District 1 Debate Fact-Check

October 25, 2022

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Fact-checking the Carter-Herring debates

The Carter-Herring debates are over. There was plenty of campaign rhetoric and political spin when the candidates for Coastal Georgia’s seat in the US House of Representatives met at the Atlanta Press Club last Tuesday and a day later in the studios of Savannah’s WTOC.

With the dust settled, The Current’s Craig Nelson, Mary Landers, and Jake Shore fact-check the candidates’ statements on inflation, the environment, crime, abortion, Jan. 6, and other issues.

The debates reflected the campaign strategies of Carter, four-term, Republican incumbent, and Herring, his Democratic challenger, write Nelson, Landers, and Shore.

Partly because Herring has never held elected office and thus has no record to attack, Carter has sought to make the election a referendum on the state of the country, the economy, and the Democratic Party, which holds sway in the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. In the debates, he focused on crime, inflation, and immigration and used the phrase “rubber stamp for failed policies” 24 times to describe what Herring would do if elected.

For his part, Herring has sought to cast Carter as a Washington fixture, beholden to Big Pharma, Big Oil, and Republican National Committee talking points and out of touch with the people of Coastal Georgia. In the debates, he targeted Carter’s wealth and his positions on health care, Social Security, abortion, and the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Hmmm: In his weekly newsletter to constituents, which normally lays out in great detail his daily activities, Carter makes no mention of the debates.

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Historic turnout

As of late Sunday, 837,628 Georgians have voted in the midterm election, according to Georgia Votes. That’s 59% higher than at the same point in the 2018 general election.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams told reporters yesterday that a “sense of urgency” over health care, gun violence, and vote suppression was fueling the rush to the polls. “The antidote to suppression is overwhelming the polls with your presence and that is exactly what voters did in 2018,” she said.

With early voting setting new records, Abrams’ opponent, Republican incumbent Brian Kemp is taking no chances, as he tours Coastal Georgia to gather votes and celebrate the groundbreaking for the new Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in north Bryan County. The $5.54 billion investment is estimated to begin first half of 2025 with annual capacity of 300,000 units and to create about 8,100 new jobs.

Kemp’s campaign schedule starts in Pooler (8:30 a.m., the Courtyard by Marriott, 419 Pooler Parkway) and, after the official groundbreaking in Ellabell, moves to Hinesville (2:30 p.m., Harris Ace Hardware, 1012 West Oglethorpe Highway). It continues Thursday at St. Simons Island (5 p.m., Forbes Farm, 2610 Lawrence Rd.) and Friday in St. Marys (8 a.m., Seagles Restaurant, 105 Osborne St.) and Brunswick (11:30 a.m., Hutcheson Plantation, 3728 GA-99)

Last but not least, Kemp’s campaign bus on Wednesday will swing through Skidaway Island and The Landings, where he’ll attend a fundraiser at The Landings sponsored by the Skidaway Island Republican Club. The top ask is $10,000+.

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Money, money, money

State candidates, party committees and ballot measure committees for 2021 and 2022 elections are projected to raise more than $7 billion, an analysis of state-level campaign finance disclosures projects. 

Although more difficult to predict, expenditures by those same three groups could approach $7 billion, likely surpassing the estimated 2018 midterm spending record of $6.6 billion, adjusted for inflation, says OpenSecrets, a Washington-based, non-partisans research organization that tracks money in politics.

The $7 billion spending projection somewhat favors Republican candidates and party committees, which are projected to spend just over $3 billion, while Democrats are estimated to spend about $2.7 billion.

Races for secretary of state, once a largely obscure office, have attracted more money during the 2022 cycle than ever before with the rise of election-denying GOP candidates and concerns about election integrity, OpenSecrets says. Fundraising by candidates for this office are on track to set a new inflation-adjusted record this year.

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ICYMI

Slavery: More than 150 years after slaves were freed in the U.S., voters in five states will decide next month whether to close loopholes that led to the proliferation of a different form of slavery — forced labor by people convicted of certain crimes. The five state are Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont. Nearly 20 states, including Georgia, have constitutions that include language permitting slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments. 

Blowin’ in the Wind: 24% of voters age 18-34 have not heard of Nobel-Prize winning songwriter Bob Dylan, whose new book, The Philosophy of Modern Song, comes out Nov. 1. Only 6% of voters age 35-44 are out of the Dylan loop, Politico wrote last week. For those age 45-64, that figure is 4% and for voters over 65, it’s 6%.

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Miss a 2022 debate? Watch them here.

Links to debate recordings for local and statewide races.

Continue reading…

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