Loudermilk young debate series brought to you live from georgia public broadcasting. The race for governor. Good evening, i am brenda wood. We would like to welcome you and our live studio audience to the Atlanta Press club Loudermilk Young debate series, originating from the studios of georgia public broadcasting in atlanta. This is the debate between the candidates for georgias governor. Lets meet the candidates. They are in alphabetical order, jason carter, who has represented the 42nd Senate District in the Georgia StateLegislature Since 2010. Incumbent nathan deal has been the governor since 2011 and andrew hunt is the founder and former ceo of a Nano Technology company. Lets meet our analysts. Jim galloway writes political insider, a political column for the atlantajournal constitution. Christopher king is a reporter with cbs in atlanta. 46 Sandra Parrish is a reporter covering political and legislative news. This debate will consist of three rounds and for more information on the rules, please visit atlantapressclub. Org. Lets get started. In the first round, each panelist will pose a question to each to one candidate. Marie deal, with university and the cdc putting georgia in the spotlight and the outbreak of ebola, you signed an executive order for an Ebola Response team. Tell others what it will intel and does georgia have a network in place to handle ebola outbreak. I did issue an executive order and we will be having the first meeting, an Ebola Response team and it will be old public and private individuals both public and private individuals included in marie university. Emory university. It might be associated with responding and identifying someone who is potentially infected with the virus. I believe we have the Resources Available and if we need additional, we will try to make sure those are available. We take this seriously. Beis something we want to prepared for. We do not have control over travel restrictions and we have identified the counties where residents from the three primary countries are located and we are to identifyrations people such as students who may be going home to their home countries and we believe we will be prepared. , your turn. Er king mr. Hot, you said you do not want to increase the minimum wage. You want to establish a plan for the state to reimburse on every higher paid more than 11 per hour, will it cost more money and why not just raise the minimum wage . You need to have a system of freedom and that is what we need to have. A Free Enterprise system where the way that people do business is regulated and directed toward the way maximum productivity. We needed to have more jobs to bring people out of poverty. We have one of the highest poverty levels in the nation. We need higherpaying jobs. Too many people are heading to parttime jobs. With had a decrease of 1500 and the last four years, we have had a decrease of 1500 in the last four years in middleclass families. For one of the highest unemployment states in the nation. We have to stop at this. We have to correct and we need a strong plan. Mine is a strong and aggressive plan. Jim galloway, you may ask jason carter. Mr. Carter, when you first arrived in the senate each championed an eligibility cap for the hope scholarship. J he wearing you told a magazine you were backing away and an income tax was too blunt an instrument. My question simply, should any kind of means testing be applied to the hope scholarship and if so, how would it work . Thank you for your question. Before we began, i want to take one moment and say added by the cool has ever worked on a campaign knows how quickly it becomes a family. I recognize that the Deal Campaign suffered a loss and want to take a moment to acknowledge matt burgess and send condolences to his family and my prayers are with both his family and governor deals team. With respect to the hope scholarship, i have fought every day against the governor and the cuts were deep and they impacted the middle class and there are 80,000 less recipients. I believe those cuts were wrong. I believe we must make sure we maximize the number of students who were able to afford college and that is how we get the kind of economy we want and that kind of people that are prosperous in moving forward. It concludes the first round. The candidates will ask one question to each of their opponents. Each will have 30 seconds to ask a question and 60 seconds to respond and 30 seconds for a rebuttal. We begin with andrew hunt and your question of four jason carter. I get to choose . You get to ask a question of jason carter. I have been told, you do get to choose. [laughter] deal, sadly, a bottom 10 list. We have the highest Unemployment Rate in the highest poverty and poor education, Expensive Health care, night highest income tax you promised to cut. High incarceration rates, 1500 decrease in of the income, terrible atlanta traffic. You promised limited government. You beautifully glossed over this, but can you acknowledging these facts . I reject your facts. Family income, Household Income has increased in the state every year since i have been governor. We have been in the top 10. Tates in terms of job creation last year, we were number six in terms