A rare face-to-face clash jolts Georgia governor’s race
It was a remarkable campaign moment between the two rivals for Georgia governor, one more suited for a debate stage than a parking lot outside the Hilton Atlanta.
As smartphones rolled, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms confronted Republican Rick Jackson outside the National Business League event with a blunt message.
“I’m fair game. Please stay away from my family.”
Jackson seemed caught off guard, telling his Democratic rival, “I hear you,” before adding a compliment of her outfit.
But the unvarnished exchange offered a revealing glimpse of both candidates.
On Saturday, Jackson offered a much sharper response before hundreds of supporters at a rally in Buford, accusing Bottoms of trying to sidestep questions about her husband’s Super Bowl travel and her chauffeured rides during her term as Atlanta mayor.
“Let me be clear: Georgians did not want to cover her husband’s travel. Georgians did not want to cover her limousine rides,” he said, adding:
“And for all those reasons and more, Georgians do not want Keisha Lance Bottoms to be Georgia’s next governor.”
The dispute traces to a 2018 trip to the Super Bowl in Minneapolis, when a city credit card was initially used to buy a plane ticket for Bottoms’ husband, Derek.
The money was reimbursed less than two weeks after the trip, months before the expense became public, and Bottoms’ office said the card was used inadvertently.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation also found Bottoms spent $11,651 on 27 chauffeured rides during her first five months as mayor, an average of $431 per trip. Her administration said she initially relied on a car service that had already been vetted for security and reliability.
Bottoms’ allies say Jackson is ignoring bigger policy questions. At a campaign event with Bottoms in Ringgold on Saturday, state Rep. Stacey Evans pointed to the billionaire healthcare executive’s opposition to Medicaid expansion.
“But what do you hear from Rick Jackson? Crickets,” she said. “Because Rick Jackson isn’t focused on protecting Georgians. He’s focused on protecting a system that’s already made him rich.”
‘She walked away’
The exchange offered a snapshot of a race that’s taking on sharper contours as Republicans try to unite after a bruising nomination fight and put their focus on Bottoms’ record as Atlanta mayor at the center of the November campaign.
Gov. Brian Kemp spent his two campaigns for governor warning that the election was a “fight for the soul of our state.” At his first campaign rally with Jackson on Saturday, he cast this year’s contest in similar terms.
“This is 2018 all over again. Everything is on the line for our state,” Kemp said, warning that the winner could shape Georgia for generations.
It was a notable show of Republican unity. Kemp endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones over Jackson in the GOP runoff, but on Saturday he stood alongside the nominee as Republicans delivered their most direct case yet against Bottoms’ record on crime and public safety.
“In this election, we don’t have to wonder what Keisha Lance Bottoms would do as governor — because she has already shown us during her disastrous four years as mayor,” Kemp said.
Bottoms has portrayed herself as a “battle-tested leader” who navigated a pandemic, racial justice protests and rising violent crime.
She points to police and firefighter raises, increases in public safety spending and early backing of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center before deciding against running for a second term. She later joined then-President Joe Biden’s administration.
Jackson and his allies used the rally to spell out how they believe those crises exposed shortcomings in Bottoms’ leadership.
Former Department of Public Safety Commissioner Chris Wright invoked rising crime rates that spiked during the coronavirus pandemic, unrest and strains on law enforcement that Atlanta experienced during her term.
“The next crisis is inevitable. It’s coming,” Wright said. “Do you want your governor hiding in her basement, or on vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, or on the ground providing support and leadership?”
Insurance Commissioner John King reached back to one of the most searing images of the protests for racial justice that swept Atlanta in 2020: burning police vehicles.
And Jackson picked up the same argument, casting Bottoms’ decision not to seek a second term as evidence that she doesn’t have the “character” to lead the state.
“Keisha Lance Bottoms faced tests as mayor, but when Atlanta faced some of its hardest moments, she chose not to run again,” Jackson said. “She walked away from the fight. I never will.”