This dispatch is from the AJC's Aaron Gould Sheinin, who is embedded with Michelle Nunn's campaign this week:
Cruising down Georgia's backroads between Columbus and Macon on Tuesday, Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Michelle Nunn opened up about the highs and lows of the campaign trail, her race against Republican David Perdue and her reaction to that controversial flyer referencing Ferguson, Mo.
She's made the middle row of a white Dodge minivan her mobile headquarters in the final leg of the race, and she sat down with us after offering a La Croix sparkling water and a slice from the Columbus pizzeria she just left.
The daughter of the famously pragmatic, centrist U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., the younger Nunn has worked to build her campaign in a similar model: Work with whomever is willing to collaborate, if it makes sense and makes things better. She said she’s been surprised that Perdue has chosen a seemingly opposite path.
“He has made no inroads to talk about moderation and certainly has not tried to claim the center and in fact has done the opposite of that,” she said, as pecan plantations fly by the driver’s side window, pastures and scrub brush on the other.
“Talk about (incumbent Georgia Republican U.S. Sens.) Johnny Isakson or Saxby Chambliss. He hasn’t campaigned in their model or talked about them as role models in any way. I’ve done a lot more of that then he has.”
It’s not just Perdue, she said. The Senate has changed since the time of Sam Nunn, Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., and Fritz Hollings, D-S.C.
"Who we're sending to Washington has changed it," she said. "You send (Texas Republican Sen.) Ted Cruz to Washington and David Perdue campaigns with Ted Cruz, that does say something about the kind of senator he will be. And I don't think that's what we need."
Cruz was the architect of last year’s government shutdown. The three-week exercise led to 70,000 Georgians being furloughed and is a regular topic in Nunn’s campaign stops, particularly in military towns like Columbus, which were hurt more.
“My dad, Fritz Hollings, they had friends across the aisle,” Nunn said. “I think there was a much more collegial set of relationships in Washington.”
Nunn, should she win and Democrats maintain their majority, realizes that majority will likely be smaller than it is now. It could be she’s the 51st vote, in fact. Having run a campaign based on working across the aisle, for the common good and not the good of the party, is she ready for the intense pressure she could face to toe the party line?
“My entire orientation is around working together,” she said. “I’m going to do the right thing for Georgia and what I think is in the right interest of the nation. That’s all the pressure I’ll feel. I’m not at all worried about the political pressure of my party.”
As proof, she said she just questioned by a group of Democratic ladies at the Columbus pizzeria she just left – about the Keystone pipeline.
She's in favor of building it. These ladies, like many Democrats, oppose it.
“Look, none of us agree 100 percent of the time,” she said. “The question is are we going to exercise good judgment based on the facts and what we think is in the best interest of Georgia.”
Then there's that flyer. The Democratic Party of Georgia raised eyebrows and anger on the right with a mail piece that encourages people to vote "if you want to prevent another Ferguson." It's a reference to the Missouri town where a white police officer shot a young, unarmed black man.
Democrats have said the flyer is intended to spur people to the polls and ensure they have a voice in the political process. Nunn, asked about it almost everywhere she goes, has said the flyer ought to start “a conversation.” A conversation, she said, about race, and community and justice.
But she has steadfastly avoided saying whether she supported or opposed the flyer. So has Democrat Jason Carter, the gubernatorial contender, who said at a debate he hadn't looked at it yet.
In the minivan Tuesday, Nunn recalled seeing it for the first time.
“Somebody brought it to me and showed it to me the first time when I was speaking in … I don’t remember where I was,” she said. “Did it surprise me? It is an evocative and provocative piece."
The issue has taken hold in Georgia, she said, especially among black voters key to her party's success in Georgia.
“I have heard and spent time with people in the state of Georgia who have talked about how Ferguson is a point, is a touchstone for them, for involvement and participation,” she said. “And I’ve heard (Democratic Congressman) John Lewis talk about it. It’s certainly something I’ve heard from a lot of people.”
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