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 do have problems with the term limits crowd.’
The Permanent Political Class is what has gotten the country in the disastrous shape it’s in today. The solution is not to send the architects of the catastrophe back to DC to fix their own mess. Insanity is doing the same thing & expecting different results. To get different results, the Permanent Political Class must be electorally decimated.
Grow up. This has nothing to do with job preservation. It has to do with policy. Purdue is opposed to tossing Dodd-Frank. He is a member of a long-time Georgia political family. He's a corporate executive when I've had just about enough of crony capitalism. From the article I linked above:
[snip]
“The problem with the Republican [Party]…says [sic] well wait a minute if you talk to anyone on the other side that means you’re giving up your principles,” Perdue continued at that same forum.
you’re correct. The establishment carpet bombed the good candidates in the primary, and then their guy ended up losing to Perdue, who I can definitely see going down against Nunn.
I won’t argue with you on that. However, we now have time to forcibly shape him into someone who won’t surrender the ship before Hussein leaves office in two years.
Coupled with the fact that I KNOW what Kingston is/was, I’m going to make the best of a bad situation and start calling for immutable pledges from him no equivocations) about amnesty, the budget/debt, new spending, IRS/FBI/CIA/NSA/DHS/TSA et al investigations, ObamaCare and the rest of Obama’s Executive Order treachery.
Beyond that, there is nothing else to do BUT vote for Michelle Martin (I refuse the connection with her father because she’s not earned it in any sense), and that is something I simply will not do.
Oh you mean like Madison? Like Jefferson? Like Jesse Helms?
Grow up. There are good representatives and bad. Our job is to make the distinctions based upon performance and not just tenure.
A perfectly legitimate distinction.
” I’m also seeing signs that Purdue might be a stealth RINO, but I just don’t know.”
Really?
I would like specific examples of his “RINO” activities, please.
Term limits are one thing - but 22 years in office is not enough for you?
That didn’t really work out with David Jolly, who has gone full RINO
Fits the pattern.
Karl Rove is gearing up to lose another election cycle
See post 22.
Second Generation Nunn
‘Perdue, who I can definitely see going down against Nunn.’
As of the most recent poll, Perdue fared better against Nunn than did Kingston. Nunn was hoping to run as an outsider against a 22 yr incumbent, upon whom she could pile all the worst problems DC has created. Now that venue is cut off for her. If either of the GOP runoff candidates has a good chance against Nunn, it’s Perdue.
It became clear to me last night when I looked county by county and saw Perdue taking conservative mountain counties like Habersham and Rabun that the GA GOP voters were just voting for somebody new. Anybody new. That is how Perdue won and why. I hope I’m wrong but I fully expect Perdue to vote lockstep with Mitch McConnell and the GOP senate leadership.
So you equate the instance of David Jolly with a potential revolution against GOPe forces here in Georgia? So what, a Florida politician campaigns as conservative and then goes full-RINO. Exactly how is that different from the full-RINO he defeated? Same difference, except there was a 50/50 chance the other way instead of 100/0 with the loser.
As one who once was a lifelong so-called Republican, I’ve gone full-conservative, scorched-earth as a matter of fact. I’m going to vote against Isakson, my own congressman, and any other RINO traitor I find in our ranks here. Any entrenched GOP politician here is on my suspect list. If a new one like Perdue joins them, then he’s on my do not vote list too. Frankly, I don’t hold much hope for him once he gets elected, but there is hope - just hope.
Name one serious problem the country has faced for the last 22 yrs that DC has done a good job of fixing.
Look, I did not like Kingston. The man ran as an unabashed RINO. Karen Handel would have been my choice. I had a lot less doubt about her
I saw it and it doesn’t make the point.
Name me the viable Republican politicians you know of that have said, publicly, that they, in no way, will speak to or work with the opposition Party?
I know that Jack didn’t. Ted Cruz hasn’t. Rand Paul has said the same thing. Ronald Reagan said it.
I need actual RINO activities; not off-the-cuff statements from an article during a campaign to promise “not to be a Partisan nut bag.”
I agree on the anybody new theme. But realistically, what makes you think that Kingston would not have also voted lock-step with McConnell and the GOP Senate Leadership? And please don’t try to tell me about “conservative ratings” organizations - they are worthless.
Looks pretty conservative to me.
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