Stick it to him:
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/...
Gov. Nathan Deal was in Athens speaking to College Republicans on Tuesday when four students stood up to question him about the Board of Regents policy that bans undocumented immigrants from attending the University of Georgia.
The four-minute video of the encounter, courtesy of Flagpole’s Blake Aued, gets testy around the 1:55 mark, when Deal addresses a white student named Carver Goodhue, who questioned the governor’s position on the ban.
“There is a fundamental problem that can only be solved at the congressional level – and that is to deal with the issue of children – and I presume you probably fit the category – children who were brought here …”
That’s when another student named Lizbeth Miranda, who was standing near Goodhue, interjected.
“I don’t. I’m not an illegal immigrant. I’m not undocumented. And I don’t know why you thought that I was undocumented. Is it because I looked Hispanic?”
As the crowd murmured its displeasure, the governor apologized.
“You made the statement. You stood up, so I apologize. I apologize if I insulted you. I did not intend to.” - Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 8/26/14
Deal also was grilled on this:
http://onlineathens.com/...
But after the selected questions came one more from the audience.
“Gov. Deal, you spoke about protecting the HOPE Scholarship and you're a supporter of education, but why do you deprive undocumented immigrants who've lived here their entire lives from the right to come here and attend school with all of us?” asked Carver Goodhue, who stood in the audience of more than 100 along with supporters Kevin Ruiz, Preethi Raja and Lizbeth Miranda.
Deal argued there is no effective way, at least not at the state level, to help the would-be students who want to attend classes at UGA and other state universities but are barred from doing so by a four-year-old Board of Regents policy. And anyway, he said, Georgians wouldn’t support revoking the measure.
“It can only really effectively be dealt with by the federal government at the congressional level in dealing with the DREAM Act children, which I presume maybe you are,” Deal said. “The policy of requiring that you be a legal state resident is one that's been in place for a very long time, and I think that you would find that it would be a policy if it were overturned it would be a huge concern for the residents of our state. And that's why I think the Board of Regents has continued to require that.”
Goodhue pressed on, and Ruiz chimed in with his own points, to which the governor asked, “Let me ask you this, can you give a Social Security Number?”
Maybe not, Ruiz said, but he and other detractors of the Board of Regents policy argue academically qualified students who have been lifelong Georgia residents should have the same rights to an education as their United States-born counterparts. - Online Athens, 8/27/14
And this is back in the news:
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/...
A watchdog group demanded an internal investigation of Gov. Nathan Deal’s top aides, claiming that a recently revealed memo drafted by the ethics chief was proof that she was coerced into creating a “politically favorable outcome” for the governor.
Sabrina Smith of Georgia Watchdogs filed the complaint with the Office of the Inspector General claiming that executive counsel Ryan Teague and chief-of-staff Chris Riley, who has now joined the campaign, violated state law prohibiting government employees from coercing co-workers for political gain. You can find your copy here.
The complaint centers on the bombshell memo revealed in July written by ethics chief Holly LaBerge. She claims in the document that Deal’s aides threatened her to make ethics complaints against their boss disappear. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 8/26/14
Yeah, it's no wonder Deal's struggling in his bid for re-election. By the way, good new for Team Blue:
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/...
A statewide teachers group endorsed Democrat Jason Carter’s gubernatorial bid on Wednesday, warning that education funding under Gov. Nathan Deal is “demoralizing and dismantling” the state’s public education system.
Carter trumpeted the endorsement of the Georgia Association of Educators outside Grady High School, where his wife Kate was a journalism teacher. The GAE, which represents 42,000 educators, said it would mobilize its members to support Carter’s campaign.
“Sen. Carter truly wants to make public education our state’s number one priority, not just say so in an occasional opportunity or in an election year, and not just for the headlines,” said Sid Chapman, the GAE’s president. “Sen. Carter believes in true change, and the message and the hope of public education.”
Hidden in Chapman’s lengthy endorsement speech was his group’s uneasiness with the expansion of charter schools under Deal’s administration.
“We will not stand for the privatization of public education in Georgia. It’s not going to happen,” he said. “It’s not OK. It’s not right. It’s not moral. And it’s just not going to happen. And Sen. Carter believes in what we’re doing.”
Carter, an Atlanta state senator, has put increasing education funding at the center of his campaign, with a vow to create a separate budget for schools that would be free of legislative tinkering. He has ruled out tax hikes to fund the increase, but has not specified how he would pay for the increase beyond a state spending audit that he said would reveal a “giant amount of waste.”
The governor has offered more modest education proposals, including a push to rewrite Georgia’s complicated school funding formula and a pledge to grant merit pay increases to top teachers. At campaign stops and in a back-to-school dispatch to teachers, he talks of his budget proposal this year included a more than $300 million increase in K-12 spending, though Democrats say funding still falls short of what the state formula requires. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 8/27/14
We can win this race, we just have to get our base out to the polls. Click here to donate and get involved with Carter's campaign:
https://carterforgovernor.com/