of total new jobs. To groweeing our state and we have grown and population of a about 180,000 people. We have gone to the eighth largest state and we have been recognized for the first time in our history as the best state in the nation in which to do business. We are coming out of this Great Recession and we have Team Revenues grow. Seen revenues grow. They have grown every year under my administration and we believe we set the course in the right direction. We have emphasized education and made reforms both at k12 and Technical Levels and colleges and universities. We believe we have set a pattern. Mr. Hunt, your rebuttal . Very smooth aty, how you would expect a lawyer to answer. Out of to take georgia bad policies and build them back up again. Ign ofded to end the re career politicians because this is what we get. We get the smooth over. To make a and we have change this year. We need to do it. You can do it. Hunt for hot on the ballot hunt on the ballot. You have to have a question for jason carter. Well, ok. Mr. Carter, once again, i will come to the education policy and back to the realm where we have the issue where you want to bring back our employment and state through education. It takes many years for those people to graduate and a changeup that teachers and quality teachers. Your things but it will not get us back to the job creation, we are the highest unemployment. We have to turn this around. Thank you, dr. Hunt. I believe to build a foundation and vibrantconomy job creation system we have to begin with education and it allows us to have prosperous state has every ingredient in these to be an absolute powerhouse. Now the educational institutions and Global Access and we are going to have the biggest report on the east coast. With all of those dynamics and people, not just in atlanta but andeorgia and food the route of the agricultural economy, we have the ingredients to be a powerhouse. Unemploymentast in and how fast the recovery from the recession. I believe if we invest in our people and create jobs through Small Businesses, innovative and dynamic entrepreneurs and ensuring we can build durable jobs including an agricultural economy, we would drive this date forward. 30 seconds for your rebuttal. Stateeard you address the of georgia and how we need to turn things around. You did not point out in any way how you will create jobs through better education in the near term. I would like to see this plan put out that is so important that we must, must turn this around and get rid of the poverty cycle. Education is one of the ways to do it, i agree. Mr. Deal, you may ask your question. Hunt, libertarians are fears opponents of government spending. In our last debate, you indicated you would expand medicare under obamacare. Took a 37d you million in privatesector grants funded by the taxpayers of this country to make sure your business did not go into bankruptcy. How do you reconcile those positions with your partys positions . We need to clarify and make sure everybody understands. First of all, the georgians paid into the federal system and we are not getting the money back. One of the reasons we are hurting and so many ways. Do i agree with obamacare . No. Do i want state rights . Yes. We need to get that to that. But as a republic, each state has the programs themselves. Until we do that, we have to get our tax dollars back and bring them back into the system. These grants my Company Receives are the same away. Competitive grants, no lobbying, under scientific merit and review and are considered honor badges. Honorsany received many badges of high technological capability and i have 50 patents. And have worked with antimicrobials. Hunt wants tor. Expand medicaid and an entitlement program. It is in title programs that are killing our country. Wee wrong, we are not are borrowing that money. I believe we have to be responsible by the way we spend taxpayers dollars and icu have benefited from taxpayerfunded grants and i understand your position on that, but it does not seem to reconcile itself with being a libertarian. Carter, you have never had a leadership position leadershipslature or position in private business. You of never passed a bill, never offered an amendment. Why should georgians a vote for you with this absolute lack of leadership experience . Both knowr, you and i what you said is not true. There are 21 bills that have my name on it that you signed into law. An attack on my leadership is frankly an attempt to pass of the buck. The bottom line of what we need in this state is a governor who will stand up and say, i take responsibility for the middle class. Fact that 1400 has been taken out of the average persons pocket. It is a number that is real. The facts will show out. Is fallingclass behind and our Education System has been undermined. We have a 9000 fewer teachers. And a vision for the future is the most important thing we can provide and this state has languished enough. Your rebuttal . Senator carter has been in the legislature as long as ive been governor. His colleagues who have known him back have never given him a best and leadership him a positionn leadership. He has never been an author of a bill that has passed. He