Cagle denies charges contained in ethics complaint

ATLANTA - Lt. Governor Casey Cagle's campaign is denying reports that he had an affair with a female staff member and overpaid her to keep it quiet.

"Mr. Boyd's allegation is absolutely false and deliberately hurtful to the lieutenant governor, his family and the staff who work for him," Ryan Cassin, Cagle's campaign manager said in a statement released Friday night. "Carol Porter obviously wants someone else to spread lies on her behalf, and her willingness to spoon feed poison to an attention-seeking millionaire is despicable and pathetic. We expect Carol's dirty tricks team to continue these kinds of attacks over the next several days in a desperate attempt to erase a 20-point deficit."

Channel 2 Action News reported Friday night that the charges are contained in a complaint filed with the state Ethics Commission by Ray Boyd, a northwest Georgia businessman who had planned to run for governor as a Republican but backed out and has now endosed Cagle's Democratic opponent in his bid for re-election, Carol Porter.

Porter denies any involvement in the filing of the complaint.

"Casey Cagle's attacks are a false and desperate attempt to deflect from the situation," said a statement released by her campaign. "We had no knowledge of Mr. Boyd's ethics complaint until called by Lori Geary from WSB-TV. Mr. Boyd seems to be fed up with the corruption and as [University of Georgia political scientist] Charles Bullock has coined it, 'the fraternity boy antics' under the Gold Dome."

The woman with whom Cagle is alleged to have had the affair also denies that it happened.