NOTE: Michelle Nunn (D. GA), CEO of the charity group Points of Light and daughter of former Senator Sam Nunn (D. GA) has yet to declare her candidacy:
http://www.ajc.com/...
The AJC’s Politifact Georgia today looks at Republican allegations that Michelle Nunn, a presumed Democratic candidate in next year’s U.S. Senate race, had praised the Occupy movement. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 7/2/13
Ok, here's the deal. Back in 2011, Nunn wrote an op-ed piece where she analyzed the effect the Occupy Wall Street movement would have on millenials and their role in the market place:
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/...
While Millennials are transforming established businesses, they are also starting a new breed of businesses with built-in social missions that are resonating with the marketplace and revolutionizing their sectors. TOMS Shoes was founded in 2006 by 30-year-old Blake Mycoskie and has quickly become one of the fastest-growing apparel companies in the world. Well known for its groundbreaking “One-for-One” model that donates a pair of shoes in the developing world for every pair sold, it is also growing a fiercely loyal and active following through its anti-poverty advocacy efforts. It is hard to imagine a traditional shoe brand being able to mobilize a network of 1,200 campus chapters and 250,000 young people in a single day to promote its brand, but that is exactly what TOMS has accomplished with its “One Day Without Shoes” campaign.
Despite the economic downturn and the headlines, the nation’s private sector is still lively. The values behind Occupy Wall Street are manifesting themselves in the marketplace and companies that are failing to take notice should start. These people-powered movements may not have stopped the markets in their tracks, but they are creating the demand for new forms of corporate behavior and ethical imperatives. The winning brands of the future will be ones that authentically respond.
This may result in an aligning of private-sector muscle to address the very inequities, lack of transparency and poverty that Occupy Wall Street has spotlighted. A new generation of employees, consumers and entrepreneurs is stepping forward with a better way of doing business — putting its bets on the goodness of people rather than loading the dice in its own favor. - Michelle Nunn, Washington Post, 12/20/11
Now I wouldn't exactly call that "praising" the OWS movement as NRSC spokeswoman Brook Hougesen would put it:
http://www.politifact.com/...
Hougesen said she was convinced Nunn was praising Occupy Wall Street upon reading the op-ed.
"When Michelle Nunn wrote that the ‘values behind Occupy Wall Street are manifesting themselves in the marketplace and companies’ and that protestors are ‘fighting for their future,’ it led us – and many progressives - to believe that she supported the movement. If over the past seventeen months Ms. Nunn has changed her view or beliefs, we would welcome her clarification," Hougesen said.
Nunn referenced Occupy Wall Street in a January 2012 blog post reflecting on a dinner party discussion at her Atlanta home involving Martin Luther King Day.
"We broke bread and talked about the bright spots and challenges in our community in terms of race, class and the unfulfilled dimensions of Dr. King's dream. We talked about how Dr. King's nonviolent and creative dissent continues to animate our world - from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street," she wrote.
Nunn did not respond directly to our interview requests. Gordon Giffin, a former aide to her father who has been involved in discussions with the younger Nunn about her political future, contacted us via email. Giffin and a Points of Light spokeswoman said Nunn’s op-ed was aimed at talking about millennials.
"Her writings do not endorse the actions of the ‘occupy’ movement but rather point out that there are numerous other examples of how the younger generation is seeking to make a difference that might be ignored by (the) press’’ focus on the ‘occupy’ crowd. Perhaps misrepresentation is the game of the day in DC but we have higher standards in Georgia," said Giffin, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada who now is a partner at the influential law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge. - PolitiFact, 7/2/13
So there you go. Now I appreciate Nunn saying some nice things about OWS and frankly I would support anyone who has even the slightest nicest thing to say about OWS. Grant it, I'm not a Georgia voter though. But this proves that the GOP is so scared of Nunn that they're trying to find any dirt that would stick and sink her candidacy before it even began. And there are some very legit reasons for the GOP to be worried about Nunn. She's a fresh political newcomer without a record to defend and the Nunn name is still popular in Georgia:
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
Republicans are painting her as an out-of-touch left-wing national-party Democrat. They also note that her father, a four-term senator, hasn't been on the ballot since 1990 and a Democrat hasn’t won a Senate race in Georgia in 17 years.
