Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and mega-investor Warren Buffett are behind Michelle Nunn's campaign for U.S. Senate, according to her year-end fundraising disclosure.
Both billionaires gave the maximum $5,200, split between primary and general election season – small change to these fellows. But they could also give unlimited amounts if and when a Nunn-friendly Super PAC is formed.
Bloomberg’s own Super PAC, Mayors Against Illegal Guns,
Word of Nunn’s donations from former Republican Sens. Richard Lugar and John Warner had already gotten out, but being snowed in gave us an opportunity to finally sift through late-arriving full Senate campaign finance disclosures.
Some other observations from digging into the reports:
- Democrat Dr. Branko Radulovacki ended the year with $86,000 cash on hand, compared to Nunn’s $2.45 million. Steen Miles still has not filed any fundraising reports with the FEC.
- David Perdue received money from interim Atlanta Public Schools superintendent Erroll Davis Jr., and Colorado beer magnate Pete Coors.
- Paul Broun spent far more ($505,000) than he took in ($241,000) in the fourth quarter, and he spent much of it on direct-mail list building and signs – as anyone driving through west Cobb County can attest.
- Karen Handel spent the least ($168,000) if the top-tier candidates. Her only big expenditure beyond payroll was about $20,000 on a direct mail purchase.
- Phil Gingrey picked up a donation from Michael Pridemore, husband of Tricia Pridemore, who’s running to replace him in the 11th District. Gingrey has not endorsed in the race for his current seat. Also among Gingrey’s donors: tea party activist J.D. Van Brink and well-connected attorney Stefan Passantino.
- Jack Kingston got a $1,000 check from former U.S. Sen. Mack Mattingly. Occupation: “Retired.”
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Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp made it out of Atlanta but couldn't escape the snowstorm. He has been in Washington this week for the National Association of Secretaries of State conference.
Kemp is chairman of the executive committee of the Republican Secretaries of State and is working to raise money and campaign in GOP secretary of state races around the country this year. He identified Colorado and Iowa as two of the big ones:
"If you're able to put $25,000 to $100,000 into a secretary of state's race in a place like Iowa or Colorado or somewhere like that, it can have a big impact on the outcome of that election."
Among the speakers to the national secretaries of state was Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who was boosting a Voting Rights Act rewrite that would put Georgia and three other states back under “pre-clearance.” Kemp is on record opposing the bill, which is co-sponsored by Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta.
Kemp’s office was freed of pre-clearance for voting law changes by last summer’s Supreme Court ruling. What has life been like in the months since? “It’s like a boot’s been lifted off the back of our neck,” he said.
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We told you yesterday of Democrat Jason Carter's blistering critique of a House GOP plan to strip the executive branch of its power to expand Medicaid in Georgia.
The response this morning from Deal campaign spokeswoman Jen Talber:
"So Senator Carter believes cutting a backroom deal with the Obama administration is preferable to giving the people's representatives, himself included, a say in how hundreds of millions of their taxpayer dollars are spent?"
Carter also has taken an interesting position in another of the session's hot-button issues: Medical marijuana for certain disorders.
The state senator from Atlanta told Atlanta Progressive News in an interview published Thursday that he is a "libertarian on issues like this." Said Carter:
"I do think it would have to be a carefully crafted piece of legislation with respect to medical marijuana to ensure that there are no unforeseen consequences. As a general matter, if we can structure something that we think is viable, I would have no problem with it."
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Tanya Ditty, state director of Concerned Women for America is passing around an op-ed piece condemning state Reps. Mike Dudgeons, R-Johns Creek, and Brooks Coleman, R-Duluth, for legislation that attempts to simply re-name Common Core goals for education in the state. A few paragraphs:
The legislation shows their intent to proceed with testing instruments aligned to national standards; mentions briefly the use of a task force to review standards, but provides neither details on how the task force will be established nor any transparency on how the standards review process will work, a parody of the more robust process detailed in SB 167.
If the Common Core initiative is such a groundbreaking idea, then why rebrand? Why can't it be defended on its own merits, under its own name? Why do Reps. Dudgeon and Coleman find it necessary to sneak rebranding sleight of hand into a 42-page "omnibus" bill? Do they really think Georgia parents are so stupid that they will be fooled by such sleazy tactics? Apparently so. If that is their attitude, it is consistent with the attitude of the creators and propagators of Common Core – the belief that parents are incapable of handling their own children's education without the guidance of "experts."
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