Dalton Daily Citizen
DALTON —
Your March 2 editorial condemning Nathan Deal for resigning from the United States House of Representatives was grossly unfair.
You neglected to mention in your editorial that Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel and President Pro tem of the Georgia Senate Eric Johnson both resigned from their very significant duties in state government to devote full attention to the governor’s race. Where was the great outcry from The Daily Citizen when they resigned?
In The Daily Citizen’s own news story covering Congressman Deal’s resignation, the paper quoted Dr. Ken Ellinger, a political science professor at Dalton State as saying, “Plenty of other people have done this (resigned) before. It’s not that unusual.” In fact, Congressman Neal Abercrombie, a Democrat from the state of Hawaii, resigned last week in order to enter the race for governor in his state.
The question is where can Nathan Deal serve the people of Georgia best? Congressman Deal obviously believes it is by becoming our next governor. The people of Georgia will have their say in that issue. If they agree with him, his resignation will be worth it. If the people disagree with him, the worst thing that will happen is the new congressman from the 9th District will get a six-month head start. Whether Nathan Deal is our next governor should be decided on how effective he will be guiding our great state through the crisis we now face, not on whether he is a sitting congressman.
David Blevins, Dalton
Whitfield Chairman of Deal for Governorꆱ
