Former U.S. Rep. John Barrow
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of IAG exclusive interviews with Georgia’s candidates for statewide office
One of the last “Blue Dog” Democrats, former U.S. Rep. John Barrow (D) is running in his first statewide election. It’s a whole new world from running in a Congressional district where the drive from one end to the other was approximately no more than two hours.
Recently Barrow started out his day in Washington County for breakfast, headed to Chatham County for lunch, McIntosh County in the afternoon, then a stop in Laurens County, before heading to Fulton County later in the evening. InsiderAdvantage caught up with him on the phone somewhere along I-75.
There are a number of reasons Barrow is running. He wants to help business community, particularly the small business community, by streamlining the process. The Secretary of State’s office is responsible for a number of items regarding starting and maintaining your own business and Barrow feels not enough is being done to assist small business.
He also wants to “take care of our sacred right to vote.” “It is the right upon which all other political rights depend, and we need to everything we can to make it easy for every citizen who is eligible to vote be able to vote, while making it impossible to cheat,” said Barrow. “That is one of the most important jobs of the office. “
Barrow is also running because he would like to see some balance brought back into state government. “It’s essential that our system of checks and balances have some balance in it. I certainly played that role in my role as a congressman. I didn’t hesitate to go against either side of the aisle if it was what I thought was necessary in order to better serve the constituents that I represented. I think that is what is needed in state government as well,” said Barrow.
Barrow pointed out that the needed balance comes into play specifically when it comes time for the Secretary of State to lobby the legislature on behalf of his department. “There is a very serious imbalance between the amount of fees that the secretary of state’s office is collecting at the insistence of the legislature and how much the legislature is giving back to the secretary of state’s office,” said Barrow.
“There definitely needs to be an effective advocate for the customer that’s paying the fees, bearing the burden and not getting the benefit. I have not seen that kind of accountability on the part of either of the two branches of government – the legislature which has a monopoly on the mission and the money. And the secretary of state’s office which has a monopoly on the administration of the programs. Neither seems to be able to deal with the other in the way that our framers intended.”
Barrow also takes issue with the funding in general. “Fees should not be a source of general fund revenue. The mantra is to lower taxes and raise fees. You shouldn’t be using fees to raise taxes. I’m all for the people who create the burden to bear the burden but I’m also for them getting the benefit, and they’re not getting that now.”
The interview with Barrow came the same week as the decision regarding the election mistakes in House District 28 in Habersham County where a judge ordered an election to be redone due to previous errors. Asked how the Secretary of State’s office may have played into the problem, Barrow pointed to an oversight issue. “What has happened is that there is no effective oversight and accountability outside of the local level, where, with the best of intentions, it is pretty easy to get kind of messed up,” said Barrow.
“Now that the Supreme Court has struck down provisions of the Voting Rights Act (which limited the ability of any precinct to make changes) we’re discovering just how wide open things can be in Georgia. One county does things one way and another does it another way. With 159 counties, with 1,001 decisions that are now being made by folks that used to have to get permission, I think there is a role for state government to play in making sure local decisions are done in such a way they have a uniform impact all across the state.”
Stay tuned tomorrow for part two and Barrow’s focus on what he feels is the biggest problem in politics, gerrymandering…
