Ending Spending Action Fund is drawing national attention for its unique positioning in the Georgia U.S. Senate race – bashing both Democrat Michelle Nunn and Republican Phil Gingrey without making a formal endorsement of any candidate.
Newly filed Federal Election Commission documents show where more of the Super PAC's fire is directed, and for now it's Gingrey. Ending Spending has reported $305,000 in spending against Nunn – including a $5,000 payment for opposition research to Washington GOP outfit America Rising.
But Ending Spending
to hit Gingrey.
The group has reserved $1.3 million in airtime ahead of the primary, and we'll see if the ratio continues to favor Gingrey attacks. Ending Spending has been less eager to talk about them, though.
The group's website features the Nunn ad and it gave early warning to the Wall Street Journal of its campaign against the Democrat. But we had to find the Gingrey ad elsewhere.
The Nunn campaign, meanwhile, has found a foil. An emailed fundraising solicitation over the weekend touted the $1.3 million figure in “spurious attack ads” without specifying that not all of that spending was anti-Nunn.
UPDATE 11:30 a.m.: Ending Spending Action Fund president Brian Baker called to say that the Gingrey ad will be up on the group's website shortly, and its absence was an oversight.
Baker would not say whether the group will endorse any of the Republicans in the race or why Gingrey was singled out as opposed to, say, Jack Kingston, who took some of the same votes. He said he expects Ending Spending to weigh in through the general election.
Said Baker:
"From time to time Ending Spending will back candidates and other times we oppose candidates that we know we don't want in the Senate and in the House, and this is really one of those situations. So our view is that Georgia taxpayers need an advocate, need a senator who wills stand up for them and ... we don't support Michelle Nunn or Phil Gingrey."
On Gingrey, Baker said "one of my favorites" is how he went from supporting the Paul Ryan budget to opposing it in the past two years -- even though the past two budgets come to balance sooner. Baker said Ending Spending "strongly supports" the Ryan budget.
But as last week's vote showed, all five top-tier Republican Senate candidates are against the Ryan budget.
UPDATE 1:50 p.m. Gingrey campaign manager Patrick Sebastian sends along the following:
“I don’t think Georgia voters particularly care who the founder of TD Ameritrade or the president of his Republican-attacking political organization want as Georgia’s next U.S. Senator.
"The fact is Phil Gingrey is a conservative Republican who has been twice named the most conservative Member of Congress, has an “A” rating from the NRA and who has consistently received the Spirit of Enterprise Award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.”
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Gov. Nathan Deal doesn't veto much legislation, but he dropped quite a hint about one pending bill.
The measure, House Bill 837, involves the 300,000 or so Georgias who are now on probation for misdemeanor offenses. The measure would block key information about the industry from public view, such as how much they charge in extra fees. Deal told Jonathan Shapiro of WABE (90.1FM) that provision is one that concerns him. Said Deal:
"Part of the bill that concerns me is the clause that was added in sort of late in the session about the secrecy of the records, of not making those available for inspection. I have asked some people to look at the language to see exactly what it does but we have not made a final call on that yet."
This one may go down to the April 29 deadline, folks.
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Tea party-allied FreedomWorks is backing Bob Johnson in the crowded Republican race for the coastal First Congressional District. The group's endorsement cites Johnson's background as a surgeon as helpful to fixing the nation's health care system and, of course, repealing Obamacare.
FreedomWorks has also endorsed former state senator Barry Loudermilk in the 11th District race and steered $1,700 worth of donations his way in the past five months.
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The Federal Election Commission is set to tell Ed Lindsey he can include other candidates in his ads promoting his 11th Congressional District candidacy. Lindsey recently asked the FEC for permission, in an apparent effort to mention state House colleagues in talking up his accomplishments under the Gold Dome.
The FEC issued the draft opinion giving Lindsey the go-ahead Monday night and will vote on it Wednesday.
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Barbara Hickey, president of the Cobb County Republican Women's Club, sent word last night that five of seven GOP candidates for U.S. Senate will be on hand for a forum at 7 p.m. tonight in the Cobb County Commission meeting room. The session will be broadcast on TV23, the county's cable channel.
Phil Gingrey (this is his home turf), Karen Handel, Paul Broun, Derrick Grayson and Art Gardner have committed. David Perdue and Jack Kingston cited scheduling conflicts.
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Branko "Dr. Rad" Radulovacki is out with another jab at his Democratic primary opponent in the race for U.S. Senate – though he doesn't mention Michelle Nunn by name:
"I've been doing that for nearly a year now in more counties than I can remember -- and not just with pre-screened party loyalists. I've responded to invitations from groups as diverse as Tea Partiers, atheists, gun sense advocates, League(s) of Women Voters, YDs and NAACP chapters. Never once have I needed a script, nor have I ever dodged a question. That's earned a lot of respect."
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Republican Karen Handel has picked up the endorsement of another nationally known female GOPer.
Two weeks after Sarah Palin stumped for Handel in Atlanta, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced she would back Handel's bid for the U.S. Senate. Brewer called her a "true conservative" whose "record speaks for itself."
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Trevor Williams at Global Atlanta has a piece on Mayor Kasim Reed and efforts to boost his city's international image. Consider these paragraphs:
"Every time there is an adverse piece of legislation, I make it clear that folks are welcome in the city of Atlanta," he said without explicitly mentioning measures like HB-87.
He also touted strong ties with the city's Hispanic community, which he said has for too long been seen as a "target" rather than an asset. His office is conducting a "disparity study" to ensure that Hispanic-owned business are getting their share of the city's procurement contracts.
"There is not a high-profile elected official who engages in more events with the Hispanic community than I do. There just isn't," he said, two weeks before the Latin American Association announced that it would honor him at its Compañeros awards luncheon in late April.
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CNN investigated members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee – the folks who write the nation's tax laws – for their own tax problems:
The report picks out eight of the 39 members who have fun afoul of the IRS or local tax authorities. Georgia’s Tom Price and John Lewis apparently came up clean.
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The Republican National Committee is not letting Georgia go purple without a fight. Its new program to recruit suburban women as volunteers in 25 counties in 10 states includes Cobb and Gwinnett, according to the Washington Post:
The idea is to sign up women who will commit 30 minutes per week in the 14 weeks before the election, making phone calls, recruiting other women, identifying voters and getting people to the polls.
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