Elections matter.
Obviously, they matter because they determine who holds important decision-making positions, such as governor and president. But they matter in less obvious ways too.
For example, November may still be a long way off, but the 2014 elections have already had a marked effect under the Gold Dome in Atlanta. The realization that Georgia Democrats will have a viable, articulate and well-funded candidate on the ballot for governor this fall is changing both the policies that are being implemented by Georgia Republicans as well as the rhetoric used to defend those policies.
Take Wednesday’s State of the State speech by Gov. Nathan Deal. Even before Deal entered the legislative chamber to speak, you could tell that something had changed. In his remarks introducing and welcoming Deal, House Speaker David Ralston went to unusual lengths to defend his party’s job-producing record, and that tone carried through into Deal’s remarks.
The good news is, that change in tone also came with a change in content, at least to a degree. Much of Deal’s speech focused on the need to improve education in Georgia, with the governor proposing $547 million in new funding to public schools. To his credit, Deal chose not to dictate that the money be used to finance teacher pay increases, which might have helped him win teacher votes. Instead, local districts will determine how that money should be spent. Clearly, moving closer to a full 180-day instructional schedule should be a priority.
It’s an interesting thing, though: In years in which they know voters will be paying more attention, Republicans suddenly become defenders of education and of teachers and of schools. The rhetorical attacks on public education and lazy teachers disappear, almost as if they realize that what sells to their own base doesn’t sell quite as well to the general election voter.
It’s also important to note that while the funding increase only begins to repair the damage done to the state education budget, the increase would probably be considerably smaller without the specter of a strong challenger in state Sen. Jason Carter. Elections matter.
In his speech, Deal also spent considerable time defending his party’s economic-development policies, once again stressing the fact that Georgia’s business climate has been ranked No. 1 by Site Selection magazine. He also pointed out that “Georgia has the lowest tax burden on its citizens of any state in the nation.”
Those are clearly going to consistent themes in Deal’s re-election efforts, but they also raise questions.
For example, when the centerpiece of your economic message is your state’s ranking in an obscure business magazine, it suggests that more traditional, meaningful measures of progress tell a less flattering story. Certainly, “We’re No. 1 in Site Selection magazine!” sounds a lot better than “we’re 40th in unemployment!” or “our soaring poverty rate is now higher than in Alabama, South Carolina or Florida!”
In football terms, Deal is a head coach arguing for a contract extension because his team was ranked No. 1 in some magazine’s preseason football rankings, while trying to distract attention from the fact that on the football field his team went 4-7.
For the record, Georgia’s poverty rate puts it next to last in the SEC East, meaning we now have a larger percentage of people living in poverty than do South Carolina, Kentucky, Florida and Missouri. In the SEC as a whole, our unemployment rate puts us ahead of only Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.
In football, that wouldn’t be acceptable. But maybe it’s OK in real life, huh?
