Monday 7.19.04

Herman Cain and the weekend of the long knives

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At the front end of the last weekend before the Republican vote for U.S. Senate, with something historic almost within his grasp, Herman Cain found himself the man in the middle.

Both his rivals on Friday set about clawing away his supporters, in the grim, last-minute fashion traditional to Georgia.

For Cain campaigners new to politics or to Georgia, the pincher movement was breath-taking.

Over the radio, rival Mac Collins set about making sure white voters know that there's more to Cain than the color of his eyes.

Under the radar, taking aim at core Republican voters, Johnny Isakson put out a mailer that barely flirts with the truth:

**Herman Cain "donated money to pro-choice Democrat Senator Kerrey," the flier says.

Isakson has raised $5.5 million, but couldn't afford to insert "Bob" in the line above. As in former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, not presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachussets. Cain wrote the $250 check in 1993, when he lived in Omaha.

"Herman was president of Godfather's Pizza and head of the National Restaurant Association. Herman said the guy [Bob Kerrey] was good for small business," Cain campaign manager Matt Wylie said. At the same time, Cain was giving more significant money to the Republican National Congressional Committee.

A spokesman for the Isakson campaign, which has decried negative advertising, saw no harm in voters thinking that Cain gave cash to the soon-to-be-official Democratic presidential nominee. "Bob Kerrey and John Kerry are cut from the same liberal Democratic senate cloth," Heath Garrett said.

**Cain "stood with Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy to extend [the] Iraq handover deadline," the flier says. At a May forum in Gwinnett County, Cain said he wouldn't oppose extension of the deadline. "Do it at the right time for the right reason, even if we have to move it," Cain said. Bush did move the handover -- two days forward. Neither Clinton nor Kennedy was in attendance.

**Cain "ran for president against George W. Bush," the flier says. Bush announced the formation of an exploratory committee for president on March 2, 1999. Cain filed his papers 17 days later, and quickly dropped out.

**Cain "endorsed Bush's opponent," the flier says. Well, yes. But Isakson omits the word "Republican." Cain was behind Steve Forbes in the presidential primary.

The Isakson campaigners justified the mailer by pointing out they had endured Cain's attacks on TV since early June -- and that several of Cain's charges were exaggerated or misleading. Tit for tat.

"We have sought a positive discussion, but we have also repeatedly put our opponents on notice that we will defend ourselves if attacked," said Brad Alexander, another Isakson spokesman.

The Collins radio spot, aired on an Atlanta Christian station and on WSB, first attacked Isakson on abortion, foreign trade and tort reform. Then, Collins put his sights on two issues sure to underline the fact that Cain is African-American.

"Affirmative action's long outlived its time. ... Any ruling that gives preference to anyone, is wrong. Mr. Cain cannot say that. When it comes to endorsements, Mr. Cain was endorsed by the regional director of the Rainbow/PUSH coalition. I'm proud to say I was not."

Cain does have the support of Joe Beasley, the civil-rights veteran, who is a member of his church.

Said Collins campaign manager Dan Kidder: "No, we're not playing the race card. We think that it's important that voters know an organization that's working against George Bush, and is against Republican principles, is working for Herman Cain."

Excessive speed and riding without a helmet could carry a hefty price for this GOP leader

Only 48 hours to go. So little time, and so much to shovel.

Thousands and thousands of mailers and robo-calls are tugging at the psyches of voters across Georgia today, demanding the five to eight seconds of attention they need to change your mind and the direction of government in Atlanta and Washington.

Many, many of these messages will tout newspaper endorsements. We'll repeat only two.

On Saturday, the Augusta Chronicle jumped into the GOP primary race for the District 24 state Senate race, and endorsed challenger Jim Whitehead, a Columbia County commissioner, against incumbent Joey Brush, chairman of the Senate Education Committee. The editorial was brutal -- and left much to the imagination:

"Many have come to the utterly sad conclusion that Sen. Brush has worn out his welcome in Atlanta -- a neat trick indeed for someone as charming and talented as he is. Critics of the senator note his near-obsessive campaign to relieve motorcycle riders of mandatory helmets as his chief mission. And reports of his personal behavior have made for tabloid news in Atlanta and ugly rumors at home. Sen. Brush is somewhat famous for driving fast. But his detractors say his behavior has caught up with him."

Also last week, in the 8th District congressional race, we noted that GOP candidate Dylan Glenn was endorsed the weekly Fayette Citizen -- a snub to rival Lynn Westmoreland, who lives in nearby Sharpsburg. Late last week, Westmoreland recovered with the endorsement of the other print outlet, the Fayette Daily News.

Gosh, we never thought; wow -- look who Republicans are backing!

One of the best things about the final hours of an election is that play-acting comes to an end. Time for pretense and obtuse phrasing runs out.

