Unlimited cash for campaigns? GOP Senate candidates are split
Five of seven GOP candidates gathered in Marietta on Tuesday evening in a forum sponsored by the all-powerful Cobb County Republican Women's Club.
The two presumed frontrunners in the contest, U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston and businessman David Perdue, had other things to do.
The rest plowed ground that has become very familiar – with perhaps a single exception. One of the questioners, Anne Lewis, who is general counsel for the Georgia GOP, noted the recent 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision that lifted federal limits on the aggregate amounts that individuals could give to federal contests.
The limit on contributions per candidate remain, but the next logical step for the high court would be to remove that, too. “Would that be a good thing, or a bad thing?” Lewis asked.
The five candidates were split on the matter. Phil Gingrey was the most provocative, suggesting that, in a U.S. Senate contest involving a self-funder – i.e., Perdue, it would only be fair to lift all limits on contributions. Here’s the breakdown:
Said Paul Broun:
"I think it would be a good thing to do that. It's a freedom of speech issue. …Congress as well as courts has put muzzles on individuals, and I think the ruling by the Supreme Court was a good one. I applaud what they did, because it allows people all across the country to contribute to whichever candidate they want and as many candidates as they want. And I think it's actually good for democracy…. "
Art Gardner:
"We don't want only those people who can afford to make big contributions to have a seat at the table. Everybody should have a voice in this choir – not just the wealthy. And we should not allow the voices of a wealthy anonymous few to drown out the rest of the choir."
Said Gingrey:
"But I think your question went further than that. It's a question of whether an individual be able to give more than those limits – higher than $5,200. I think it's very apropos in this particular election, because there is at least one self-funder among the seven of us. That self-funder happens not to be here tonight.
"But if someone could put $20 million of their own money into a race, then why not, at that point, trigger the effect of letting everybody else have unlimited contributions. If money is freedom of speech, that's what we ought to have."
Said Derrick Grayson:
"These candidates raise millions, they spend millions and when they spend those millions to bombard you with corporate-backed media, that money goes right back to the people that gave it to them….The power should belong to the people, and it should not be based upon who can raise the most money."
And finally, Karen Handel:
"Secondly, what will also help in all this is to implement term limits, so that we get away from this constant re-election of people and individuals who are so beholden to special interests because they made Washington into a way of life."
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One of our number has a complete assessment of top-line, first-quarter numbers for federal races in Georgia. Click here for a monied look.
Daniel Malloy also reports that more than $250,000 of the Democratic Party of Georgia's replenished coffers this quarter came via a joint fundraising committee with the Michelle Nunn campaign. The Nunn Victory Fund reported taking in $384,950 in the first three months of the year.
A few of the big-name donations: $15,200 from comedian Steve Harvey, $10,000 from basketball legend Magic Johnson, $10,000 from media mogul Ted Turner, and $15,200 from Tyler Perry Studios.
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The New York Times has a look at Frazier Glenn Miller, the 73-year-old white supremacist who allegedly gunned down three people outside two Jewish centers in Kansas on the day before Passover. The piece includes this paragraph:
[Miller] joined the Army as a teenager in March 1959. According to Mr. Miller and the Southern Poverty Law Center, he served two tours in Vietnam and for 13 years was a Green Beret. But he found his calling, he later said, when his father gave him a copy of a racist, anti-Semitic newsletter called "The Thunderbolt."
For you students of history: “The Thunderbolt” was produced out of Marietta, the work of longtime Georgia racists J.B. Stoner and Ed Fields.
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The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has singled out two state GOP lawmakers in what it's calling "The Worst of the Worst Catalogue."
State Rep. Sam Moore of Ball Ground was tagged for his legislation that would have would banned loitering laws and ended restrictions that keep child molesters away from schools and playgrounds – as well as legislation to ban no-knock warrants by police.
State Rep. Kevin Cooke of Carrollton was singled out for his legislation to end the popular election of U.S. senators.
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President Barack Obama met with six religious leaders on Tuesday, and told them he has no plans to make unilateral changes to the nation's immigration laws while there's still a window for Congress to pass legislation.
Among those at the White House meeting was Suzii Paynter, of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Atlanta. More from the Wall Street Journal:
[Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention], in an interview after the meeting, said the president didn't provide details of where that review stood. He said the president did make clear that he wasn't planning any executive actions to deal with the concerns about deportations.
Any executive action to deal with immigration would likely inflame tensions with some Republicans, who have criticized the administration's past efforts to ease deportation policies for children brought to the country illegally by their parents.
Suzii Paynter, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Atlanta, said in an interview after the meeting that she urged the president not to take any executive actions on immigration. "If the president starts doing a lot of stuff on immigration it just polarizes everything," she said.
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Soccer America has offered a slightly couched endorsement of Arthur Blank's effort to bring Major League Soccer back to Atlanta. The conclusion:
But as other teams struggle with soccer stadium projects becoming embroiled in urban politics -- New York City FC may be stuck in Yankee Stadium for three years and face all kinds of problems sharing a baseball stadium, while D.C. United and Beckham's Miami group also face numerous obstacles -- a clean stadium deal seems too good to pass up when it is backed by an owner like Blank -- the Home Depot co-founder -- willing to invest heavily and enthusiastically in soccer.
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You know that, last month, the upstart group Georgia Life Alliance helped foment a formal split between Georgia Right to Life and its anti-abortion parent, the National Right to Life organization.
On Tuesday, Georgia Life Alliance identified members of its governing board. There were few surprises:
-- Kristin Radtke, former Family Research Center staffer, Suwanee;
-- Martha Zoller, WGAU radio co-host, Gainesville;
-- Erick Erickson, editor-in-chief of Red State, Macon;
-- Dr. Jim Froehlich, medical director of Atlanta Care Pregnancy Resource Center, Gainesville;
-- Nancy Kingston, founding executive director of the Atlanta Pregnance Resource Center, Tucker. (No relation, by the way, to U.S. Senate candidate Jack Kingston.)
-- Bill Hancock, CEO and co-founder of FaithBridge Foster Care, Alpharetta;
-- Susan Lataif, former NRL lobbyist, Rome;
-- Lance Cooper, attorney, Cobb County;
-- Legal Counsel: Bryan Tyson, Strickland Brockington Lewis LLP, Atlanta.
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Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is vowing to spend $50 million this year to promote gun control and act as a more muscular foil to the NRA. The New York Times puts this figure in perspective:
The group will zero in on 15 target states, from places like Colorado and Washington State, where gun control initiatives have advanced recently, to territory that is likely to be more hostile like Texas, Montana and Indiana. They have set a goal of signing up one million new supporters this year on top of the 1.5 million they already have.
The piece also reveals Bloomberg's confidence in his celestial prospects:
Pointing to his work on gun safety, obesity and smoking cessation, he said with a grin: "I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I'm not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It's not even close."
