Barrow faces familiar foes in re-election bid to Congress

Rep. John Barrow is facing familiar foes from both sides of the political aisle as he attempts to hold onto his Savannah-area congressional seat this year.

In the Democratic primary for the 12th District, the three-term congressman is once again competing with former state Sen. Regina Thomas. Barrow clobbered Thomas in the 2008 Democratic primary with 76.4 percent of the vote.

Thomas said this year should be different because she got an earlier start on her campaign. The Savannah resident, meanwhile, is attacking Barrow’s vote against the national health care overhaul. Barrow, she said, was duplicitous about the bill.

“He led the district to believe that he was going to support [President Barack] Obama’s health care reform 100 percent,” Thomas said of Barrow. “People were holding their breath, anticipating a yes vote from their congressman. And they didn’t get that.”

Barrow, a Harvard University-trained lawyer and former Athens-Clarke County commissioner, said he voted against the legislation because it would cost too much and not do enough to stop abuses by insurance companies.

“The wrong people -- those who are already paying too much for their own health care -- will be paying too much of their money to pay for insurance for those who need help,” he said. “Meanwhile, the wrong people -- the health insurance companies -- are going to be making too much under the deal. And we’re all going to be spending even more of our nation’s income on health care than we can afford over the long run.”

Barrow said he would continue to work to make the health care system “fairer and more affordable for all.”

Thomas is also pressing for withdrawal of the nation’s troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, at least on a phased basis. She said those wars were based on “falsehoods” and that she opposed both from the start. She said the nation should focus on serving veterans’ needs and preventing unemployment and home foreclosures.

“We cannot continue to allow foreign countries to be dependent on us,” she said. “At some point and time we have to take care of us. And we are not.”

Barrow is campaigning on his efforts to bring federal funds to his district. The district includes Savannah and all of 19 counties and parts of three others, including Chatham, which went for Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Barrow is touting the public meetings he regularly has in his district, his efforts to support the military as well as his work to expand the Port of Savannah.

“Here’s what folks have been telling me, and here’s what I believe: We need to get folks back to work and fix the economy,” he said. “We need to take care of the veterans who took care of us. And we need to make sure that when one of your family members goes to work, they’re going to work in a safe environment. I’m not just listening, I’m doing something about it.”

Whoever wins the Democratic primary will face the winner of a four-way race for the GOP nomination. The candidates in that primary have all set their sites on Barrow, slamming him for his votes for the $787 billion stimulus spending program, the financial regulatory legislation and to make Democrat Nancy Pelosi speaker in 2007.

“John Barrow is a very liberal Democrat. There is no doubt about it,” said Ray McKinney, an executive in the nuclear power industry who lives in Lyons.

McKinney ran for president in 2007 and placed second in the three-way GOP primary for Barrow’s seat in 2008. He said he wants to lower the national deficit by cutting government spending, lower payroll taxes to encourage hiring, and remove barriers to domestic energy development to lower costs and create jobs.

The GOP primary has also attracted three new faces:

• Mike Horner, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and banker from Savannah. Horner, who has never run for public office before, said his military and banking experience give him an edge in the race. "Frankly, none of the other candidates have my education or experience," he said. Horner is campaigning on balancing the federal budget and stopping election fraud and identify theft. He also wants to replace the federal income tax with a national sales tax.

• Jeanne Seaver, a businesswoman from Chatham who is one of the original organizers of the Savannah Tea Party. She supports protecting the nation's borders and enforcing its laws against illegal immigration. She also wants to protect Georgia's ports and limit federal mandates placed on the states. "I have never run for office before," she said. "I am just a working soccer mom. I am tired of politics as usual and think it is time to get back to basics. And I think Congress needs to stop spending money we don't have."