Suddenly Stacey Abrams is the darling of the main stream media as she mounts her quest to become Georgia’s governor and the first black female governor in U.S. history. She has been endorsed by Barack Obama and Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton along with lesser lights like Kamala Harris. The Democrat party and its usual minions will pour millions into the Abrams campaign in an effort to push her over the top in the race against Republican Brian Kemp. A perusal of the Abrams website reveals that her politics are very liberal though not quite to the point of the pure socialism touted by Bernie Sanders and another newborn media darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Those two promote free everything for everybody with not even lip service paid to how the gifts will be paid for other than to vow ‘˜the rich’ will pay their ‘˜fair share’. Most people – even many Democrats – won’t fall for that, especially those with more money in their pockets thanks to the roaring Trump economy. People rarely vote against the status quo in prosperous times. Still, Abrams is all for raising taxes which will be problematic for her in that she readily admits she owes the IRS about $54,000. She also owes $170,000 in credit card and student loan debt. Despite this, she was able to loan her campaign $50,000 in start-up monies. Abrams insists her debt should not force her to give up her ambitions and I have no argument with that. However, now that she has her party’s nomination, she must deal with Kemp and his campaign will play hard ball. The gloves are coming off. If he is wise, Kemp will leave the whole debt issue alone himself but rest assured some PAC or other group will mount the charge. Soon you will hear and see advertising along these lines ‘˜Stacey Abrams wants to raise your taxes but she won’t pay her own’ and ‘˜How can she be trusted to manage the state’s budget when she can’t manage her own money’. Those messages or something similar will be driven home repeatedly. They will be hard arguments to refute. Someone, somewhere is already taking an exhaustive look at all that debt, seeking nuggets to exploit. Her finances will be combed through with an eye out for anything that smells fishy. She’d best hope she didn’t ride in Kasim Reed’s limo to the Super Bowl. There will be tons of money at Abrams’ disposal to counter punch. Most of that money will come from outside Georgia and it will be used to paint Abrams as an ‘˜underdog’ who is ‘˜fighting the system’ and ‘˜standing up to the status quo’. Money from those same sources boosted the campaign of Jon Ossoff, another media darling, who ran for Georgia’s 6th District House seat to replace Tom Price. Ossoff was young, photogenic, hip in a nerdy sort of way and ‘˜willing to work with anyone’, according to his ads. Still, he lost to Karen Handel, not the best of candidates in her own right, in the special election runoff. Handel took 51.78% of the vote. Ossoff and his handlers claimed a great moral victory and then promptly disappeared. Is there enough money out there for Abrams to sufficiently gloss over her financial challenges? Perhaps. In the meantime, the heat is about to be turned up – and the magnifying glass focused – on Stacey Abrams. The question is whether she will be able to handle it and emerge with her noble ambitions intact? Walter Geiger is editor and publisher of The Herald Gazette. He may be reached by emailing him at news@barnesville.com or by calling 770.358.NEWS
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