ATLANTA — Most of Georgia’s statewide primary races have been settled on either the Democratic or Republican ticket, but the race for leadership of the state Senate remains up for grabs on both sides of the aisle.
While not a senator, the lieutenant governor presides over the chamber and can control committee assignments and the flow of legislation. The lieutenant governor also fills in for the governor when necessary.
The partisans who survived last month’s primary election for the job will face each other in a June 16 runoff. On Sunday, they squared off in person in a studio at Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta, for what will likely be their final debate.
It can be difficult to find daylight between candidates from the same party, so in the first debate the remaining two Republicans attacked each other’s leadership skills, pitching themselves as best able to execute on policy.
The Democrats followed a similar script in their subsequent debate.
Both Republicans, Sen. Greg Dolezal of Cumming and former Sen. John F. Kennedy of Macon, said they want to cut taxes further than the GOP-controlled Legislature did this year.
Dolezal said that could be done without reducing services.
“For far too long, the Republican Party has been the party of crony capitalism,” said Dolezal, blaming his own partisans for approving budget-eating tax giveaways. “And if we get rid of these crony capitalist tax cuts, we can reduce and ultimately eliminate the state income tax here in Georgia.”
Kennedy resigned in early December because Georgia bars lawmakers from raising campaign funds during the legislative session. So he did not have to shoulder responsibility for the Senate’s failure to abolish income taxes as planned or the House’s similar failure to eliminate property taxes.
Kennedy said he could reduce taxes further if he were lieutenant governor.
“The Legislature was not able to get relief to hard-working Georgians,” he said. “I come in with a good reputation of working with all people, working with folks across the aisle, excellent relationships with those in the House and the governor’s office. And that’s what it takes.”
Kennedy noted that he was elected Senate president pro tempore, the highest leadership office for a senator.
Dolezal never made it into one of the top six Senate leadership spots for Republicans after serving a similar amount of time.
Dolezal described himself as a loyalist to President Donald Trump, noting that he was among a handful of senators who called for a special legislative session to investigate Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
“If a close friend came to you and said, ‘I’m looking for a conservative fighter,’” Dolezal said. “Who would you recommend? The one who goes along to get along or the one who has a record of standing and fighting?”
He echoed fears voiced in Texas where some Republicans contend that parts of the state are at risk of falling under Islamic legal influence.
“I’m fighting to ban Sharia law,” Dolezal said.
The Democratic debate featured bitter exchanges between Sen. Josh McLaurin of Sandy Springs and Nabilah Parkes, a former state senator from Gwinnett County.
Parkes had initially planned to run for insurance commissioner, but she abruptly changed course in March to join the contest for lieutenant governor.
Like Kennedy, she resigned her seat in the Senate so she could raise money for her campaign.
Unlike Kennedy, she waited until the legislative session had already started, leaving her seat vacant from mid-March into the busiest period of lawmaking.
Kennedy was succeeded by a Republican in February after a special election. A special election to fill the remainder of Parkes’ term is set for June 16, the same day as the primary runoff in the race to succeed her next year.
McLaurin called Parkes a quitter, and she called him a feeble campaigner, an insult he returned. Parkes, who is Muslim, has pointed to Dolezal’s campaign ads about Islam as her reason for breaking ranks with Democratic leaders to run for lieutenant governor.
Parkes described herself as a fighter from a working-class family who attended public schools and qualified for the free and reduced-price meals there before she attended Georgia State University.
McLaurin attended a private K-12 school in Buckhead, then the University of Georgia and Yale Law School, though he said his parents came from hardscrabble backgrounds.
McLaurin described himself as a “skillful” operator, able to ridicule Republican lawmakers for supporting Trump while earning enough of their respect and trust to pass legislation. He cited a bill to regulate car booting and one another for therapies for veterans.
Parkes attacked McLaurin as a Democrat who “coddles” Republicans.
“We don’t need a candidate that goes along to get along, like my opponent,” she said.
McLaurin said the Senate would likely remain under GOP control after the November general election and that Republicans would almost certainly strip the lieutenant governor of power if a Democrat were to win the office.
He characterized Parkes as ineffective, noting that scores of Democratic lawmakers have endorsed him, as has Stacey Abrams, who twice won Georgia’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination. On Monday, Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock added his endorsement.
“I imagine that my bipartisan work probably does look like coddling Republicans to somebody who hasn’t done any of it,” McLaurin said. “So, the bottom line is this: I am a fierce fighter. I have stood up to MAGA Republicans. I’ve called them narcissist coddlers to their face, but I get stuff done, and that’s why I can win in November.”
Watch the debates online at https://www.gpb.org/election/press-club-debates.
