Since the good old days 20 years ago when I was a fiscally conservative Republican County Commissioner in a rural Georgia county, the political situation in the GOP has changed. You hear virtually nothing about balancing the national budget long-term through bipartisan efforts. Rather than analysis of ways to make government more efficient, you have DOGE and Musk running around with a chain saw. DOGE irrationally slashed needed foreign aid and domestic programs like the CDC… while ignoring obvious overspending and misappropriation of funds in areas such as our Defense Department.
The MAGA radical faction has taken over the party, nationally and state-wide. That is why I left the GOP. However, I still vote in Republican primaries, like the upcoming May election for the GOP nominee for Governor.
The field is crowded, but there are four leading candidates: Rick Jackson, Burt Jones, Chris Carr and Brad Raffensperger. The primary battle has been bloody and personal. Here is my take on the candidates-
1.Rick Jackson
In many ways, Jackson has attempted to emulate Donald Trump. He is a yet another billionaire outsider with no political experience whatsoever who is spending $50 million of his own money to get elected.
He is trying to sell the dubious proposition that he is for the little guy. As for positions, he parrots the MAGA line. Whatever Trump is for, he supports without question. Whatever Trump is against, Jackson opposes 100%.
2.Burt Jones
If you believe that the 2020 election was stolen, despite the numerous court cases proving that the election was fair and honest, then you will love Burt. As a state senator, Burt was a “fake elector” and election denier supreme.
The fake electors plot was Trump’s illegal attempt to unconstitutionally overthrow the 2020 Presidential election and have him declared President (King?), even though he clearly lost. The scheme was based on submitting fake electors votes to Vice President Mike Pence and then having him declare Trump won. Pence, an honest man and true traditional conservative, did not go along with the plot. Neither did the courts, including GOP appointed judges.
To summarize, Burt has no moral compass. If he did, he would not have been a fake elector. If you want a charlatan, who is also rich and trying to buy the primary nomination, he is your man.
3. Chris Carr
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has held office since 2016 when he was appointed Attorney General by Governor Nathan Deal, a Dixiecrat who became a Republican. Carr lobbied other red state Attorney Generals to refuse the join the outrageous lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other MAGA radicals to overthrow the 2020 election by saying Georgia and other key states had not followed the law (https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-rally-around-texas-election-lawsuit-ags-rail-against-circus-1553363 ). The lawsuit had absolutely no merit and ultimately failed, thrown out by the courts.
Carr is an honest man with traditional conservative viewpoints on things like guns, abortion, immigration, crime, environmental regulation, and vaccine mandates. Carr represents stability.
4. Brad Raffensperger
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is another honest man who stood in the way of Donald Trump stealing the 2020 election. For that, he has been criticized by MAGA for the last 6 years when he should be celebrated as a true American hero. Specifically, he recorded a conversation with Trump in which the President asked that our Secretary of State overthrow the election by somehow miraculously finding “11,780 votes”. Raffensperger politely refused.
I heard him speak at a recent Peachtree City Rotary Cub meeting. He was solidly conservative in his positions, pushing job creation and economic growth. He was also non-confrontational, the kind of candidate who could be expected to bring together the two parties to achieve lasting progress via compromise.
To summarize, we have four very different candidates. Two are wealthy and trying to buy the nomination by appealing to emotion. They can be expected to support whatever policy Trump spouts, irrational or not. The other two are traditional conservatives, more in the mold of Governor Kemp. Their views are consistently conservative on every issue. But they are not confrontational. They simply want to get things done in a bipartisan manner. The choice is yours in May.
Jack Bernard
Jack Bernard is the former Director of health Planning for Georgia. He was also Chair of the Jasper County Commission and Republican Party. He is now an active Democrat.