criticizes budget he voted for. He has never offered an amendment to anything that budgets this date. Chris may i respond . We are out of time. , you are a scientist and you have heard the governors report of a appointed a task force on ebola. What are your thoughts . A very good one. The governor actually quoted that water kills ebola. We cannot have our leaders making such statements and then not retracting them. I never saw a public retraction. That is bad. I have many years of working in antimicrobials and i find it very bad we have a leadership that will go in that way. He is assigning a task team but does not the capability or knowledge to know which people have the right ways of doing it. I can bp on a pair with the people addressing these issues peer with the people addressing these issues and we will put out the right Safety Measures for our state to be protected. Mr. Carter, care to rebut . I think he has put it out well. What we can do in respect to handling the ebola crisis is making sure our Health Care System and leaders have credibility. Ive lived in africa in times of thateak and is important our top leadership is communicating effectively and our top leadership expert on appropriate information and i believe it was inappropriate last week for the governor to save water killed ebola. Deal, we asked supporters on facebook what they would like to ask you. But to this question comes from my friend, robert, who is here. Here it is. It is football season. We would not stand for it if our Football Team was getting beaten by tennessee, florida, mississippi, louisiana, south carolina, and the entire rest of the country. Being dead last in respect to unemployment and you are out of time. Please get your question. Why shouldnt it cost you yours . Unemployment numbers are outliers. The critical area is how many jobs are being created. And moreted jobs just than all of the states you name. Last year, we were sixth in the nation. We are on the right track. Simplyu are saying is quoted statistics. The bureau of labour statistics is now saying that if are finally going to and just their model. And just adjust their model. The only problem is they do not adjust it until they do in audit in february. I am confident they will come back and say our Unemployment Rate was not the figure as they imploded. It does not reconcile it at major economists are saying it does not make common sense. Your rebuttal . I do not believe it is about statistics but the governor cannot blame the statisticians for the fact that the middle class is hurting. 000 the fact there are 380, georgians are being left behind. We cannot wait until february to generate jobs to bring our state back to where it should be. We have every ingredient we need to be a powerhouse and it is governor has led us to the bottom in so many ways. I knownappropriate and with a true vision that supports the middle class, we can move our state forward. Will make one exception and i will give nathan deal an opportunity for a rebuttal on the ebola question and comment that was made. We have a competent individual, dr. Brian fitzgerald, head of public health. Me admitted she gave misinformation. She has put together a comprehensive effort to fight ebola and she is talking with hospitals and making sure that First Responders know exactly what they are working with. I believe ive shot responsible leadership to bring all of the public on responsible leadership to bring all of the public to make sure our state is protected. That is enough. We must move on. This is the debate between the candidates for georgia governor. We will go to our third and final round. In this round, i will ask a question submitted by the public and turn to our panelists for questions to follow. Cyclel continue this until we run out of time. I will ask all of the candidates if you would take a moment to answer the question. We will give you 60 seconds to answer each. We can with mr. Hunt and go down the line. A question for each of you. If elected, will you fight for Marriage Equality and medical cannabis or will you continue to support the status quo . Mr. Hunt . Proponentbe a strong of medical cannabis. It can cure so many things. Hass a Natural Remedy and fewer side effects than the expensive drugs we are putting people on the are so addictive. This a less addictive, better cure for many areas including our veterans who are suffering from ptsd and we need to take care of our veterans dearly. Area, samesex marriage this is an area that will be determined by the courts and is happening right now. I when i want to waste tax money i would not want to waste tax money on laws. Each organization should decide who they believe is worthy of being married or not. That is how it was in the founding of our company. Smaller government, less rules and regulations and that way we maximize our freedoms that we should have. Mr. Deal . When the people voted for a constitutional amendment that said marriage was between a man and a woman, i took an old of office to support and uphold the constitution and laws of the state and that is what i intend to do. In regards to medical cannabis, i entered an executive order which has put us far ahead of many other states. We are