Hartwell’s Parade of Lights begins Friday evening at 6:30. They’ll start at Bells and then travel down Franklin Street to the High School. It is a big one this year with more than 50 entries taking part.

Colbert’s Old Fashioned Christmas begins Friday evening at 6:30 at the pavilion. The event will feature a hayride, face-painting, music and free food. Bring a donation of canned food, an unwrapped toy or pet supplies. All are being collected to help Madison County families in need during the Christmas Season.

Lavonia’s Christmas Fest is set to begin Friday afternoon at 5 at the gazebo. The whole town is in on the fun with merchants staying open late and story time train rides modeled on the Polar Express. Trains leave on the half hour and the trip is about 20 miles each way.

On Saturday afternoon, join us for the Royston Christmas Parade. The event will step off starting at 4:30 making its way to Wellness Park for the community tree lighting at 6:30.

The event will feature a hayride, face-painting, music and free food.

Bring a donation of canned food, an unwrapped toy or pet supplies. All are being collected to help Madison County families in need during the Christmas Season.

The “Old Fashioned Christmas in Colbert” starts Friday evening at 6:30 at the pavilion.

ROYSTON, GEORGIA – Republican John Wilkinson won over a significant majority of voters to defeat former State Representative Rick Austin in Tuesday’s Runoff for the 50^th District Georgia Senate seat.

Senator-Elect John Wilkinson and his Grandson

Wilkinson’s ended the night with 58.6% of the vote, 7166 ballots out of the total 12,237 cast. Overall turnout was lower than the more than 15000 votes cast in November.

Wilkinson actually added to his General Election performance bringing more than 1000 new voters to his runoff total.

Austin lost votes, pulling 6771 in the General but only 5071 in the runoff.

This was one of the dirtiest local campaigns I have seen in nearly 30 years behind the microphone.

Attacks came from both candidates but the anonymous mailers and illegal campaign calls were all aimed against John Wilkinson. It is impossible to tell for sure if the outcome of Tuesday’s runoff was a rejection of such tactics by the voters.

The loss by Austin is also a blow to the leaders of the Republican Caucus in the Senate. The leadership there gave almost $12,000 to the Austin Campaign directly. They were counting on his support in their attempt to keep Lt Governor Casey Cagle from regaining control of the Senate.

Cagle endorsed Wilkinson, but the Senator Elect says he is beholding to no one in the ongoing power struggle. “He (Cagle) didn’t ask but I wouldn’t have given him such a commitment even if he had.” Wilkinson explained last week, “My only commitment will be to the constituents of the 50th district.”

Wilkinson will report to the capitol in January to serve out the remainder of the unexpired term of Jim Butterworth. Of course, since this was a special election, we will have to go through all of this again next year during the 2012 cycle.

99% of precincts reporting
Total Precincts: 61
Election Day Voting: 61 / 61   (100%)
Early Voting (In Person): 61 / 61   (100%)
Early Voting (By Mail): 61 / 61   (100%)

Republicans John Wilkinson and Rick Austin were the top two finishers in the General Election in November. One of them will replace former Senator Jim Butterworth as the senator for Habersham, White, Rabun, Towns, Stephens, Franklin, Hart and Banks Counties.

We’ll do updates each time new results become available over on facebook and we’ll have a complete rundown for you here at NewsTalk810.com after all the votes are counted.

Voters in the 50^th State Senate District were hit by phone at home yesterday by two automatic campaign calls, robo-calls, again from an anonymous source.

Listen to the Robocalls now at our News Talk 810 Facebook Page

The first came just after 2:30 pm. A bad Bill Clinton impersonator claimed he was calling from “democrats for action” with an urgent plea to vote for John Wilkinson because he was only running as a Republican “ cause the district is so conservative.”

There is no such campaign committee or group on record with the Ethics Board. There used to be a non-profit by that name registered in the 1990s but the Secretary of State’s office reports they were dissolved in 1999.

