CQ TODAY
April 28, 2008 – 1:47 p.m.
Dem Vets Join Forces to File in Georgia House Races
By Rachel Kapochunas, CQ Staff
The nation’s high-level concerns about national security issues have prompted the major parties to step up their recruitment of military veterans to run for Congress. This trend was highlighted on Monday when four Georgia Democrats with military backgrounds — three of whom who have served in the Iraq war — announced their candidacies for longshot bids against Republican House incumbents.
The Iraq vets turned Democratic candidates are former Army Lt. Colonel Bill Gillespie, who is seeking to challenge eight-term Republican Rep. Jack Kingston in the 1st District; Doug Heckman, former Army colonel and senior adviser to the Iraqi Army, who filed to run against eight-term Rep. John Linder in the 7th District east of Atlanta; and Army National Guard veteran Bobby Saxon, who had previously revealed his intentions to pursue the northeastern 10th District seat won last year by Republican Paul Broun in a special election. Air Force veteran Bill Jones filed to run for the suburban Atlanta 6th District seat defended by two-term Republican Tom Price .
None of the Democratic candidates has held political office, and they all have volunteered to stage uphill fights in districts that typically are Republican strongholds. CQ Politics rates the races for all four seats Safe Republican.
But Democratic officials contend that these candidates hold the potential to attract independent and Republican voters as well as Democrats by promoting conservative messages and highlighting their military experience.
Strategists in both parties recognize that veterans are attractive candidates during a time of war. But the Democrats are especially looking for more candidates with military experience who can help them dissolve the “weak on defense” label that Republicans have tried for years to slap on the Democratic Party as a whole.
Georgia Democratic Party spokesman Martin Matheny said Monday that the veterans help prove that “no party . . . has a monopoly on public service” and expressed his satisfaction to have all four Democrats on this year’s ballot.
Saxon, the 10th District Democratic candidate, told CQ Politics prior to his candidacy filing that he was “excited” about the prospect of several Democratic veterans running in the state. “One of the things that the Democratic Party is commonly beat up about is the fact that we’re supposedly not strong when it comes to the military,” Saxon said.
Saxon believes that the veterans’ candidacies in Georgia will appeal to a “broad spectrum” and draw crossover voters in the strongly conservative districts in which they are running. Saxon said voters will recognize that the four candidates have not only shown a “willingness” to serve their country, but each is an individual who has “literally put their life on the line for the country.”
“That’s someone that you could count on and hope that [they] will truly keep the best interest of this country in mind when they go to Congress,” Saxon said.
It clearly will not be an easy task for any of these political newcomers to run a competitive campaign, no less win in November. Though much of the South was ruled for many decades by conservative Democrats, the region has trended Republican in recent years. Each of these Georgia districts in which Democrats recruited a veteran to run has long been held by a Republican congressman.
The smallest vote share for President Bush in any of these four districts in 2004, was a very solid 65 percent in the 10th District, ranging up to 70 percent in the 6th District.
In fact, the marquee race in the 10th District, at least at this point, is the July 15 Republican primary in which incumbent Broun, an upset winner in the July 2007 special election, faces a serious intraparty challenge.
Broun, a physician who had lost three previous attempts at a seat in Congress, stunned the Georgia political establishment by beating former state Sen. Jim Whitehead in a special election runoff last summer. Broun was heavily outspent in that race, and Whitehead was well-connected politically and a friend of the late Republican Rep. Charlie Norwood, whose death in February 2007 had left the seat vacant.
Broun finished behind Whitehead in the first-round primary, but narrowly won the runoff in which both candidates were Republicans. Some Republicans who supported Whitehead alleged that Broun won the runoff with support from Democratic voters, who had no candidate of their own in the runoff election. Other Whitehead supporters were just disappointed in the outcome.
Whatever their motivation, Broun’s critics almost immediately began ginning up a challenge for the regular 2008 primary and found a willing candidate in Republican state Rep. Barry Fleming. He filed for the 10th District race in August and has been lining up local support ever since. Many Republican members of the legislature and local officials have endorsed Fleming and contributed to his House campaign treasury.
“These are people who supported me, voted for me in the leadership position as majority whip in the [state] House and I think they recognize someone who would do well in the United States Congress,” Fleming said.
Fleming reported raising $780,000 and was left with $600,000 on hand as of March 31, according to his quarterly campaign report filed with the Federal Election Commission. Broun’s campaign reported $476,000 raised and less than $120,000 on hand.
But Broun’s campaign manager, Tim Echols, said Friday that the congressman’s lower money numbers are the result of his focusing on legislative duties, not campaign strategy, since he took office last July. “We had a very steep learning curve when we inherited Charlie Norwood’s office,” Echols said. “But our staff’s in place, we’ve sent out a number of letters to our district, we’ve done a bus tour of all 21 counties. So the campaign is about to hit its stride.”
While Broun’s opponents in last year’s special election race charged that he isn’t conservative enough — a claim some now repeat — Echols said Broun has proved himself to be a tough conservative in Congress. He has proposed a “Human Life Amendment” to declare that conception begins at fertilization and introduced legislation to ban the sale of pornography on military bases worldwide, among other actions.
In addition, the conservative political action group Club For Growth endorsed Broun’s campaign last week, an action Echols believes is a testament to his ideological standing.
Echols said the endorsement “sends a super strong signal that Congressman Broun is the visibly conservative, tax-cutting man in this race, in addition to being the strong social conservative that everyone knows him to be.” In addition, the conservative political action group Club For Growth endorsed Broun’s campaign last week, an action Echols believes is a testament to his ideological standing.
Democrats, meanwhile, are more than happy Fleming is waging a serious challenge to Broun and setting a primary battle that the opposition party hopes will weaken the Republicans’ typically strong grip on the district. “I’m very fortunate that I have what looks to be a budding, nasty Republican political primary,” Saxon said. “For them to be fighting . . . just bodes well for me.”
Georgia’s filing period opened today and will run until noon Friday.Reprinted from
CQPolitics.com,
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000002712549
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News... |
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02/25/2008
"Bobby calls "Hogwash on the doctor" |
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02/15/2007
"Bobby believes you should spend your own money" |
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01/25/2008
"Bobby Saxon to fight the real fight for Georgia's
children" |
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10/15/2007
"Saxon raises over $44,000 in four weeks setting record in
GA-10" |
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09/26/2007
"What will Dr. Broun do for you? Not much if you're a Georgia
child in need of healthcare" |
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08/25/2007
"Bobby Saxon Announces Candidacy for United States Congress" |
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08/21/2007 "Broun's first challenger emerges" -
Athens Banner Herald |
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08/16/2007 "Democrat Files to challenge Rep.
Broun in Georgia's 10th" - CQPolitics.com |
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