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Tuesday, Oct. 07, 2008

Senate District 16 candidates clash on spending, lobbying

A Delta Air Lines pilot is challenging Republican state Sen. Ronnie Chance for his District 16 seat, which represents the city of Forsyth and a chunk of Monroe County plus portions of Fayette, Lamar, Pike and Spalding counties.

Jerry Brillant, a Democrat from Tyrone, presents himself as political outsider. He is displeased with the establishment in general and Chance specifically, whom he accuses of being a career politician beholden to special-interest groups.

"I'm a reformer," Brillant said. "I'm new and I'm for term limits. I don't want a career. I want to clean this mess up. ... I'm not going to let the corruption of lobbyists continue to go through."

Brillant has flown planes professionally for nearly 30 years, working with California-based Western Airlines until it merged with Delta in the mid-1980s. Born and raised in Maine, Brillant now lives with his family on a horse farm in Fayette County.

He said he was prompted to run for the Senate seat after watching Republican state officials cut education spending, and he was especially upset with legislation from 2006 requiring that 65 percent of school board budgets be spent in the classroom. Chance introduced that measure with Gov. Sonny Perdue's backing, and it was much derided by local school systems.

In the meantime, Brillant said, test scores have dropped and the high school graduation rate remains poor.

"What they're doing with education is definitely going the wrong way," he said.

But, as even Brillant admits, it will prove difficult for him to win in the Republican-leaning district. Both Chance and Brillant ran in uncontested primaries this summer. Chance took 14,370 votes while Brillant mustered just 4,261 votes.

Chance has represented the district since he was elected in 2004. He ran unopposed in 2006, the same year Perdue appointed him as a floor leader to help shepherd the administration's legislative priorities through the Senate.

He is chairman of the Government Oversight Committee and sits on the Economic Development, Finance, Higher Education, and Reapportionment and Redistricting committees. Chance, who is president of both a public relations company and a property investment corporation, lives in Tyrone.

He said lawmakers will confront some key issues when they convene in January, particularly managing the budget and declining revenues. All state agencies will have to tighten their belts, Chance said.

"I think as we head into next year and we're looking at this situation ... I think it's important we have people who are experienced and who have a seat at the table to represent the district," he said.

Other issues likely to come up are the opening of offshore oil drilling and creating commuter rail, both of which the senator said he favors. Education must be taken care of in these bleak economic times, Chance said, and he disputed Democrats' characterization of past funding cuts.

Education gets the largest share of Georgia's more than $20 billion state budget, he pointed out.

"And it goes up every year," Chance said. "Clearly we're not cutting."

With close to $82,000 on hand at the end of June, Chance's fundraising has dwarfed Brillant's, who has subsidized his campaign with $1,600 of his own money. At the Sept. 30 filing date, Brillant reported that he had collected $4,060 from donors and already had spent most of it.

Brillant said Chance's ability to raise money should not be surprising. Chance was a registered lobbyist during the 2003 and 2004 sessions of the General Assembly, according to records on file with the State Ethics Commission.

Only months before he was elected, he advocated the interests of clients such as Lorillard Tobacco Co., Thunderhead Distribution and Nextel, among others, those records show. Chance is no longer a registered lobbyist. He said he stopped after qualifying for office.

At least three of Chance's past clients - Lorillard, the Georgia Psychological Association and Professional Probation Services Inc. - have together contributed nearly $4,000 to the senator's campaigns since April 2004, according to his contribution reports.

"That tells it all," Brillant said. "He represents every big PAC group there is. There's nothing in here that says he represents the citizens of these five counties."

Chance calls such accusations "completely absurd." He concedes that any elected official who takes money from a political action committee or lobbyist organization opens himself to criticism. But many of the PACs that have donated money to his campaign are employee groups from companies that are the bedrock of Georgia business, he said, such as Caterpillar, Coca-Cola and UPS.

And he sees no problem in taking money from groups that he once represented. They have not had any dealings before him in the Senate, he said.

"There aren't any hidden agendas," Chance said. "There's no conspiracies - nothing's going on."

To contact writer Matt Barnwell, call 744-4251.