The ethics complaints that dogged Gov. Nathan Deal throughout his 2010 campaign have returned to haunt him again as the fate of the long-troubled ethics board that investigated those charges emerges as one of the most divisive issues in the governor’s race.
Democrat Jason Carter, his party’s candidate to challenge Deal, on Tuesday called for an independent investigation of those complaints after a jury sided with a former commission director who claimed she was forced out of her job for too aggressively investigating the 2010 claims.
The governor on Monday abandoned earlier attempts to distance himself from the agency by endorsing a plan to more than double the size of the commission's board and significantly boost its funding. His proposal calls for the five-member board to be replaced by a 12-person panel whose members are appointed by the legislative, executive and judicial branches.
His opponents see an election-year conversion. Deal’s GOP challengers, ex-Dalton Mayor David Pennington and state Superintendent John Barge, see it as a sign of institutional incompetence. And Carter, whose well-financed campaign most troubles Deal’s aides, on Tuesday said an “ethics catastrophe” should force officials to take a new look at the claims.
“We still need to uncover what it was that caused the governor’s supporters to fire this person,” said Carter, a state senator from Atlanta. “That’s the real story today. This cover-up is ongoing. We still don’t have answers, and we are stuck with the bill.”
The 2010 complaints claim Deal personally profited from his campaign's aircraft rentals from a company he partly owned and that he illegally used campaign funds for legal bills linked to a federal ethics probe while he was in Congress. The ethics agency cleared Deal of major violations in July 2012 but found "technical defects" in several of his personal financial and campaign finance reports. Deal agreed to pay fees totaling $3,350.
The pressure on the ethics commission is increasing even as the agency’s work sputters. Executive director Holly LaBerge, who was recruited by the governor’s office for the position, is facing allegations that she curried favor with Deal by burying the more serious complaints filed against him. LaBerge and Deal have both denied the claims, and Deal has said he hardly knows LaBerge.
The infighting, strained resources and whistleblower lawsuits have taken their toll on the agency. LaBerge, who declined to comment for this article, said last month that work has stalled on the 169 open ethics cases for almost a year. And after a jury granted $700,000 to Stacey Kalberman, the former ethics head who brought the first complaint, more dirty laundry could soon be aired.
Former ethics staffers Sherilyn Streicker and John Hair have filed similar lawsuits claiming they were wrongfully terminated that are now winding their way through the courts. And a lawyer for another former staffer, Elisabeth Murray-Obertein, said Tuesday that she would also file a similar lawsuit on behalf of her client.
Kalberman's legal victory has heightened speculation over whether Attorney General Sam Olens may seek to settle the cases to help blunt the negative media attention for his Republican ally, or bring them to court in hopes of pulling out a victory. His office wouldn't comment, but several jurors polled after last week's trial questioned why state attorneys didn't settle before bringing it to court.
That’s if the jilted ex-staffers would even consider settling. Lawyers for the three declined to comment on the matter.
Another campaign-ready issue looms. Democrats have loudly called on Deal’s campaign to pay Kalberman the $700,000 out of his campaign coffers rather than through the taxpayer-funded State Department of Administrative Services. Carter said taxpayers shouldn’t pay “for Governor Deal’s supporters covering up the ethics problems that he had in 2010.”
That prospect seems far-fetched. Invoking Carter’s background as an appellate attorney who has challenged the state’s voter ID laws, Deal spokeswoman Jen Talaber said the governor “won’t be taking ethics advice from someone who has made his living suing the state of Georgia.”
For Deal, the questions about the 2010 complaints have long touched a nerve. He often contends that his campaign withstood the most exhaustive review in state history. The prospect of a new round of scrutiny on the 2010 complaints is unwelcome, to say the least.
“I wish I knew how this thing could be put to an end,” Deal said Tuesday. “Because it is a political football and those who choose to use it as that will continue to do that, and I have no power to change that.”
It’s an issue that won’t go away soon if his political opponents have any say. Carter wants Attorney General Sam Olens and the ethics commission to mount a new inquest, though he suggested both offices could be tainted by politics.
“I don’t know who we can trust,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons we have to have an ethics commission that’s independent.”
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