cooperating through our department with a private company that is doing Clinical Trials and we are going to be approved by the food and Drug Administration for georgia through our university to conduct Clinical Trials. I have sympathy for these families and individuals who are seeing children suffering from seizures and i will work with the General Assembly as i have done to make sure we have a good, solid answer. I am not going to be in a position off seeing georgia be, like colorado. I have spent time with the parents of children, who suffer from seizure disorders. Last year when we voted in the those to allow lawabiding citizens and folks who care so much about their children to have access to that cannabis oil treatment, i was proud. I was disappointed that the gridlock prevent it from taking place and would like to see better leadership at the time. I do support that and will 30 to do so and would gladly signed legislation. With respect to marriage, i believe in religious liberty and personal freedom and i do not believe that anyone should tell a church or religious organization who can be married, but i do believe the government when it calls to doling out right should do it equally. I take an oath to the certainlyon and would continue to apollo to the constitution as long as it remains valid under the law. Your turn to answer a question ask a question. During the report and primary, you agree to make your recent income tax available but you have yet to do so. Do you still intend to do so and when . I believe mr. Carter has made the same commitment and is not made his income tax available. I intend to make my tax returns available like ive done previously. Let me just say, ive seen senator carters ad about my business was done this a typical illustration of how some liberals look at private enterprise. They have this thing for people to make a business start. We work with the business for weeklydecades, meeting payroll. I do not agree with the proposition that the government may our business successful. I turned it over to a blind trust when i became a governor, a National Company wanted to buy our business and we agreed to sell. Unlike the liberal context where georges have built businesses from scratch, i want to tell you, is not the government that made us successful but those of us who worked to make our companies successful. Mr. Carter, i will give you a chance for rebuttal. Governorhe business to make better. It is a practice. The taxpayers have been on the hook. There are 3 million coming out of our pockets to deal with this governors cover up of prior issues. Id will tell you. When i think about these facts we see, i think we deserved more of a response than liberal namecalling. I am going to let you respond. Yes. With regards to any taxes that may be owed by the copy haveabout our company, i led a neutral judge make the call and we will collect every cent. The allegations about ethics charges is something senator carter has related. That affix commission heard the charges against me and dismissed them as being of no merit whatsoever just as the charging against him has been dismissed as well. Sandra parrish, your question. Two years ago, georgia ranked ethics report. We have not only performed the ethics rules especially tightening them down, it is greatly improved our status in terms of ratings. We have in my administration into thest 250,000 Ethics Commission to update their Computer System and give them the authority. It should not take anybody 2. 5 years to determine a case against a candidate as no valid merit whatsoever as was the case with me. I want to make sure that we have reforms and that is why i have recommended we make reformed fear to include all three branches of government making equal appointments. Bate about the miss functioning of that commission has been primarily the inability of staff to coordinate their activities. If we have independent members who do not vote on charges that come against individuals from the government that has appointed them, we will remove any doubt. Another question from the public. This is from ashley mcdonald. This for all of you. In regards to the Affordable Health care act, how do you plan to help middleclass families who make too much money to qualify for assistance yet who struggles trying to pay for health care . Mr. Carter . Right now the federal government has 36 billion dollars of our money and the governor has fought to keep that money. It does not make sense for our people and for the 600,000 georgians who would have health care it not for the governors decision. Wouldare 35,000 jobs that come and our Health Care Sector if we took the federal doctors that are ours. Looking for solutions looks like. The governor has played washington politics repeatedly on this issue and decided to bring his experience in congress here and say the most important the is partisanship. I believe we have to solve problems. Our rural hospitals are in crisis. There are five that have close. We must charge forward on this issue and as governor, i will do it. Ensuring georgia gets its fair share. First of all, i think you should know the fact that george and taxpayers georgia taxpayers support the current Medicaid Program at both the state and federal level and if we expanded, it would cost 2. 