The second call began hitting homes about an hour later. This one featured a woman claiming to be from “Conservatives United” and referenced the early call. “The Democrats sent out a robo-call just hours ago finally confirming the truth…” then they repeated the false claim that John Wilkinson is a democrat that we heard in the earlier call and saw on those mailers sent from Lewis Bailey’s address in Young Harris earlier in the week.

Again, there is no such campaign committee or group on record with the Ethics Board and no such entity registered with the Secretary of State’s office.

The phone number of the first call, 404-567-5455, traces to Sandy Springs in Atlanta but we’ve been unable to track it any further. The number is reported on telemarking complaint websites as having been a nuisance in the past calling for campaigns and other issues. The Public Service Commission regulates the industry and currently has 115 such companies listed. It has to be one of them or someone spoofing a different number to cover their tracks.

The Rick Austin Campaign says it wasn’t them, “It is not from our campaign.  We have not done any robocalls on a Sunday throughout this campaign and didn’t do one today.  We don’t know where these are coming from.”

Therefore, according to Georgia law, these are illegal robocalls unless they came from “recognized charitable or religious organizations or political pollsters or candidates for public office.”

We’ve heard nothing from the Wilkinson camp about this latest attack however News Talk 810 has learned that similar calls went out in Georgia’s 28th District yesterday as well. Republican Duke Blackburn’s senate campaign has been the focus of identical attacks. Both senate districts are caught in the middle of a power struggle between the Republican Senate Caucus and the Lt. Governor.

The new attack from Republican John Wilkinson goes after State Rep. Rick Austin on a couple of different things.

He was for it Before he was Against It

Wilkinson Attack on Austin Front

The front of the piece is all about gambling.

There is a move on to allow gambling in Georgia, specifically horse racing. Tom McCall of Elberton is one of the people leading that charge in the house. Therefore, it is fair to say that “Insiders in Atlanta want more gambling” but there is also a large contingency of “insiders” in Atlanta, Governor Nathan Deal among them, who don’t want more gambling.

The Truth Test finds fault with the claim that Rick Austin has “voted with the gambling industry and recently confirmed his position” in an October Survey.

While it is true that legislative voting records show Rick Austin voted “yes” to create a committee to study gambling as a potential income source for the state, in the original Eagle Survey he said he was undecided on the issue, on the revised survey published this week he says he is opposed to the idea for which he voted.

Both the “Undecided” and “Opposed” answers in no way “confirm” his position. If anything, it confuses his position on the issue completely.

The other gambling issue, the bit about “allow local referendums on horse racing”, Austin reported he was for it on the original survey but against it on the revised version. Take that for what it’s worth.

The referendum at issue is HB186, also co-sponsored by Elberton Rep. Tom McCall. It has been introduced but there has been no official vote in the Georgia House and therefore no official vote from Austin.

The Rick Austin Campaign has since released a statement saying in part, “I am opposed to gambling expanding in Georgia. Period. Have always voted that way and always will.”

The other claims about “insiders” wishing to pepper neighborhoods with casinos is overstating the matter and making assumptions not in evidence. This kind of “worst case scenario” political hyperbole is designed simply to scare folks plain and simple.

Who is Calling Please?

Wilkinson Attack on Austin Back

The backside of the mailer poses two questions:

“Who is funding anonymous false attacks against John Wilkinson?”

“What have they been promised?”

Both are valid questions and the Wilkinson mailer doesn’t attempt to answer them so they remain simply valid questions.

“Rick Austin and mysterious insiders have flooded Northeast Georgia…” This section is misleading in that it credits both Austin and the mystery insiders with all the activities described when it should be either one or the other.

The “Anonymous smear campaign” was “anonymous” and therefore presumably the work of “mysterious insiders” alone since Rick Austin says he isn’t responsible and didn’t know anything about it.

The “slick flyers from obscure Washington DC insiders” are the responsibility of the “insiders”.

