PolitiFact Georgia rates Jason Carter’s claim about decreasing middle-class income as ‘true’

In his campaign ad released last week, Georgia gubeatorial candidate state Sen. Jason Carter (D) stated that ”in the last 10 years, Georgia’s middle class income has dropped $6,500. PolitiFact Georgia verified this claim, and ranked it as ”true.

Carter’s claim came from the U.S. Census Bureau data, which shows the median household income in Georgia in 2002 was $54,803, but it fell to $48,121 in 2012, adjusted for inflation. That’s a difference of $6,682, which means Carter’s estimate of $6,500 is on a conservative side.

This works well for Carter campaign message that things have been getting worse on under Georgia Goveor Nathan Deal's watch. Carter claims that the Republican goveor has been unable to improve Georgia's lackluster economy and weak education system, and has failed to help the struggling middle-class.   

Deal, on the other hand, has been campaigning on how much things have improved in the Peach State due to his policies. He repeatedly cited CNBC study ranking Georgia as the top state for business in 2014. Also, the Goveor speaks frequently about creating nearly 300,000 private-sector jobs.

That optimistic message, however, suffered a blow recently when Georgia’s unemployment rate for August came up to 8.1 percent (from 7.7 in July). Right now, the Peach State is the only state in the country with unemployment higher than 8 percent. 

Despite his troubles, including ethics investigation, Deal is still ahead of Carter even though Libertarian Andrew Hunt draws some support that would most likely go to Deal.  The race will most likely be decided on December 2^nd in a runoff when it's just Deal and Carter.