Michelle Nunn (D. GA) has a proposal for her GOP opponents:
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/...
With millions of dollars in outside spending already shaping Georgia’s Senate race, Democrat Michelle Nunn is calling for a “Peach State pledge” with her two potential GOP rivals to refuse third-party ads. The nonprofit executive sent a letter Wednesday to Rep. Jack Kingston and businessman David Perdue, who square off in the July 22 GOP runoff, urging them to vow to reject third-party ads in the general campaign.
Super PACs and outside groups have bombarded the airwaves ahead of the May 20 primary and this month’s runoff, and millions more will likely be spent through November as Nunn finds herself in the crosshairs. By their nature, super PACs aren’t allowed to coordinate with campaigns, so even if the three candidates agree to “refuse” the ads, they could continue to run unabated. But Nunn said in the letter that the pledge would send a signal that Georgians are “tired of politics as usual.” In the Massachusetts Senate run in 2012, Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican Scott Brown signed a similar agreement, though it carried a penalty of 50 percent of the cost of ads by an outside group that would go toward a charity of the opposition’s choosing. The idea has caught on. Candidates in this election cycle in Senate races in Alaska, Kentucky and New Hampshire have all proposed similar pledges, and the Democratic contenders for Rhode Island’s governor’s seat have already signed up. Nunn’s campaign, which has not yet benefited from outside spending on ads, indicated she would only abide by the pledge if the two GOP contenders did so as well. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 7/9/14
It's doubtful that either Perdue or Kingston will sign the pledge because Super PAC's have been attacking each other consistently but still, this is a good move by Nunn. Meanwhile, Kingston and Perdue are still trying to define one another in the GOP runoff. Kingston is touting his experience in Congress:
http://www.gpb.org/...
In politics, nothing succeeds like success. And when a party primary leads to a run-off, the losers generally line up behind the candidate who got the most votes in round one.
Not so in the race for Georgia's open U.S. Senate seat.
On the GOP side, losing candidates like Phil Gingrey and Karen Handel, establishment Republican figures like Newt Gingrich, and even Tea Partyers are backing Congressman Jack Kingston, even though he came in five points behind businessman David Perdue in the May 20 primary.
The winner of the July 22 runoff will face Democrat Michelle Nunn.
Widespread Republican support for Kingston is likely the result of familiarity with the 11-term U.S. House member, said Chris Grant, a political science professor at Mercer University.
“They know him, they have a trust level with him,” Grant said of the politicians who have served with Kingston in congress and before that in Georgia’s General Assembly. “I think a lot of these folks have seen Kingston as a reliable ally, someone they owe some favors to, and right now he’s cashing in on them.”
A counterintuitive advantage that Kingston has over Perdue, Grant said, is that Kingston’s use of favors to get endorsements and contributions means that he will owe supporters favors if he makes it to the Senate. - GPB News, 7/7/14
And Perdue is happy to be labeled the "outsider" candidate:
http://chronicle.augusta.com/...
Tapping into widespread disapproval of Congress, David Perdue campaigns as a candidate from the outside with fresh ideas and perspective.
It makes a stark contrast between him and his GOP Senate runoff opponent Jack Kingston, a 22-year veteran of the House of Representatives from Savannah. Since Perdue spent his career in the executive suites of major corporations rather than politics, he’s not a stranger to the inner sanctums of power.
He headed corporations like Reebok and Dollar General and sat on the boards of influential trade groups like the National Retail Association. His cousin, Georgia’s first modern-times Republican governor, appointed him to the board of the Georgia Ports Authority.
The important thing, he says, is that he hasn’t been in Congress like Kingston and three other primary opponents.
“If they were going to make a difference, wouldn’t they have done it by now?” he asks, adding that the Founding Fathers envisioned citizen-legislators rather than career politicians. - Augusta Chronicle, 7/7/14
And Perdue is really trying to argue that he's the true anti-establishment candidate:
http://mdjonline.com/...
Like Kingston, Perdue is not a fan of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He said more than 60 percent of businesses have stopped hiring or cut back on hiring because of provisions in the law.
Kingston has carved out what he calls a “six point plan” for boosting the economy as a senator. Yet Perdue says it’s the fourth iteration of the plan and has almost the exact same points as earlier versions.
“He had an eight-point plan in 2006. Now he has a six-point plan,” Perdue said. “All six of the points in this plan were in the eight-point plan, and none of it ever happened the last time.”
Expanding on this, Perdue said the entire Republican Party “lost its way” between 2000 and 2008. He hopes to help bring it back on track.
“Where was the landmark health care bill between 2000 and 2008?” Perdue asked. “Where’s the landmark energy policy? Where’s the landmark education reform that works? Where’s the landmark? We didn’t do it.”
On the spending culture in Washington, Perdue said one bill alone had more than 6,000 earmarks for unneeded projects. He added the national debt has ballooned from $4 trillion in 1992 to nearly $18 trillion today.
“I never saw myself the anti-establishment person, but what I do want is to push back on the things that are keeping the economy from growing,” Perdue said. “If that’s anti-establishment, then great. I just saw myself as an outsider and said look, the results in Washington are so bad. I’m running against a man in this runoff that has a 22-year record of spending like a Democrat. His own peers called him ‘the king of earmarks’ at one point.” - Marietta Daily Journal, 7/6/14
While they try to differentiate themselves, there's one thing they both agree on:
http://onlineathens.com/...
AP: Would you have voted for or against the bipartisan immigration reform bill that passed in the Senate last year?
KINGSTON: I would have voted no. I do not support amnesty and there is not a political consensus for comprehensive immigration reform. There is, the possibility for increment reform with, I think, four basic tenants. Number one, no amnesty. Number two, securing the border first. Number three, no welfare for illegal aliens. And then number four, cracking down on those who knowingly hire.
PERDUE: I would not have, and the reason is, there are several reasons. One, it had an amnesty in there that I didn't support. Secondly, it gave the head of the national homeland security discretion over enforcing the laws related to the border. My feeling on this thing is, in business, when you get a complicated problem, we break it down into its components. And the first component is to secure the border. - Online Athens, 7/4/14
What's interesting is that Chamber Of Commerce, that backs Kingston, backs the Senate immigration reform bill. So Kingston maybe doesn't want to piss off the GOP base by being in favor of immigration reform. Nunn has stated that she does support the Senate's immigration reform bill which is plus, considering Georgia's changing demographics. While Perdue and Kingston duke it out until July 22nd, lets make sure Nunn is ready to go for November. Click here to donate and get involved with her campaign:
http://www.michellenunn.com/