This group, described elsewhere on the mailer as “a little known Washington, DC special interest group”, is called “American Federation for Children Action Fund” and is listed as a $1000 dollar contribution to the Austin Campaign.

While they are “little known” to the public they have been very active in political circles nationwide for the past few years supporting school choice issues in a number of states.

While the mailer never says it outright, the implication here is that because the group supports Austin financially he would somehow “owe his seat in Atlanta” to them. This is more of the quid pro quo nonsense we’ve seen elsewhere. The fact that he took their money should not be suspect.

Rick Austin does get full credit for at least some of the mailers and some of the “ceaseless intrusion of phone calls”. His campaign reports spending quite a bit, $42,311 with firms in Atlanta and Athens, on direct mail items and automated phone calls mentioned in this ad. According to campaign disclosures, before the special election Austin reported that he spent $19,382 on mailers and automated phone calls. He has since reported spending an additional $22,929 on mailers and automated phone calls to voters.

Wilkinson has spent less, a total of $27,113 on mailers with no listing of expenditures on automated phone calls. Another claim made in this mailer, and borne out in official campaign disclosures, is that Wilkinson’s Campaign spent all of that money with companies in Franklin County, specifically in Carnesville and Franklin Springs.

As for the “swarms of pricey ‘Rick Austin’ signs”, we’ve seen them in yards and along the roadsides in the district so we know they exist but there is no line-item listing for them in the campaign expenditures or as an in-kind donation so we’ve found no way to verify that they were “pricey”.

For his part, Wilkinson spent $6393.44 on campaign signs. Most of that was spent with a firm in Alabama with $150 of it going to a Baldwin businessman.

Some Stuff They got Right

This ad presents, without comment but with a clarification, part of an article from the AJC’s Political Insider Column. This is an accurate representation of that article.

The quote pulled from one of the earlier News Talk 810 Truth Tests about anonymous mailers aimed at Wilkinson is also used without direct comment and is therefore not misleading in presentation.

Pass or Fail

So dense is this one with information, we had a devil of a time getting through it.

It seems when a local candidate puts his or her name on a local attack ad they are far more careful with the accusations and the facts. That is the case here.

We find many of the facts presented are true but the conclusions drawn sometimes stretch credulity to the point of being misleading.

While this mailer is less deceptive than every other piece we’ve looked at during this campaign, in the end, it just misses the mark and fails our Truth Test.

This time the bullet was aimed at Republican Representative Rick Austin and the sniper is no mystery.

What we Know about the Sender

This latest round of political trash comes from an organization named “Georgians for Conservative Leadership”.

The group didn’t exist 2 weeks ago according to Todd Rehm over at Peach Pundit. State disclosures show that the Chair of the Georgia Economic Development Board Charles Tarbutton and the Georgia Healthcare Association political action committee are the main contributors.

Tarbutton was Lt. Governor Casey Cagle’s campaign chairman. Cagle has endorsed John Wilkinson in the 50^th.

While the mailer sports a PO Box in Marietta, the address and phone number of the group’s disclosure documents is the same as Strickland Brockington and Lewis, an Atlanta Law firm.

One of the lawyers there, Bryan P. Tyson is listed as treasurer for the group. Tyson was appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue in 2010 to help handle the state’s case against the Federal Healthcare Mandate.

The ad was obviously produced this week after our Truth Test was published on Tuesday since quotes from that story appear on the piece.

In this case you have to give the group props for at least following procedure and filing their disclosures with the state unlike the folks who attacked Wilkinson. It doesn’t change the deceptive nature of the mailing but at least they are upfront about who is throwing the mud.

The Hits Just Keep Coming

Austin Attack Back

The back of the mailer shows Austin, head bowed, on the floor of the Georgia State House and several lines plucked from News Talk 810 stories from earlier this week.

The Truth Test finds the headline “Why is Rick Austin trying to mislead voters on John Wilkinson’s conservative record?” is misleading because the lines of text that are obviously meant to support it are from stories about  attack ads that Rick Austin says he knew nothing about and did not support.

