So I don't read the National Review because I have a functioning brain but somehow they got a hold of a memo from Michelle Nunn's (D. GA) U.S. Senate campaign and oh is it "shocking":
http://www.nationalreview.com/...
The documents reveal the campaign’s most sensitive calculations. Much of the strategizing in the Georgia contest as is typical in southern politics, revolves around race. But the Nunn memos are incredibly unguarded. One is from Diane Feldman, a Democratic pollster and strategist who counts among her clients Minnesota senator Al Franken, South Carolina representative James Clyburn, and former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Feldman, who did not return calls seeking comment, is frank in her characterization of the demographic groups — Jews, Asians, African Americans, Latinos, and gays — that are essential to a Democratic victory. The Nunn campaign declined to comment about the document on the record.
The campaign’s finance plan draws attention to the “tremendous financial opportunity” in the Jewish community and identifies Jews as key fundraisers. It notes, however, that “Michelle’s position on Israel will largely determine the level of support here.” That’s a position she has yet to articulate — her message on the subject is marked “TBD” in the document — and Israel goes unmentioned on her campaign website.
Asians are also identified as key fundraisers. The community is described as “very tight,” one in which people work to “become citizens quickly.” Nunn’s strategists also say there is a “huge opportunity” to raise money from gays, bisexuals, and transgender individuals, who are described as having “substantial resources.”
As southern whites have moved to the right, Democrats have been forced to cobble together a coalition of minority voters. Feldman recommends as a goal winning just 30 percent of the white vote while working to increase turnout among African Americans and Latinos. So while Jews, Asians, and gays are characterized as potential “fundraisers,” African Americans and Hispanics are the ones the campaign needs to get to the polls in historic numbers, the document makes clear.
“This constituency group is critical,” it says of the African Americans who make up much of Georgia’s Democratic base, adding that Nunn must win “a very high percentage of the African-American vote” and attract “a large number of voters who do not typically turn out in an off-election year.” The plan puts a particular emphasis on black clergy. It also highlights the need to “generate passion and enthusiasm” for Nunn in the black community. And it raises concern that Hispanics have not yet been “appropriately engaged” on her behalf. - National Review, 7/28/14
Oh wow! Scandalous shit, right? Michelle Nunn's campaign noted that getting African American and Latino voters out to the polls is essential to her winning. How shocking! Except everyone knew that. Major publications from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to the New York Times all noted that heavy turnout in African American communities would help Nunn win. So the National Review is trying to paint the Nunn campaign as a race baiter but really, Republicans don't want black people to vote. That's why they keep pushing voter ID laws to disenfranchise them from voting. Plus plenty of politicians' children are raised in the Maryland/D.C. area. Al Gore grew up in D.C. because his father was a Senator and that didn't prevent him from winning his first House seat in Tennessee in 1977. Gore would then go on to become a U.S. Senator in 1984. And it's also obvious that Nunn wasn't going to run like some sort of "extreme liberal" because she isn't. She's also been painting herself also a centrist problem solver:
http://www.ajc.com/...
She does have the money, both the cash that she raises herself and cash that outside groups are certain to pour into the state in the form of campaign advertising. A lot of that advertising — harsh, confrontational and at times unfair — is likely to contradict the “post-partisan” message that Nunn wants to project. But it will also do the political dirty work that she might prefer to avoid.
Based on early polling, Georgians are also at least willing to give her a listen. Two polls taken before the GOP primary give her an advantage of six or seven percentage points over Perdue, but it would be foolish to give them much credence. Polls taken that early in a race, before the final contestants are even set, don’t really give you an accurate reading. (Two polls released late last week -- one putting Perdue ahead, the other putting Nunn ahead -- directly contradicted each other.)
What Nunn does not yet have — and what she will need — is a clear message. She’s going to run as a centrist problem-solver, a moderate antidote to the bitterness, rancor and extremism of the national Republican Party. And she’ll try to project an air of studied neutrality as Perdue tries to paint her as a poorly disguised liberal intent on doing the bidding of Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 7/28/14
Now there is one part of the report that of course Republicans will try to spin to ignorant voters:
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/...
The National Review got hold of a 144-page internal document drafted for the Michelle Nunn campaign in December. It includes plenty of juicy revelations on campaign strategy, including a potentially serious issue with a Points of Light connection to a charity that has ties to Hamas, which is now at war with Israel.
The revelation came from an internal examination of the nascent campaign’s potential weaknesses and how Republicans could attack them.
Points of Light, through a service called MissionFish, helped validate thousands of charities for EBay users who wanted to auction items and donate the proceeds to a specific charity. One of those groups was Islamic Relief USA, which got $33,000 from individual donors through the Points of Light-validated system. Islamic Relief USA provides funds for emergency relief and other programs overseas. It has worked with the American Red Cross.
Islamic Relief USA states on its website that it “is an independent affiliate of Islamic Relief Worldwide and the Islamic Relief family of charities. We are completely separate legal entities that work together under the Islamic Relief Worldwide umbrella to provide aid.” It also says it shares a “common mission, vision and family identity” with the other “Islamic Relief” groups.
The worldwide group is where the politically explosive Hamas connection comes.
The Nunn campaign notes that Points of Light did not actually give the money — even though it was listed for bookkeeping purposes on the non-profit’s IRS forms — but rather validated Islamic Relief USA as a legitimate charity for others to give to. And the campaign emphasized that the USA and Worldwide groups are legally separate. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 7/28/14
The Nunn campaign issued this response over the leaked document:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
Nunn campaign manager Jeff DiSantis released a statement saying that the document was a "draft."
