How does PolitiFact Georgia’s Truth-O-Meter work?
Our goal is to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution fact-check statements by local, state and national political leaders, including lobbyists and interest groups. We then rate them on the AJC Truth-O-Meter.
To fact-check a claim, reporters first contact the speaker to verify the statement. Next, the research begins. Reporters consult a variety of sources, including industry and academic experts. This research can take hours or a few days or even longer, depending on the claim. Reporters then compile the research into story form and include a recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling.
The fact check then moves on to a panel of veteran editors who debate the statement and the reporter’s recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling. The panel votes on a final ruling; majority prevails.
Campaigns are in high gear as the July 22 primary runoffs fast approach, and fact checkers have been busy reviewing the candidates’ press releases and ads on television and radio.
The U.S. Senate runoff between longtime U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston and businessman David Perdue (Yep, Sonny’s cousin) on the GOP side is the big draw, and charges and countercharges have been flying between their camps. Did a Perdue company take $3 million in federal stimulus money? Does Kingston deserve the title of king of earmarks? We looked at those claims, as well as one on Bill Clinton’s wealth as he took over the presidency and on Gov. Nathan Deal’s record on education.
Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below.
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GOP Senate hopeful David Perdue: “Jack Kingston requested more earmarks than any other Georgia congressman and all Georgia GOP members combined.”
Earmarks, money that lawmakers designate to go to projects or programs in their districts, are an issue in the runoff battle between Kingston and Perdue for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate
“Jack Kingston requested more earmarks than any other GA Congressman and all
GA GOP members combined.” David Perdue wrote June 23 in the tweet he posted over pictures of pigs feeding at the trough, lest anyone miss his contempt.
We reviewed two databases that backed up the claim. One showed Kingston made 145 requests for earmarks in three years, pulling in about $211 million. Together, Georgia’s GOP delegation had about $327 million in earmarks in that same period.
Kingston, who represents five of Georgia’s eight military installations, noted that much of the funding was for defense or military spending, such as an IED simulator at Fort Stewart and hospital renovations at installations statewide.
We rated Perdue’s statement Mostly True.
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Senate campaign ad with someone pretending to be President Barack Obama leaving a voicemail for Jack Kingston: Says David Perdue’s company has taken $3 million of “my stimulus money.”
The president’s not calling Kingston. But, to a distracted television watcher or radio listener, the ad using an Obama impersonator might be a head-turner.
In a provocative ad now airing on television and radio, Kingston tries to tie his Republican runoff opponent, Perdue, to Obama. The impersonator says Perdue is “my kind of guy,” someone, who among other things, has a company that took $3 million in stimulus money.
The ad refers to $3.4 million in stimulus money that went to Alliant Energy Co., a Midwest energy holding company with $3.2 billion in reported operating revenue for 2013. Perdue serves on the company’s board of directors but has no direct management responsibility and no day-to-day role at the company. We saw the claim by Kingston as misleading.
We rated the ad Mostly False.
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Matt McGrath, campaign manager for Jason Carter’s gubernatorial bid: “Gov. Deal has the worst record on education in the history of this state.”
Georgia’s school systems were collectively short-changed more than $1 billion a year in each of the first three years of Gov. Nathan Deal’s term in office. These “austerity cuts” started in 2003 under Gov. Sonny Perdue and will continue into the fiscal year that started Tuesday, though at a lesser $746.6 million.
School systems have had to furlough teachers, shorten the length of their school years and increase class sizes as a result of a combination of these cuts and lower property tax collections. But does that make Deal the state’s worst governor in terms of education, as McGrath said in a press release June 18?
The Carter camp said the statement was in regard to education funding, though that’s not what it said. The proof the camp offered was the size of the austerity cuts under Deal, (Separate from the austerity cuts, the education budget has increased every year under Deal.).
With 81 governors before him and with a checkered state history on education, the label “worst” could not be proved and went far beyond being a stretch.
We rated McGrath’s statement Pants On Fire.
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Former President Bill Clinton: “I had the lowest net worth of any American president in the 20th century when I took office.”
The subject of the Clintons’ wealth resurfaced when Bill Clinton claimed he took office with the lowest net worth of any 20th century American president. His comments June 29 on NBC’s “Meet the Press” came on the heels of Hillary Clinton saying the couple left the White House “not only dead broke, but in debt.”
Experts told us that, without a doubt, Bill Clinton’s net worth was one of the lowest for a 20th century president. Whether it was the lowest is hard to say. There’s a good case to be made that Harry Truman entered the White House with a smaller (albeit unknown) net worth. But Clinton’s at least right on his larger point: He did not enter the White House with the wealth of many of his contemporaries.
We rated Clinton’s claim Half True.
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