Campaign Finance: What I Think About Who is Financing Roy Barnes and Nathan Deal's Campaigns

In keeping up with the current Georgia gubernatorial race, I couldn't neglect the seedier side of it: campaign finance. And the old toothpaste commercial, "Put your money where you mouth is," sums it up nicely for the Georgia gubernatorial race. Campaign finance donors want to influence the voice our next governor will have in state matters.

The AJC reported that Democrat Roy Barnes was being backed by lawyers, for the most part. His competitor, Republican Nathan Deal was getting his funding from political action committees (PAC). The third man running, Libertarian John Monds is so low down on the dollar totem pole that AJC didn't even report where his money came from. But what does all this mean?

Campaign Finance: How much have Barnes and Deal collected?

Roy Barnes has said he has collected as much as $2.8 million dollars during his campaign for governor. Nathan Deal is slightly behind him on raising capital, collecting $2.7 million. But when I contemplated who they were collecting monies from, I was troubled.

Politicians have the potential to do great good in their time in office, but they can do great harm, too. Just look at our current economic condition to understand that.

Politicians want into office so badly they will sometimes tell the voter anything they want to hear. They make pacts with campaign finance supporters to get funding, and then the American public suffers when they keep some of those poor promises after reaching office.

Lawyers Funding Roy Barnes

Roy Barnes is taking money from lawyers in the state. Roy Barnes is a lawyer, too: a lawyer that made millions off of suing businesses in our own state. That makes me concerned that he may be going to make it a priority to acquiesce to pushing for anything his legal buddies want, including tort-related favoritism.

I want a governor who is unbiased. I certainly don't want the businesses in the state targeted by any more unnecessary legal woes when we need to keep them churning out jobs in this terrible economy. I don't think lawsuits against a person or a business should promote the mindset "Sue others to become rich."

PAC Funding Nathan Deal

Nathan Deal is taking money from political action committees. That can be a whole slew of potential donors who may influence our new governor. But given what I know about the difference between lawyers and political action committees, I'm more open to the new Georgia governor being influenced by an action committee than legal eagles wanting to make a million or two off of Georgia's businesses.

Action committees are seeking betterment of Georgia in some regard, or to prevent unnecessary federal intervention. They aren't trying to line their own pockets as a solo entity, per se, like tort lawyers. So I'm more agreeable to PAC funding for campaign contributions.

Campaign spending: Look who spent the most!

Campaign finance isn't just about seeing how our candidates collect monies, however. It is about how the candidate spends those monies, too.

Of the two, it is Nathan Deal who has spent less than Roy Barnes: a million dollars less!

That makes me reflect on the comment made recently by Barnes to a group at one of his campaign stops, according to the AJC. Roy was asking folks to choose between him and Nathan Deal: "Who would you rather have run your business?"

Considering Nathan Deal has spent a million less than Roy Barnes, but is getting the same result (or even better, according to the poll numbers), I'd have to say Nathan Deal is who I want running the state's business.

Nathan Deal appears to be getting more bangs for his buck, and Nathan Deal isn't stooping to picking on Roy Barnes' family to do it either. Georgians need a governor who can make the dollar go further with the same spending power as a million bucks more. Nathan has already proven this year he is the one who can do that.

In addition, Nathan Deal didn't terminate teacher's tenure, dismantle Georgia's flag or refuse to listen to voters in the state on either issue like King Roy Barnes did.

Resources:
"Barnes, Deal busy pressing the flesh," AJC.com
"Barnes takes money from lawyers," AJC.com
Personal opinion