Santamaria, Hatchett Discuss the Issues at Tea Party Rally

Santamaria says "he turned down thousands of dollars from some Democratic fundraisers because he didn't completely agree with their views". Interesting.


Saturday in Laurens County, Dr. Pablo Santamaria (D) & Matt Hatchett (R) attended a forum hosted by the Tea Party of Middle Georgia dubbed "We the People Rally". One will replace DuBose Porter who left his seat to run for governor.

About 50+ attended the forum in which both candidtaes discusses issues ranging fron Infrastructure to education.

Santamaria, a doctor in Laurens County, described himself as a conservative Democrat and said he's not about the politics.

"I'm not bought and sold," Santamaria told the audience.

Hatchett, a Dublin City Councilman, said that public service was in his blood. "I work hard," Hatchett said. "I want to continue to work hard for our entire district."

Santamaria says he agrees sales tax is key, but says the current system needs to be fixed.

Instead of sending all the money up to Atlanta and have them send it back to us," Santamaria said, "let's take a piece of the sales tax and send them what's left over." Another hot topic the two discussed was Obama's health care plan.

Hatchett says he'll do whatever he can to keep it out of Georgia.

Santamaria says it has some benefits, but overall, is not affordable for the people.

Dr. Pablo Santamaria (D) vs Matt Hatchett (R) for HD 143

A race that flew under the radar was the Runoff election over in HD 143 between Mitch Warnock & Pablo Santamaria. Santamaria won the runoff over Warnock by just 120+ votes. He now faces republican Matt Hatchett in November.

So What happened?

Well for one he got Dan King's supporters to swing their votes to him, as well as Claudia Graham, in addition to paying her $2500 for consulting his campaign. And another reason was that republicans voted for Santamaria hoping to avoid facing warnock in the General Election, thinking that Warnock would have been tough to beat head to head. So in a strategic move they elected the "weakest" candidate in the runoff

So now he takes on Matt Hatchett, who served on the Dublin City Council since 1999, serving as Mayor Pro-Tem in 2006 and 2007. Matt has chaired the Dublin/Laurens County St. Patrick’s Festival, the Irish Balloon Festival, the Theatre Dublin Nutcracker, The Heart of Georgia United Way and the Boys and Girls Club of Laurens County. He is a member of the Dublin Rotary club and the board of directors of Communities in Schools and the Dublin/Laurens Arts Council. Matt currently serves as the chairman of the advisory board of the Citizens Bank of Laurens County.

Santamaria is a partner and practicing physician in Heart of Georgia Urology Associates, LLC (dba: Middle Georgia Urology Associates). I have served as president of the Georgia Urological Association and the Laurens County Medical Society. Currently I am serving as a Clinical Associate Professor with the Emory University Department of Urology. In addition he's a mem.of the Dublin Rotary Club. I have served on the boards of the Dublin Laurens County Chamber of Commerce, Boys and Girls Club of Laurens County, the Laurens County Chapter of the Southeast Division of the American Cancer Society and the Heart of Georgia United Way.

He & his family has lived in Dublin for the past 12 years.

If elected, Santamaria would be the only Physician in the House of Representatives.