WABE’s Week In Review: The interparty GOP battle in Georgia’s race for governor heats up
Former U.S. Senator David Perdue officially entered Georgia governor’s race on Sunday. Perdue lost is Senate re-election bid in a runoff to Jon Ossoff in January. But with the urging of former President Donald Trump, Perdue is now challenging incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp.
Kemp angered Trump when he wouldn’t overturn Georgia’s election results in the General Election last year. President Joe Biden won the state’s 16 Electoral College votes, which had not been done by a Democrat since 1992. Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the state were found to be baseless multiple times, and he regularly attacked Kemp and other state Republican leaders as a result.
Perdue took aim at Kemp saying the current governor cannot beat Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams, who announced last week that she was running again for governor. Abrams lost out on the open governor’s seat in 2018 to Kemp by some 55,000 votes. And she has been credited with helping turn Georgia into a swing state that voted for Biden and elected two Democratic U.S. Senators in the 2020 elections.
Perdue is now jumping further on the unfounded claims of voter fraud by joining a lawsuit claiming counterfeit ballots were tallied in Fulton County. These and other fraud claims have been disproven on more than one occasion.
Kemp’s camp called Perdue running for governor an attempt to heal his bruised ego after losing to Ossoff.
And WABE talked to Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston who said candidates shouldn’t focus on unfounded claims of fraud in 2020 if they want to win in 2022:
“As someone who has been a Republican all of his life, if this election in 2022 becomes a referendum or a re-litigation of 2020, the Republican Party in Georgia is going to suffer a bloodbath. And you can put that down.”
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston #gapol #gagov #gagop pic.twitter.com/a1OCSwqPfO
— Rahul Bali (@rahulbali) December 10, 2021
The Democratic Party of Georgia is calling the suit “frivolous” and said Perdue is peddling “dangerous lies in a sad ploy for attention.”
“This is the dividing line.” How false claims about election integrity in 2020 are fueling the GOP primary in 2022.
My first story from Atlanta for @wabenews @NPR @NPRWeekend #gapol https://t.co/uChYvHoHRa
— Sam Gringlas (@gringsam) December 11, 2021
Also in this episode:
—Rahul Bali looks at the how Buckhead’s effort to become its own city outside of Atlanta is becoming an important issue in the race for governor.
—Sam Gringlas reported on talk radio’s reaction to Perdue jumping in the race for governor.
—Emil Moffatt looks at projects for the business environment in metro Atlanta for 2022.
—Martha Dalton explores a report from a group that represents college professors that says the University System of Georgia is effectively abolishing tenure.
—Kathleen Quillian has more on calls to beef up punishments for people who threaten or attack healthcare workers as the pandemic lingers on.
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