The Georgia Governor’s Race: Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss

Tuesday August 10th was the Republican primary runoff. The two finalists were former Congressman Nathan Deal and former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel. Deal squeaked out a victory by only about 2,400 votes.

The primary vote tells me that the citizens of Georgia like politicians who are part of the System, rather than political outsiders. And that means that the citizens of the State of Georgia have no stomach for secession on any level.

At the beginning of the year, Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine was the odds-on favorite. Polls showed him ahead of all other Republican candidates by at least 20 points. One of his campaign “planks” was to eliminate the Georgia state income tax, which should have been wildly popular. The nomination was his to lose.

And he lost it. Or perhaps it is better said that it was stolen from him.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution must have not wanted Oxendine to be Governor. They trotted out stories of old ethics investigations, some over 14 years old, that besmirched Oxendine’s reputation. The headlines were huge, but the findings that there was no breach of ethics were hard to find. Naturally, the lazy TV stations’ news staffs used the newspaper’s stories as their sources and ran the stories over and over. Oxendine was unable to overcome this attack, and in the first primary, he came in fourth.

Karen Handel ran a great campaign, and she has an impeccable record of service in Georgia. She was current Governor Sonny Perdue’s choice to succeed him. But that was not enough to take the primary from Nathan Deal.

Consider Nathan Deal. Deal went to Congress in 1992 as a Democrat. He switched to the Republican Party in 1995 after the Gingrich windstorm swept a bunch of Republicans into Georgia congressional seats in the Fall 1994 elections. On March 29, 2010, the Office of Congressional Ethics released a report concluding that Mr. Deal improperly used his office staff to pressure Georgia officials to continue the state vehicle inspection program that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for his family’s auto salvage business. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) lists Deal as one of the 15 most corrupt members of Congress, for trying to influence officials for personal gain.¹

Curiously, that story never got traction in Georgia. Here is a guy that has been proven to have violated his ethical responsibilities, and he’s Teflon. Karen Handel beat this drum in nearly every one of her TV campaign ads. But Oxendine gets investigated and found not guilty of ethics violations, and he’s given the bum’s rush. And Handel ends up in second place.

No one has to tell me that politics is a blood sport. I get that. I’m just telling you gentle readers that this article is much more about the mindset of Georgia voters than about the qualifications of the candidates.

Georgia Republican voters have sent a message. They have said…with their votes…that a guy who has 18 years’ experience as a Congressional insider is more desirable to them as the Republican candidate for Governor. They want a Governor who knows how to get things done in Washington…even if his hands are dirty. And how can you blame them? When DC is the heart that pumps Federal blood to Georgia, why would you want someone unfamiliar with the congressional circulatory system?

Now here comes the other shoe dropping…the Democratic candidate.

Roy Barnes is the former Georgia Governor and the Dem’s candidate. He clubbed all the other candidates in the Democratic primary. Roy was Governor from 1999 to 2003. He was a country lawyer and spent many years in the Georgia Legislature before becoming Governor. His term was marked by mild controversy over the old “stars-and-bars” Georgia flag, and educational changes he made that angered union school teachers. He was replaced by Republican Sonny Purdue in November 2002 in a Republican mid-term sweep. In Roy’s campaign ads, he said that other states are “making fun” of Georgia over discussions about secession in the Georgia Senate.

So, the choice for Georgia in November is a corrupt Republican former Congressman and a do-nothing Democrat former Governor.

No one is talking about how broken Washington is. No one is talking about the collapse of the dollar. No one is talking about the Georgia militia, or even thinking about establishing their own money. Georgia is safely tucked into the vest pocket of the DC criminal class.

The Georgia citizens continue to validate the hopelessly broken and irreparable Federal system by their willing participation in meaningless elections. Voters are willing to hold their noses and vote. They are happy to choose party apparachiks over principled candidates. They would rather be Americans than Georgians.

Is it any wonder that I wrote the article Stop Voting?

Secession is the hope for mankind. Who will be first?

DumpDC. Six Letters That Can Change History.

© Copyright 2010, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

¹ http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/summaries/deal.php