What’s in a name? Gov. Kemp and Coach Dooley’s son are about to find out
Credit: Wade Payne/AP
Hearing that Gov. Brian Kemp was promoting football coach Derek Dooley, the son of Bulldog legend Vince Dooley, as a U.S. Senate candidate, I immediately thought of my Uncle Dick Torpy.
Uncle Dick was a top Democratic precinct captain in the old Chicago Machine, and in 1989 was pushing Richie Daley, the son of longtime Mayor Richard J. Daley, to fill his late father’s shoes. I thought the younger Daley didn’t measure up.
Nah, my uncle countered: “He’s a fair-haired boy. People keep telling me they like his chubby cheeks. He shaves every day, combs his hair and doesn’t say anything stupid.”
I mean, what more do you need in a candidate?
Kemp, who is putting his own machine behind Dooley, no doubt thinks there is more to him than just a pleasant, non-threatening candidate who can slide by with a famous Georgia name. But there is something to that.
Daley, after all, won his race and was mayor for 22 years.
Dooley, to say the least, is a surprise pick for the tall job of toppling a sitting senator, Democrat Jon Ossoff, who has a pile of money and will get lots more.
And while Derek is the son of a renowned coach who long ago won a national championship and the love of generations of Georgians, his own career is that of a pigskin journeyman.
Credit: Courtesy photo, AJC
His career “high point” was a three-year, 16-21 run as head coach at neighboring Tennessee, which was just 5-19 in the SEC. His three consecutive losing seasons were first in a century for the Vols, earning Dooley a pink slip. (He did lose to UGA three years running, so at least Dawg fans can’t hold that against him.)
But shed no tears. He reportedly walked away with a $5 million buyout after getting fired and then moved on to be an assistant coach for the Dallas Cowboys, the University of Missouri, the New York Giants and, finally, the University of Alabama.
It turns out that between 1996, when he was a grad assistant at his beloved UGA, and 2023, when he toiled for Nick Saban at ‘Bama, Dooley has had at least 12 jobs at 10 different locales.
So you couldn’t blame a guy for wanting to settle down in a Washington townhouse and not have to call United moving for at least six years.
There will be those — including GOP Congressmen Buddy Carter and Mike Collins, who are campaigning to oust Ossoff — who will criticize Dooley for being a political newbie trying to stroll into a lofty office because of his name.
Granted, the Dooley name is hallowed in Georgia circles. The Bulldogs even play on Dooley Field.
But a famous name is a double-edged sword. It sure worked for George W. Bush.
Frank Sinatra Jr.? Not so much.
Credit: Special to AJC
I contacted Dooley’s campaign but they didn’t want to say much. The budding candidate is still in political witness protection, being coached, prodded, debriefed, powdered and pampered before he’s ready to enter the public fray. Soon, his campaign says.
But people who’ve heard his pitch came away impressed, I’m told. And the support of Kemp, the state’s most powerful Republican, gives him an instant boost with donors, elected officials and momentum to win both a primary and a general election.
The hope is he can think on his feet. Coaches are adept at schmoozing fans and university benefactors while also fending off pesky reporters who ask intrusive questions after soul-sucking losses.
Dooley has been criticized for not registering as a Republican in some of the many states where he has lived. But he’s no idiot. As a coach, you’re forever visiting the homes of Black families on recruiting missions. Wearing a red MAGA cap usually doesn’t help the sales pitch.
The running thought is Kemp was not happy with the crop of Republican candidates ready to take on the wily and well-funded Ossoff. The idea is Dooley will be dutifully conservative enough to win a primary, but not rabidly MAGA enough to scare off independent voters in the general election.
He won’t be blowing stuff up on his X (Twitter) account like Collins.
Republican strategist Heath Garrett says Kemp is savvy at mixing the secret sauce needed to win in a conservative-leaning swing state like Georgia.
(I guess the fiasco that was Kelly Loeffler, who Kemp appointed to the Senate and who then lost, is considered a one-off.)
Garrett has known Dooley for decades — they were in UGA law school together — and said his name will open doors for his candidacy and for donations.
“People will at least come out to hear him,” Garrett said. “There is a lane for him to win. He just has to claim it and prove himself.”
Brian Robinson, a longtime GOP operative, said Dooley will have to stick the landing quickly after his campaign goes public.
“That first impression has to be him standing alone on his own two feet, speaking for himself,” Robinson said. “Kemp has the best brand in Georgia politics. But it is not transferable.”
Martha Zoller, a former GOP Congressional candidate and current radio host, worries that Kemp pushing Dooley as a candidate “feels a little like the Kelly Loeffler mistake.”
“I can’t imagine (Kemp) and Mike Collins couldn’t get along,” she said, a bit ruefully, about the congressman who recently announced and is running hard in full MAGA-mode.
She referenced the long-running, and contentious, relationship between Kemp and President Donald Trump.
“I think (Kemp) doesn’t want people to think Trump is telling him what to do; that he’s his own man,” Zoller said.
If so, the Gubner is tiptoeing his manhood to the ledge.
About the Author
Bill Torpy, who writes about metro Atlanta for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, joined the newspaper in 1990.
