\nWith Revelations of Debt, Georgia Governor’s Race Evens Up<\/a>
New York Times<\/strong>
By ROBBIE BROWN
September 19, 2010<\/div>\nLAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — At a paper-plate luncheon for lawyers and judges on Friday, Nathan Deal<\/span>, the Republican nominee for governor of Georgia, searched for a metaphor that would resonate. He wanted to describe how it feels to run a major campaign, especially amid revelations last week that he is facing more than $5 million of debt and may need to sell his house to avoid bankruptcy or foreclosure. “What’s it like?” he asked rhetorically, standing in a century-old courtroom in this Atlanta suburb. “It’s like being in a trial that is contentious, doesn’t have weekends off and lasts for over a year and a half.” In his analogy, the jurors determining his fate would be Georgia voters, who must decide in November whether to stand by Mr. Deal, a former nine-term congressman, despite revelations about his worsening financial situation.<\/sup><\/p>\n
On Wednesday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Mr. Deal, 68, owed $2.3 million to a bank, after having invested in his daughter’s sporting goods store, which went out of business last year. On Thursday, The Associated Press added to the campaign’s troubles, reporting that Mr. Deal also owed $2.85 million on loans for an automobile salvage business he co-owns. None of the debts were included in filings that the Deal campaign released before the Republican primary runoff in August, which Mr. Deal won by less than 1 percent of the vote.<\/sup><\/p>\n
The back-to-back disclosures have upended an election that had been considered reasonably easy for Republicans. Georgia is so reliably conservative — with a Republican governor, two Republican senators and Republican control of the state legislature — that Mr. Deal’s Democratic opponent, former Gov. Roy E. Barnes, declined even to meet President Obama<\/span> when he visited the state last month. Gov. Sonny Perdue<\/span> is prevented by term limits from seeking re-election. Now, national experts are declaring the Georgia race a tossup, offering a glimmer of hope to Democratic leaders expecting landslide defeats elsewhere, especially in the South…<\/sup><\/p>\n
He has tried to frame the story as the kind of financial hardship many Georgians are enduring. “Nobody foresaw the current course of the economy several years ago,” he said. “My wife and I did what responsible parents do — we supported our daughter. The situation that’s happening to our daughter is not unlike what’s happening to other Georgians.” The Deal campaign has updated its disclosures to include the debt but contends that it was not required by state law to do so…<\/sup><\/p>\n
Even before the debt problems, Mr. Deal faced charges of ethical impropriety. In March, a week after he resigned from the House to run for governor, the Office of Congressional Ethics<\/span> released a report concluding that Mr. Deal appeared to have improperly used his staff to pressure Georgia officials to continue a state vehicle inspection program that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for his automobile salvage company. He denied any wrongdoing, calling the accusations a “politically motivated witch hunt”…<\/sup><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nAnd then there was this campaign ad in the Primary last month…<\/div>\n\nNathan Deal steps up attacks on Karen Handel for supporting gays<\/a>
examiner.com<\/strong>
by Ewa Kochanska
August 5, 2010<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
The Republican battle for the Georgia gubernatorial nomination heats up today, just five days before the August 10 primary runoff, with former Congressman Nathan Deal attacking his opponent former Secretary of State Karen Handel in a TV ad for supporting various gay-rights groups.<\/sup><\/div>\n\n
Narrator:<\/font><\/strong> The last straw. For some, it’s Karen Handel’s support for taxpayer-funded gay partner benefits. For others, the last straw is Karen Handel’s vote to give our tax dollars to Youth Pride, a group that promotes homosexuality among teenagers as young as 13. But for all, the lies Karen Handel tells about Nathan Deal — a veteran, former prosecutor and judge, to hide what she’s done — are the last straw.<\/sup><\/div>\n<\/ul>\n