Governor’s race starts to heat up after verdict » Local News »

Former Dalton mayor David Pennington said Friday that if he’s going to beat Gov. Nathan Deal in the May 20 Republican primary, “We’re going to have to have a little help from Nathan.”

“That’s the only way you are going to beat an incumbent,” he said.

Pennington said he may have gotten some of that help on Friday when a Fulton County jury awarded Stacey Kalberman, the state’s former ethics commissioner, $700,000. Kalberman had sued, claiming she was forced out of that job for trying to investigate Deal’s 2010 campaign.

Pennington, who has made a call for stronger ethics rules in state government one of his top issues, said that verdict will “undoubtedly” have an impact on the campaign.

Jason Carter, the only Democrat in the race, made it clear that Deal can expect the jury verdict to be an ongoing issue.

“This whistleblower trial opened a new window into the unethical culture of Gov. Deal’s administration,” Carter said in a statement. “Between this trial, the ongoing federal grand jury inquiry, and the new revelations that the governor used his official taxpayer-paid staff to advance his private business dealings, it is clear that this governor doesn’t think that the rules apply to him.”

But a spokesman for Deal said there was no connection between the governor’s office and Kalberman’s complaint.

“Today’s verdict centered around an internal dispute between former employees and former commissioners of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, which is a body that operates independently of elected officials,” said Brian Robinson, the governor’s deputy chief of staff for communications. “There’s a reason no member of the governor’s staff was called to testify: Because there’s no connection to this office.”

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