Yesterday’s exclusive interview by Fox5 Atlanta WAGA-TV reporter Dale Russell with state campaign finance panel Executive Secretary Holly LeBarge has resulted in yet another explosion in the ethics minefield that Gov. Nathan Deal – who is running for re-election—has been skillfully trying to weave through. LeBerge declares that two top Deal aides, his legal advisor and chief of staff, improperly interfered two years ago in a pending 2010 campaign violations case against the Deal gubernatorial campaign. She said the duo urged her to agree to settlement terms before a scheduled public hearing, and further claimed to have felt “threatened” by legal counsel Ryan Teague.
Deal and his lawyer Randy Evans again deny any improper interference with the case, which was eventually settled by the full state campaign finance commission and resulted in $3,350 in “technical” fines levied against the Deal campaign. (The governor had originally faced a proposed $70,000 in fines stemming from alleged campaign violations.)
Evans compares the communications from Teague and Chief of Staff Chris Riley to LeBerge a week before the hearing to the contentious settlement negotiations that often occur between a prosecutor and defense attorney. A memo LeBerge wrote to herself after Teague’s phone calls and Riley’s electronic communications said they were urging a settlement, and that one call even threatened to take away her panel’s rule-making authority (which it desperately wanted from the Legislature).
Any interference by the governor himself is vigorously denied. “The only thing I know is if we wanted to have these cases brought before the campaign finance commission in a timely fashion. We felt that two years was long enough,” the governor told WSB-TV.
On the other hand, LeBerge told Russell she was tired of being called “a puppet” of the governor and says her “reputation has been ruined” and that she is “toxic.” Furthermore, LeBerge has applied for “whistleblower” status under a state law in order to give her more legal protection as this saga moves forward. LeBerge is one of five former or current commission employees who have received grand jury subpoenas for all records relating to the 2010 Deal campaign violations case. Four ultimately were fired by the full commission but, as whistleblowers, they recently settled and received substantial financial remuneration, courtesy of Georgia taxpayers.
Russell reports that the federal government, presumably the FBI, is now investigating what LeBerge alleges. The state audit department is also reviewing the case.
“This is the sort of thing I’ve been expecting and continue to expect until this governor’s race ends in November,” says Insider Advantage CEO and pollster Matt Towery. “On the one hand, I still can’t believe all this started (the original alleged campaign violations) with a junkyard and a private airplane. We’ve had some major crooks in Georgia in the past but even the stuff that got this whole thing going years ago is just small-time, downright silly stuff. And, I might add, it never amounted to anything that seemed worth allegedly ‘covering up’ in the first place.”
“But,” Towery adds, “that doesn’t mean this isn’t politically significant. I’ve been saying for months that the Deal campaign should have been building those ‘warm and fuzzy feelings’ with the public by having Governor and Mrs. Deal speaking right into the camera. The time for that to work will run out if they are not careful. We are going to have lots of opportunities to have bombshells like this hit on the same day that pollsters like PPP show Deal basically tied with (Democrat gubernatorial candidate Jason) Carter. It moves momentum and it takes a race that has been made non-competitive and puts it back into play with the money folks in DC and other areas who Carter needs,”
“In the end, whether these stories have any impact are in the hands of the two campaigns. Heaven knows whatever whistleblowers and investigators will get into the narrative. The Carter team has to take this stuff and hit hard with real live ads because the public does not remember it after a few days and they don’t believe it close to an election. And I have no belief the Carter camp knows how to do that effectively as of now,” Towery says. “The Deal team has to start letting their candidate and his wife start starring in their own show. And, of course, keep defining Jason Carter before he can define himself. I still think Carter and (Democrat Senate candidate) Michelle Nunn must run, as their best and only chance to win, an overtime battle. They must use the Libertarian Party candidate’s percentage in November to put them in a runoff. If that happens, it is all up in the air and Georgia becomes the ‘ground zero’ of American politics. But we are quite away from that as of now.”
Insider Advantage co-publisher and Fox5 “Georgia Gang” panelist Phil Kent adds: “In spite of the ethics soap opera, Georgia voters are far more interested in pressing issues ranging from job creation and tax relief and perhaps even the federal government forcing Peach State taxpayers to house, feed and educate more illegal immigrants. President Obama’s disapproval rating could still hover around 40 percent in the state by November. The Republican alternatives to Democrats Carter and Obama should still remain attractive to a majority of Georgians— assuming there is no ‘smoking gun’ implicating the governor directly with regard to LeBerge’s allegations.”
