 Jeff Chapman Georgia gubernatorial hopeful Jeff Chapman spoke to Fayette residents at a meet-and-greet in Peachtree City this week, touting his grassroots campaign centered on ethics reform.
Chapman, currently a Republican State Senator representing Brunswick, talked about a handful of his key issues, including the economy, education, and the department of transportation. A question-and-answer session followed.
With six other candidates on the Republican ticket, Chapman has a lot of competition.
Long considered a dark horse in the race, he has recently seen his poll numbers jump from 2 to 6 percent, according to an Insider Advantage survey of probable primary voters released this week. Frontrunners for the Republican nomination John Oxendine, Karen Handel, Nathan Deal and Eric Johnson are all polling between 8 and 18 percent.
Chapman recently picked up the endorsement of Ray Boyd, a wealthy businessman who had been considering a run for governor as an independent. With a small budget, he has relied on events such as this week's Peachtree City forum to get his message out.
What makes Chapman the best man for the job, he says, is his blue-collar background as a mill worker and small business owner and his refusal to compromise his values for political gain.
"This is civic service, not self-service," he said. "If I say I'm supporting something that I don't support, I'm not being true to the people."
When asked about his plans for stimulating the state's economy, Chapman said that he intends to redirect funds to small businesses and offer them sales tax exemptions. He claims that pouring money into retrofitting buildings is not cost effective and only provides a temporary fix for unemployment.
"This isn't real flashy stuff, but this is stuff that works," he said regarding his strategy.
In addition, he intends to work toward lowering the state income tax, preferring to ensure that budget spending is based on "merit, not politics" in order to reduce costs.
According to Chapman, over 50% of the state's budget goes toward education, which is a hefty price tag considering Georgia's consistently poor rankings in nationwide test scores.
What our school system needs, he said, is a decrease in federal involvement, claiming that more mistakes are made the further administration gets from the local level. He compared public schools to charter or magnet schools, noting that the latter two produce higher grades while being subject to fewer federal regulations. According to Chapman, this is a sign that we need to inspect the regulations on public schools and discard them if they aren't being effective.
"We gotta question the system; we gotta say, 'Why are we doing this?'" he said.
Chapman also advocates increasing discipline in the classroom. "We must recognize that the best of intentions for improving education may amount to little if unruly students are allowed to disrupt the classroom, interfere with learning, and diminish the authority of teachers," he said on his website.
Another one of Chapman's priorities is the department of transportation. His goal is to upgrade Georgia's transit systems, particularly in and around metro Atlanta. To achieve this, Chapman plans on working to recapture federal and state motor fuel taxes and ensuring that these funds are used to aid support the transportation system.
For more information about Chapman and his platform, please visit his website at http://www.jeffchapmanforgovernor.com.
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