Thompson running to fix Labor Department

Oct. 21—MOULTRIE, Ga. — Georgia's Department of Labor is broken, Bruce Thompson said, and he believes he's the candidate who can fix it.

Thompson, a Republican state senator from Cartersville, announced his candidacy in June for the state's labor commissioner post. He was in Moultrie Tuesday to visit the Sunbelt Ag Expo and stopped by The Observer's office for a quick interview.

The current labor commissioner, Mark Butler, took office in 2011. In the interview, Thompson never called him by name, but frequently listed problems with "the current administration." Some of those problems have been well-covered by the media, especially difficulties with people getting unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic.

Thompson said the Labor Department has been "out of sight" of most Georgians until the pandemic laid off so many people and the department couldn't keep up.

"The Department of Labor has been tucked away [and] nobody has paid attention to it," he said.

That allowed longstanding problems to go unresolved.

For example, the federal government provided a grant years ago to Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina to modernize the computer systems they used to handle unemployment claims. All three joined, but Georgia later bowed out to create its own system, Thompson said. He said North and South Carolina have been more successful at getting unemployment claims resolved promptly during the pandemic and with dramatically less fraud.

Modernization of the labor department is one of the focuses of Thompson's campaign. He said he wants to make positive steps on this effort within his first 30 days in office, and to that end he's already been in talks with software companies that provide the service for other states to see what options are available. He believes funding the upgrades won't be difficult due to his relationships with his fellow legislators, and he also hopes for federal grants to be available.

Among his other priorities is getting career centers across the state open at full staff. Many have been closed or working skeleton crews since the pandemic began.

Thompson's longer-term goal, though, is to get the labor department back to its original mission: workforce development. He said the department stopped doing that work long ago.

"We've worked very hard to make sure this is the best place to do business," said Thompson, who is chair of the Senate's Economic Development and Tourism Committee. Georgia has been named the best place to do business for eight years in a row, but he said that will change if the state can't meet businesses' workforce needs.

To that end, he proposes to focus on young people, on veterans, on seniors and on the prison system.

He wants to introduce young people to trades, such as plumbing or welding, which are in high demand.

He wants to help veterans find jobs when they leave the service.

He wants to take advantage of seniors' experience and desire to work after they retire from what had been their main jobs.

And he wants to make a way for prisoners to move into gainful employment, which he hopes will discourage them from committing more crimes to meet their financial needs.

Thompson emphasizes his work background on his campaign website, brucethompsonga.com.

"At just 10 years old, Bruce launched his first business venture, selling fresh milk from the farm to local school bus drivers," the website says. "When he turned 22, he launched The Thompson Group in South Florida to provide tenant improvements to 11 shopping centers.After serving in the Army, Bruce became a serial entrepreneur, launching multiple successful small businesses, as well as acquiring other failing businesses and turning them around."

The bio said he started two businesses to make automatic swimming pool covers, and they grew to be the largest in the Southeast before being acquired in 2018. He also founded or co-founded The Thompson Insurance Group; Quoteburst, a software company that automates quoting activities for the insurance industry; a targeted texting company that successfully delivered 22 million texts in one month to educate voters on a referendum issue; and Strong Tower Development, an investment and holding company.

"They're not going to out-work us," he said of his political opponents.

Qualifying for state offices will be in March 2022, the Republican primary in May 2022 and the general election in November 2022.