Some very encouraging news today out of Georgia courtesy of Survey USA:
http://www.11alive.com/...
Forty-five percent of registered likely voters plan to vote for Nathan Deal, 44% for Jason Carter. The margin of error is +/- 4.2%, so they are statistically tied.
Middle age voters (35 to 49) were leaning towards Deal by 23 points in August. He now trails by 5, a 28-point left turn. Deal had led by 3 among women, now trails by 10, a 13-point left turn. Carter biggest gains came from moderates and independents. Libertarian Andrew Hunt could complicate the race. Today, he carries 4% of the vote. If either Carter or Deal wins by just 1 point, and Hunt gets 4%, there will be a Dec. 4 runoff among the top-2 finishers.
Ken Alper with Survey USA said the number of respondents identifying themselves as likely voters is up: "Election Day is now less than two months away, and as both campaigning and polling increase, the electorate is beginning to focus. People who previously may have identified as being less than 100% certain they would vote are now increasingly telling us that they are in fact certain to vote in this election."
Republican David Perdue's lead over Democrat Michelle Nunn went from 9 points to 3 since the poll three weeks ago. Perdue led 50% to 41% on 08/18/14, when many voters were still on vacation. Today, with most of Georgia back from summer break, Perdue leads 47% to 44%.
The 08/18/14 poll and today's 09/09/14 poll were conducted identically. Most of the poll-on-poll movement in the Senate race comes from women, who had favored Nunn by 2 points, but now favor Nunn by 12 points. - 11 Alive, 9/10/14
Nunn has been hammering Perdue on equal pay and outsourcing and Carter has been hitting Deal on education cuts and his ethics scandal. The poll shows voters are waking up and paying attention. By the way, the GOP has a new anti-immigration ad out that attacks Nunn but here's a little kicker:
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/...
The most recent entry in the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s $2.5 million campaign against Democrat Michelle Nunn is on the topic of immigration.
Its math: Nunn + Obama = amnesty.
The problem: That “amnesty” was the comprehensive “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill, co-written by possible 2016 presidential contender Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. It cleared the Senate last year with 14 Republicans in favor, including 2008 presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
In other words: Nunn + Rubio +McCain = amnesty, too.
Rubio in particular worked hard in those heady days of spring 2013 trying to convince conservatives that a 13-year path to citizenship requiring fines and back taxes is not “amnesty.” He got enough Senate Republicans on board, but House Republicans have not touched it. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9/9/14
Here's a little more background info:
http://blogs.wsj.com/...
Ms. Nunn has said she opposes Mr. Obama’s plans to use executive action on immigration. Rather, the ad’s citation refers to her support for an immigration bill that passed the Senate last year with Mr. Obama’s support. That bill was co-written by three Republican senators (along with three Democrats) and won the support of 14 Senate Republicans—nearly a third of the GOP caucus. Further, it was less than two years ago that the Republican National Committee issued a report calling on the GOP to back just such a bill.
“We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform,” the report concluded.
Other GOP ads this summer have attacked Democrats on immigration, mostly tied to thousands of children who came across the border, particularly in May and June. For instance, in this spot, Republican Scott Brown, running in New Hampshire, charge that his opponent, Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, and Mr. Obama support “pro-amnesty policies” and say they are responsible for a porous border. It doesn’t mention the Senate bill.
Asked why the campaign committee was attacking someone for supporting a bill backed by many Senate Republicans, NRSC spokesman Brad Dayspring said, “The ad is about far more than any single piece of legislation.” He pointed to Mr. Obama’s promise to take executive action that is expected to ratchet back deportations.
“The ad is about Michelle Nunn … and her proclivity to defer to President Obama, who has made clear that one way or another, he intends on granting executive amnesty for millions,” Mr. Dayspring said. - Wall Street Journal, 9/9/14
Yeah, pretty stupid motive there. But whatever, Perdue is just sticking with the party's script:
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/...
