Hot Time Comin’ in Georgia

Political buffs and desperate party leaders will be watching the race for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat. So will I. This Georgia election could make all the difference.
by Charlie Leck

A primary race among Republicans in Georgia is over and the race for the U.S. Senate down there is all set.

David Perdue won the Republican nod to run for the Senate. He is a very wealthy businessman. Michelle Nunn, daughter of a long-time Georgia U.S. Senator, is the Democratic nominee and she needs to run a nearly faultless race to have a chance to win. I wrote about Nunn here on one of my blogs a few months ago (go here to read it).

“My first observation is that she seems like a bright and charming person – the kind of person I wouldn’t mind having as my U.S. Senator (although I’m far from being a Georgia type person). I have friends in Georgia, however, and I’ll ask them what they think of Ms. Nunn’s chances. I need a good band wagon to climb upon this summer and fall and this just might be the one I’ll take for a ride.”

I do believe I will be on Ms. Nunn’s bandwagon. I’m in the middle of plans to be in Georgia on election night. I’m hoping like hell it will be for a victory celebration.

One thing we do not need in the Senate is one more unreasonable man. I used “man” advisedly. I’m firm in my belief that the problems of Washington’s stalemate could be cured by more women senators and representatives. Really!

And Mr. Perdue is clearly cut out of the same cloth as people like Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell. And, he’s filthy rich. I don’t hold that against him, but the super rich have had enough representation in Washington in the last 16 years and we need to get another perspective out there. Really! We do!

Georgia, as I said in that earlier blog, “is not your run-of-the-mill southern state.” It’s more urbane and sophisticated than the deep-south states – and more open-minded and more intellectual as well.

Good hard work and some successful fund raising may do the trick for Ms. Nunn. As long as I’m on this point, let me please urge you to contribute money to the Nunn race because Perdue is going to spend millions of his own money on his attempt to get elected. Give to Nunn at… http://www.michellenunn.com/

I’ll be watching this election closely and I examine all the polls in great detail as they come in and I’ll get back to you with regular reports on what’s going on down there.

David Perdue is the former chief executive of Dollar General (stores), a former top executive at Reebok, and he’s somewhat well known as a turn-around specialist among the Wall Street folks. His formal reports show he’s already put 3 million dollars of his own money into this campaign. Justin Barasky, of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, called Perdue “arrogant,” and said that “he is an elitist.” You can probably safely bet that the campaign strategy against Perdue will revolve around that idea.

Perdue will also attack Nunn’s lack of preparation for the Senate because of her work in the non-profit sector. He’ll have to go easy, however, because of the great popularity of Nunn’s late father, former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (Georgia).

Experts say Ms. Nunn is going to need to spend in the area of 10 million dollars on this campaign. That means that she will need contributions from you, me and lots of other progressive thinkers around the nation. Dig as deeply as you can and send her campaign organization some money. We’ve got to break the log jam in Washington and we can’t let the Republicans gain control of the Senate.

P.S. As the weeks move by, if you’re interested in this Georgia race, the site to watch is, of course, 538 (Nate Silver). Otherwise just keep watching here because I’ll be carefully monitoring 538 and the polling in Georgia. I’ll keep you up to date on what they’re saying.

UPDATE: This is just in! A really interesting column in the NY Times, by Nate Cohen, discusses just why Michelle Nunn might pull off a victory in in the Georgia U.S. Senate race... read it here!

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