No to Nathan Deal

Republican Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia recently kicked off his 2014 reelection campaign.  As usual,  he's deceiving voters on the issues.  He claims that since taking office in 2011,  he has created at least 150,000 jobs in the state despite an unemployment rate of nearly eight percent,  one of the highest in the country.  Only a handful of counties north of Atlanta have experienced job growth over the past four years,  leaving the rest of Georgia to suffer.  He also purports to have made the Peach State one of the friendliest places in the nation to do business by cutting taxes on investors.  If such were the case, why is Southwest Georgia considered one of the poorest regions in America?  Few companies have relocated there in years.

Instead of making Georgia an attractive place to do business or for companies to relocate,  Governor Nathan Deal has done the opposite.  For instance,  he failed to get a much-needed referendum passed to upgrade roads,  bridges,  and mass transit in the highly congested Atlanta area.  The governor also couldn't get a majority of voters to back a measure that would have increased the number of trauma hospitals in Georgia,  especially in hard-hit rural areas.  Moreover, like most Southern governors,  he has refused to expand Medicaid for the poorest of his constituents as authorized by the Affordable Care Act.  But what's worse,  Mr. Deal has cut vital funding to public education in the wake of the state's unbelievable high school dropout rate of nearly fifty percent.

Aside from the economy,  the governor mishandled the January snowstorm that crippled the state.  Governor Deal postponed the evacuation of businesses and schools even after an advance warning that the blizzard was about to hit.  As a result,  thousands of metro Atlanta workers and students were left stranded on interstates and highways for hours.  Many school-age residents were also forced to remain on campus long after the facilities had closed.

State Senator Jason Carter,  the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia, must fact-check Nathan Deal on his deplorable record.  If not,  he will cruise to reelection like Republican Sonny Perdue before him,  who misled the voters as they slept.