Thurmond faces challengers in debate

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Posted 10:41AM on Monday, October 21, 2002

ATLANTA - Incumbent Michael Thurmond had a little extra help during Sunday night's Labor Commissioner debate, namely the 3,300 new jobs likely created by last week's announcement of a new DaimlerChrysler plant near Savannah. After a decade of healthy expansion, Georgia lost 89,000 jobs last year. But when the first question directed at Thurmond from a panel of Atlanta journalists brought up that fact, he was ready. "The first thing we can do is what we announced last Thursday, ... that Georgia had won the new DaimlerChrysler plant," Thurmond said. "There'll be another 700 jobs for suppliers that will provide parts and other products for the plant, and about 7,000 additional jobs for support agencies." In 1998, Thurmond became the first black elected statewide without being appointed to the job first. He was a former state representative who oversaw then-Gov. Zell Miller's welfare-to-work plan as head of the state Department of Family and Child Services. Republican candidate Richard McGee, a small businessman from Waycross, challenged what he called Thurmond's history of owing taxes. A state constitutional amendment on the Nov. 5 ballot, called the "Thurmond amendment" by McGee, would make people who default on taxes ineligible to hold elected or appointed office. McGee accused Thurmond of having liens against him, then asked him if he would resign if the amendment passed. "I owe no taxes at the state, local or federal level," Thurmond said. "Unfortunately, if that was a law today, you would not be a candidate. Based on the tax records of Ware County, there's an outstanding tax lien of more than $5,000 against your property, as of last Friday." Later, McGee denied this claim. The other candidate, Libertarian and Atlanta businessman William Costa, asked Thurmond about the $320 million in incentives the state gave DaimlerChrysler. When the commissioner said he agreed with this, Costa asked about supplying money for every person who wanted to open a business, whether it be a "bar or nightclub." Thurmond said those decisions were made on a case-by-case basis, and he felt it was "appropriate" in this case. Members of the panel were Veronica Waters of WSB-AM, Tammy Joyner of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Betty Liu of The Financial Times.