Community Corner
Susan Zereini Shines in Solicitor-General Debate
Exit Polling Shows Incumbent Donna Gopaul Received No Votes
CUMMING, Ga. -- If Forsyth County Solicitor Donna Gopaul thought her absence at Monday's Forsyth County Republican Party debate would deflect criticism about her ties to the Democrat Party, she couldn't have been more wrong.
Exit polling showed Susan Zereini received 25 votes to defense attorney Bill Finch's 20. Five were undecided. But Gopaul did not receive a single vote.
Susan was the clear favorite among those who expressed a preference, winning on 55 percent of the ballots. If that margin holds on election day, she will win without a runoff.Β
Susan immediately blasted Gopaul's absence.
"When candidates choose not to participate, the message they send to voters is they don't care about you. You're not important to them. I want you to know you are important to me," she said during her opening statement.
She also challenged the incumbent's claim to be a Republican.
"She worked for Cynthia McKinney, one of the most radical left-wing Democrats in our state's history. She donated money to McKinney's campaign and voted for Barack Obama twice. Does that sound like any Republican you know?"
Zereini then charged Gopaul with a failure to obey the very law she is sworn to uphold.
"For two years, she refused to pay her state income taxes, forcing the state of Georgia to place a lien on her. And do you know when she finally paid? One day before she was sworn in."
The centerpiece of Gopaul's campaign has been her claim that she saved taxpayers $200,000 her first year in office.
"Come to find out, she didn't save you a dime," Susan said. "The Board of Commissioners reduced her budget by removing the Intergovernmental Service Fee it charges her office. That money is now in the General Fund and taxpayers still pay every penny."
She then said that Gopaul had abused her power as Solicitor-General by trying to halt her Texas Hold 'em fundraiser last month.
Gopaul asked Sheriff Duane Piper to stop the fundraiser but he refused.
"It's the same fundraiser that other candidates and this very Republican Party has used on many occasions," she said.