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful David Perdue, back on the TV airwaves and looking to stay there, is making the rounds in the nation’s capital this week at a series of fundraisers, meetings and candidate training put on by national Republicans.
In an interview here Tuesday afternoon, Perdue said GOP senators and other leaders are closely following the goings-on in Georgia, given its importance to securing a Republican majority next year. And they are telling him to keep doing what he’s doing:
“These guys are watching this race. We all are. The advice they’re giving me right now is to stay on message and to keep pointing out that my opponent will be a proxy for the president and for Harry Reid.” - Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9/10/14
Here's a few more signs the Republicans are nervous about Georgia flipping this year:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
The Secretary of State in Georgia, Brian Kemp (R), on Tuesday said that his office was investigating alleged voter fraud by a group lead by the Democratic House minority leader.
Kemp (pictured), in a memo obtained by WSBTV, said that his office had received complaints in five counties in the northern part of the state about forged voter registration documents. The complaints also alleged fake signatures and voter applications of false information.
In the memo Kemp said his office had sent subpoenas out to the New Georgia Project and its parent organization, the Third Sector Development on Tuesday. Third Sector Development was founded by House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams (D).
The subpoena says that all relevant documents should be given to the State Election Board's investigators by Sept. 16.
Abrams, in an interview with The Washington Post, said that her group has previously reached out to the secretary of State's office in June to make sure they were complying with Georgia law.
"It is a non-partisan project," Abrams said. Abrams added that the group has trained and conducted background checks on the hundreds of canvassers it used. She also said 11 percent of the 85,000 registration forms it had turned in were incomplete. State law, however, requires all forms the group receives be turned in, even if they aren't complete. - TPM, 9/10/14
And timing is everything and this isn't good:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
On March 21, Georgia GOP Senate candidate David Perdue spoke with some GOP students at Morehouse College in Atlanta. In an effort to connect with the young voters at the historically black college, Perdue said his father played a key role in desegregating the Houston County schools in Georgia.
"Segregation was real ... My dad was a school superintendent, and actually integrated I think the first -- if not the first or second -- county school system in Georgia, and he did it before they had to. He did it right after he got elected, and he did it because it was the right thing to do. So in my lifetime, I've seen that happen," Perdue said. The audio was shared with The Huffington Post by a Democratic source. (Listen to the comments above.)
But Perdue exaggerated his father's role. It is true that David Perdue Sr. oversaw desegregation as superintendent of the Houston County School System in central Georgia from 1961 to 1980. But the school board, like many others in the South, put together a "freedom of choice" plan in the mid-1960s that essentially was "desegregation light" -- allowing the option of integration but not forcing it. The NAACP challenged the plan as inadequate, and full desegregation in Perdue's schools came only after a court order.
The first shock to the system came in 1954, when the Supreme Court ordered schools to desegregate in its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. The ruling contained no time frame for schools to comply, but a year later, the court said desegregation efforts had to move forward "with all deliberate speed."
According to an article in the Macon Telegraph on Nov. 10, 2009, the Houston County School System started to put together its integration plan shortly after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law, while Perdue was superintendent.
"The initial plan, which allowed students to apply to schools of their choice regardless of their status as a formerly all-white or all-black school, would integrate high school seniors during the second semester of the 1964-65 year and would continue integrating roughly at the rate of one grade per year, becoming fully integrated during the 1972-73 school year," wrote the Telegraph.
These "freedom of choice" plans were highly controversial. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights wrote in 2007 that while in theory they sounded great, "many districts remained partially or completely segregated." A March 3, 1970, article in the Washington Afro-American called these plans "desegregation dodges." - Huffington Post, 9/10/14
If Perdue is hyping his family's history on ending segregation, you know he's trying to win over black voters as well. They did help him win the runoff against Jack Kingston but with the latest GOP freakout about early voting, it's going to be a hard case to sell. Things are looking optimistic for Team Blue but we have to make sure our base comes out to the polls. Click here to donate and get involved with Nunn and Carter's campaigns:
http://www.michellenunn.com/
https://carterforgovernor.com/