Nevertheless, Democratic polls show that Sam Nunn remains very popular among Georgia voters, including independents and conservative Democrats. Moreover, Points of Light was started by former President George H.W. Bush whose family is still deeply involved in the organization, which may make the left-wing charge a harder sell.
Others are expected to file for the Democratic nomination, though Nunn looks to be a prohibitive favorite. On the Republican side, there is a wide-open primary, and Democrats figure one of those three very conservative House members will emerge, making an appealing target for Nunn in November. - Bloomberg, 7/1/13
Not to mention that Nunn sounds like a warm and optimistic candidate with a positive attitude that voters can trust:
http://www.triplepundit.com/...
Last week, thousands attended a conference on volunteer service in Washington DC. Points of Light Foundation CEO Michelle Nunn spoke of a movement in the area of volunteer service. “We are the optimists,” she said. “We believe in the power of people to make change.” - Triple Pundit, 7/2/13
Plus the Georgia GOP has the own worries about the crowded primary:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/...
Today, the Republicans have just two open seats: Georgia and Nebraska. Romney won both easily.
These are important advantages for the GOP, but primaries that produce weak nominees could erode all of them. Plenty of evidence indicates the potential exists for it to happen again, the best example being the open Republican seat in Georgia. Although Romney won the Peach State by 8 points, a very conservative candidate could make this a truly competitive race, especially if the Democratic nominee is the kind of moderate who typically wins statewide races there. Currently, the GOP has five announced candidates: U.S. Reps. Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey, and Jack Kingston; former Secretary of State and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel; and Derrick Grayson, a minister.
All three House members are considered strong conservatives, although Broun’s voting record tends to skew more toward the libertarian end of the spectrum. Despite Georgia’s significant agriculture economy, he voted against the farm bill last week because he opposes government subsidies of any kind. Both Broun and Gingrey voted last week against the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act because it included exceptions for rape and incest. Broun, a physician, was a cosponsor of the legislation until these exceptions were added. He is also on record saying that he believes evolution is “a lie,” and he has compared IRS employees to al-Qaida.
Gingrey has amassed a conservative voting record that earned him the rank of the House’s 52nd most conservative member, according to National Journal’s vote ratings. Yet Gingrey’s voting record may not cause him as many problems as some of the comments he has made. Gingrey, an obstetrician, defended Todd Akin’s comments about legitimate rape, saying that Akin was “partly right,” although he later withdrew that statement. More recently, he has said that young children should have to take classes on traditional gender roles.
In the end, Broun’s and Gingrey’s voting records and opinions are enough to make many Republican strategists very nervous about the prospect of one of them emerging as the party’s standard-bearer in the general election.
What truly complicates the situation for Republicans is that Georgia is a runoff state. If no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, the top two finishers move on to a runoff. With five or more candidates in the race, such an outcome seems inevitable. While some GOP strategists argue that Broun and Gingrey will split the very conservative/tea-party vote, creating an opening for another candidate, others worry that they both may make a runoff. That would give Democrats a big opening in a state where they shouldn’t be all that competitive. - National Journal, 6/24/13
So yeah, when the only people in your party that are willing to jump into this race are either scumbags or nut jobs, your only option is to try to discredit the other sides strongest option. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R. KY) tried to scare away Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D. KY) from running against him with early attack ads but it didn't work. Hopefully the same will apply for Nunn who should be making a decision soon. Now if we can only get Brian Schweitzer (D. MT) to officially announce his candidacy and Secretary of State Natalie Tennant (D. WV) to jump in, that would be just great.