Posted on 05/25/2007 1:26:11 PM PDT by Politicalmom
A new poll in Georgia shows Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) could be vulnerable to a strong Democratic challenger and that his current challenger is closer than many expected him to be.
The poll, conducted by independent Atlanta-based Insider Advantage and released Friday, shows Chambliss edging former Gov. Roy Barnes (D) 42-40. Barnes has not shown interest in the race, but he was used as a baseline sample for a well-known statewide Democrat.
In a second set of results, Chambliss is beating DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones 48-31. That is significantly closer than the 57-29 result shown by a Strategic Vision poll from early April. Jones has established an exploratory committee for the race and will make an official announcement this summer.
The poll was conducted Tuesday and Wednesday among 500 registered voters in the state. “It doesn’t mean that Chambliss is in serious trouble,” Insider Advantage CEO Matt Towery said. “Although I think it does show that he is a candidate who will have to work to reacquaint himself with the public here. He has very weak name ID.”
The Jones camp hailed the results as proof that he can be competitive with Chambliss. The state has not been high on the Democrats’ target list, as the national party has focused more on states like Texas and Kentucky.
“I have not officially announced at this point and already you’re seeing that the race is closing in,” Jones told The Hill. “Clearly, a lot of it has to do with Saxby not being in touch with Georgians, and the prime example is the immigration issue.”
The poll did not measure anything concerning immigration. Chambliss was recently booed by members of his party while defending the Senate’s immigration bill, which includes a path to citizenship and a guest-worker program.
Jones, who is running as a conservative Democrat, criticized him for his immigration stance this week. Jones favors an enforcement-first approach.
Towery pointed out that Chambliss did not lose many Republican voters but suggested that the 17 percent of independent voters that favored Jones and the 25 percent that favored Barnes might reflect discontent with what is happening in Washington.
Barnes and Jones both garnered 67.9 percent of the black vote, while Jones, who is black, got about 10 percent less of the white vote.
Chambliss’s office did not return a call requesting comment Friday afternoon.
Some Democrats in the state have been recruiting Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) to run against Chambliss, but Marshall has not shown much interest in the race. The poll did not include a comparison of how Marshall would fare against Chambliss.
What is it making them in favor of this bill in the face of such fierce and massive opposition? It confuses the heck out of me - there must be something I don’t perceive driving this for the senators.
AuntB posted earlier in this thread about the fit-pitch Isakson and Chambliss threw when INS raided farms in south Georgia.
The farmers have a shockingly effective and strong lobby organization, and I know the Senators answer their telephone calls.
That might be part of it. It might also be the cheap-labor corporate interests they’re protecting. Those folks certainly have more money than I do to throw to a campaign or fund someone’s trip to Sweden on “official business” or Myrtle Beach to speak to the Southern Cotton Growers or Monterrey Mexico to find out about Mexican culture (I kid you not!).
Maybe it was part of the compromise to get the war funding bill passed (a bill that included plenty of compromise - minimum wage increase and something like $19 billion in spending).
Their motivation is not to represent you and me. Their motivation is to cast the votes that work the best for them. What does Saxby care if he gets reelected? If he gets beat by us yahoos, he’s got the pension, he’s got the healthcare and he’s got some sweet job as a lobbyist.
http://www.opensecrets.org/travel/search_results.asp?id=N00002685&memname=Saxby+Chambliss+(R-Ga)
Find a BIG clue here.
We cannot and will not accept tax amnesty for illegals. We cannot and will not accept their costs to our social infrastructure if they cannot contribute in kind... and tax amnesty means they won't.
Something else is going on Bigun. I just haven't figured it out yet.
Think about it my friend. Who benefits most from our payment of those costs you mention? (It ain't the illegals)
What Republican do you expect to successfully primary Saxby ?
You are dead on.I can bet money that Mr Cain would not be a party to this sell out.The rest I am convinced otherwise is the case.Tuesday morning I will start wearing their asses out again with phone calls.
GOP: which is another name for the blue blooded country club republican snobs. Time to start the conservative party and leave the republicrats to self destruct by themselves.
And Cain won’t drink their water!
Herman Cain is a possibility if he would be interested in it. Cain already has a base of support from which to launch a campaign after his unsuccessful run against Johnny Isakson.
Personally, I think it would be a huge up-hill battle ... But when Saxby beat Max Cleland there were a world of political strategists telling us it would never happen. But it was one issue - WOT - and a motivated grassroots effort that did Cleland in.
Well, I directed my comments at that poster, since we don’t have any declared GOP primary challengers to Saxby (and as they say, you can’t beat someone with no one). It’s really unfortunate both he and Isakson (whose voting record improved substantially upon entering the Senate) jumped the shark on this profoundly serious issue. It’s shocking they’re that tone deaf and politically stupid.
I thought Cain would be blocked from higher office in GA because of their occupation by Sonny Perdue (likely to be succeeded by Lt Gov Cagle), and the two Senators, but now it appears he has a very prime opportunity, indeed. But will he take it ?
Absolutely! I would vote for Herman Cain over any white Repub candidate I can think of.
I voted for Chambliss and I haven't had any major disagreements with him up until his support for the amnesty bill, which has totally turned me off on him.