Both Gov. Sonny Perdue and the state GOP have tried to keep a degree of separation between themselves and the non-partisan candidacy of Grant Brantley, the challenger to incumbent Supreme Court Justice Leah Sears.

But on Friday, the Georgia Republican Party e-mailed a "special alert" pressing the membership to vote for Brantley on Tuesday.

Republican insiders are telling us they think Brantley's in trouble -- largely because the state's legal community has been less than eager to support the governor's non-traditional effort to shape the bench along more Republican lines.

Something of a pickle for a former member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans

On the last day before the election, John Noel of Atlanta -- a white House member whose district straddles Fulton and Cobb counties -- will face the ire of the Legislative Black Caucus. The group is holding a news conference at the state Capitol on Monday to protest Noel's use of the McKinney name in a set of cable TV ads calculated to put white Cobb voters on his side.

Noel beat Billy McKinney, the father of the congresswoman, in 2002 -- the same night Cynthia McKinney lost her congressional primary to Denise Majette. On Tuesday, one of Noel's five Democratic primary opponents is Sheila Jones, a former legislative aide to Billy McKinney. In his TV ads, Noel characterizes Jones' campaign as a backdoor effort to put Billy McKinney back in the state Capitol. And he tosses Cynthia McKinney in for good measure.

Noel has refused to take down the TV ads but says if there's a runoff -- and if he's in it -- then he'll re-edit the spot.

Question for Alex Wan: If you win, how will you vote in the next speaker's race?

State Rep. Pat Gardner of Atlanta. Gardner, the incumbent in the Democratic primary for House District 57, was one of those lawmakers who unsuccessfully fought against the proposed anti-gay marriage amendment that's on the Nov. 2 ballot. For her efforts, Gardner was rewarded with the endorsement of Georgia Equality, the gay-and-lesbian political organization -- despite the fact that her opponent, Alex Wan, is gay.

The endorsement hasn't kept Gardner from being portrayed as anti-homosexual in the race.

On Sunday, our colleague Rhonda Cook was at Gardner's home when a robo-call hit the phone and accused the legislator of furthering the anti-gay agenda: "Pat Gardner accepted a substancial campaign contribution from Terry Coleman, the Speaker of the House. The Christian Coalition praises Speaker Coleman for helping them pass the anti-gay marriage resolution that will be on the ballot in November. Pat Gardner claims to support equal rights for members of the gay and lesbian community, but her actions say something else entirely."

The source of the ad was left unstated.

From "White Hands" to the color of Cain's eyes: The irony is rich, and the strategy is changing

In 1990, the campaign of U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina was faltering before the challenge of a black Democrat, former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt. Over a weekend, media consultant Alex Castellanos -- a slash-and-burn specialist for Republicans -- concocted a devasting TV spot.

In political circles, it's known as "White Hands," and it ranks with Willie Horton for touching the raw nerve of racial politics.

The TV spot features nothing but the hands of a white man that extend from a flannel shirt. The left hand bears a wedding ring, to emphasize a family concern. The hands crumple up a piece of paper, and the narrator intones:

"You needed that job, and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota."

The same firm, now Castellanos & Todd, is in Georgia's U.S. Senate race. Working for Herman Cain, the only African-American in the contest. It's responsible for the Cain "color of our eyes" ad that blisters Johnny Isakson on abortion and, less successfully, tries to paint him as a tool of trial lawyers.

If nothing else, the Castellanos association with Cain is a sign of the Republican realization that the votes of white men are no longer enough to maintain sovereignty in Southern political contests.

Brad Todd joined Castellanos as a partner in 1998, but he defends the "White Hands" ad nonetheless and argues that there's much in the Jesse Helms ad that Cain agrees with -- numerical quotas in hiring, for instance.

Even so, Todd agrees that there's been a shift: "We were a minority party in the South for a long time. For a time, maybe, we thought too much like a minority party and tried to maximize our vote by turning to our strongest group. Now, we need to make an effort to speak to a larger group."

A few years ago, Castellanos himself was asked about his "White Hands" ad. "The world has changed," he said. "That was 100 years ago -- longer."

But maybe not that long -- if you consider that current Mac Collins radio ad, which tries to tie Cain to racial quotas.

As usual, there was no mention of alimony or who gets the kids. Or the dog, for that matter.

This could develop into a hot, summer-time trend among a certain crowd: Last week, the Chatham County Democratic Party handed U.S. Sen. Zell Miller a writ of divorce.

George W. Bush was named as co-respondent and was accused of alienating Miller's affections.

The county party unanimously declared that the "actions of the formerly Democratic U.S. senator have irretrievably broken the bonds that formerly existed between us, and we view any previous ties to Miller as null and void."

As grounds for the separation, the Democrats named his endorsement of Bush, his "abandonment and dereliction of his duties" while he appears on the Sean Hannity program on a near-daily basis and his "shameless and self-serving" promotion of his book.

You can see the whole thing online: Chatham Dems