State Senate candidate Dr. Spencer Price says allies of the incumbent, Cecil Staton, are attacking him with false accusations.
Price sat down with WMAZ's Jennifer Moulliet to set the record straight.
Last September, Price announced he would be running for State Senate seat in district 18 and vowed to run a clean campaign. But he says his opposition's camp is attacking his character.
It all started with an email from a man named Brian Zorotovich. It was sent to Monroe and Bibb County Republicans. In it, Zorotovich claims Price has unpaid taxes.
"Which is false," Price says. "I have documentation demonstrating that I, in fact, did pay a number of taxes that were overdue--due to circumstances relating to my son's illness and my time lost from work."
He continued, "I had a significant reduction in income for a number of years and Mr. Zorotovich has attempted to mischaracterize that circumstance."
He also says Price, an officer in the National Guard, had a business transaction with a loan that was unpaid.
Price says he got behind while deployed to Iraq.
"It was an investment in a business entity that I was developing when the investor decided to withdraw the investment based on my deployment overseas and the fact that I was no longer able at that time to continue developing the business entity. I returned the investment in full to the last penny."
Price showed 13WMAZ his email exchanges with the State Ethics Commission. He said he sent them in an effort to correctly submit his campaign disclosures. He says that's why several campaign disclosures were sent in late.
He says it wasn't because he's hiding anything, as Zorotovich's email suggests.
Zorotovich says the Medical Center of Central Georgia sued Price over an unpaid bill of more than $100,000, but Price says this is a copy of a check showing that he paid back more than he owed.
In the email, Zorotovich denies he is associated with any campaign, but Price's camp says Zorotovich played on the same intramural basketball team as Zachary Lewis, Staton's aide.
"My opponent has a tremendous amount to lose if he is unseated he is the majority whip in the state senate," says Price.
He says the email was an attack on his character and he says you don't really know someone's character until it's challenged.
"I lost a child tragically. I lost a tremendous amount of time from work. I committed to paying all of the bills associated with his illness in honor of him and his life," Price says, "And to have done that--rather than take the advice from the financial administrators at Egleston and file for bankruptcy--is a demonstration of my core character and what I'm all about."
Price says he's running because he's lived a life of service as a doctor and in the military and he wants to serve the people of district 18.
Price's camp did respond to the email and they say once Zorotovich realized they connected him with Staton's camp the emails stopped and he withdrew all of his previous posts.
We also contacted Staton's campaign.
Staton campaign aide Zach Lewis responded by email.
He wrote: "Spencer Price's professional and ethical issues are of his own making and have nothing to do with Senator Cecil Staton."