CARTERSVILLE -- Republican U.S. Senate hopeful David Perdue took off to North Georgia today, with seven stops in GOP-heavy areas.
He gave his usual stump speech in Cartersville, bashing President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, but he acknowledged he did not need to persuade this crowd:
"It's not about the message, it's about machinery. Who's going to get the vote out? Democrats are going to get their vote out. The question is: Are we going to get our vote out? Had we done that in 2012, we absolutely would have President Romney and not President Obama. There's just no doubt about it.
Perdue continued to mount a defense of his career, which has been under withering attack from Democrat Michelle Nunn, broadsides Perdue says are "false."
"Well that's what she's trying to do," Perdue told reporters. He continued:
"One man doesn't decimate an entire industry. We've had several industries – apparel, footwear, textile, electronics, even furniture – that in the past 30-40 years have been decimated by these policies and put our manufacturers at a disadvantage relative to the rest of the world. She's trying to put that back on me individually and that's a distraction away from the very policies of this administration that's perpetrated right now like Obamacare.
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times pointed out that just down the road was a former Sara Lee plant that had shut down. Perdue worked for the conglomerate in Hong Kong, building up its Asian sourcing. Asked whether Sara Lee's policies were to blame for the plant closing, Perdue replied:
"I don't think you can pin it on one company like that. And by the way the argument that was made last night that I had anything to do with the closing of those plants in Georgia is irresponsible and divisive and I think just absolutely appalling. I was in another hemisphere doing something totally different, and they know that."
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Our AJC colleague Aaron Gould Sheinin, traveling with Michelle Nunn, has filed the following response:
Nunn on Monday, however, said Perdue didn't explain his career on outsourcing as she asked him to during Sunday night's debate. The facts are, she said, that Perdue "was responsible for growing jobs in places China and Mexico and for Sara Lee responsible for building their operations there while 500 people at the same were losing their jobs in Georgia. People do understand that."
Perdue is right, Nunn said, that outsourcing is a part of the free enterprise system and “it’s part of business.”
“I just don’t think it’s what Georgians are looking for in qualifications for U.S. senator,” Nunn said.
The former non-profit CEO also took aim at Perdue's comment Sunday night that seemed to dismiss criticism of his time at the helm of Dollar General because only "about 2,000" women claimed pay discrimination out of 70,000 employees.
“Two thousand women you were responsible for in your own company and you paid them less than their counterparts who were men?” Nunn said after a campaign stop at the Thumbs Up Diner on Edgewood Avenue downtown. “That is very distressing for a lot of Georgians. David has said despite that record he’s not for pay equity legislation for women.”
“People are taking note,” Nunn said.
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