5 billion dollars over the next 10 years. I simply do not think we can afford to do that. It is not money where paid in post. Much of it is money the federal government does not have. 351 million and is much it to come into compliance with the Affordable Care act. That is 351 the a dollars we million wen 351 could put into things like education. I think we have to be responsible with taxpayers money and make sure we do what idea with an executive order in regards to rural hospitals. Allowing them to cut back to the services they can provide. Mr. Hunt . Where a Major Health Care crisis where most people cannot afford to get services. The problem is the rules and regulations there. We need tort reform. We must get down the legal costs costing our provider so much and neither of the attorneys running against me will bring that. I will make sure we get toward reform and reduced 20 of our medical costs through this one avenue. We must have a Free Enterprise system where people are not forced to buy insurance but can go indirect relationship with doctors through medical coops that have been proven other states to reduce the cost. That is what we need. Free enterprisebased solutions, less regulation, and tighten down on the lawyers, who are in your insurance policy. Pay your health insurance, you are paying a lawyer. I skipped Christopher King so we will pick up. Each of the candidates have mentioned and talked about a little bit before and this question is for all of the candidates. As you mentioned, georgia ranks sixth in the nation for job creation. It still has the highest Unemployment Rate and the country. The same state Labor Department puts the jobless rate at several 7. 9 . Ercent it is much higher than the national average. What would you do to reduce unemployment and create not just lowpaying jobs but wellpaying jobs . I would definitely and both my job Powerhouse Program and we , driveve within my term unemployment less than 5 and that is what we need. A better job environment and the better the pay. Eight would be done in such a way that only fulltime jobs paying 11 an hour or more our reward. It is for every town, every city. 2 of the highest poverty cities and the country. You can make h was on what you want. Ant to give in to this or or do you want to give in to this . Choose who you buy your services from. Jim galloway . This question is for all three gentlemen. In 2003, the Legislature Passed legislation should the state of georgia take the next step and criminalizing this activity . That is an excellent question and what you have to look at is maybe we are doing too many regulations. Maybe you should allow a little bit of money to come to these impoverished players. Lets rethink the whole thing and make that would have done liberty and opportunity for people. Lets have a has a they can make a reasonable amount of money. It make it so that can make a reasonable amount of money. We need to clean up our sports indeed to every system that is fair to the player as well as to the college. The colleges are getting all of the money and everything else. The donors are putting a lot of money into the Football Program and i will like to see the donors put it in education. That is where we need to put our money and have a so the players can get some money and wealth a much better system. We shouldf all, maybe see more enforcement all the law that we have. More importantly than anything is we need to see some fairness in the ncaa and players being true to it fully for the same kinds of accusations. The state of georgia is trying to play by the rules, but we are seeing other stadiums across the country playing individuals who may be have done at the very same thing that one of our players is alleged to do. It is a serious problem and requires everybody be treated fairly and equitably including the players and families and schools. This is certainly something i thing left to be cautious about legislating on. This is always been within the promise of the private sector, those who regulate athletic activities in our colleges and universities am a but i do believe with a enough public pressure we can change their attitudes to make sure that our people including tom is treated with fairness. Mr. Carter . I think you have a lot of georgia fans up here. The short answer is, yes. I think the folks out here praying on these athletes and making money on them should be punished. I will to you what i think about would we look and consider what is happening at the university of georgia. We have undermined our Public Institutions of Higher Education that it is on believable. If the cost of college in this day is rising higher. Is another way that georgia has reached the bottom. We have to sure we are making education our first priority. I believe if we do that, we can control the cost of college and expand the hope scholarship to ensure middleclass families are able to maximize their access and right now, when the look at the university of georgia and how excited we are about our Football Team, we want to be excited about Higher Education and their ability to afford. Sandra parrish . The mayor of houston