Texas Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz rallied voters at both ends of the state, while Democrat and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton raised money behind closed doors in Atlanta on Saturday.
Both hoped to tip the razor-close Georgia U.S. Senate race.
The contest between Republican businessman David Perdue and Democratic nonprofit executive Michelle Nunn could decide which party controls the chamber next year, and as polls have shown a dead heat, the national money and star power has flowed into Georgia for the final push to Nov. 4.
Cruz, a freshman firebrand who is gearing up for a 2016 presidential run, appeared at events in Canton and Bloomingdale, outside Savannah, with Perdue and Gov. Nathan Deal. Deal himself is locked in a tight re-election contest with Democrat Jason Carter. Cruz had a quip ready for the Democratic ticket that includes the daughter of U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn and grandson of President Jimmy Carter.
“Here in Georgia, we’ve got on the ballot Jimmy Carter and Sam Nunn,” he said. “It’s like ‘That 70’s Show.’”
Cruz, like Perdue, cast Nunn as an ally of President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
“There’s a game that red-state Democrats play,” he said.
“It’s a game they play all over the country. They come back home to Arkansas, to Louisiana, to North Carolina and to Georgia. They come back home and say, ‘Look, I’m not like all those crazy Democrats in Washington.’ … Let me tell you right now, every single one of them is lying to you.”
Curiously, Clinton did not appear in public with Nunn. The former first lady and likely 2016 presidential hopeful was the main attraction at a Nunn fundraiser where tickets were $1,000 apiece, or $500 for an under-30 “emerging leader.” President Bill Clnton and current First Lady Michelle Obama also have traveled to Georgia to raise money and appear with Nunn.
On Friday Nunn met in Atlanta with people who had been affected by last year's partial federal government shutdown. It was a dig at Cruz, a key figure in the strife that led to the shutdown, and Perdue, who took Cruz's side when many Republicans did not.
“David has said his support for the government shutdown speaks for itself and I think it does,” Nunn told reporters. “But when you talk to the people who’ve been affected by the shutdown, we have 77,000 people here in Georgia that were furloughed.”
On the Republican side, Sen. Rand Paul — yet another White House possibility — also campaigned for Perdue Friday, and former presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are due in town for Perdue within the next week. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will make his second trip to Georgia for Deal on Saturday.
About 800 people came to the event in Bloomingdale, an annual barbecue thrown by Rep. Jack Kingston, a Savannah Republican. Kingston narrowly lost to Perdue in a heated runoff election, but he immediately threw his support behind the nominee — including recording a television ad vouching for Perdue, paid for by the Ending Spending Super PAC.
Perdue said he was “humbled” by the gesture before launching into a speech attacking Washington Democrats.
“Michelle Nunn wants to be Barack Obama’s senator. I want to be yours,” Perdue said.
Deal went after Carter by calling him a “back bencher” who has not become a leader in the state Senate — even among his DeKalb County delegation.
“Rhetoric without results means nothing,” Deal said.
Libertarian candidates are threatening to deny either major party a majority and send the top races to runoffs. Cruz said he respects Libertarians and he, too, often disagrees with the GOP, but he urged them to vote Republican because so much is at stake if Republicans can take over the Senate.
“Harry Reid is Barack Obama’s greatest protector,” Cruz said.
Amanda Swafford, the Libertarian running for U.S. Senate, appeared in Marietta on Saturday at the Madison Forum. Swafford told the crowd she’d like to radically limit government by getting rid of all federal taxes.
“If we bring that rate down to zero, it makes the United States the most competitive country in the world,” Swafford said.
“We should get rid of all funding of the federal government through taxation like that, because we got along perfectly well in this country without taxing income, sales or consumption, because we had a constitutionally limited government and the spending was in line with our actual budget.”
Swafford said revenue to fund national defense, for example, would arrive by other means, but she did not specify how.
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