Past and present Governor candidates from Georgia: on Crime


Stacey Abrams: Justice should not be determined by your paycheck

Stacey will focus on reforming bail policies, decriminalizing traffic offenses, increasing training that recognizes implicit bias, and stopping the shameful practices of private probation companies. We must expand reforms to support community policing. However, reform efforts must also recognize that disparities in school funding, health care access, and job opportunities are inextricably related to over-incarceration and prolonged probation sentences.
Source: 2018 Georgia Governor website StaceyAbrams.com Aug 17, 2017

Brian Kemp: Collaborate with cities and sheriff's departments

The Ga. Secretary of State also addressed his approach to helping fight crime in Savannah if elected Governor. "That's an issue where I think the state's perspective is one of collaboration with the cities and different sheriff's departments and counties but that's more of a local control issue, not to say as Governor I wouldn't support something that needed to be done at a local level, but also I think that's what you have elections for," said Sec. of State Kemp.
Source: WJCL News on 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race Apr 28, 2017

Stacey Abrams: Voted YES on criminalizing "up-skirting"

HB 9: Commonly known as "up skirting," legislation criminalizes knowingly using any device or apparatus to observe, photograph, videotape, film, or record underneath such person's clothing for the purpose of viewing intimate body parts or undergarments without the person's consent. Also unlawful to disseminate any such image or recording. MY VOTE: YES
Source: 2018 Georgia governor campaign website StaceyAbrams.com Mar 30, 2017

Stacey Abrams: Voted NO on 10-year minimum for assaulting a cop

HB 258: Amends the Code regarding the aggravated assault of a peace officer by increasing the minimum sentence to ten years of imprisonment. If the aggravated assault of a peace officer involves the discharge of a firearm, none of the mandatory minimum sentence can be probated, stayed, suspended, deferred or withheld.

MY VOTE: NO. I disagree with the increase of mandatory minimums and the lack of discretion available to judges to fully determine if extenuating circumstances are present.

Source: 2018 Georgia governor campaign website StaceyAbrams.com Mar 30, 2017

Andrew Hunt: Community rehab programs instead of incarceration

Keeping Families Together through Prison Reform: Move away from improper jail terms.

As governor, I want to keep families together, keep people in the workforce, and save taxpayers money. One of the best ways to approach this is through prison reform. Georgia operates the 5th largest prison system in the US, and it's costing taxpayers billions of dollars. Roughly 5% of tax dollars goes towards our incarceration systems. Georgia's legislators have considered cutting funds to our education and healthcare without even considering reducing the costs of our prisons. If we shrink our prison population by no longer incarcerating people for victimless crimes, we can help keep families together and reduce our tax dollar waste.

A great example of a cost-effective, smaller government is the prison reform in Texas. By closing 3 prisons, Texas has reunited families and reduced crime rates. They then spent a fraction of the cost of incarceration on creating community rehabilitation programs.

Source: 2014 Georgia gubernatorial campaign website, AndrewHunt.us Aug 31, 2014

Jason Carter: No ban on the death penalty

Jason Carter distances himself from a man he has loved and admired since boyhood: his grandfather, former President Jimmy Carter. Of the elder Carter's call to ban the death penalty, his grandson said, "I love my grandfather, but we disagree." And when grandfather Carter offered to attend a campaign rally in Albany, Ga., his grandson politely asked him to stay home. "He wanted the people of southwest Georgia to see that he was a man of his own," the former president said in an interview in his office.

So it goes in what may be the nation's most awkward legacy campaign. Political families--from the Roosevelts to the Kennedys, Bushes and Clintons--have long been a part of American politics. Carter's bid to unseat Gov. Nathan Deal, the Republican incumbent, is testing the strength and durability of the Carter name in Georgia, a red state that Democrats hope to turn blue. But it is also a test of something more: a deep bond between a 38-year-old grandson and an 89-year-old grandfather.

Source: N.Y. Times on 2014 Georgia gubernatorial race Jul 26, 2014

  • The above quotations are from Winners and Losers
    Gubernatorial candidates from Georgia.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Crime.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
Candidates and political leaders on Crime:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R)
Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R)
Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Aug 12, 2018