Rowdy debates are a turnout test for Georgia’s top races

Opening debate

Candidates for governor and the U.S. Senate will hold their first debates of the general election Tuesday in the Reaves Arena at the Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter in Perry.

7 p.m. — The first debate features the U.S. Senate candidates: Democrat Michelle Nunn, Republican David Perdue and Libertarian Amanda Swafford.

8:10 p.m. — The second debate features the gubernatorial candidates — Democrat Jason Carter, Republican incumbent Nathan Deal and Libertarian Andrew Hunt.

Attendance at the debate is free with paid admission to the Georgia National Fair ($8 for an adult day pass) The Reaves Arena is located at 401 Larry Walker Parkway in Perry.

The debates will be streamed live at 13wmaz.

Just beyond the stomach-churning carnival rides and the fried vegetable stalls at Perry’s fairgrounds sits the cavernous auditorium where Georgia’s top candidates will dispense their own brand of head-jerking campaign spin and red meat Tuesday during the first debates of the general election season.

The rowdy debates provide a jarring contrast with the face-offs that will be held over the next month in sterile TV studios. With four weeks until Election Day for a pair of races that are drawing national attention, voters will get to take stock of the U.S. Senate and gubernatorial hopefuls side by side.

It’s the first true turnout test of the general election, and the campaigns are working to pack the place with their fans. Audience participation is more important than ever in Perry, where there’s little attempt to control a crowd that can — and often does — interrupt candidates with applause or boos.

The campaigns are offering their supporters rides to Middle Georgia, comped meals and free admission to the fairgrounds. And they are warning that their opponents are doing the same thing.

“Our Senate race is so important it is being watched all over the country, and Democrats are busing in people from other states,” read one email from Republican Senate hopeful David Perdue’s campaign. “We need conservatives to outnumber them.”

Metro Atlanta tea party groups are hopping on board, advertising to their members that they can get a ride and even dinner paid for by the Perdue campaign if they go.

Former Gov. Roy Barnes shared the fairground stage with Nathan Deal four years ago during an hourlong debate that hinged on taxes and illegal immigration. Cheers and boos echoed throughout the vast hall during the event, which featured a boisterous band of sign-waving supporters.

“The crowd is always involved in the debate, giving its opinion by shouts and applause” after each answer, Barnes said. “If I were a candidate, I would be very careful of what I said, as the setting is not tightly controlled and can bring some surprising outcomes.”

At that 2010 gubernatorial debate, Barnes and Deal traded jabs over ethics allegations as supporters hooted and hollered their approval. The atmosphere was even more raucous in 2006, when shouts from the audience sometimes drowned out the sparring between Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue and Democratic challenger Mark Taylor.

It will be an equally big moment in this year’s contests. It’s the first time in the governor’s race that Deal and Democrat Jason Carter appear together in a true debate format. Ditto for Perdue and Michelle Nunn, the Democratic contender for the Senate seat.

The Senate candidates did appear together in August at a Georgia Chamber of Commerce forum in Macon — during which Nunn threw several barbs Perdue's way — but the format did not allow for much back-and-forth.

The fairgrounds crowd requires the candidates to prepare differently.

“There’s more crowd participation for an event like that,” said Deal, who said he would try to tune out the background noise. “You just have to answer the questions directed to you, and hopefully give good answers and responses. That’s the best anyone can ask.”

It will also be a chance for the Libertarian candidates in the race to reach a wider audience. They have polled as high as 7 percent in recent surveys — enough to threaten a runoff, if no candidate can top 50 percent — but have received little widespread media attention. Tuesday is a chance for them to broaden their message.

Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Amanda Swafford called the debate “incredibly important” and said she hopes to break Perdue and Nunn out of personality-based sniping.

“It’s a platform for us to be able to talk about less government and more freedom and talk about the issues,” Swafford said. “That’s something that you’re not hearing about in the U.S. Senate race right now.”

The campaigns see this as a test run for get-out-the-vote efforts.

Perdue’s campaign will be organizing at least one bus from Gwinnett County to Perry on Tuesday afternoon. The round trip includes a T-shirt and special seating at the debate in a Perdue section.

And GOP activists organizing a bus from Cherokee County are imploring supporters to drop everything and join them on the trek to Perry.

“If it means taking off from work, do it. If it means rescheduling an appointment, do it. If it means postponing that date or night out with your spouse, do it. If it means getting a sitter for your children, do it,” read an email from Conrad Quagliaroli, a local tea party activist. “YOUR BEING THERE IS JUST THAT IMPORTANT!”

Democrats use much of the same rhetoric. Carter's camp is trying to get supporters to RSVP to attend the event, and he wants the cheers for his entrance to be "deafening." And Nunn warned her allies that "we know that David Perdue is going to try and pack the stands with his supporters."

“Let’s be there for Michelle when she walks out on the stage,” Nunn campaign manager Jeff DiSantis urged supporters. “Remember, this may be the only debate of the entire election that is open to the public.”

The AFL-CIO is also organizing rides for union members from Atlanta, Savannah and Macon, with 350 people signed up as of Monday. The unions endorsed Carter and Nunn, and spokesman DeLane Adams said they hope to provide moral support, on top of the ground work they are doing for Democrats.

“More and more politicians are shying away from debates,” Adams said. “So when you have an event like this — especially at this big of a stage — you have to make sure you have the right type of energy in there.”