Those stories found no connection between the attacks on Wilkinson and the Rick Austin camp,meaning the new mailer is trying to mislead voters.

Austin Attack Front

The front of the direct mail piece is a masters’ class in misleading political newspeak. Here the headline is meaningless without a direct point-by-point comparison of what Austin promises constituents in northeast Georgia vs. his votes in Atlanta. Instead, this piece of chicanery offers up three points meant to sound bad without any context.

A difficult vote in 2010 to balance the budget with a new fee on the state’s hospitals and other user fee increases is portrayed as a personal decision by Austin to raise taxes.

The so-called “Hospital Tax” was bitterly debated but in the end was supported by virtually every republican on both sides of the legislature and the folks who lobby for the hospitals that pay the tax.

This attack ad also fails to mention that the final budget vote that year also included tax cuts and set up a plan to phase out property taxes in the state altogether. Even the very tough “Americans for Prosperity” seemed happy with the vote. This puts the lie to the claim that Austin is somehow in favor of tax increases.

The other claim, which says he is “Paid for by the Trial Lawyers”, suggests a quid pro quo relationship exists between political contributors and the candidates they support. Again, no proof of this is offered and the simple fact that he takes a lawyer’s money should not be suspect.

Finally, the thing about “Lobbyist Paid Perks” again suggests some sort of quid pro quo without anything to back it up. According to State Ethics filings, Austin accepted a total of $219 in “lobbyist perks” in all of 2011. The most expensive gift was a $72 dinner paid for by Attorney and Lobbyist Bill Fallin from Newnan.

Austin’s recent take from lobbyists is tiny when you consider that Rep Alan Powell of Hartwell accepted more than 10 times that during the same period.

What the Candidates Say

While they steadfastly refused to directly contact us on the earlier anonymous negative ads that supported them, the Rick Austin campaign was quick to get back to us this time and was quick to blame his opponent for the mailing.

“Wilkinson’s campaign has descended from the gutter down to the hypocritical and just plain odd.

He attacks me for anonymous mailers, which I had no knowledge of and do not support, and then he turns around and launches his own “anonymous” mailers.

He’s attacking me for tax increases when I am the one who has a proven record of opposing tax increases and signed a taxpayer protection pledge to never raise taxes.  It is Wilkinson who refuses to sign a no new tax pledge.

I am opposed to gambling expanding in Georgia. Period. Have always voted that way and always will.

Wilkinson wants to talk about values but he has forgotten that hypocrisy is not a north Georgia value.”

That last bit there, about the gambling, is in reference to yet another mailer. this one is critical of Austin’s voting record on the issue of gambling in Georgia. The Wilkinson campaign is behind that one but News Talk 810 just received a copy minutes before this story was to be posted, once we have a chance to check the facts, we will put it to the Truth Test too.

For his part John Wilkinson says the mailers from this new group actually damaged their own direct mail strategy. The group sent out a pair of ads on Friday, the one covered in this article attacking Austin and one that praised and endorsed Wilkinson.

“My campaign learned about the Georgians for Conservative Leadership mailers late yesterday morning when a supporter received them by mail. 

A couple of things should be obvious to casual observers. First, this group had two mailers hit mailboxes on the same day, something we would try at any cost to avoid.

Second, we’ve sent only one full size mailer during this whole campaign and it hit mailboxes on Friday. By also arriving on Friday, I feel sure these two Georgians for Conservative Leadership mailers diluted the read rate of our big mailer that we had a lot invested in. 

As clearly evidenced by the circumstances, there has been no coordination between my campaign and this conservative group.”

The Bottom Line

After almost 30 years covering campaigns in Georgia, my rule of thumb is that any piece of politics that makes claims against a candidate is suspect. In this case, they take a half-truth and turn it to a lie in an effort to manipulate voters.

As I said, more Truth Tests will be coming as we get a grasp on the latest attack ad, Election Day is Tuesday.

