Posted on 07/23/2014 8:16:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
First-time political candidate David Perdue won a surprise victory over favored Rep. Jack Kingston in the Republican runoff for the US Senate nomination in Georgia. Kingston, who had the backing of the US Chamber of Commerce as well as conservatives such as my Salem colleague Erick Erickson, had been leading in almost every poll as the runoff approached. In the end, Perdue’s outsider message may have won the day:
Businessman David Perdue stunned Georgia’s Republican political establishment Tuesday by capturing the party’s U.S. Senate nomination in his first run for office.
The former CEO of Reebok and Dollar General toppled 11-term Rep. Jack Kingston by a narrow margin, setting up a battle of political newcomers with famous kin in the fall. Perdue’s cousin, Sonny, was a two-term governor and Nunn’s father, Sam, was a four-term U.S. Senator.
In addition to his famous last name and lingering political network from his cousin, Perdue deployed $3 million of his own money to back his bid. Still, he was outspent by Kingston and allied Super PACs – including the deep pocketed U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
That leaves the Senate race in Georgia to two political neophytes — Perdue and Michelle Nunn, who has also never run for office until now. Both come from political families, however. Nunn’s father Sam spent four terms in the Senate before retiring in 1996 as a blue-dog Democrat who voted in favor of tort reform and in support of the death penalty and balanced budgets. Nunn’s challenge will be to convince Georgia voters that she’s a chip off the old block while still representing the outsider, anti-establishment perspective.
Perdue’s win makes that a little more difficult, Politico’s James Hohmann points out:
The general election is likely to be a costly battle between two candidates running as “outsiders,” despite their politically powerful families. Democratic nominee Michelle Nunn’s father, Sam Nunn, represented Georgia in the Senate for 24 years. Perdue’s first cousin, Sonny Perdue, was the state’s first Republican governor elected since Reconstruction, serving two terms from 2003 to 2011.
With Kingston’s defeat, Nunn has lost her chance to run against Washington and the national debt. She is expected, instead, to contrast her background as a nonprofit executive against Perdue’s tenure as a CEO at companies like Reebok and Dollar General.
Georgia is the Democrats’ best chance to pick up a Republican-held seat this fall, which ensures it will be one of the most closely watched races on the map.
Democrats might have hoped for a GOP split such as that seen in Mississippi after a close primary and runoff. If so, they’re doubly disappointed as Kingston wasted no time in endorsing his former opponent:
Kingston immediately pledged his support in a concession call to Perdue and told him “once we combine our two camps we will absolutely be unstoppable.”
Erick blames the Chamber of Commerce endorsement for the narrow loss:
In the last two weeks, David Perdue made hay out of walking out of his meeting with the Chamber. He claimed the Chamber wanted him to vote with them 100% of the time. He would not.
That message resonated. Kingston was the career politician in the pocket of the Chamber and would pass amnesty.
Not now. He lost. And he did so largely because David Perdue made Kingston own his Chamber of Commerce endorsement.
Erick’s a lot closer to the race than I am, and the narrowness of the runoff makes this a very plausible analysis. It might be simpler than this, though. Kingston’s been in Washington for 22 years, and with or without the Chamber of Commerce endorsement, that’s baggage in the last few cycles. Georgia voters may just have wanted a reasonable alternative to a career politician, and Perdue managed to make that case for himself in the course of the primary and runoff. Don’t discount the power of populism in this cycle — and it might be fortunate for the national GOP that they defused that argument in Georgia, assuming Perdue doesn’t blow the general election.
I never said you did. Personally, I can’t stand him or Perdue. That’s why I sat it out yesterday. I ALSO voted for Karen and was immensely disappointed - until the ROBOCALL I got from her one night supporting Kingston. It was then when it finally dawned on me that all politicians are flawed, and the ones that have been at it the longest are the most flawed.
Meaningless, really. Let’s cache that site and look back in review after he’s done whatever he’s done officially and on the record.
