Sometime before the election, a Georgia judge will determine whether the Republican candidate for Congress in the 8th Congressional District's 2001 divorce records will continue under seal until after the election. The decision, according to one newspaper editor and one Democratic activist, could be the turning point in Rep. Jim Marshall's (D) battle for reelection in the Peach State.
Chatter about just what's in the divorce records of state Rep. Austin Scott, the Republican facing Marshall, first began when Scott was considering running in the Republican primary for Lt. Governor, according to Macon Telegraph columnist Charles Richardson. Allies of the sitting Lt. Governor - also a Republican - "started leaking" info on the divorce while Scott was making his decision, Richardson says. After Scott decided to run for Congress against Marshall - one of two Democrats in Georgia's Congressional delegation - back in April, a Democratic activist and blogger picked up the suit and filed a movement to get the records unsealed. A judge will determine whether to unseal them on Oct. 26, just days earlier the election.
So what's in the records? No one knows for sure. But two separate political operations attempting to lead them down - as good as Scott's recent public freakout at the feeling of their release - suggest what's in them is what opposition researchers care to claim "gold." Marshall's in a sturdy race (a Republican poll in late September in showed the incumbent Democrat down eight points to Scott), and around on the land in Georgia believe that the juicy details of a messy divorce could produce all the difference.
According to Richardson, what's sealed in the divorce records is potentially damning for Scott. In a recent radio show on WMAC-AM in Georgia, Richardson detailed what he said were rumors swirling of troubling "allegations" regarding "a restraining order" and "domestic violence."
"If that's in there, voters ought to know," Richardson said on air. "If these allegations are correct, they'll punish Austin Scott." The columnist and editorial page editor at the Telegraph said the allegations had been swirling around political circles since Scott's abortive campaign for Lt. Governor began.
For his part, Scott is unwilling to discuss what's in the sealed records. In a disputation with Marshall Thursday night, CQ reported that Scott said "he and his ex wife are 'at peace with our divorce' but that they will both 'prize the opinion of the court.'"
In a previous consultation with the Tifton, GA Gazette, Scott alleged that the campaign to vent his records was a dirty trick by Marshall.
"This is an act of desperation by a soul who is getting beaten on his voting record," Scott told the paper. "He's trying to transfer the centre of the campaign."
Marshall denied any interest in the question during Thursday's debate, according to CQ. "I had aught to do with the filing of the petition. It really gripes me that people accuse me of having had something to do with that," Marshall said. "Had I wanted to get this through it would have been done a long time ago. It would not have been brought up at the very last minute."
But in an audience with CQ after the debate, Marshall made it clear he wouldn't mind seeing the records come to light, and hinted at the soil that could be found inside.
"I've heard consistent allegations of what's in there and it's not pretty stuff," Marshall told CQ. "There are things that go on in marriages that can throw light on the character of the individual."
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