Isakson’s Parkinson’s raised during Georgia’s U.S. Senate debate

Challengers to Republican U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson again Friday indirectly questioned whether the incumbent should be running for a third term after he announced last year that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's.

That diagnosis, along with past criticism of Isakson’s former realty firm, highlighted a number of testy exchanges as Democrat Jim Barksdale and Libertarian Allen Buckley went on the offensive against an incumbent who holds a firm lead in the race.

The debate Friday was the only one before the Nov. 8 election, and both Barksdale and Buckley have a lot of ground to make up. A new Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released Friday showed Isakson maintaining a commanding lead in the race.

Staffers for both challengers said going into the debate that they would not bring up the issue of Isakson’s fitness. The issue blew up earlier this week when the Atlanta Press Club, which hosted the debate, announced that it planned to seat the candidates rather than have them stand. Buckley complained that the arrangement was designed to benefit Isakson, and the press club changed plans. During Friday’s taping, all the candidates stood at podiums.

But as the debate turned to a question about term limits, both challengers made what seemed like veiled references to Isakson’s diagnosis. That came after Isakson rejected the idea of term limits, saying the ultimate term limits were in the hands of voters.

Buckley followed by saying both U.S. House and Senate members should be limited to 12 years but then went on to say that whether or not term limits ever became law, he wasn’t sure Isakson would be running for re-election if he wins next month.

It was an awkward segue and Isakson jumped on it, launching into talking points he has repeated often on the campaign trail about his pride in being open about his diagnosis and the encouragement he has received from his constituents.

“I wish you well on your health; it wasn’t meant that way,” Buckley responded, before adding, “no offense, I’m younger than you.” Later, in his closing statement, Buckley said he had the “vigor and fight” voters would want.

“I’m not going to hold your inexperience and immaturity against you,” Isakson retorted, channeling President Ronald Reagan in his debate with Walter Mondale during a 1984 debate.

Barksdale then chimed in to say he wasn’t going to question why Isakson was running because “I’ve not been privy to the conversations he’s had with his doctors.” But, Barksdale added, if voters re-elect Isakson, he “should serve the full six years.”

When Isakson announced his diagnosis in June 2015, his doctor said he could easily serve out another full term, a point he reiterated in an interview with the AJC earlier this month.

Barksdale also tried to tie Isakson to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, using an issue that various opponents of the incumbent have raised over his long political career: a long-ago racial discrimination lawsuit involving Isakson’s father.

“Senator Isakson continues to support Donald Trump frankly because you have much more in common than you want us to believe,” said Barksdale, launching into an attack that seemed to try to draw a parallel with allegations against Trump related to a 1973 lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department against Trump’s company.

In Georgia, Isakson’s father, Ed Isakson, managed a firm called Northside Realty. Johnny Isakson first joined the firm as manager of the company’s then-new Cobb County office and then rose to become president in 1979.

That year, the courts concluded that the company had discriminated against blacks and fixed commissions on housing sales under his father’s stewardship. Johnny Isakson was not linked, but as president he handled Northside’s defense in the price-fixing suit, recommending a no-contest plea. Northside and Ed Isakson were fined.

After the debate, Trey Kilpatrick, Isakson’s campaign manager, lashed out at the attack, saying “Johnny Isakson has never had a discrimination suit filed against him. Mr. Barksdale knows this is false and defamatory, and he should be ashamed.”

The Obama Administration’s Middle East policy showcased the sharpest divides among the three men. Buckley and Barksdale took issue with Isakson’s support of the Iraq war and his contention that Obama pulled out American troops too soon and “created a vacuum that was filled by ISIL.”

Barksdale said, “You call for boots on ground. The veterans I talk to are really tired of this.”

Buckley said he was against the Iraq war because it would make terrorism worse, adding that lawmakers such as Isakson did not do enough to question a decsion that killed people and cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Isakson said, “I believe in peace through strength.”