John Wilkinson and Duke Blackburn live on opposite sides of Georgia but still have a few things in common. Chief among those things this week: Both are running for State Senate and both are the target of the same anonymous direct mail attack ads.

Someone spent an estimated $3600 just on postage in order to pepper two senate districts with 18000 direct mail pieces.

There was no name attached to the attack ads and in both cases the opposing candidates, Rick Austin in the 50th and Mike Crane in the 28th, have denied any involvement or prior knowledge of the attacks, leaving voters wondering: who is meddling in local races and why?

Attacks Fail Truth Test

News Talk 810 has previously investigated the two ads aimed at Wilkinson here in the 50th. The first was so misleading as to be silly. The second was slightly more substantial but still misleading in an obvious and purposeful way.

Both of those ads and the one that hit mailboxes in Blackburn’s 28th State Senate District sported the same return address in Young Harris, a house belonging to Lewis Baily (who has thus far has not responded to repeated requests for information) and all were mailed from Tucker, Georgia using the same bulk mail permit number.

The attacks also made the same claim that the candidate in question was a closet democrat sent by liberals, specifically President Barrack Obama and Former Governor Roy Barnes, to infiltrate the Georgia Senate.

In Wilkinson’s case, they offered up his voting record in state primaries that showed he voted on the democrat ballot in primaries before 2006. That claim is also covered in more detail in a previous story.

Blackburn Attack ad

The attack on Duke Blackburn focused on campaign contributions, specifically contributions to former Governor Barnes and former Lt Governor Mark Taylor. The front of the piece screams “DUKE THE DEMOCRAT Don’t Be Fooled!” with screenshots of state websites purporting to show Blackburn’s support for Democrat candidates.

What the mailer doesn’t show is the fact that Blackburn gave more money to Republican candidates Sonny Perdue and Lynn Smith around the same time and gave $1000 to Republican Mac Collins for his run at U.S. Senate in 2003.

Caught in the Middle of Somebody Else’s Fight

So again, the direct mail ads put a false spin on the information in an attempt to mislead voters but the question is why our anonymous mailer would be spending so much money to attack two seemingly unconnected candidates in different parts of the state?

The answer may have to do with another thing that Blackburn and Wilkinson have in common; Lt Governor Casey Cagle endorses them both.

Cagle isn’t a popular man with the heads of the Georgia Senate Republican Caucus. Senate Leaders Chip Rogers, Tommie Williams and Cecil Staton led the charge to strip Cagle of much of his power last year and he’s been trying to regain control ever since.

Former 50th District Senator Jim Butterworth was a steadfast Cagle ally while the former Senator from the 28th, Mitch Seabaugh, had aligned himself with the caucus majority. When Butterworth stepped down to take over the Georgia National Guard and Seabaugh left to become Deputy State Treasurer, both sides in the senate power struggle jumped in to replace their guy and maybe pick up a new vote for their side.

In the 50th, Senate Leaders Rogers, Williams and Staton along with State Senator’s Bill Cowsert, Jack Hill, Buddy Carter and Fran Millar gave a combined $9000 to Rick Austin’s campaign in the weeks leading up to the special election in November. I’m certainly not the first to notice this fact. The AJC pointed out the numbers weeks ago.

Cagle took sides in both districts just this week endorsing Duke Blackburn for the 28th and John Wilkinson in the 50th.

While he didn’t name specific senators, Wilkinson says the situation might have been the other way round if he had made a different choice early on. “They (senate leaders) approached me; I was not willing to commit to them, to walk in lock step with them. They told me, well in that case, I would have a formidable well- financed opponent running against me and I did the very next day. I wouldn’t make that commitment to Casey Cagle either. He didn’t ask but I wouldn’t have given him such a commitment even if he had. My only commitment will be to the constituents of the 50th district.”

A Lot of Information but No Real Answers

Unfortunately, after a week’s worth of research we’re still no closer to confirming who is really behind attempts to use misleading ads to manipulate voters in 50th district. It is obvious that the battle for control in the state senate is being played out here in our district but we still don’t know who actually pulled the trigger on the plan to muddy up the waters.

