Charles Oliver
Dalton Daily Citizen
DALTON — Northwest Georgia may be one of the most reliably Republican areas of the state, but several Democratic Party candidates said Sunday they aren’t going to write it off.
“On the unemployment lines, they don’t care if you are a Republican or a Democrat. They want to know who is going to help their families, and I know that, in Georgia, it will be a Democrat,” Georgia House Minority Leader DuBose Porter said.
Porter, who is seeking the party’s nomination for governor, was one of a dozen Democratic candidates to speak at a forum at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center. The forum was hosted by Georgia’s 9th Congressional Democratic Party county committees.
“I think people are ready for a change in direction, and they realize it’s going to take a Democrat to do that,” Porter said.
Porter spoke of his efforts to make sure that those who are supposed to collect state sales tax do collect it and send it on to the state. Porter said Republicans have stifled bills that would improve sales tax collection.
Porter pointed to a pilot program that uses state and local databases to spot businesses that aren’t paying sales tax or license fees.
In those counties, he said, 25 percent of the businesses that have a business license were not collecting or remitting sales tax.
“We collect $5 billion in sales tax in Georgia, 20 percent of that is $1 billion. The revenue department says it isn’t that high. Maybe it’s $800 million. Maybe it’s $900 million. Maybe it’s $750 million. But if we would (collect that tax) we would not have to furlough one state employee or teacher,” he said.
Carol Porter, Dubose’s wife, is seeking the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, and she was also at the forum.
The Porters run a chain of newspapers in middle Georgia, and Carol Porter serves as the company’s general manager.
“We have one daily (The Dublin Courier) and eight weeklies, so I know what it is like to make a payroll. Also, because of our industry, I know what people are going through. I know hard-working people who are having to close their businesses,” she said. “We say Georgia is pro-business, but we are not pro-business. We have not had a final transportation plan in two years, while our major city sits in gridlock. We don’t have reliable water. Well, industries need water to grow.”
Mike Freeman, who is seeking Georgia’s 9th District U.S. House of Representatives seat, said Rep. Nathan Deal’s announcement that he would resign rather than finish his term has placed a cloud of uncertainty over that race.
“We have this little thing called the special election that has been thrown our way because the incumbent can’t decide when he is going to get out,” said Freeman, a former chairman of the Hall County Democratic committee.
Deal, who is running for governor, announced earlier this month he would resign his seat on March 8 to concentrate on his bid for that office. Three days later, he announced he would delay his resignation until the end of the month so he would not miss any House vote on health care reform.
“We will qualify for both the primary and general election and the special election, whenever it is,” said Freeman. “We thought we could coast until the general because we didn’t see any other Democrats out there. Suddenly, we are very intensely working our campaign. We were not going to hire a field staff this early. We’ve got to hire a field staff.”
State Rep. Rob Teilhet spoke of his efforts to ban payday lenders and to allow people to freeze their credit reports to fight identity theft.
Teilhet, who is running for attorney general, said he has introduced legislation to expand Georgia’s DNA database. Currently, the state collects DNA only from those convicted of a felony crime. Teilhet’s bill would require a DNA sample from anyone arrested for a felony.
