flaws that might have doomed a candidate a generation ago -- made no difference in a mid-term election driven by Republican antipathy to President Barack Obama. The same fervor may apply this year to Georgia Democrats.
No doubt, Chris Riley didn't appreciate being reminded of a particularly rough patch for the governor and his team. His Tweet:
If he had it to write over again, Riley might also have included the fact that, eight years later, a healthy percentage of Democrats who voted against Deal now approve of his tenure in office.
Even so, the governor’s chief of staff underlined the point of the column: That in the aftermath of the Great Recession and in a period of heightened partisanship, voters may be less willing to disqualify political candidates simply because of their poor financial situations.
In fact, we expect some Abrams supporters to pass Riley’s Tweet along – perhaps with an added notation: “See?”
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The personal financial disclosure required of statewide candidates in Georgia, which has illuminated the backgrounds of Nathan Deal, Stacey Abrams, and a host of other candidates, is actually more thorough than what's required of federal candidates.
How that came to be is a story that's nearly 30 years old, according to Bobby Kahn, the Democratic operative – who is a Stacey Evans supporter quoted in the column mentioned above.
In October 1989, State Sen. Roy Barnes was about to announce his first campaign for governor. On that same day, Lt. Gov. Zell Miller decided to step on Barnes’ announcement – and attempt to figure out how the banker/trial attorney made his money.
Miller introduced an ethics bill that required state legislators to file annual financial disclosures listing their sources of income and acknowledging any dealings with the state. Statewide candidates were required to file the long one. The model, Miller said, were the financial forms filed out by directors of a bank board.
“I would venture to say that it is far more detailed and specific than the federal requirement. They have ranges – somebody’s worth between $25,000 and $75,000, and you list the assets, but you don’t put the numbers on those sorts of things,” Kahn said.
The Georgia form “requires specific information about assets and liabilities. It is a full-blown financial statement,” he said.
But introducing ethics legislation in an election year poses a risk. Another Democratic candidate for governor in 1990, state Rep. Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, then chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, one-upped Miller. He called for the first cap on campaign contributions in Georgia. And once presented with it, state lawmakers couldn’t vote against it.
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Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is out with the first TV ad of his Republican campaign for governor. Watch it here:
That first line may be aimed at GOP rival and state Sen. Michael Williams of Cumming: “Political talkers may mean well, but leaders get things done.”
A brief nod to immigration could be aimed at Secretary of State Brian Kemp, another gubernatorial rival who has emphasized that topic.
But most interesting is the praise that Cagle features from Fox News personalities Laura Ingraham and Lou Dobbs, apparently made when Cagle deep-sixed a tax break on jet fuel for a certain airline, over its decision to distance itself from the NRA.
But the Cagle spot never mentions the word “Delta.”
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The American Civil Liberties Union is trying to increase pressure on politicians who delete critical comments or block users from their Facebook pages.
The ACLU’s local chapter has sent letters to U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson and Secretary of State Brian Kemp about their social media pages.
The letter to Isakson involved a Twitter user who has been blocked from posting to his account. It noted that two other Twitter accounts that were previously blocked have been unrestricted by his office. His office didn’t immediately respond.
The note to Kemp, a GOP candidate for governor, criticizes him for links that connect directly from his government website to his campaign’s Twitter account and Facebook page. The letter also accused him of routinely using his personal campaign Facebook page to conduct official government business.
Kemp spokesman Ryan Mahoney called it an attack from the “radical left” and tied the critique to his bid to succeed Gov. Nathan Deal.
“This letter from the sore losers of the ACLU is a clear reminder that Kemp is the only candidate for governor that Georgia Democrats fear,” said Mahoney.
The ACLU earlier warned several politicians and government agencies their use of social media accounts could infringe on free speech rights.
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Republicans haven't exactly rallied around state Sen. David Shafer since he was accused of sexually harassing a lobbyist. But they also haven't written him off.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is a prime example. In an interview with the Marietta Daily Journal, he noted that Shafer is probably the frontrunner to succeed him but "he's got some issues he's got to navigate around right now. Things like that can be overcome, but he can't sustain much — you can't keep putting more in the boat, so hopefully he can put this behind him."
Pressed on what he thinks of the allegations against Shafer -- the latter denies an accusation that he proposed to "spoon naked" with a lobbyist --
Cagle said this to the MDJ:
"Well, I haven't really looked at it. Those allegations have come forward and there's a process now in place that would obviously investigate, look into it, and I would expect that there would be third party assistance to get there. Yeah, it is a little hard for me to believe, but I'm not judge and jury in these situations," Cagle said.
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Sally Yates is not stepping away from the national spotlight. The Georgian and former acting attorney general, whom President Donald Trump fired last year for defying him on his travel ban, will be lecturing at the University of Georgia law school on Friday afternoon.
Yates, who now teaches at Georgetown University's law school, also recently gave an interview to the Harvard Political Review, discussing her legal career before arriving at the Justice Department, her views on criminal justice reform and, yes, her week-long tenure as the caretaker attorney general before she was fired. Yates has dodged questions in recent months about whether she'd ever run for elected office, and she was also vague in her interview with the Political Review:
“I hope that I will be able to have a role again in public service. It is in my bones. I believe in it, and I hope to have another opportunity, but it is hard to know what the future will hold.”
