Barnes says new Perdue ad misrepresents his record

Published 12:05 pm Friday, May 12, 2006

ATLANTA — Former Gov. Roy Barnes charged Thursday that the new television advertisement of his successor Sonny Perdue is “inaccurate and untrue” when it asserts that Barnes left the state in a fiscal mess.

“I do not want to become intertwined in the current campaign, but I will not sit idly by and allow the hardworking men and women of my administration to be maligned,” Barnes, a Democrat, said in a statement.

The new TV ad claims that Perdue, a Republican inherited the “worst state budget crisis since the Great Depression.” Perdue, who defeated Barnes in 2002, had to wrestle with a $640 million deficit, the ad said.

Not true, said Barnes, who said he actually left behind a substantial surplus. Barnes charged the Perdue team was to blame because it failed to implement planned cost-saving Medicaid reforms. He said he and his administration met with the Perdue team and offered to implement the changes through executive order.

“The new administration informed us that they wished to study the matter for a year,” Barnes said. Even so, Barnes said the state still had $200 million in its reserve fund on June 30, 2003 — some six months after Barnes had left office.

Barnes said that for Perdue to allege that he left behind a $600 million shortfall “exceeds the bounds of political puffery.”

But Perdue campaign spokesman Derrick Dickey defended the ad, arguing that the Barnes administration “hid the severity of their budget crisis during a campaign year” and that Perdue was left to clean up the mess.

“He made the tough decisions that turned things around, and now we have a substantial surplus,” Dickey said. Perdue estimated last week that the state would have a $500 million surplus this year.

The ad, which debuted this week, was paid for by the Georgia Republican Party.

Barnes said he had tried to adhere to the protocol of previous governors not criticizing sitting governors. But he said the ad’s misrepresentations prompted him to come forward.

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On The Net:

To view the ad go to: www.newga.com