Yep...that train is coming down the track...and it ain't stopping for shit until change is implemented...
True. Perdue was the best way to stick it to the GOPe here.
Establishment has a reason to support other Establishment and squash their opponent.
We have a reason to respond in kind.
Conservatives may be on a learning curve, yes, but we are no longer fish bait for the Republican Party’s obvious excursion into UniParty waters.
While obviously both candidates are fairly unknown quantities here to most, the important thing is to let Purdue know that he has been chosen to sit on a throne with a conservative sword of Damocles over his head.
He did not win by much, and it is just one year in office before he must consider reelection. So if he tries *any* duplicity against conservatives, he might as well kiss his reelection goodbye.
If he becomes part of the Ted Cruz bloc, he might have a long and effective time in congress. But he should steer very clear of the GOP-e, RINOs, and Chamber of Commerce; because on that path lies unemployment.
I hope so. I hope they remember it.
They couldn’t get the blacks to vote for Kingston?
“He did not win by much, and it is just one year in office before he must consider reelection.”
Please re read your civics book on the difference in Senate and House terms
Look bad to be caught running around Atlanta passing out envelopes of money for votes after Mississippi. Someone might notice a pattern.
My error, I though he was a representative candidate. This does make it a trickier situation, though both men were still uncertain.
’ It is far too easy for the principals of those organizations to be infiltrated and corrupted by vile schemers who seek only personal enrichment or further of their ideologies.’
I think you are exactly right. According to the goals of the U.S. Communist party in ‘48 that is what they set out to do. It is why any organization which is successful in propagating Conservative principles is soon destroyed from the inside. Not to mention the MSM, schools and universities, churches,the Dem and Repub parties are all corrupted.
The money line...!!
Yes it is trickier. It is imperative to get a R majority in the senate, and only 1/3 of the seats are voted on every 2 years. So not that many opportunities this time around.
The Chamber of Amnesty’s reputation cratered in MS, where it funded Black voter fraud to re-elect their senile lackey, Thad Cochran. Conservatives in states across the fruited plain have not forgotten how Donahue, head of the Chamber, declared war on the TEA party organizations at the beginning of this primary year. He will be the reason, if the GOP fails to win the Senate.
Welfare reform was a step in the right direction. Now your turn:
Name one successful political campaign that accomplished anything selling turmoil and defeatism.
I don't care what you need. You have your examples, and refusal to rescind Dodd Frank is high on the list.
“I don’t care what you need. You have your examples, and refusal to rescind Dodd Frank is high on the list.”
LOL... alright.
“David Perdue, the former CEO of Dollar General, was critical of Dodd-Frank Wednesday at a Thomas County Republican Party meeting, claiming it prevents banks from lending.
“I could not borrow money from my local bank like I used to, just for operating capital,” Perdue said, according to the Thomasville Times-Enterprise.
“I’m not going to go up there and tell you I’m going to repeal Dodd-Frank,” Perdue said. “I will tell you I’m going to fight to amend it. And to do that, I think I can find some Democratic senators who will join in with logic and be led into a reasonable solution.””
If you follow the links on the article all the way back to the description of his meeting with the chamber you’ll find that he supposedly told the Chamber during that shortened meeting something like “I’m the guy you’ve been waiting for for 20 years.”
When they didn’t immediately come through, he walked out.
Then he turned the walk-out into a campaign strategy.
Smart politician, for sure, but where he stands is up in the air if you’re down on the Chamber of Commerce, I guess.
For myself, I’m not staying home in November if my candidate is endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce because the Left sn’t going to stay home even if their candidates are endorsed by the Communist Party. There is quite a difference in those two endorsements.
Hey I was for Paul Broun and Karen Handel so I’m no Kingston cheerleader. But Kingston has a voting record to look at and its not bad. Perdue can say anything then go to DC and do just the opposite. I hope he turns out to be a really great senator but who knows at this point?
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