Jason Carter Outraises Gov. Deal By $750,000 In Most Recent Quarter

Political observers note it’s rare for a challenger to outraise an incumbent governor. They say it’s a sign the race between Deal and the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter will stay close until November’s election.  

“Here’s what it does, it makes it competitive,” said Adam Stone, a political science professor at Georgia Perimeter College. “Without this cash, Jason Carter would not be competitive. He’ll have money to spend and it will allow him to be very active and buy a lot of media time in a lot of markets.”

Carter raised more than $2 million from April to June. Deal’s campaign raised nearly $1.3 million in the same period. In terms of total cash on hand, Deal’s camp remains ahead with $2.6 million going into the last four months of the campaign versus Carter’s $1.8 million.

However, Tom Hunter, a political science professor at the University of West Georgia, warns not to read too much into the candidates’ campaign coffers.

“There will also be lots of out of state money spent by PACs, especially for Nathan Deal. The Koch brothers and others will be spending millions of dollars and have already spent lots of money to support the incumbent governor, so just looking at where the money is coming from from the campaigns doesn’t really show the whole picture,” said Hunter.

An average of recent polls gathered by the website RealClearPolitics.com puts Deal ahead by two points.