Social Issues and Fitzpatrick’s Legacy Shape Ninth District Runoff

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As the dust settles after Tuesday night’s ETC ninth district debate and, with the runoff under a week away, one thing seems clear: the Collins camp has pushed social issues to the top of its platform. Over the past few months, Candidate Rep Doug Collins has issued dozens of mailers and mass e-mails to voters accusing his opponent Martha Zoller of supporting civil unions and abortion, despite Zoller’s long litany of pro-life endorsements. Notably, in the last few weeks the emails and mailers have increased tenfold, showing a relentless effort to make social issues the nucleus of the election. But, is it working?

During Tuesday’s debate, Collins made consistency a sub-theme of the discussion, arguing that his views have been consistent, where he said his opponent’s views have changed over time.

“There’s a consistent conservative in this race and that’s me. And there’s also someone who had a lot of views before they were running for office, on the radio,”

Collins said. Later, when the topic of civil unions and abortion came up, Zoller asserted her stance.

“I am pro-life,”

she said,

“As far as civil unions are concerned, I do not support civil unions; I do support a federal marriage amendment; I have been endorsed by Rick Santorum…I have been endorsed by Sarah Palin. Those people do not endorse liberals. I am not a liberal. I am pro-life and I am pro-family.”

Collins pursued, though, implying Zoller’s views changed when she decided to run for Congress. For her part, Zoller said the video clips used by Collins in his email to show the allegedly changing views were taken out of context. Through out April into early May of this year, the two candidates engaged in an email battle, sending out press releases questioning each other’s Georgia Right to Life (GRTL) endorsement. In May, FYN confirmed that both candidates have authentically been endorsed by GRTL.

In the debate this week, GRTL came up again, when Collins accused Zoller of telling GRTL what it wanted to hear to get the endorsement and, Zoller reminded voters that Collins’ GRTL endorsement was briefly suspended because his name was on a fake-fetal pain bill. However, Collins’ endorsement was reinstated when he moved his name from that legislation to another, more authentic pro-life bill. And, GRTL recently reaffirmed Zoller’s endorsement, stating,

“Georgia Right to Life would like to reaffirm that Martha Zoller is endorsed and certified as Pro-Life by Georgia Right to Life. This is not an easy endorsement to receive and should never be taken lightly. We thoroughly vet our candidates and can assure all voters that Martha Zoller will work in Congress to protect the unborn if she is elected to serve Georgia’s 9th Congressional District in the August 21 run-off.”

As the discussion continued in a shot-for-shot cycle, Zoller then sought to end the discussion by saying they were both pro-life.

Meanwhile, what do voters make of all this?

North Georgia Pregnancy Center Development Director Ralph Barker called Collins’ last mailer outrageous, saying he was put off by the negative nature of it. After seeing some of the earlier emails from the Collins camp accusing Zoller of being pro-choice, Barker said he called Dan Becker, head of the Georgia Right to Life, to get a better understanding of the situation. Becker told him that last year GRTL sat down with Zoller to clarify her stance on abortions in circumstances of rape or incest. Following Becker’s discussion with Zoller on this stance, he was confident she was fully pro-life. As such, after speaking with Becker Barker said he was convinced that Zoller is 100 percent a pro-life candidate. Although Barker said he couldn’t speak on behalf of the Pregnancy Center, he said he personally supports Zoller. Additionally, based on the negative mailers and emails from the Collins camp, he said he felt distrustful of Collins as a candidate. If Collins sends out mailers this misleading in a campaign, what will he do when he gets to Washington? Barker wondered.

Tuesday night’s debate also showed the stark influence of former ninth district candidate Roger Fitzpatrick on the race. Following his elimination in July, Fitzpatrick said he wouldn’t endorse any other candidate by name, but encouraged voters to vote for the candidate who best upholds the Constitution. When asked during this week’s debate, both Collins and Zoller agreed that the Constitution is central to the nation. Later, though, Moderator Brian Pritchard asked Collins the same question Fitzpatrick asked Collins several weeks ago during an Atlanta Press Club debate about Collins’ vote for the TSPLOST:

“Could you speak on how you voted for something that could quite possibly be unconstitutional?”

During the Atlanta Press Club debate, Fitzpatrick said the regional commission in the TSPLOST legislation violated the home-rule section of the state constitution. Responding, Collins argued that TSPLOST does not violate the Georgia Constitution, saying that under the home-rule section,

“one of the issues is that the General Assembly can work with taxation with these issues and actually overcome them.”

He went on to say that he voted for the first part of the legislation, but not the list, which was the second part of the legislation. However, local governments in regions which voted against TSPLOST will be hit with a 30 percent penalty, where the regions which voted for it will not have the penalty. Voters have called this part of the bill blackmail. The penalty was in the first part of the bill and Collins confirmed that he knew about the penalty when he voted for it. However, he then noted that legislature has planned to make adjustments regarding the penalties in the next session.

In the July 31st election, Collins won 41.80 percent of the vote, Zoller, 41.14 percent, and Fitzpatrick came away with 17.06 percent of the vote. Also, in a recent poll the undecided number is 18 percent, which seems to reflect Fitzpatrick supporters. The question now is: who will Fitzpatrick voters vote for? In short, which candidate will best uphold the Constitution?

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