Georgia Grows Under Steady, Conservative Leadership
In a press conference Tuesday announcing the issuance of $100 million in bonds for bus rapid transit along the GA-400 corridor, Governor Nathan Deal announced that Georgia has secured a AAA bond rating with all three bond agencies keeping the state’s roughly two decade streak alive.
That streak stayed alive through the depths of an economic recession in the early 2010s, thanks in part to Governor Deal’s leadership and a cooperative General Assembly. Thoughtful, steady conservative leadership helped balance a budget without putting an additional burden on taxpayers, who themselves were struggling in parts of the state where there was double-digit unemployment. Cuts were deep, and they were tough, but we made it. In fact, our current economic boom can be credited to tough decision made during the lean times.
Governor Deal leaves behind a tremendous legacy. He entered office with a Rainy Day fund just days from exhaustion. He will leave it replentished for the next economic downturn. He entered office with a lot of Georgians out of work. He will leave with new sectors of Georgia’s economy growing by leaps and bounds.
Governor Deal leaves Georgia in much better shape for his successor than he found it when he was first sworn in. Georgia Republicans are down to two choices for Governor. Whoever wins in July will be our standard bearer to face Stacey Abrams in November. Both men are fine choices. I have my preference, but I would be satisfied with either Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle or Secretary of State Brian Kemp as our next governor.
Unfortunately, the out-maneuvering and efforts to out-conservative in this Era of Trump is doing nothing more than giving Democrats ammunition to use in November. Rather than focus on how Georgians have benefited greatly through Republican leadership, camps quickly unloaded the dirt from the opposing camp. Surprising? Not really. Politics is a full contact sport after all.
However, as a reasonable Republican trying to make his way through the new reality of Donald Trump’s Republican Party, I would rather hear about how each candidate is going to continue to cultivate the legacy that Governor Deal is leaving behind…more so than how quick they were to endorse the President’s campaign once he was the presumptive nominee. I know, I’m in the minority since Make America Great Again can only happen when bumper sticker slogans, Twitter tirades, and unhealthy obsessions with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama rule the day. Perhaps one day rationality and reasonableness will come back to the GOP.
It’s an unfortunate state that our Party is in. I believe we have two good candidates who can offer the steady conservative leadership that we need for continued growth in our great state. I just hope we don’t rip ourselves to shreds by the time the July run-off comes around.
About Author
nsmith
Father. IT Geek. Former 14th District GOP Chairman (2015-2017). Former Walker GOP Chairman (2009-2013). Resident of Chamblee. American. Georgian. Conservative.
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“It’s an unfortunate state that our Party is in. I believe we have two good candidates who can offer the steady conservative leadership that we need for continued growth in our great state.”
No, you don’t. You have Cagle, who is a solid if uninspiring politician and entrepreneur who is well qualified for the office, and you have Kemp who is an embarrassment, a laughingstock, a disaster and it is to the discredit of the Georgia GOP that they didn’t get rid of him when they had the opportunity in 2014.
Also, not pointing out that Deal “inherited” this state from a Republican governor and legislature who did an absolutely terrible job is the kind of parlor games that got Obama elected and re-elected. It is bad enough that we have Perdue’s cousin as senator when there were tons of better options available, especially Kingston and Handel. There are no reassurances that Kemp wouldn’t be as bad as Perdue. In fact he may even be worse, because at least with Perdue there was the “until very recently he was a lifelong Democrat” excuse. Kemp could well be another Bobby Jindal or Sam Brownback, GOPers who were absolute disasters for their state because they were unable to acknowledge that the national GOP rhetoric doesn’t work on the local level.
The last part is key. Nathan Deal had a record of economic success precisely because he ignored the national GOP rhetoric and worked WITH the Obama supporter in the Atlanta mayor’s office as well as advanced things like public transit and spending increases on public and higher education. So Georgia’s economy rose along with the national economy’s (which despite what most GOPers claim, did go from being a basket case to being very good, with unemployment already in years-long decline, from 2008 to 2016). Which, by the way, the economies of Louisiana and Kansas did not. Which is why Louisiana has a Democrat governor right now. If Georgia elects Kemp, Barrow will be governor in 2022.
And it is hard to give Deal and the GOP credit on transit and infrastructure when A) Sonny Perdue blocked the badly needed northern arc highway project and B) suburban Republicans have spent the last 20 years blocking MARTA expansion, using “corruption” and “mismanagement” as excuses despite their knowing full well that by joining MARTA, they would have joined the MARTA board and would have ultimately been able to gain a majority over it and ultimately outvote the DeKalb and Fulton contingents. We could have long had a suburban-dominated MARTA building the sort of outstanding transit and transportation projects in Gwinnett, Cobb etc. that places like Texas, Colorado and Virginia have. If that were in place, we wouldn’t even need to give all that corporate welfare away to Amazon – whom we still will probably not get – because we’d be booming in attracting jobs already.
Now Cagle owns part of the failures of Perdue and GOPers past because he was in the legislature and lieutenant governor’s office for most of that time. But even that dubious track record makes him far better than Kemp. Nonsense like this https://www.ajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/georgia-gets-forms-fraud-probe-stacey-abrams-voter-registration-group/cww2jBoqgjkySI2twq9zOK/ is just the tip of the iceberg for that guy.
Due to issues with a family member I’m not able to screen my calls right now. I answered one from a polite kid (Jake?) asking me if I knew Brian Kemp was running for governor and needed my vote. I couldn’t bring myself to be too rude to him as I was once in his shoes dialing for Bo Callaway. I simply laughed and told him “not a chance”.
If Noway can repeat his troll videos on here ad nauseum then perhaps I can repeat myself just this once. Cagle may not be able to tie his own shoes but Kemp has to remove his to count past 10.
The state had some major points of growth in the last 20 years I have lived here. It should also be noted that when necessary on Federal level funding (example the Savannah River dredging, US Military installments) the entire bipartisan power of Georgia’s nationally elected body was put into play for the growth of the state.
Georgia has also had some missed chances and close calls. It was by vetoing a conservative religious freedom bill, Deal saved the state from the fate of lost business and major income producing national events while places such as Indiana and North Carolina were not as lucky. Savannah is still having conventions that booked here instead of midsize venues in North Carolina. We lost out on major manufacturing facilities due to the limits of mass transit and cuts in education at the K-12 and tech level costs which are now only begin to recover or be reinstalled.
Besides asking what the conservative leadership of Cagle or Kemp can offer, we also need to ask what likely harm will they do. If a religious freedom bill falls on their desk, do they sign it, economy be damn? What if they pull another ‘punish Delta’ stunt on a major Georgia based company, but on a bigger scale? If the national EPA standards for wetlands protection falls, do they allow the state to follow suite, knowing that in many cases the damage to the coast by the prior two hurricanes and the quick deceleration of wind speed leading to more damage 100 miles inland was lessoned by strong, healthy and substantial salt marshes and bogs?
The same goes for extreme far left ideas that come Stacy’s way that can needlessly harm Georgia growth.
The question becomes down to who do we trust of the three to do what is best for the state (even if you personally don’t like the idea), instead of their party or themselves.