A judge has ordered that the Chapter 7 bankruptcy case of Georgia candidate for governor Nathan Deal’s daughter and son-in-law be reopened, after new details emerged about the son-in-law’s financial history.

The bankruptcy filing took place in 2009. It stemmed from the failure of a sporting goods store by Carrie Deal Wilder and her husband Clint Wilder, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Reopening the case is the result of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge’s decision that Clint Wilder was not eligible to have his debts discharged because of a previous bankruptcy he filed in 2001.

In Chapter 7 bankruptcy law, you must wait at least eight years between Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases. Even if you pass the means test, if you recently filed you may not be eligible to file again.

Wilder’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy would have fallen within this 8-year window, making him ineligible to file for another bankruptcy. Wilder came out of the business deal with $2.1 million in debt.

When he filed for the November 2009 bankruptcy, Wilder signed documents in which he promised, under the penalty of perjury, that he had not filed for a bankruptcy in the last eight years.

Deal, the Republican candidate for governor,  had invested in the defunct sporting goods company. He and his wife were not listed as creditors, though they should have been when Wilder Outdoors Inc. filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. Representatives for Deal’s campaign have said that he was left off the list of creditors by mistake.

Deal responded by saying that he would only have been on the list if he had a claim as a creditor. According to him, though, he was an investor, and didn’t intend to enter a claim.

Deal’s campaign sounded confident that the bankruptcy reopening would not negatively impact the Congressman’s campaign for governor of Georgia. “[The Wilders] are not public figures,” a representative said. “They are not running for public office. This will not negatively affect Nathan Deal or this campaign.”

The candidate himself said, “I think you see from the polls that the public is not paying attention to these issues because they know that they are not essential to the issue of who can govern this state and who can lead in the direction of where we need to go.”

There are also questions as to whether Deal’s filing to meet standards of financial disclosure for candidates is up to snuff. According to the article, “Deal might not have followed state guidelines for valuing certain properties in the amended financial disclosure for 2009.”

Deal stated that he was committed to paying whatever he was obligated to in the failed sporting goods case. He is apparently liquidating his IRA to do so. Other questions have arisen about Deal’s financial reporting, as some of his assets and liabilities seemed to have been added from one reporting statement to the next in late September.

The State Ethics Commission, however, did not have an opinion on Deal’s financial disclosures. Deal is a former juvenile court judge and prosecutor. He has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1992.

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