ERICKSON: Georgia Republicans should not be thankful

The events of this past year should make Georgia's Republicans nervous and certainly not thankful for their leaders. One of the few competent Republicans in the state remains Nathan Deal. But he is surrounded not by future leaders but by the court jesters of the GOP.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp just presided over the largest data breach in the history of any state with the Elections Division releasing the Social Security numbers, drivers license numbers and dates of birth of more than 6 million Georgians. Despite that, Kemp is actually one of the brightest Republican stars in the sky.

In the Lieutenant Governor's Office sits Casey Cagle, a man who once had to have help tying his shoes. Having gotten thousands of dollars from the alcoholic beverage wholesalers, Cagle worked hard behind the scenes to try to kill reforms that would break up wholesale monopolies in Georgia while shutting down conservative reform efforts.

Presiding over the House of Representatives is David Ralston, a lawyer under investigation for breaking the rules of the State Bar of Georgia. Rumors out of Atlanta are that Ralston may be looking to jump ship into the state judiciary. Unless and until he gets a black robe, however, Ralston is single-handedly dedicated to allowing Christian businesses to be harassed in Georgia. He killed legislation that would protect the religious liberty of business owners in Georgia, something more than 60 percent of people support.

In the Department of Revenue, Commissioner Lynne Riley oversaw revenue regulations that would help grow the craft beer industry in Georgia. The legislation to enable the regulations passed the Legislature in a bipartisan manner. Regulations were sorted and a compromise agreed to. But then, after the compromise was agreed to, the Department of Revenue stopped returning the phone calls of small businesses to be affected by the regulations and worked hand in glove with lobbyists dedicated to hurting those small businesses.

An Open Records Act request shows that, having rejected ideas from beer wholesalers that would have gutted legislation making it possible for craft beer brewers to sell to customers at their breweries, the Department of Revenue went back and accepted those same ideas without telling anyone. Records show the Department of Revenue stayed in steady contact with the beer wholesalers and would not return phone calls from the craft beer brewers.

In the past year, the Republicans in Georgia have taken in major campaign contributions from gay-oriented groups designed to shut down religious freedom legislation. They have taken in major campaign contributions from businesses that would profit from a billion dollar tax increase in gas and then raised those taxes. They have taken in major contributions from wholesalers who want to stifle the growth of small businesses in Georgia and then turned a blind eye when regulators began punishing the small businesses.

The Republican Party of Georgia is pretty broke. They had to bring in former U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston to start raising money for the party. No one trusts the leadership. The only people benefitting are legislators to whom lobbyists write large checks to get their way. Small businesses, innovators and Christians have all been on the losing end of the Georgia Republican Party's agenda. Cagle, Ralston, and the Republican leadership in the Legislature have spent all year showing that ideas do not matter. Money matters.

Heading into 2016, Georgia Republicans would be wise to start finding good challengers for primaries against their legislators. If the Republicans won't clean house, the voters in the general election certainly will.

Erick Erickson is a Fox News contributor and radio talk show host in Atlanta.

This story was originally published November 26, 2015 at 8:10 PM with the headline "ERICKSON: Georgia Republicans should not be thankful ."