ask pastors to turn over sermons and term of a case. Do you support antidiscrimination laws over freedom of speech . I believe freedom of speech is important and the government cannot legislate within that spectrum. I believe there are certain types of hate crimes their rights to the level of being more than speech. As a general matter, no, i will not support legislation that rightsestrict peoples to freedom of speech. I believe we can strike appropriate balance. I think we have to allow people to move forward and be free to speak if they wish. Would you want to hear response from the other candidates . Sure. I think that is one thing that senator carter and i can agree on. You have to be careful when you and trued and to special freedom of speech. You never know what the unintended consequences might be. But, it is not the province of government to regulate and contain that except when you scream fire in a movie together. Movie theater. Extreme situations that jeopardize the health and safety of individuals and has generally been the guidelines in which we have allowed statutory intervention to occur. I believe it is a pretty good example of where we need to draw the line. We do not need to react to every popular opinion that comes along. Mr. Hunt . We have had two excellent answers so far. What i will address is that i am a strong constitutionalist, the way it was written and not the living document they reinterpret over the year. I am very strong on the first of thent, but all amendments. We are having our liberties and rights taken from of us. Every law passed is taking a more freedoms away from us. Thats what we need to have in our state. If i am governor, what i will pass a law, if you i want to see where you have to scratch three or 4 off. Yes, we do not want to hurt other peoples desire that is the edge of liberty when you inflate harm on others. Thank you. Christopher king, your question. It is on k12 education. The state budget is about a billion dollars on k12 education. According to the budget institute, the state would need another 700 billion to fund schools. Funding forcrease the schools and by how much . First of all, let me point out that the Quality Basic Education formula that has been an place since 1985 has never been fully funded. What i have done is to appropriate a greater percentage of general state revenue for k12 education than any governor the 1960s. S in this year, the largest single appropriation as our economy was rebounding was in this years budget. Here, senator carter, saw fit to vote against it. I have indicated i would put in place individuals who will come together and study our funding as will desire delivery mechanism. It is time we revisit and make it more appropriately allocated to the needs of todays Education System. We have are ready brought on board one of the best local superintendents and he is working in the office of planning and budgeting. We will continue that. Mr. Carter . Governor deal has to look back to the 1960s to justify his educational policy. We have to fund for this century. What you have seen and our state is though worse underfunding and worse contraction and the history. Teachers are suffering as students are suffering and our states economy, the very foundation, is crumbling. That is how we end up with the skills gaps we have now. Districts haveol had to cut instructional days. We are not doing the job at the state level we need to. Not only that but when the governors budget half past because of its cuts, 91 School District have raised their property taxes just we are getting less education and more taxes and no one wants that. I have a plan to change the way we do the educational budget. Deal, your 30 seconds to rebut. You have 30. You support public education, you shouldve voted for the large and increase in k12 funding in seven years. The statistics you cite are in accurate. I am not reaching back to the 1960s. I am saying a portion of revenue, with have felt 4 highest years since any governor some 50 years ago. Educationu support but your votes a do not support that. You are in a distinct minority in voting against. Every democrat in the house voted for it. 2 3 of your colleagues voted for this budget. Mr. Carter, your rebut . You know and il, know that my record is clear on education funding. You have underfunded this year by 750 million and i could not vote that. I amrocess is broken and the only candidate who has a plan to fix it. Can throw statistics out over and over again, but walk into your local schools, walked to the schools that have 26 kids in a kindergarten class and ask a teacher. No one and this date believes were properly funding education. Mr. Hunt . Our Education System is completely broken. The u. S. Spends more per student on education than any other nation and the world yet we rank 25th. We need to look at how these better countries are doing it less expensively than us. We do not have to increase the budget. We have to do better. We need school choice. We need savings accounts where the money follows of the child. Take the money and let the parents choose what is best for the education of the child. Whatever variety of school types and blended schools,stem vocational