Nathan Deal: Power Brokers and Gainesville

Time now for our nightly analysis of the disclosure reports, this time from US Congressman Nathan Deal (R-9th).

Rep Deal reports a total of $1,230,290 raised. Of that, $250,000 was from a loan and only $5,605 was in ‘working man’ unitemized contributions. Of the remaining $974,685, only $6,100 from two donors was for a potential primary runoff, and $23,950 was for the general election. Deal also had one of the highest out-of-state totals I’ve seen so far – $99,650, or just over 10% of his total itemized contributions. So while the percentage is lower than Ray McBerry, the number, due to Deal’s far superior overall fundraising, is far higher. The highest concentration of these out of state donations? New York City.

As far as group break downs, there were three readily apparent groups: Political Action Committees and lobbyists, elected officials and campaigns, and citizens of Gainesville, Deal’s hometown.

Deal received an even $73,000 from PACs/lobbyists, many of these from out of state. He also received $80, 300 from campaigns and elected officials. Among those donations from campaigns and elected officials are a maximum donation from Jerry Keen, House Majority Leader in the Georgia House of Representatives, near-maximum donations from Jeff Mullis, Senate Transportation Committee Chair, a maximum donation from Chip Pearson, Senate Economic Development Committee Chair, a $5,000 donation from US Rep Lyn Westmoreland (R-GA), a maximum donation from Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives Glenn Richardson, a maximum donation from the Speaker Pro-Tem of the Georgia House of Representatives Mark Burkhalter, a maximum donation from US Rep Phil Gingrey (R-GA), and several donations from various Hall County elected officials, but more on that in a minute. The key here is three of those names in particular I just listed: Speaker Glenn Richardson, Speaker Pro-Tem Mark Burkhalter, and Majority Leader Jerry Keen. Quite honestly, those are three of the most powerful men in the Georgia House of Representatives, and they chose to support Nathan Deal over one of their own, Austin Scott. The question that comes out of this is, do you want someone supported by the ruling politicos as your next Governor, or do you want someone more ‘outside the box’?

But let’s get back to those Hall County officials. Like I said earlier, there were three readily identifiable groups: PACS/lobbyists, elected officials/campaigns (combined, the ‘power brokers’), and citizens of Gainesville. Gainesville, for those unaware, is in Hall County. Indeed, many of those Hall County officials list Gainesville as their address. And Gainesville accounted for $432,850 of Deal’s $974,685 total itemized contributions – or 44%.

Looking at the rest of Deal’s contributions outside of Gainesville, it appears that the vast majority of the rest of his money came from within his current 9th Congressional District or the Atlanta area. There are some contributions inside Georgia but outside of that area, but of the 566 total contributions itemized, I would say that probably right around 10% of them were from inside the State but outside his Congressional District + the Atlanta area.

So once again, this is another candidate that needs to work on his statewide recognition. He is off to a good start though, and his overall number certainly is pretty impressive. Will he be the next Governor of Georgia? Only time will tell.