When Nathan Deal stood before hundreds of supporters in Gainesville last May 1 and announced his bid for governor, many in the Republican Party welcomed him as a calming, conservative voice free of the baggage other candidates were lugging around the state.
Now, Deal’s campaign is straining under the weight of his own problems, and political observers and Deal’s supporters say the damage has been done.
In the wake of last week’s release of a congressional report accusing him of six ethical violations, Deal has been dogged in defending himself against what he described as a political smear campaign by Democrats in Atlanta and Washington.
A member of the U.S. House since 1993, Deal resigned his seat on March 21. His resignation means he is outside the purview of congressional ethics enforcers and faces no punishment. But he also lost the chance to have his name cleared by the House ethics committee, which dropped the issue when he resigned.
Still, the accusations that as a congressman Deal used his office, staff and resources to protect a state program that earned him and a business partner $1.5 million from 2004 to 2008 are troublesome at best. The report released Monday by the bipartisan Office of Congressional Ethics came seven months after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported in August on 2008 and 2009 meetings involving his business relationship with the state.
“Clearly the impact is negative,” said former state Sen. Chuck Clay, a former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party who served with Deal in the Senate. “You would have to be a fool to say, ‘Give me more of that kind of publicity.’ It all depends if this is a story that continues on week after week, a dribbling death, or is this something that there is a conclusion to and it drifts into the background. The answer is it’s too early to tell.”
Deal responded at a Tuesday news conference, in e-mails to supporters and in a Thursday radio interview that the accusations are baseless. He told reporters that the Office of Congressional Ethics is controlled by Democratic leaders in the U.S. House, despite the fact that the office’s board is made up of four Democrats and four Republicans, each picked with the agreement of the Democratic speaker of the House and the chamber’s top Republican.
Deal also accused the government watchdog group that originally filed a complaint against him with the OCE of being a Democratic front out to smear him. The group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, has received contributions from George Soros, a major Democratic financier, but has filed complaints against both Republicans and Democrats. On Tuesday, that group asked the Justice Department to bring a criminal investigation against Deal because of the ethics report.
Still, Deal acknowledged that the report and the subsequent media attention have not been helpful.
“Obviously anybody would like to avoid the political flak that comes from anything,” he said, adding, “I did absolutely nothing wrong.”
Deal is certainly not alone among the seven Republicans and five Democrats running for governor to have questions raised about personal or political issues. But, unfortunately for Deal, the ethics flap isn’t the only issue he’s had to handle.
In October, he apologized for using the phrase “ghetto grandmothers” during a speech on health care after first saying the remark was taken out of context by opponents in the GOP gubernatorial primary.
He also continues to deal with questions over whether he is a so-called “birther,” the derogatory term given to people who question whether President Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen. Last year, Deal co-signed a letter with other Republican congressmen calling on the president to release a copy of his birth certificate. Republican officials in Hawaii, where Obama was born, have said repeatedly that Obama’s birth certificate from their state is legitimate.
As recently as January, Deal said he didn’t have any issues with Obama’s birth certificate. But he said he is often asked by constituents about it.
Finally, there is Deal’s management of his campaign cash. While Deal has raised more than $1.8 million, putting him among the leaders of either party, he has also spent more than $940,000. In the final quarter of 2009, in fact, while he raised $600,000, he spent more than $800,000 at a time when most candidates are trying to save cash for closer to the July 20 primary.
In addition, of his $1.8 million raised, $250,000 of it is actually a line-of-credit loan from a bank. Deal used another $250,000 in campaign cash as collateral for the loan.
All of these things taken together have led to concerns about his campaign. He is currently running third in the GOP primary, according to most polls, behind Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and former Secretary of State Karen Handel.
Clay, the former GOP chairman, and Republican Party consultant John Garst said Deal’s problems could most greatly affect his ability to raise money at a key time.
“Those who are trying to figure out and pick a winner, you’ve got to convince them this has done no harm and you’re still the candidate for the runoff,” Clay said. “For those you are looking to write a check or write another one, it will cause some pause.”
Garst, who is not working for any of the gubernatorial candidates, said the situation “is worse than people are even realizing.”
“They’ve spent $300,000 more than they’ve brought in the last six months,” Garst said. And, by resigning from Congress, “he lost his ability to raise money out of Washington. His ethics complaints are making it difficult for him to raise money in Georgia. I don’t think it will be long before you see people start shying away.”
That’s not happening yet, however.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans), one of Deal’s top supporters in the General Assembly, is concerned, too.
“I want to support him, but this is one of those issues he has to explain and get out in front of and give the public some comfort on or what you’ll see happen is a lot of people will start switching their votes,” Harbin said.
Deal, Harbin said, “got off-track. But those of us who supported him early felt like Nathan was a good alternative, he brought come common-sense leadership to our primary. I still think he is that voice, but this is an issue he has to deal with, or someone else could step in and fill that void.”
House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island) was one of Deal’s first and most high-profile endorsers.
Deal, Keen said, can still win.
“Of course anytime something like this happens, it never makes it easy,” Keen said. “Nathan had built some momentum. I really believe he was the candidate the Democrats feared the most. I still believe he will be the best governor for Georgia.”
