Georgia’s Isakson faces unconventional foe in Barksdale

Mary Kay Bacallo: 10.55 percent

U.S. Senate Democratic primary*

Jim Barksdale: 53.84 percent

Cheryl Copeland: 42.09 percent

John F. Coyne III: 4.07 percent

*Numbers are from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office and remain unofficial

With his party’s nomination sealed, Republican U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson faces a highly unconventional Democratic adversary who will try to turn the incumbent’s Washington savvy into a liability.

Jim Barksdale is unlike the past two Democrats who challenged Isakson. He’s a millionaire investment fund manager who can finance his own campaign. He’s a political outsider with no voting record. And many voters who know his name only do so because of a blitz of quirky commercials that feature his cap.

Isakson is heavily favored to win in November, and he likely will remain so barring a dramatic development in the next six months. But Democrats hope that Barksdale can pull off an upset by capitalizing on Republican unrest over Donald Trump.

A political veteran whose name is synonymous with Georgia’s Republican establishment, Isakson must now buck the same anti-incumbent tide to win in November. He said in an interview that he has no doubt that his long service in office will be more of a boost than a burden.

“I’m a known commodity. The strategy is to let them reaffirm what I’ve done for 37 years in office,” said Isakson, who is 71. “I’ll do whatever I can to travel the state and meet with all Georgians, regardless of color or creed or religion or faith, to talk about the things we can do to make our country safe.”

And Barksdale, a soft-spoken newcomer, plans to borrow some of the outsider appeal that fueled Republican David Perdue’s 2014 victory, when he shocked establishment figures with a relentless call to shake up the Washington status quo with savvy advertising that featured his tell-tale jean jacket.

His campaign has featured its own wardrobe gimmick — the gray “Barksdale hat” he wears in all his ads — and his own relentless outsider rhetoric. That’s a tougher sell among Democrats, though, as polls show an overwhelming majority of Democratic voters favor candidates with political experience. Still, Barksdale said his message will resonate with independent voters.

“I’m clearly an outsider. An independent voice,” said Barksdale, who is 63. “I’m a businessperson’s voice with a strong focus on human rights, and I don’t know of a more important, sacred right than the ability to work.”

Both will also face Libertarian Allen Buckley, who is making his case to conservatives who feel estranged by Republican politics. Buckley forced a runoff in the 2008 U.S. Senate race by notching about 3 percent of the vote, and he’s building a sharp-edged campaign promising to reduce federal spending and simplify the tax system.

“Niceness is going to carry you so far,” Buckley said of Isakson. “But I don’t think it’s going to get him through this election.”

A different kind of opponent

Isakson enters the race with huge advantages. His solidly conservative record in Washington and a war chest approaching $6 million scared high-profile opponents from challenging him despite his revelation last year that he suffered from Parkinson’s disease.

But he also hasn’t faced an opponent like Barksdale in more than a decade. He defeated Democratic U.S. Rep. Denise Majette in 2004 to win the seat held by retiring Sen. Zell Miller, and in 2010 he beat Michael Thurmond, then the state’s labor commissioner, to lock down a second term. Both ran campaigns that were more or less traditional, focused on maximizing turnout among the Democratic base.

His opponent this year more closely resembles his last statewide defeat — in tone if not in ideology. In 1996, Isakson was outflanked by businessman Guy Millner in the GOP primary for the Senate, who spent more than $3 million of his own fortune on the campaign. Millner, who went on to lose to Democrat Max Cleland, painted Isakson as too liberal for Georgia conservatives.

Isakson, a pioneer of Georgia Republican politics, is still hounded by critics who say he’s not conservative enough. But their ranks are dwindling. Among them are the two primary challengers he dispatched Tuesday — Derrick Grayson and Mary Kay Bacallao — who both said he had abandoned Republican principles in two terms in the Senate.

Barksdale seems like an unlikely adversary, and his campaign has struggled with missteps since entering the race, including a long period of silence after he qualified. He quickly loaned his campaign $1.1 million to finance a pair of ads blanketing the airwaves, including one in which he declares his cap proves he's an outsider.

He has none of the built-in advantages of the past two Democratic contenders for the U.S. Senate — the fundraising power and name recognition Michelle Nunn enjoyed in 2014 or the political experience and base-pleasing appeal of Thurmond in 2010.

“It’s going to be really, really hard for Barksdale,” said Andra Gillespie, an Emory University political scientist. “He has to introduce himself to the state and be a compelling figure. I know he’s trying to be the Democratic version of David Perdue, but I’m not sure he has the same resources or ability.”

The emergence of Trump is a wild card in the race. A bloc of Georgia conservatives have refused to rally around him, and his negative ratings among women and independents top 60 percent. Many Republicans worry that a lack of enthusiasm could hurt down-ballot races such as the Senate contest.

Barksdale's campaign distributed a memo Wednesday saying the combination of Trump and Georgia's changing demographics — a growing minority population and an influx of newcomers — would combine to create "the perfect storm" to help the Democrat pull off an upset.

Isakson said he’s not worried about getting dragged down by the top of the ticket — “I’ve always run on my own record and not somebody else’s,” he said — even as he steps up his effort to appeal to crossover voters.

That may help explain why Isakson spent a recent Sunday morning at the pulpit of the House of Hope, a black church in the Democratic stronghold of south DeKalb County. There might not have been a single GOP voter among hundreds in the pews, but Isakson told the crowd he was there to ask how he could help. He was rewarded with warm applause.

Afterward, he was asked whether being a known commodity could wind up hurting him in this tumultuous election season.

“It depends on what you’re known for,” Isakson said. “And I think I’m known for being somebody who listens to both sides and tries to make the right decisions for the American people and the people of Georgia.”