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Sunday, October 8, 2006
Never mind the numbers, polls spell base problems for Taylor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It would be one thing if bewildered Georgia Democrats, looking at Mark Taylor’s bleak standing in more than one poll, were challenging the statistical tone of this race for governor.
But they’re not. Not all of them, and not the ones that matter. There’s growing concern that — while nationally the party is surging — a lackluster performance by Taylor’s campaign has exposed Democrats in Georgia down the length of the ballot.
That women haven’t been energized has been documented. But African-American strategists are telling us that their networks — the strength behind Taylor’s primary victory — have become disengaged as well. A TV ad campaign by Taylor in September, emphasizing crime and punishment, didn’t go down well with black voters, they said.
Uniformly, they criticized Taylor’s ground game and the lack of African-Americans at the highest levels of the Democrat’s gubernatorial campaign.
We called Michael Thurmond, the state labor commissioner, who faces a Republican opponent in November, to see if he had heard the same things. He didn’t lie.
“I’m confused, slightly dismayed and concerned, but I’m still hopeful,� said Thurmond, who is African-American and who played the role of motivational speaker at last month’s state Democratic convention.
Friday’s launch of Taylor ads, detailing a Florida land purchase by Gov. Sonny Perdue, should tighten the race.
And the labor commissioner did say he picked up a spark of energy from his downstate contacts when the topic shifted to Attorney General Thurbert Baker, a black Democrat who’s enduring a harsh attack from Republican Perry McGuire.
It’s that race, Thurmond said, that might provide the fire lacking among black voters.
A taste of ‘08 in ‘06: McCain comes down to Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
John McCain, the U.S. senator and ’08 presidential contender, arrives today to help raise money for Casey Cagle, this year’s Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.
The two have never laid eyes on each other. And yet many Republicans in Georgia view this meeting as the end of a six-year-old saga, and will pay $1,000 per head to see it. The plot line, while hackneyed, is as irresistible as the Old Testament: What goeth around, cometh around.
When not pricking President Bush’s conscience on the issue of torture, McCain — as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee — spent much of the last two years investigating the unsavory career of Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Which, of course, led to disclosures about Abramoff’s relationship with Ralph Reed, his friend and business associate.
This same Ralph Reed, as a Bush confidante and hero to evangelicals, helped deep-six McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign in the next-door South Carolina primary.
Cagle, in this summer’s primary, used the material uncovered by McCain’s committee to begin a post-Reed era in Georgia Republican politics.
The latest available poll, conducted in September by the GOP-oriented firm of Strategic Vision, shows McCain trailing former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani in Georgia, 33 to 19 percent.
Conventional wisdom says McCain, an ex-Vietnam POW, should do well here because of his military pedigree — but that his relationship with Christian conservatives is holding him back.
Conventional wisdom, if not wrong, is shallow. McCain’s problems in Georgia run deeper than that. Georgia business leaders will be listening to anything McCain’s got to say about Lockheed, the state’s largest defense contractor.
For the last decade and more, McCain has been a thorn in Lockheed’s side, first questioning the need for the C-130, the mainstay of the Marietta aircraft plant, then attempting to block funding for the F-22 Raptor, the Air Force’s most expensive weapon at $130 million each.
Buddy Darden is the former Democratic congressman from Marietta, who later served as a Lockheed consultant. He clued us in on the origin of the conflict.
Years ago, there was a bit of a budget game played with the C-130, a carry-anything cargo plane much used by national guard and reserve forces. The Pentagon wouldn’t put the planes in its annual defense budget, but relied on Congress to do so.
The “gentleman’s agreement� allowed the Department of Defense to highlight more of its budget priorities. Members of Congress reaped the benefits that came from winning the funding that kept thousands of workers employed — in Georgia and elsewhere.
McCain wouldn’t buy into the arrangement. In fact, he labeled it pork. So the fight began, Darden says.
What has raised the eyebrows of some members of Georgia’s congressional delegation is the fact that John Warner (R-Va.) is scheduled to step down as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
McCain is in line to replace him.
