Gingrey points to conservative record in face of PAC’s attacks

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THE GOP SENATE RACE

This week The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is running profiles of the leading Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate. Here is a schedule of when each story will appear:

Wednesday: U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey

Thursday: Former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel

Friday: U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston

Saturday: David Perdue

U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey has been in politics about two decades but maintains that he is not a career politician.

He’d much prefer to talk about his work as an obstetrician-gynecologist who operated a longtime practice in Marietta. The Georgia native is more a fan of “Marcus Welby, M.D.” than “Grey’s Anatomy” for more accurately portraying an actual doctor’s job, and he is quick to remind people that he has delivered more than 5,200 babies.

Now, Gingrey, 71, is looking for a new job. He’s one of three sitting congressmen in a crowded race for the GOP nomination for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss. And if campaigning against his colleagues weren’t enough, the race also includes a billionaire executive with longtime family political ties and a former Georgia secretary of state.

“In 26 years of delivering babies, I’ve always been interested in government and the state of the union,” Gingrey said during an interview between stops on a packed campaign schedule. “I have always been someone who wants to get it right. That started when I ran for school board. It’s an avocation that’s become a full-time job.”

Gingrey is proud of his record as a solid conservative Republican and has twice been named the most conservative member of Congress.

But that record is being challenged in this campaign. A political action committee called the Ending Spending Action Fund has targeted Gingrey for requesting earmarks and voting to increase the debt limit while in Congress. The organization, funded by Ameritrade founder and Chicago Cubs owner Joe Ricketts, has not endorsed a candidate and is also running attack ads against Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn.

Gingrey’s camp has denounced the attacks and maintained that he has one of the most conservative records in Congress.

Gingrey’s U.S. House district covers the northwestern suburbs of Atlanta, including Cobb County, where he’s run a medical practice for more than 25 years. He has long called Marietta home — he even served three terms on the city’s school board and represented the area in the state Senate — but was born and raised in Augusta.

When he’s not in Washington, Gingrey, who maintains an active medical license, does volunteer work at a clinic for low-income patients in Cobb without health insurance or the means to afford care. He calls it some of the most gratifying work he’s ever done.

Larry Hornsby, the clinic’s CEO and chief doctor, describes Gingrey as a friendly, warm and caring person whose generosity led to the congressman and his wife designating the clinic as a beneficiary of one of the Christmas parties they hold at their house.

“He just enjoys helping the patients,” said Hornsby, chief of the Good Samaritan Health Center in Marietta. “He just repeats how much our patients are appreciative of the care they receive, and how much he gets out of volunteering to see them.”

Gingrey has sought to capitalize on his medical background and has made repealing the federal Affordable Care Act a tenet of his campaign platform.

As a physician, Gingrey has some advantages, said Chuck Clay, an attorney and lobbyist, former state lawmaker and longtime Cobb resident. Gingrey took Clay’s position in the Georgia Senate in 1999 when Clay ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor.

“I think that resonates with voters. There is a lot of appeal there with the implications of Obamacare: whether it stays a law, whether some parts are repealed,” Clay said. “His expertise in health care can distinguish him in that area.”

Gingrey is generally popular in his district and has appeal with social conservatives and some tea party groups, said Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University. But he has also been criticized for some votes and has made some political gaffes in the past.

Early last year he drew heat when he said U.S. Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri was “partly right” about his comments involving “legitimate” rape. And Gingrey also was caught on tape last fall telling business executives that he was stuck in Congress making $172,000 a year while Capitol Hill aides could go on to make much more money as lobbyists. Gingrey continues to apologize and distance himself from the Akin comments, and he has said his salary comments were about an unfair provision in the health car law for congressmen and their staffs.

With all the competition in the Senate race, Gingrey has built up a hefty campaign war chest going into the primary election Tuesday, with more than $2.4 million in cash on hand, according to his most recent campaign finance filing. And it looks like he could need every penny, as recent polls have found Gingrey trailing Republican front-runners Karen Handel, Jack Kingston and David Perdue.

“Money doesn’t win it,” Clay said. “But it makes it easier to look like a winner.”