In the lead up to the May 22 primary elections, “Morning Edition” will feature conversations with the major party candidates for governor of Georgia. Republican Brian Kemp joined Denis O’Hayer on April 5.
Kemp’s been Georgia’s Secretary of State for the past eight years. Prior to that he served four years in the state Senate representing district in the Athens area.
Listen to the broadcast length interview above or the full length version below.
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On whether it’s time to update Georgia’s old elections system
It is time for us to move forward. People want us to have a verifiable paper audit trail. We’re moving forward to implementing a new system in a very methodical way, but that’s something that the next governor will have to deal with, and certainly I’m prepared to do that.
On vulnerabilities in Georgia’s election system discovered at the Kennesaw State University Center for Election Systems
The reason that problem happened is because there was a server that was outside the Kennesaw State network that wasn’t protected. If the server had been behind the firewall, and they had been doing things like they should, that never would have happened.
On the decision by technicians at the Kennesaw State University Center for Election Systems to wipe a computer server in the midst of a lawsuit
It was all on the Kennesaw State side of things. When I learned about that I did think it was inexcusable that they did that. When I later learned that the FBI had a backup of the server and the data that preserved what was on there, it made perfect sense and they were actually acting on a recommendation from their security professionals to further protect the system going forward. But we’ve solved that problem we have brought that in-house where the buck completely stops with me now. We’re moving forward.
On whether problems from his time as the state’s top elections official reflect poorly on his ability to govern
I would argue that nobody else in this race has had to even ever deal with anything like this because they haven’t been running a government executive agency branch like we have, and they don’t have systems like we have. I’m proud of my record, and I look forward to talking about that as we move forward in the campaign.
On whether local law enforcement agencies should be required to work more closely with federal immigration authorities
We put out a proposal in our campaign for governor to create a criminal illegal database that would mandate the local jurisdictions do this reporting that will help us be able to track and deport criminal illegal aliens that are here. What my plan does is aggregate data from state, local, and federal law enforcement officials and other criminal justice agencies to track arrests, convictions, deportations. This will allow us to compile that in one place where we can have that conversation on how we deal with this. It doesn’t take away the adjudication process at all for the local prosecutors.
On whether his immigration policies will hurt the rural Georgia economy, which depends on immigrant labor
I’ve never been against farm guest-worker programs, but that being said I’ve always been a supporter of reforming the guest-worker program. They need to cut the red tape on guest-worker programs so we can continue to give farmers and agribusiness people the resources they need. But we’ve got to start putting Georgians first.
On the relationship between unauthorized immigration and rising healthcare costs
That’s not the sole reason that healthcare costs are going up. You have less and less people that are paying into the system, and more people that are getting it for free. That model is not going to work. That’s why I’ve literally based a lot of my campaign on strengthening rural Georgia, because we cannot continue to be a state where our population only grows in Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta and our small towns and communities are literally drying up.
On medical marijuana and in-state cultivation
I’ve been supportive of what’s been done on the expansion of allowing the use for certain conditions. If you start growing, there’s going to be other jurisdictions that are involved in that, because it’s still a schedule one drug. And if that ever were to happen, even if it was within state law, there’s going to be people that would have to take action that would shut that down.
On fully funding the state’s Quality Basic Education funding formula
As long as we have the dollars to do that. I’m certainly supportive of Governor Deal’s actions [to do that] this year. But that being said, we need to redo the formula, and I’m going to continue to be a supporter of of all types of education in Georgia: certainly public, but also giving parents choices and trusting in them to do what’s best for their child.
On which efforts of Governor Nathan Deal’s he’d preserve and change
You’ve got to pick your initiatives, and you’ve got to be your own person. I think Governor Deal pushed the things that he was passionate about, and Brian Kemp is going to push things that I’m passionate about. I’ve been a person that has a record in the legislature and in the Secretary of State’s office of streamlining government. I’m going to be the person that’s going to be fighting for those hard-working Georgians and Georgia families every day.
