Published Monday, September 15, 2008

Jason Smith looks to Georgia's future

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Times-Herald

When asked why he was running for a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives, Newnan attorney Jason G. Smith said he had four reasons: Ashton, Victoria, Caleb and Jayden -- his four children.

"I believe in a better Georgia," said Smith, who is running as a Democrat against incumbent Billy Horne, R-Sharpsburg, for the District 71 House seat.

When Smith first considered running for office, he wanted to "find out what my opponent stood for and if he was going a good job, or if there was even a need to run for this seat."

After doing that research, Smith decided to run.

His two major issues are preserving PeachCare, regardless of what the federal government does, and improving Georgia's education ranking. When he saw that Horne "supported some legislation I believe is detrimental to the school system here in the state of Georgia, I thought -- there is no question that I've got to do this," Smith said.

Smith previously ran for the Coweta County Board of Education. He came in third in the field of eight. Frank Farmer won the seat in the runoff.

Smith owns his own law practice, and specializes in family law. He is an ordained Southern Baptist minister.

Though he is running as a Democrat, Smith said he is a fiscal moderate and a social conservative.

"Coweta is a county of family values. It is a county of faith," Smith said. "I believe that my challenge in this campaign is to get people to understand that Jesus is not a Republican. And I know so because he told me," Smith said. He's also pro-life.

"Even though I do not espouse all the Democratic platform ideas that you see on the national stage, I'm quite comfortable with being a Democrat," Smith said.

What makes him a Democrat is that "I do not believe in the concept of trickle down economics that has dominated the Republican Party. It simply doesn't work," Smith said.

Georgia must do what is necessary to preserve PeachCare, even if federal funding is cut, Smith said. He would like for the system to provide health care coverage for every child "and hopefully, at some point in the near future, for every citizen that needs health care coverage," he said.

Any insurance system, though, must be voluntary, he said.

Smith believes in a balanced budget, but "I also believe that we need to help take care of that segment of the population that is always going to be impoverished," he said. "We have a responsibility to those individuals."

Smith has served as a guardian ad litem to represent children in juvenile proceedings.

"I see first had what goes on out there and I am moved to do something about it as opposed to blame those individuals caught in the ravages of poverty for their own circumstances and situations. And I believe that is the mindset of the current Republican party."

When it comes to "compassionate conservatism," Smith said, "well, I haven't seen that in the past eight years. I don't know if you have."

When it comes to education, "I would not vote for a single piece of legislation that took any money at all away from our public school systems."

He is opposed to House Bill 881, which allows charter schools to be approved by a state agency, and those schools will, in a roundabout way, get a per-student share of local tax dollars.

The new law is "a recent example of something that is going to cut our public school systems and gut education in Georgia," Smith said.

He also opposes vouchers. "I believe we need to work in the context of our public school systems as they exist. I'm not ready to declare our public schools dead," Smith said.

Smith said he hasn't seen Horne sponsor any legislation "that was of any consequence at all."

Smith said he will write plenty of bills, and thinks being a lawyer -- who understands how to write a good bill -- will be an asset.

Some of the other things Smith would like to work on are creating a family court system in Coweta County, and increasing consumer protection for Georgians, especially as it relates to credit reporting, predatory lending, and debt collection. He'd like to make credit reporting agencies more liable for errors on credit reports.

If elected, Smith said that when he looks at each bill, his primary objective will be to "determine how this affects the health, safety, and welfare of the people. I'm not going to hold my proverbial finger to the air and see which way the party political wind is blowing," Smith said.

"In terms of a legislative approach to things, that is my approach, and I'm not sure that I have seen that from the Republican Party," he said.