I contacted a number of Senate Caucus leaders via email to ask about their financial support for one republican against another (something they usually don’t do) and about the attack direct mail pieces.

I received just two responses before my deadline. President Pro Tem Tommie Williams offered this statement, “All of us who have worked directly with Rick Austin know that he has been an outstanding conservative legislator. His principles of Constitutionally limited government are exactly what many of us want in the State Senate.  I told Rick I would support him before Mr. Wilkinson entered the race.  I have only just recently met Mr. Wilkinson, but believe he is a good man.  It’s not a matter of choosing between candidates, but rather supporting a friend with a rock solid conservative record.”

Macon Senator and Majority Whip Cecil Staton echoed those sentiments, “Rick Austin is a friend and colleague who has served a portion of the district in the House. He has an academic background as I do. He asked me for support as did some of his House colleagues including some House leadership members and I made a contribution to his campaign. I have never had any contact with his opponent, who has not contacted me about his campaign or asked for my support. As far as the political mailers are concerned, I can’t help you as I know nothing about that.”

The only other reply was a generic automated response from Majority Leader Chip Rodgers saying it might take a while for him to get around to reading my email.

Repeated attempts to contact Rick Austin have failed to generate any direct response.

I also attempted to track back the mailing based on the bulk mail permit number but that trail went cold when the lettershop that admitted to sending the pieces chose not to name the person who hired them.

While Duke Blackburn’s campaign supplied us with digital copies of the attack ad in their district, they offered no further comment.

Your last chance to vote in the runoff election between Austin and Wilkinson is coming up on Tuesday.

In an email sent to media outlets and supporters, Republican Representative Rick Austin called on Wilkinson to give campaign contributions from “Mr. John Carter of Carter’s Royal Dispos-All” to charity after Carter’s arrest in a racketeering case.

The latest Campaign Disclosure reports available from the state show Carter’s Royal Dispos-All donated $1000 to the Wilkinson campaign on October 4. John Carter is not listed by name.

Wilkinson is not alone in receiving the spoils of Mr. Carter’s business. Starting in May of 2010 the company gave $11,000 to Governor Nathan Deal’s campaign and $2010 to Madison County State Senator Frank Ginn’s campaign. Details are available at the Campaign Finance Commission website.

An investigation into Carter’s and another company, Whitlock’s Recycling, in Stephens County resulted in 10 Grand Jury indictments on charges that include racketeering, operating a chop shop, unlawful regulated metal transaction and unlawful payment by recyclers.

Several state and local law enforcement agencies were involved. Investigators claim both businesses were accepting stolen goods, mainly copper.

Rick Austin Statement on Carter’s Arrest:

“It’s time for John Wilkinson to do the right thing:  Return these highly questionable campaign contributions immediately and stop the gutter politics paid for by them.  The people of northeast Georgia deserve honest and honorable leadership.  It’s what they have always received from me.  It’s what they have NOT received from John Wilkinson in this campaign.  While I have been working to protect the good people of Northeast Georgia, John Wilkinson and his campaign have benefitted from someone who has been arrested for racketeering. I challenge Mr. Wilkinson to donate the amount of the campaign contribution to a charity to benefit children during this Christmas Season.  That is the only decent thing to do.”

John Wilkinson Response to Austin Statement:

“I know Dr. Austin has a very high regard for his education status and enjoys talking about that, but I did not know that he had reached the level that he is qualified to be judge, jury and executioner. I understand that there have been indictments. I’m not a lawyer but I believe in innocent until proven guilty. I believe very strongly that anyone, a Rick Austin supporter or one of my supporters or anyone else is innocent until proven guilty. I am not interested in exploiting an investigation like this by sensationalizing it.  I think it is unfortunate when your campaign sinks to the level that you take advantage of other people’s legal troubles just for political expediency.”