schools. A range of different education. Bring it into Early Childhood and support hope through the end. Way to end the cycle of poverty, it is education. Some people say they want a more charts schools in this years budget family put a small increase versus hundreds of millions for other. A question from the public of again and it is picking up on a question previously asked by our panelists on employment. Visit directed specifically to mr. Deal from mrs. Haywood. Governor nathan deal, in the previous debate i was taken aback by your comments, people who work are better than people who do not work. There are so many in our state still looking for jobs. , i worry about getting a job after graduation. While youre at parade georgia as being the number one state to do business, it is hard to ignore george does georgia leads unemployment. It is safe to say you inherited a failing economy, but so did the president and 49 other governors. Why is georgia under your leadership lacking behind the rest of the nation in its rate of unemployment . First of all, Unemployment Rates are only good for political advertising as a general rule. Economists and businesses do not Pay Attention to them. This a look at job growth. Right there in athens, georgia, we have a great example of our economic development. Caterpillar brought a plant and they came to the state of georgia and they are creating hundreds of jobs in some that has been our focus. With a eliminated the marriage tax on couples. We have to eliminated the marriage tax on couples. E have focus on job creation we eliminated the sales tax on energy so manufacturers could grow and we have seen that the growth from the caterpillar plant to baxter making a 1 billion Investment Capital to do it would be the largest single investment in this States History since kia came. We are making substantial strides. Job creation is what is important for those in college. That question was directly specifically to you so will pick up with our panel. Like i not want to seem am beaming up mr. Deal. I would like to hit the other candidates on this. For the first time and state history, voters cast ballots on a sunday. Many will do so next sunday. Mr. Deal, you said you will be open to legislation that would close down sunday voting. I think the voting policies of our state should be uniform. I think that is what the Generals Assembly will look at first of if all counties were allowed to have sunday voting, that is fine with me. Says, republicans can vote on sunday to as long as they go to church first. I think all of us want to see as many people as possible who are registered and qualified to turn out and vote. I think we should do whatever is important to turn out for the voters. I would encourage everyone who is washington i to be sure you either early vote was watching to either early vote or vote on november 4. Open of voting as much as we can. We have a historically low rate of voting. The majority of people are just sat are dissatisfied with the major parties for. You have a choice. Do not stay at home because youre acquiescing that it is ok. We want to make it easy for people to register but we want voters and we want to notice a trail we can look at and see that your vote counted a can be recounted if it has to be. Machines cannot provide that record. We need to have a printed, written record of every persons vote so we can go back and verify or some other current electronic verifications like we have for our monetary transactions. These do not exist with our electronic Voting Machines and it is a shame we do not have such an honorable system. Jason carter . I am glad that governor deal of change his position on the fairness of sunday voting. Now, any county was to vote on sunday is allowed to do so. It is fantastic. It helps people get engaged and help working people get to the polls because they do not have to take time off jobs. Ive always been in favor of expanding the right to vote and ensuring we have a fair system. That both counts every vote and register every voter. I think of making it as convenient as possible helps us all. We have time for one more question from our panelists. It is either directed to one candidate for 60 seconds or all of the candidates and each will get 30 seconds. Sandra, you get the last question. Into directed to mr. Deal. With the legislature of past is gone legislation allowing per meters to carry guns to church. Do you support of allowing guns in churches on sundays as long as the churches opt in . We are going to give everyone 30 seconds to reply and will start with you, mr. Deal and go to jason carter and mr. Hunt. I believe the beauty of the bill that passed was we gave churches the choice. A better option than the stated dictating to them and i trust congregations and the leaders of the churches to make those kind of judgment calls. I think we have given them that flexibility and they will exercise a privately. Mr. Carter . I agree with the governor deal it is important to give local communities and congregations a choice in this matter. I fought very hard in respect to this bill and brought people together to ensure the choice that the churches were given was a real one. That is the kind of