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Saturday, October 21, 2006
Mary Perdue: The star of her husband’s campaign
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Republican incumbent Sonny Perdue has another TV ad up. And again it features his wife Mary. She’s the main character, speaking directly to the camera. She endorses her husband’s character, ending with: “We’d be honored to serve you again for the next four years.”
Why the Perdue campaign has taken this tack is clear. It’s a threefer.
You boost Sonny Perdue’s warm-and-fuzzy numbers.
You get an attractive, soothing female to smooth over any doubts raised by Democrat Mark Taylor about Perdue’s Florida land deal and the accompanying tax break passed by the Legislature.
And you reinforce the split between Taylor and the women of Georgia.
In the past, candidates for governor in Georgia have been very protective in the way they’ve featured their spouses in campaigns. Usually, they’re no more than a bit of stock footage in a commercial.
Here’s the question, and the risk for the Perdue campaign: When the First Lady of Georgia steps out to reassure voters about her husband’s character, when Mary Perdue declares that attacks on her husband’s business interests are “a shame,” does it become fair to ask her specifics about how she came by this knowledge?