How can a supposed-to-be conservative Repub Senator from a state like GA which is literally running over with illegal and legal Hispanic immigrants support a bill which will soon give GA Democrats their old majority back stronger than ever as hundreds of thousands of GA's Hispanic illegals become brand new Democrat voters courtesy of this abominable amnesty bill? Has the entire nation in general and Republican politicians in particular gone totally nuts?
And no wonder. To me Isakson closely resembles the classic country club Republicans of the 1950s and 60's era who I remember all too well and thoroughly despised. His convenient switch from pro-abortion in previous runs for state offices to pro-life in his Senate race wasn't convincing except to convince me that he's a political chameleon, and along with other things I remembered about him from his previous runs for office, that caused me to skip over that space on my ballot.
I didn't vote for Isakson's Dem opponent, but he was the first Republican candidate for the Senate or Congress that I have ever NOT voted for in any election in which I was eligible to vote.
That won't do it for me. AFAIC he ripped the sheet when he came out in strong support for this horrible amnesty bill. I might forgive him if he hadn't known how his GA constituents, even quite a few liberal Democrats, feel about the bill. But I believe that he has to be enough aware of how the average Georgian feels about amnesty for criminal immigrants and their adult families and he supported it anyway.
We're up to our eyeballs in illegal Hispanic lawbreakers here in GA, and he wants to make them American citizens so they can vote in more Democrats and more socialistic programs. Enough of this betrayal crap, Chambliss made his bed and now he can lie in it next election day. AFAIC that goes for any Republican who supports the bill or fails to oppose it with every ounce of strength that he or she can muster.
Basically, our bought and paid for politicians are acquiessing to the demands of a small percentage of Americans to ramrod an outrageous amnesty bill into federal law that will reward immigrant lawbreakers with full American citizenship and voting rights just because they supply that small percentage of Americans with cheap labor at the expense of the American people's best interests. They claim that immigrants only take jobs that American won't do, but what that really means is that 3rd world Hispanic illegal immigrants take menial jobs at lower pay and much less benefits than Americans can live on. No American who is willing to work for a living deserves to have to live 10 or 12 to a small rented room, sleeping in shifts on the floor, and eating cheap canned food from dollar stores like the illegals do.
If it's true that there are more menial jobs available than than there are Americans willing to take those jobs, just cut off welfare for all able bodied adults of working age and those jobs will soon be filled by taxpaying Americans instead of off-the-books illegals who pay no income tax, Social Security tax, or Medicare tax, but who fill the waiting rooms of every hospital emergency room in the country every day and night of the week. Who pays for all that "free" medical service anyway? It isn't the illegals, it isn't their lawbreaking employers, it isn't the politicians who serve the interests of big business contributors instead of the people who elected them, the hospitals and medical personnel don't work for nothing, the hospital corporations are in business to make a profit and not to furnish free health care, so it must be all ordinary taxpaying Americans who get stuck with the tab. IOW, the same people who are having their paychecks ravished by payroll deductions for income tax, Social Security tax, Medicare tax, and taxes to pay for Medicaid for those who can't afford medical care, possibly in some cases because they lost their jobs to illegals.
I'm not pro-big labor by any means, and I worked in responsible positions in the corporate world for a considerable portion of my working life. Actually I hate unions (not union members) and have hated them since I reached the middle management level in my company and had to contend with the union thug mentality on an almost daily basis. But this immigration situation and the amnesty bill it spawned are outrageous in more ways than just the job market. Our government officials are deaf to our concerns, business leaders are complicit in the amnesty scheme, most people don't know what the amnesty bill scheme is all about, and the American people had better wake up and realize what's going on before we lose our unique American culture, our language, our way of life, and practically our entire country as we have known it for all of our lives. We're under attack by both a fanatical, murderous religion and a massive influx of illegal aliens at the same time, and something has to give one way or another.
There it is!
But the GOP senators think their base is going to support them after joining up with Ted Kennedy!
The whole Republican party is vulnerable. We are approaching a state of meltdown. Thanks, Jorge.
There you have it folks! In a nut shell.
If you could get a look at the books of the folks behind this you would find all manner of entries under "casual labor", "contract labor", "day labor" or some other such title which allows them to work these guys without being directly tied to them as they are not technically "employees". They are thus able to directly expense these costs while providing no benefits and withhold no taxes. They do however still get their work done very reasonably with taxpayer subsidized labor. I'm quite sure that in most but certainly not all cases these savings are reflected in the prices of the goods or products they sell but that doesn't make it one bit more palatable to me.
It is nothing more than a VERY slick form of corporate welfare. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Please let your Georgia people know that Pres. Bush is coming to town to pitch ‘it ain’t AMNESTY’.
Bush coming to Brunswick
Fri, May 25, 2007
By HANK ROWLAND
The Brunswick News
President Bush will visit the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick Tuesday to detail the new immigration plan he is supporting.
“He’s going to talk about immigration and, basically, probably beefing up border security,” U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-1, said Thursday. “I’m glad that he is moving immigration along. I think it’s important legislation and I appreciate his leadership on it.”
Blair Jones of the White House media staff in Washington, D.C., declined to confirm the visit and said no announcement had been made.
Kingston said he will be unable to be at the federal training center Tuesday because of another commitment. A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said he also had another commitment and would not attend.[snip]
http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/open_access/news/311737548904023.php
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