Here's the statement:
This was a draft of a document that was written eight months ago. Like all good plans, they change. But what hasn’t changed and is all the more clear today is that Michelle’s opponents are going to mischaracterize her work and her positions, and part of what we’ve always done is to prepare for the false things that are going to be said.
Michelle has always sought to run a campaign that brings people together and gets Washington focused on the real challenges the country faces. And that’s the kind of Senator she’ll be. - TPM, 7/28/14
It's so blatant that this is part of the GOP's strategy to take down Nunn:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Perdue now sounds a more partisan tone after spending months blasting Rep. Jack Kingston and two other sitting congressmen as being part of the problem in Washington. Fresh off defeating Kingston in a primary runoff, Perdue promised to "prosecute the failed record of the Democratic administration over the last six years."
He urged Georgia voters not to give Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "one more vote" in the chamber and called for the repeal of Obama's health care law and the Dodd-Frank law that changed financial regulations after the 2008 market collapse. Earlier in the year, Perdue said he wanted to work with Democrats to amend Dodd-Frank, not repeal it. And as a business executive, he once said that it would take a federal solution to reduce the number of uninsured Americans.
Meanwhile, a conservative Super PAC launched a television ad telling voters that Nunn supports "Obamacare." The ad also notes that she presided over layoffs when one of her earlier foundations merged with former President George H.W. Bush's Points of Light organization. Ending Spending Action Fund, the conservative political action committee, is backed by Joe Ricketts, founder of TDAmeritrade and owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball franchise.
Nunn uses those attacks to tie Perdue to her usual critique that "our political system is broken."
Even more pointedly, Perdue dismissed Nunn's experience running Points of Light. Perdue argues that her post at the foundation does not prepare her for tackling issues in the free-enterprise system. His own background is in for-profit firms such as Reebok, Dollar General and the failed textile company Pillowtex. - Huffington Post, 7/26/14
And really, Republicans should be afraid because Democrats already have a strong attack against Perdue:
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
The minute David Perdue won the Republican primary in Georgia, Democrats hit send on an email attacking his business career. At nearly 2,500 words, the blast arrived in my inbox from American Bridge, a liberal opposition research firm, outlining the jobs Perdue had cut and outsourced as a business executive. "Georgia, Meet Mitt Romney Lite," was the headline.
Voters say they want politicians with a business background. In a recent Gallup poll, 81 percent responded that the country would be better governed if more people with business and management experience were elected. Voters prioritized that attribute far above every other. But that finding may only be a sign of the chasm between campaigning and governing, because while voters may like the idea of electing executives who have experience making tough decisions, campaign strategists see an opportunity to use those same decisions to portray candidates as callous, out-of-touch, and ignorant of middle-class needs.
In Georgia, Democrats are using the Romney boogeyman in an echo of the campaign the Obama team used to win the 2012 presidential election. That's hardly surprising. What is more surprising is that Republican campaigns across the country are adopting the same Obama tactics against Democrats.
Before David Perdue won the Georgia GOP Senate primary, Democratic strategists were hoping to run against his Republican rival, Jack Kingston, a veteran congressman. It would be easier to run against his Washington insider status, they thought. Now they'll have to run against Perdue as a fat cat. They've got a head start. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee put out a two-minute video attacking Perdue as an out of touch millionaire and crony capitalist who punished workers and walked away with millions. It simply quotes his GOP primary opponents. - CBS News, 7/25/14
Plus lets take a look at the polling shall we?
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/...
In the first public polling we have seen since David Perdue’s runoff win on Tuesday, Rasmussen Reports put out a robo-call survey today showing Perdue leading Democrat Michelle Nunn 46 percent to 40 percent.
Meanwhile, Landmark Communications showed Nunn leading 47 percent to Perdue’s 43 percent.
Rasmussen, whose results tend to be Republican-leaning, reports their methodology like so:
The survey of 750 Likely Voters in Georgia was conducted on July 23-24, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
The Rasmussen poll has a sample that is only 25 percent black. The Landmark poll is 30.5 percent black.
Blacks made up about 28 percent of the electorate in 2010 and 30 percent in 2008 and 2012, with Barack Obama on the ballot. One of the Democrats’ main hopes this year is to push black turnout to presidential-year levels. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 7/25/14
So you be the judge on which poll you believe more. Plus it's ridiculous for the National Review to hit Nunn on relying on minorities to win when it was minority voters that helped Perdue beat Jack Kingston in the runoff:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
The most revealing result as to which groups supported which candidate came from a late May poll from the firm Public Policy Polling. Their survey revealed the following findings.
• Perdue had a 2:1 lead among voters who picked Barack Obama in 2012, while Kingston had a 12-point lead among Mitt Romney voters.
• Perdue was preferred by self-styled moderates, 53% to 30% for Kingston. Kingston led the groups touting themselves as "very conservative," (54%-30%), or "somewhat conservative" (41%-33%).
• Perdue did much better among African-Americans (68%-9%) and those listing themselves as "other" (34%-32%), than whites, which went for Kingston by an 18-point margin.
• Perdue also bested Kingston in this PPP poll among younger voters, by 17 percentage points. Kingston did much better among older voters.
• Among groups that are traditionally moderate, only women went for Kingston, but the margin was roughly similar to the poll margin. Perdue did just a bit better with men in this poll. - Huffington Post, 7/24/14
So what's the big deal about this memo? Nothing. The National Review is so desperately trying to make something out of nothing and we can't allow Republicans and right-wing press like the National Review to try and dupe voters. Expect more of this. We can still beat a scumbag businessman like Perdue but we have to get our base out to the polls. Click here to get involved and donate to Nunn's campaign:
http://www.michellenunn.com/