90 days until vote
Wednesday marks 90 days until Americans vote in federal and state races on Nov. 8. All year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has brought you the key moments in those races, and it will continue to cover the campaign's main events, examine the issues and analyze candidates' finance reports until the last ballot is counted. You can follow the developments on the AJC's politics page at http://www.myajc.com/s/news/georgia-politics/ and in the Political Insider blog at http://www.myajc.com/s/news/political-insider/. You can also track our coverage on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GAPoliticsNews or Facebook at https://facebook.com/gapoliticsnewsnow.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the White House is dipping a toe into Georgia.
Democratic Party of Georgia officials told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the Democratic nominee’s campaign called late Monday to discuss plans to “expand their investment.”
A person with direct knowledge of the phone call, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said the Clinton campaign committed to sending money to the state party to hire more field organizers. It’s expected to be a six-figure initial investment.
The Clinton campaign declined to comment.
The Washington Post reported that in addition to Georgia, the Clinton campaign was also sending money to Arizona, another state on the cusp of competitiveness. Any investment in two traditionally red states could signal that Clinton intends to broaden the map and try to force Trump to compete in states Republicans have been able to count on. If Georgia and Arizona are in play, Trump’s path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win becomes much more narrow.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on Monday said Clinton needs to make significant investments in Georgia to seriously compete. The mayor, a major Clinton backer, said he believes the former secretary of state needs to devote between $8 million and $15 million here.
Rebecca DeHart, the executive director of the Georgia Democratic Party, did not offer specifics about Clinton’s investment but said the news is good for her side.
“We look forward to working with the Clinton campaign over the coming months here in Georgia and are excited about their interest in the state,” DeHart said. “Secretary Clinton overwhelmingly carried this state in the primary election, and we stand ready to deliver Georgia to her in November.”
The development comes days after the AJC released a new poll showing Clinton with a narrow lead in the state, and the day after another poll showed her with a wider lead.
The polls have catapulted Georgia into the national discussion, if not directly onto the map of battleground states. Media outlets from The Washington Post to NBC News to fivethirtyeight.com, one of the premier data-driven political sites in the country, have used the polls to cautiously add Georgia to the list of competitive states.
Many national political forecasters, however, including Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia, say Georgia remains a "likely Republican" state.
Georgia has been here before. In 2008, then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama spent more than $2 million in Georgia on television advertising and had more than 70 paid staffers here before pulling out of the state shortly after Labor Day. He made one final TV push days before the November 2008 election but still lost Georgia by 5 percentage points to U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Obama did not contest Georgia in 2012, when he lost the state to Mitt Romney by nearly 8 points.
Republican Donald Trump’s campaign said Clinton will wind up no better than Obama did in Georgia.
“Sending money to the Democrat(ic) Party of Georgia to hire some staffers is about the only jobs Hillary will be creating in Georgia, but it will not pay off to be a good investment for her campaign,” said Brandon Phillips, Trump’s Georgia campaign director. “Thirteen different polls had (2014 Democratic U.S. Senate candidate) Michelle Nunn leading or tied with David Perdue from August to November in 2014, and he won by almost 200,000 votes. Georgia will not be in play in November, and our campaign is building out an operation to make sure it’s not even close.”
One of Trump's top surrogates in the state, former U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Savannah, dismissed Clinton's chances of winning Georgia in an interview Friday with CNN.
“I’ll say this as somebody who has run statewide in the state of Georgia and has helped dozens of candidates who have — I hope that Hillary Clinton spends a lot of time in Georgia and spends a lot of money because that will free up our resources to go to Pennsylvania, Florida and other states,” the former congressman and 2014 candidate for the U.S. Senate said.
Clinton backers, however, said the campaign’s decision to invest in Georgia speaks volumes.
"This is a major decision," state Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, a key Clinton supporter. "The campaign is signaling its shifting attention to Arizona and Georgia. I don't want to be overly optimistic, but I'm happy that Georgia is getting the attention that it deserves."
Former state Sen. Jason Carter, D-Atlanta, the party’s 2014 nominee for governor, said the move is significant.
“It shows that the party is really moving in the right direction, building its infrastructure, and the state is fast becoming a national battleground,” he said. “We all know the Clinton campaign won’t make this decision unless it’s based on real data. This isn’t a political move — they see Georgia is worth the investment.”
Clinton is attempting to become just the third Democratic presidential nominee to win Georgia since 1960. Clinton’s husband, Bill, did it in 1992, and Jimmy Carter won here as a favorite son in both 1976 and 1980.
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