leadership i provide, bringing people together on difficult issues. Mr. Hunt . I am a strong constitutionalist so i support gun rights and i also support the right of private land owners whether individual or organizations. Each entity should be able to determine what is allowed on the property or not. Government should not be saying you should allow it, it is your property, you get to decide. Government should not say you cannot do this on less it is hurting other people. That is liberty. Haveat is all the time we four questions. The candidates will have 60 seconds for a closing statement. Jason carter makes the First Closing statement. Thank you so much for spending your time and watching this debate tonight. I believe this state has everything it needs to be an absolute powerhouse. To in thisur mind state and educate our people and invest and them and open up the give to our colleges to people the skills they need for the future and if we invest and Pay Attention to the middle class and to the Small Businesses of this state, we will have the ability to have a dynamic, growing forwardlooking economy that innovates and expense for the future. Right now, we are not getting that economy. People are getting left behind in our Education System. We can succeed. I ask for your vote. I ask for your vote for the future of this date and i would be honored to serve as your governor. Thank you for listening today and i am honored to have served as your governor for these past 4 years and i asked for your votes i can do so for another 4 years. We have put in place many reforms that are putting our state forward. And we are going to continue to see that grow. We are putting money into our k12 system and technical colleges and colleges and universities and we did so this era because our policies were working and our revenue was growing. With also made reforms in our criminal justice system, something will not had a chance to talk about tonight is. It is revolutionary. E already lead the country we have been recognized as such. We are saving millions of dollars and saving lives is a wilson our africanamerican population in our prison system and drop by 20 and we will break the cycle of crime by educating those who have no skill so when they get out, that will not commit crimes again. Mr. Hunt . David pinto at 10 am many people have endorsed me pennington and many other have endorsed me because i am the one that will bring Cost Effective solutions and freedom and fairness for all of us. It is a very night and day choice here. I am very different. I am a small businessman, a phd in engineering. And i about 50 patents want to put that to work for you. I want to work for you. We could have a better way forward. Of the moneyless they do. You are going to be seeing lots of ads run by them. We have the views off old that have been supported by, the special interest groups. Support me, you have to talk to other people. I am asking for more. I am asking for you to tell other people and them to hunt for hunt on at the ballot. Hereanks to the candidates this evening and to our panel of distinguished journalists for thank you very much. And we will like to thank of the Atlanta Press club. Election is on tuesday, november 4 and early voting has already begun. We urge you to cast your ballot. The Atlanta Press club Loudermilk Young debate series is made possible by a donation from the i am brenda wood. Have a good evening. You can see this debate and others at cspan. Org. Once there, you can watch some the country. Nd here are some running in georgia. Senator jason carter claims he will put Education First both voted against the largest increase of funding in years. He increased governor deal by 500d education million. Youve seen the worst contraction of education in our state. You have 9000 fewer teachers. Year, there will be fewer [indiscernible] and i worry we will reap what we destruction of our educational system. When i am governor, we have a separate budget for education. I wrote the law to stop illegal aliens from receiving health care and cut billions in wasteful spending and voted at this obamacare. It must be done. The federal government has failed to secure our borders and it illegal aliens are costing georgian taxpayers over 1 billion every year. I am not worried about the liberals. My concern is a you. From deal. Gative ask jason carter has never voted for a unders l underfunded our schools. Without 80,000 fewer hope recipients. Nathan deal, shortchanging education and our kids are paying the price. Chris cspans coverage continues in boston with the massachusetts governors debate. Replace looking to retiring governor. We are bringing in more than 100 debates. Stay in touch with our coverage by following us on twitter at cspan and like us on facebook. On the next washington journal, a discussion on guncontrol efforts on the state and federal level. Parsons, is chelsea firearms policy director. Then we hear from a former utah governor. He will talk about the administrations response to ebola in this country, and how federal agencies work with state agencies and hospitals. Washington journal is live every morning. You can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Cspans 2