Rick Jackson wants Georgians to believe he understands what rent costs them.

"Georgia families are getting squeezed. Groceries cost more. Rent costs more," his campaign's action plan says. "Rick Jackson will treat affordability like a crisis, because for too many families it already is."

But when apartments were approved near his own home, the billionaire Republican nominee for governor didn't treat it like a crisis. He treated it like an insult — and he sued.

Documents obtained by The Daily Beast show that Jackson sued Forsyth County for approving apartments next to his mansion in Cumming, about 40 miles from Atlanta. In court documents from that lawsuit, including a 2013 deposition, he called the apartments a "complete total disgrace and disrespect," said renters "are not as responsible as people that own" their homes, and worried about the "type of people" who would live there.

The house, and the neighbors he didn't want

Jackson's estate is called "Le Rêve" — French for "The Dream." According to The Daily Beast, it is 47,000 square feet, with 82 rooms, a bowling alley, a private nine-hole golf course, a movie theater and a dog agility course.

Jackson was proud of it. "Forsyth County ought to be proud of one fact, in that they have the nicest home in Georgia and the 18th largest home in the United States," he said under oath.

The apartments were the problem. Here is what Jackson argued, according to the court documents The Daily Beast reported on:

• Having apartments next to his estate would be a "complete total disgrace and disrespect."
• Renters "are not as responsible as people that own" their own homes.
• The apartments presented a "bigger security issue."
• Children from the apartments might find a way onto his property.
• "Nobody in their right mind would build 200 units adjacent to this kind of property."

Read that list again with a Georgia renter in mind — a nurse, a teacher, a young family saving for a down payment. The man who wants to run the state argued in court that people like them are less responsible than homeowners, that the building they'd live in was a security issue, and that putting it next to his property was a "disgrace."

What he's promising now

Thirteen years later, Jackson is selling himself as the candidate who will fix what housing costs.

On September 8, he unveiled what he calls the "Jackson action plan" to a small, invitation-only crowd at the Westin Atlanta Perimeter. Capitol Beat reported that Jackson said he would attack housing costs "by expediting permitting and inspections, which are largely functions of local government." The same report called his five promises "broad in scope but narrow in detail."

"Nothing is more important than making Georgia more affordable," Jackson said that day.

Here is the thing about "expediting permitting." The fastest way to lower rent is to build more homes people can rent — including apartments. That is exactly the kind of project local governments approve, and exactly the kind of approval Jackson once took his own county to court over.

He wants to speed up local approvals for housing. When his county approved housing near him, he sued it.

A pattern, not a slip

This isn't the first time Jackson's pitch to working Georgians has run into his own record.

He tells voters he will create jobs and look out for workers. A company he owns paid nearly $2 million to workers who said it shorted them on overtime. Another of his companies paid $3 million to settle claims it trapped foreign nurses in contracts — while his campaign ads promised a crackdown on immigrants who break the law.

He tells voters his wealth makes him impossible to buy. He is spending $187 million of it on the governor's race.

And now he tells renters he feels their pain. In court, when it was his own backyard, he argued they were less responsible than homeowners and that putting their apartments next door was a disgrace.

The Daily Beast said it asked Jackson's campaign about the deposition. Its story does not include an answer.

What the record shows

In a lawsuit against Forsyth County, Rick Jackson fought apartments approved next to his 47,000-square-foot estate, arguing that renters "are not as responsible as people that own" their homes and that the apartments were a "complete total disgrace and disrespect." Now the Republican nominee for Georgia governor says rent is too high and promises to speed up the local housing approvals he once went to court to fight.

Source

This post is based on The Daily Beast's reporting on Jackson's lawsuit. Image: photo illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters/Google Earth.