In a post at Roll Call's "At the Races," Rob Collins, top staffer at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, admits that the race in Georgia has tightened up. Without using his name, Collins hints that Republican David Perdue may still be hurting from his July runoff with U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, whose strength was on the Georgia coast:
A problem for Perdue, Collins said, has been name identification. Perdue had a crowded Republican primary, followed by a runoff, and only began campaigning for the general election at the end of July. Georgia is an expensive state to advertise, and Perdue is now just "introducing himself to a broader audience."
In particular, Collins said, Perdue needs to make an effort to improve his name recognition in the Savannah area, near the Florida border.
Never mind that Savannah is slightly closer to the South Carolina border. Kingston showed impressive strength throughout his First District, which covers the entire coast.
We witnessed some of this effort first-hand on Saturday, when Perdue started his day in St. Marys, near the Florida border at the bottom of the First District. The Sea Island resident told the crowd of his work to mend fences with Kingston:
"In a runoff, I ran against my Congressman, Jack. He's our Congressman, a great guy. Some of [you] worked for him, and God bless you for that. Now we're in the general election and we're working together to hold this seat. I hired some of his staff, pooled our grassroots team together. And we said: 'This isn't about me. Let's go win this thing.'"
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