Comments on: Sue Everhart and Tom Perdue

By: Romegaguy

Romegaguy — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:45:58 +0000

if by Political Genius you mean “Can piss away $13 million dollars on a incumbent Republican in a safe red state and be forced into a runoff” then yes, Tom Perdue is a political genius

By: Mountain Republican

Mountain Republican — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:21:16 +0000

atlantagop12-
With all due respect, Saxby would not have needed a large RNC staff and Duncan down here if the national Republicans had not dealt us such a poor election environment. I completely agree that the extra staff helped pull this election through for Saxby.

My argument is that the problems Saxby had were not Georgia related. The national Republican machine, chaired by Duncan, does not understand how to GOVERN with Republican principles. It is obvious they know how to SOUND like Republicans during election years, but they cannot govern with those same principles. REAL Republicans would know how to handle issues like illegal immigration, the Gang of 10, the first (of probably many) bailouts, etc… Voting like Republicans at the national level means you don’t have the problems that lead to the runoff.

By: shep1975

shep1975 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:00:05 +0000

The real genius behind Paul Coverdell in 1992 wasn’t Tom Perdue, it was Margie Lopp.

By: Icarus

Icarus — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:57:29 +0000

Remind me to add “political genius” to my list of oxymorons.

By: atlantagop12

atlantagop12 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:41:20 +0000

Mountain Republican:

How do you think Saxby had such a large staff towards the end of the election cycle? The RNC RNSC. Mike Duncan helped the grassroots effort across the Georgia just as much as anybody did during the runoff. He had every right to be on stage with Saxby over Sue.

Fishtail, I think the reason that Saxby hired Perdue is because Perdue has been with him for a while plus the fact he is a political genius. Remember the Coverdell Campaign? Where is the evidence that there is any feud between the two outside of the Perdue – Isakason fight.

*I think Sue should maintain her position and Duncan should be voted out.

By: reggiejg

reggiejg — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:57:41 +0000

Sue was specifically blocked at the election night event. There was no discussion regarding other people. It just so happens she and others were also not included at other events Perdue, Alec & Co. had influence over. So there may be some creative explaining and/or outright deception going on there.

I trust my source on this, but I must say I wasn’t personally there.

By: fishtail

fishtail — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:56:31 +0000

Tom Perdue deserves to be in a perpetual bad mood these days. It’s no secret that he is facing foreclosure on his real estate projects. The only reason he consulted for Saxby is that he was in desperate need for cash. Personally, he and Saxby despise one another, but Saxby thought he needed to hire the meanest SOB he could find….and he did.

By: Mountain Republican

Mountain Republican — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:27:26 +0000

Atlantagop12-
No-an inept national party leader does not REPLACE the person elected by the grassroots of Georgia. If Duncan and the national party had done their job, we would not have the current disaster for the last four years at the national level.

For the second consecutive election cycle, Georgia Republicans weathered the storm in spite of the national party. Sue Everhart is the leader of our Georgia party, and Washington should be looking at us instead of the other way around. It insults the grassroot workers throughout our state when someone like Duncan comes to take credit for this victory.

By: atlantagop12

atlantagop12 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:55:24 +0000

As far as I remember, there were not any elected officials on stage and Sue’s party position was negated by Mike Duncan anyways.

If you think Sue did a better job than Tom, look at the ONLY large campaign that the GOP focused on in the state, Rick Goddard. That was a failure.

And McCain only beat Saxby in Georgia by a couple points. Thats with bad votes by Saxby and a third party candidate. That is not Tom’s fauly.

Granted though, the TV ads had lots of room for improvement.

By: Howard Roark

Howard Roark — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:31:36 +0000

If I were running for state wide office I would beat a path to Joel McElhannons door. I think he is one of the best consultants in the state.

By: Mountain Republican

Mountain Republican — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:28:18 +0000

As usual, Erick is on the money with his post. First, with a conservative incumbent Republican Senator, no runoff would have occurred. Second, to have the resources that were available in this race, it is unthinkable what was squandered in this election cycle that could have been used in more strategic, targeted methods. Before the runoff, the Chambliss tv commercials rivaled the production and quality of the Blair Witch Project. Thankfully, Justin T. and some of his ground game helped the Senator tremedously.

Saxby is now talking jobs, the economy, and about conservative values and principles that he ran on in 2002. Let’s hope this will not be forgotton before January 2009.