It’s been an ugly election cycle down here in Georgia, especially the Governor’s race.
In our corner, we have Roy Barnes, Governor of Georgia 8 years ago, who is making a comeback for one more term.
In their corner, they have Nathan Deal. Former Congressman who resigned from Congress amidst an ethics probe, and a former state legislator.
Why does that last one matter? Below the fold.
This diary isn’t intended to get into Deal’s repeated, shady ethical problems. There’s just too many for one post. But, take a look at this ad put out by the Barnes campaign about a week ago:
It’s an incredibly incendiary ad. But you know, the Barnes campaign backs it up with facts. On the Roy Barnes website they put up a pdf of dozens of newspaper articles from 1991 that backs up their claim that Nathan Deal tried to dismantle Georgia’s rape shield law.
The Fulton County Daily Report, the state's major legal news report at the time, warned that "New Rules of Evidence Threatened Rape Shield." And the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer described Deal's bill in an editorial as "Neanderthal."
In news today, Politifact Georgia took a look at the claim. And although they rate it as "half true" becaue they say Barnes could have provided more context, they agree – Barnes is right.
Still, it remains that if Deal's bill passed, because of the additional exceptions, defense attorneys would gain new opportunities to enter an accuser's sexual past into evidence.
Deal is trying to defend, but even Politifact finds it falling short:
Deal said he was actually trying to make the rape shield law conform to federal standards and strengthen it against possible constitutional challenges.
But these defenses have serious weaknesses. Georgia's rape shield law did not face a clear threat of being overturned by a constitutional challenge. By 1991, the rape shield law was 15 years old and had withstood a constitutional challenge in state Supreme Court. There has been no successful challenge since. That spring, the U.S. Supreme Court made its first ruling on a rape shield law, and upheld it.
Furthermore, Deal's proposed revisions fell short of conforming to 1991 federal standards. They would have given defense attorneys more leeway than those rules allowed.
The Deal campaign in response to these justified attacks brought out a victim of rape where Nathan Deal prosecuted the rapist in 1971. But, showing extreme class, on facebook they posted the link to the video with a big "donate" picture. That’s right – they tried to actually to use rape to get campaign donations.
As if the dilution of the rape shield law wasn’t disgusting enough, Nathan Deal also fought tooth and nail against a family violence bill that would have offered greater protection to victims of domestic violence. Sadly, the law often errs on the side of caution in protecting the individual liberties of would-be abusers. The hurdles in place essentially create a situation in which someone has to be obviously injured before law enforcement can step in. The bill proposed by Roy Barnes while he was in the State Senate removed some of these hurdles by allowing the police to arrest an abuser without a warrant if they have probable cause that an act of domestic violence has occurred. Nathan Deal was one of only 7 senators to vote against the bill. His reasons:
1. "I don’t think that Superior Court judges should become referees within the home." Quote from the Daily Times (Gainesville), Feb. 12, 1981, "Sen. Deal speaks against violence bill"
2. "The sanctity of the family must be protected." Quote from the Daily Times (Gainesville), April 18, 1981, "Moral affairs anniversary"
So, Mr. Deal believes that judges have no place resolving domestic disputes – even when there is sufficient probable cause to believe that the dispute has turned violent. Moreover, he believes that judges should stay out of domestic disputes in order to protect the sanctity of the family – what happens at home stays at home.
Nathan Deal must be stopped. Someone with such Neanderthal positions on women’s issues can’t wind up in any state’s Governor’s mansion.
Its looking more and more likely Georgia Governor’s election will wind up in a runoff (if no candidate gets 50%+1 in the general election, there’s a runoff in GA between the top two.)
Hopefully we can stop Nathan Deal on November 2nd.