The guest on the “Mornings unPHILtered” was Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor Carol Porter. She said she wants to be Lt. Gov. because the people of Georgia need jobs, children should have more educational opportunities and the corruption of the voting process in the Georgia legislature must to be eliminated.
    Porter is the wife of DuBose Porter, who has served in the Georgia House of Representatives since 1982 and is currently seeking the Democratic nomination for governor. She said spending all those years attending meetings with her husband and talking with him about the issues has given her an inside look at behind-the-scenes politics in Georgia. That experience, she said, has convinced her there needs to be a philosophical and personnel shift at the state house.
    Porter is the general manager for nine middle Georgia newspapers including The Courier Herald in Dublin. She said running a day-to-day business that touches other business in nine counties makes her very aware of the economic climate across the state. Porter said empowering small business owners, who employ the most people in the state, is the key to getting Georgians back to work.
    While talking about the economy, Porter said she was appalled that the state legislature chose to furlough public school teachers instead of attempting to collect point-of-sales taxes from non-compliant business. As many as 25 percent of Georgia business are not turning in their collected sales tax and focusing on collecting those sales taxes — already paid by the consumer — should be a higher priority than cuts to education, Porter said.
    Education is the answer for not only Georgia’s children and future job growth, but education in the correctional system could be used for the rehabilitation of prisoners as well. Porter pointed out that the state ranks first in percentage of the population incarcerated while ranking near the bottom in educational achievement.
    Increasing technical education opportunities is the key, Porter said, since the days are gone when a person could drop out of high school and still get a job. She said increasing the state’s focus on technical schooling would not only help reduce the dropout rate but would also reduce the recidivism rate for prisoners. Giving prisoners the tools to become productive members of society instead of just letting them out with “$25 and a bus ticket” would reduce the ever increasing financial cost of running the state’s prisons.
    Asked by show host Phil Boyum about building all these new schools with top technologies instead of taking that money and applying it to the things which will directly help more students graduate, Porter once again pointed to this small group of politicians, whom she said, control the legislature.
    Porter said a more common sense approach and cost-sensitive approach needs to be taken when analyzing Georgia’s tough issues. For an example she cited the water issue and Lake Lanier. She said the state should be looking to get approval to raise the level of Lake Lanier by two feet – enough to solve the water shortfall – instead of spending millions upon millions to build new reservoirs so well-connected people can use eminent domain to build waterfront mansions.
    Asked about where she would actually make budget cuts, Porter told Boyum that we must first get rid of that small group of men who have corrupted the political process before the state can begin making more cuts. If she wins the Democratic nomination on July 20, she will face off against Casey Cagle, the Republican incumbent, whom she feels is the biggest man in that small group of men she believes have been controlling Georgia politics for far too long.
    Porter said, ”We need people like me, who are willing to stand up” in order to save the state, because otherwise Georgia is in for some serious trouble. Porter said that if elected, she will see to it that government gets out of the way and lets people and businesses do what they do best.
    Porter said the only way things will change is if citizens get involved in the political process, and this is the time to do it.
    For more information on Porter, visit www.carolporterforgeorgia.com.