Republican Georgia Governor Nathan Deal faced off against State Senator Jason Carter at the Reaves Arena in Perry on Tuesday. The 72-year old Deal slammed Carter, 39, for being too “young and inexperienced” for the job of governor.
“You’ve never passed a bill, you’ve never been put in a position of leadership within your own congress within the DeKalb delegation, you’ve never been elected to a position within the Democrat caucus of the state senate,” Deal said. “Why would anybody decide you have the leadership skills to lead this state?”
Carter, grandson of former president Jimmy Carter, went after Deal for the state’s unemployment rate. Deal, however, noted the drop of the unemployment rate in the state since he took office in 2011.
According to Savannah Now, the state’s unemployment rate was 10.1 percent in January of 2011. It later dropped to 6.9 percent by April of this year. The rate went up to 8.1 percent in August.
“We need a leader who can say as the governor, the buck stops here,” Carter said.
Deal responded that 300,000 new private sector jobs have been created since he too office and the state is the best place in the nation to do business. Additionally, Deal said, taxes are lower and Georgia kept its AAA bond rating while other states lost theirs.
“If you think these last four years have been great, and I believe they have been, just wait. We’re going to do even more,” Deal said before the rallying crowd.
“Out here in the real world, we’re dead last in unemployment, we’re dead last in how fast we’re recovering from the recession, and folks out here in middle Georgia aren’t feeling it,” Carter said.
“My question is how long do they have to wait in your economy to get the benefits that you’re talking about?”
Deal responded, “Senator Carter, I know that you’re young and inexperienced, but obviously you’re trying to hold me accountable for the Great Recession. You are quoting numbers of 10 years ago. I wasn’t responsible for the Great Recession. Why don’t you talk about what’s happened since I’ve been governor?”
“You have been in the state Senate for the entire amount of time that I’ve been governor of this state,” said Deal. “You’ve never passed a bill. You’ve never been put in a position of leadership in your own conference..” Deal went on to ask, “Why would anybody decide that you have the leadership skills to lead this state?”
Latest poll numbers show Deal and Carter neck and neck, but Deal managed to outraise Carter according to third quarter numbers, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
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