General Election Issues
Thompson advocated decentralization of Georgia state government: He proposed the relocation of the Georgia Department of Health to Augusta to be near the state medical college and the moving of the Department of Public Safety to Macon in the center of the state. He proposed a state takeover of the City of Atlanta if the capital did not reduce the crime rate within six months of his inauguration. He favored standardized testing of school teachers to remove the incompetent. He proposed legalization of bingo and parimutuel betting by local county option.
Thompson continued hs hard-line rhetoric against crime. He said that he would offer condemned criminals the possibility of a firing squad or hanging in lieu of the electric chair. He proposed that police use Teflon-tipped flat-headed bullets which expand once inside the body. It was not clear to all whether Thompson was being serious or facetious.
Thompson could make little traction in the race against Busbee, who refused the Republican's repeated call for debates. He alleged that Busbee was tied to the Georgia Power Company, milk interests, and International Telephone and Telegraph and that the bulk of Busbee's funding was from "special interests". Busbee was so far ahead in public opinion polls that he could ignore Thompson. And it was a heavily Democratic year nationally in the aftermath of Watergate.
Read more about this topic: Ronnie Thompson (Georgia Politician)
Famous quotes containing the words general, election and/or issues:
“They make a great ado nowadays about hard times; but I think that ... this general failure, both private and public, is rather occasion for rejoicing, as reminding us whom we have at the helm,—that justice is always done. If our merchants did not most of them fail, and the banks too, my faith in the old laws of the world would be staggered.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What a glorious time they must have in that wilderness, far from mankind and election day!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The “universal moments” of child rearing are in fact nothing less than a confrontation with the most basic problems of living in society: a facing through one’s children of all the conflicts inherent in human relationships, a clarification of issues that were unresolved in one’s own growing up. The experience of child rearing not only can strengthen one as an individual but also presents the opportunity to shape human relationships of the future.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)