Two wealthy Republicans, one runoff: how Georgia gubernatorial candidates compare

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and entrepreneur Rick Jackson have a few things in common.

Both are wealthy, but one is wealthier. Both say they are aligned with President Donald Trump, though Trump has endorsed only one of them.

Both are Republicans and want to become the GOP nominee for governor.

Yet only one can win the runoff on Tuesday. (Election Guide)

Republicans will make their choice after a bruising election campaign that cost the candidates tens of millions of dollars in advertising.

Both candidates have aired ads that allege the other is corrupt, another thing they have in common.

They share similar policy priorities, too.

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Here is what they have said about the issues when queried at public events in recent months.

Both say they want to cut taxes

Jackson said during an Atlanta Press Club debate in April that he would cut the state income tax in half and freeze property taxes.

Jones had advocated for eliminating the income tax altogether, a goal that proved elusive during this year’s legislative session, when lawmakers approved more modest rate cuts.

Also, the Senate, which Jones leads, balked at the House’s goal of abolishing the property tax, agreeing instead only to an inflation-based cap on homestead value increases.

“Special interests pressured Burt. He did what was best for them and not you,” Rep. Brent Cox, R-Dawsonville, says in a new attack ad by the Jackson campaign.

Jones said at a Georgia Association of Manufacturers’ gubernatorial forum in April that he would continue trying to cut the income tax if he were to become governor.

“I’d like to see us go to zero,” he said.

They hold similar views on the environment

Asked about environmental regulations at the manufacturers’ forum, Jones said, “We’re regulated way too much as a country and even sometimes at the local and state level.”

Jackson said he “would keep protecting our natural resources” but only up to a point. “There has to be a balance between protecting the environment and actually making a good business decision,” he said.

He had a similar response to an audience question about litigation connected with PFAS, a pollutant that has been detected in rivers and the blood of residents in northwest Georgia, home to the carpet industry.

Jackson said, “There’s a balance between the health of the people … versus putting out of business one of the largest manufacturers in Georgia through class action litigation.”

Immigration policy got personal

Jones attacked Jackson on immigration at that Press Club debate in April, claiming Jackson was employing “illegals” in his backyard.

Jackson said he would deport “criminal illegals” as governor, but when Jones pressed him about whether he had employed undocumented workers, Jackson responded, “I don’t know.”

Jackson skipped the next Press Club debate in May, which was to be a runoff forum between the two of them. Jones, in a nod to the empty lectern for Jackson, said Jackson had skipped because Jones had “tripped him up” with that immigration question. 

At the manufacturers’ forum in April, Jackson had offered his views on immigration.

“I’m not anti-people coming in as long as they come here legally, but we need to do everything we can to make that possible because being here legally, they pay taxes,” he said.

Competing for Trump supporters

Both say they are avid supporters of the president.

“President Trump’s business focus inspired me to run,” Jackson said at the April Press Club debate. ” Georgia needs business leadership, a focus on results, not politics. I’ll be just like him, with a Southern tone.”

But only Jones has Trump’s endorsement, a fact that Trump has repeatedly communicated to his chosen candidate.

“The biggest reason why President Trump is endorsing my candidacy for governor is because he knows me,” Jones said at that same debate. “We’ve got over a 10-year history together, and he knows me to be somebody who does what he says he’s going to do.”

Soon after Jackson ran his attack ad against Jones on the tax issue, Jones fired back with one of his own, repeating prior claims about Jackson being a political shapeshifter.

“Jackson donated to Stacey Abrams and donated to Liz Cheney after she impeached President Trump,” Jones’ ad says.

Jackson had addressed the issue at the Press Club debate, saying he did not know he had given money to a political action committee affiliated with Cheney but had given considerably more money to Trump’s campaign in December.

“I was late to the Trump train. I admit that,” Jackson said, adding that as a longtime conservative, he had donated “to all Republicans, good and bad. … But there’s nobody that supports President Trump more than I do now.”

Money talks

Both men have considerable wealth at their disposal and have used it to promote their candidacies.

Jones talks about his stable family background, while Jackson shares his rags-to-riches story.

Jones describes himself as a sixth-generation Georgian who helps operate his family’s petroleum business with 2,500 employees.

Jackson says he was born to an alcoholic mother and raised in public housing and in foster homes. As a young man, he skipped college and went into business, ultimately growing a multibillion-dollar medical staffing business.

The candidates’ wealth invited an attack from Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who failed to gather enough votes on May 19 to advance to the Republican runoff.

Carr could not match their ad-buying power, a point he drove home at the April Press Club debate.

“There’s one really rich guy and one guy’s rich daddy that are trying to buy your vote,” he said, “and one guy’s trying to earn it, and that’s me.”

The week after he lost the primary, Carr threw his support behind the really rich guy, endorsing Jackson.

At that manufacturers’ forum, before the field was winnowed to two, Jones questioned whether anything the candidates were saying really mattered, noting that the Republicans had similar platforms.

“So, at the end of the day,” he said, “the voters have to decide who it is that they think can best execute on these promises.”

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