People For The American Way, the left-leaning civil liberties group, reports that it's putting more than $100,000 behind the above ad in Georgia, which declares that Republicans Nathan Deal and David Perdue "want to destroy our future."
As you can see, the 30-second spot is in Spanish. Our version has subtitles. The same group had targeted Perdue with a radio ad earlier in the cycle.
From Randy Borntrager, political director for PFAW:
"They want to reduce educational opportunities, deny citizenship to those born in this country, make it harder to obtain health care, and hurt workers by maintaining low wages—all issues that directly affect Latinos. Latino voters deserve to know about Deal and Perdue's track record."
The script – at least according to the subtitles:
Governor Nathan Deal wants to prevent our DREAMers from attending the top colleges, and he's voted to deny citizenship to immigrant children born here.
And the candidate for Senate, David Perdue is also against us. He doesn't want to increase the minimum wage!
We must vote against these Republicans to achieve a better future.
Now, before you immigration enthusiasts tie your underwear in a knot, understand that, upon watching the above clip, staffers in the Perdue and Deal campaigns will probably smile in approval.
While growing, the Hispanic vote in Georgia is still relatively small. Such an ad is just as likely to move wavering white independents – back into the GOP camp.
***
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, four weeks away from a possible upgrade in his position, was in Atlanta last night for a fundraiser. Below is the relevant portion of the invite:
You’ll notice that it bears the name of a particular Republican candidate for U.S. Senate who, while he doesn’t intend to vote for McConnell for majority leader, has promised to be a team player when he gets to Washington.
However, we were reliably informed that David Perdue was not at last night’s McConnell fundraiser.
***
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let stand lower court rulings allowing same-sex marriage in five states (Georgia not among them), perhaps signaling the legal fact of the matter across the country.
Democrat Jason Carter's campaign for governor, through a spokesman, said in August that Carter was in support of gay marriage. We used the Supreme Court decision as an occasion to see if Carter would further define his position.
The transcript:
Insider: So you're for marriage equality?
Carter: I personally am. And I believe that's a matter of personal freedoms for people. This is just talking about the government, how the government doles out that particular right - I think they should do that equally. But we have laws in this state, and we have a constitution in this state, and I as governor will uphold that constitution and make sure we are abiding by the court decisions that come down.
Another candidate figures into the gay marriage debate. Attorney General Sam Olens, a Republican, who has vowed to defend Georgia's 2004 constitutional ban on gay marriage. Our AJC colleague Aaron Gould Sheinin put a call into Olens' office on Monday:
"There has been no court decision binding on Georgia," Lauren Kane said.
***
At yesterday's Karen Handel endorsement of Gov. Nathan Deal's re-election bid, first lady Sandra Deal told of a moment in the 2010 runoff campaign against Handel when she urged her husband's operatives to spike an ad.
"I stomped my feet and had a fit. We can do better," she said yesterday, recalling the incident. "That is no reason to be mean to each other."
Deal's aides don't recall whether it was one ad or a series of ads that prompted the fit, but we suspect it may have involved this ad attacking Handel's position on gay rights.
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The Georgia GOP is firing back at all the incoming on Republican U.S. Senate hopeful David Perdue's outsourcing career by reminding folks that there were job losses on Democrat Michelle Nunn's watch, too. Said spokeswoman Leslie Shedd:
"While David Perdue has spent his career creating jobs and revitalizing American companies, Michelle Nunn's own record reveals that she has cut jobs while giving herself a pay raise. Nunn's own campaign memo admits that doubling her salary while laying off almost half of her employees is a major vulnerability. As Nunn lobs false attacks, one thing is clear: Michelle Nunn looks out for her own best interests – not Georgians. It's time for Nunn to start answering for her job cutting record."
The charge comes from the job losses that occurred when HandsOn Atlanta merged with the Points of Light Foundation. Nunn got a pay raise as she was overseeing a much bigger operation, and some jobs were cut because of duplication at the two organizations. Politifact has the full background here.
***
Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg took a wide-ranging poll of battleground races. The Georgia numbers -- including approval for President Obama, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, as well as how voters respond to negatives about Nunn and Perdue -- begin on page 82 of this document.
Update 3:20 p.m.: This is updated to reflect that the survey's 46-40 Perdue lead is from an average of other Georgia polls, not a new poll. Thanks to Alex Rowell for pointing this out.
The Washington Post's left-leaning blogger Greg Sargent on the big picture from the poll:
Of course, this is a double-edged finding. While the lead itself might be good news for Democrats, since it suggests their messaging geared towards women might be having a persuasive effect, the problem is that this demographic tends to sit out midterms. And so this finding once again underscores just how much is riding on the Democrats' voter mobilization efforts.
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On Monday, Rasmussen Reports an automated poll that has Republican incumbent Nathan Deal with his largest lead yet over Democratic challenger Jason Carter in the race for governor:
Deal now picks up 49% of the vote to Carter's 43% in the latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Georgia Voters. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate in the race, while six percent (6%) are undecided.
MOE is +/- 4 percent. Libertarian Andrew Hunt received no mention. We’re also told that female and African-American voters are underweighted, at 52 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
***
Heavily Republican Floyd County is the latest place to approve Sunday voting. It will take place Oct. 26 at the Floyd County administration building in Rome. Also, in our previous coverage of the Sunday voting push, we missed Chatham County -- which includes the Democratic stronghold of Savannah -- approving an Oct. 26 early voting day late last month.
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Augusta Democratic U.S. Rep. John Barrow's newest ad in the hotly contested 12th District race centers on his work for veterans. Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee has another TV ad out, attacking Barrow as a puppet for President Barack Obama.
We went to Athens for a look at Barrow's winding political journey that ran in Saturday's paper.
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