Every day, more and more Independent and Republican voters are joining Roy 2010. On Sunday, Peach Pundit blogger Clint Murphy wrote why he can't support Congressman Deal for Governor and will be voting for Roy...
The fact that Nathan Deal continues to lead for Governor of Georgia is a testament to the strong winds blowing against the Obama Administration and their disastrous efforts in Washington, DC. Barack Obama is clearly in over his head and has no idea how to lead a nation. Barack Obama is a smart man, but a great leader of a nation he is not. That’s a mistake that America can help correct in the 2010 Congressional elections and the 2012 Presidential election.
However, let’s be clear, the office of the Governor of Georgia isn’t located in DC, it’s in Atlanta. The next Governor is going to have to work on a host of issues that have been bubbling up under the surface for a long time and have now finally reached a boiling point (taxes, traffic, quality of life, jobs). Georgia is going to need a Governor who can focus 110% of their time on the greater good of all Georgians and improving Georgia’s future. Georgia is also going to need a Governor who can’t be bought.
As a candidate for Governor, Nathan Deal has not been honest about his financial dealings, disclosures, or other potential liabilities that may exist. It is clear that he has immediate items that require his attention and therefore will not be able to focus on the betterment of the entire state. Additionally, he used his Congressional office to try and continue a sweetheart arrangement with the state. Because of the lack of disclosure, we also now know that Deal participated in creating a company with his cronies that made hundreds of thousands of dollars off of his official Congressional travel. It might have been legal, but it sure wasn’t ethical and he worked pretty hard to conceal these items from the voting public. The jury is still out as to the status of a possible federal grand jury investigation. There was a time when people with as much baggage as Nathan Deal has would never have run for office. The pure shame associated with their greed and corruption would have been enough to have discouraged them from making the decision to run. In all fairness, Deal kept his issues hidden from his supporters for a very long time. Yet, even when they came to light, some chose to double down in their support. It does make me wonder about their own ethics and priorities, but that is a subject for another time.
Based on his record, Nathan Deal is not a conservative. If anything, he’s a man who was willing to draw the last straw in his desperate campaign to win the Republican nomination by seizing on homophobia, fear, and lies. Before going to Congress, Nathan Deal voted for the largest tax increase in the history of Georgia. Furthermore, as a Member of Congress, Nathan Deal voted against parental notification for minors seeking an abortion. Additionally, Nathan Deal voted over ten times to raise the debt ceiling from about $1 trillion when he got there to over $7 trillion by the time he was forced to leave because of an ethics investigation. When asked in the run-off debates if he’d support Karen Handel as the Republican nominee, Nathan Deal said that he would not commit to supporting her.
I know most people are going to treat what I say as sour grapes because I was a Karen Handel staffer. Georgia Republicans had the opportunity to nominate a Chris Christie type straight talking no nonsense public servant in Karen Handel, and while they did not, I do not have sour grapes about that decision. As a loyal Republican, there is no requirement that I check my common sense at the door in casting a ballot for my elected officials. To be certain, there are parts of the Republican Party scrambling to pull every stop to try and get Nathan Deal elected and my speaking out will likely put me in small company within the party. If you are upset about any of this, be upset with Nathan Deal for having so many distracting issues and for insisting on running for Governor even when he knew these items would be distracting. There are just too many questions surrounding Nathan Deal and his lack of transparency and arrogance regarding those that question his record is very concerning and defies common sense and it certainly is something that should encourage you to cast a vote against him.
Every election is about choices. Let’s be clear, knowing that the General Assembly is at no risk of switching hands from the Republican Party made my decision to support and vote for a candidate other than that of my party’s choice much easier. I think it might actually cause some clear thinking and rational debate to take place should my candidate be successful in winning this election.
Let’s be clear about the choices you have in this election:
1. You can vote for Nathan Deal and throw ethics, honesty, and integrity out the door. If you complain about politics as usual and the corruption that ensues from it, then you will have no one but yourself to blame. You will also be sending a contradictory message to your children about the aforementioned values. For a man running on the tag line that he’ll get it right the first time, Nathan Deal is on the third or fourth modification of his disclosures and even those weren’t done right and require revisions.
2. You can cast a vote for John Monds. If the Libertarian candidate for Governor gets 20% of the vote, they will be granted ballot access and it will permanently change the dynamics of politics in Georgia from here on out. Essentially, this punts the race for Governor into a runoff though and extends this mess beyond Thanksgiving.
3. You can do what I decided to do. You can cast a vote for the candidate for Governor who is the most fiscally conservative and who has the entire state of Georgia’s bests interests in mind. You can cast a vote for Roy Barnes. First and foremost, Roy Barnes didn’t have to run for Governor. He didn’t need to run for Governor. His business interests (loans and ability to get loans) aren’t contingent upon his being Governor. Despite the best efforts of some groups, Roy Barnes is not a big government Democrat and in fact, the CATO Institute, in a report co-authored by Stephen Moore, rated Roy Barnes as one of the 3 best Governors in the country in 2002, coming just behind Republicans Bill Owens of Colorado and Jeb Bush of Florida. This idea that Barnes is somehow a radical liberal of the left just isn’t true. Was Roy Barnes aggressive in his efforts to get things done as Governor? Yes. Perhaps if more of our elected officials showed a little aggressiveness they wouldn’t need to stay in office so long to get things done.
Every day, more and more Independent and Republican voters are joining Roy 2010. On Sunday, Peach Pundit blogger Clint Murphy wrote why he can't support Congressman Deal for Governor and will be voting for Roy...
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