Blog for Democracy

Some things we learned/open thread

Well, it’s all over now except for the snarky comments, and of course I’m happy to oblige:

  • Rand got canned. Sorry, that one wrote itself – I’m actually really a bit disappointed he didn’t do better. Guess endorsements don’t get you where they used to.
  • Mable needed to pump her brakes for the Audacity of Markel Express, which derailed shortly after it whacked her little hand car. John Lewis is still The Man.
  • Best news of the night: While it’s going to a runoff, it looks like Annette Kesting is toast. Guess someone else will have to battle the evil in the Cobb County board of commissioners.
  • Myron Freeman seems to have successfully convinced the public that the “I” by his name really does not mean “incarcerated”. Yet.
  • Some people are waking up with a big (Dun)woody, I imagine. How about we just make Manuel’s its own city too?

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Tim

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84 responses to “Some things we learned/open thread”

  1. Zaid Avatar
    Zaid

    “If someone is to the right of 70% of the country but they are squarely in the middle for their district, are they still “far right”? ”

    It’s all relative, you can say relative to the country, or relative to the district, or relative to the Congress if you want to be really generous.

    Either way, the left has stockholm syndrome. It allows the right to define itself as the center which is ludicrious from all angles of debate on public opinion.

  2. JerryT Avatar
    JerryT

    Zaid, those are some pretty fuzzy statements.

    If someone is to the right of 70% of the country but they are squarely in the middle for their district, are they still “far right”? They could even be far right nationally, in the middle statewide, and kinda lefty in their district. Depends on the scale doesn’t it?

    And what does ” supports the war” mean, anyway?

  3. M_Combest Avatar
    M_Combest

    well good to see that my thoughts on the incumbent in HD 53 were not totally lonesome 🙂

  4. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    No comments on Elly personally,

    But as a gay Democrat, i’m glad the Stanleys are gone, I hope they never come back…ever.

  5. retreadredneck Avatar
    retreadredneck

    Most. Meta. Thread. Ever.

  6. odinseye2k Avatar
    odinseye2k

    Okay, but for those of us that don’t have super-insider status, we have to go on words (or at least some self-contained consistency within those words). What mask a person chooses to wear will often tell you as much about the person as what is behind the mask, since it is ultimately a manifestation of their theory of mind.

    I heard what you said about the activist base, but this gossipy “so and so did something strange, but I’m not going to say who it was or what it was” doesn’t really help us understand what’s going on. Nods and winks only work with those already in the know. If you want to air someone’s dirty laundry, go ahead and air it.

    I’d say a lot of folks at this blog represent the 99th percentile of political participation and informedness. I’d put myself somewhere around the 80th percentile. I’ve had conversations with folks from the 50-60th percentile that think I’m a know-it-all and here I feel like a know-nothing.

    I’m trying to figure out how to get the 50-60th up to my level rather than just have them throw up their hands and say “I’ll never be at your level, so why even bother?”

    And “get off your ass” is not a valid response.

  7. Jules Avatar
    Jules

    I think this whole exchange has been fascinating. I love how only now words matter, not my actions.

    In case of VJ, if he calls himself a conservative ears and interest are perked, if Elly doesn’t really say anything, we’ve assumed since she didn’t allign with any activists she’s perceived to be a moderate.

    WOW.. interesting. I can’t wait to tell the other candidates that they can say anything, put whatever words on literature, have zero integrity and get votes!

    Just don’t worry about that pesky thing called your soul.

    From now on, even though everyone here knows I’m a lily livered liberal, I think I’ll start calling myself a slightly right of center moderate.

    Seriously all my actions to the contrary. But if it makes you all feel better then heck that’s what I am now.

    Sheesh.

  8. odinseye2k Avatar
    odinseye2k

    I don’t take a position so extreme as Zaid’s, but I do believe the pundit and current political class is shifted to the right of the American citizenry on issues of war and economy.

    Only in the Beltway is the privatization of Social Security taken with any level of seriousness, for example. Also, as demonstrated by the HUGELY disproportionate number of Afghanistan / Iraq vets running under our banner, the pundit class is quite to the right of anyone that has actually been out there.

    Also, any previous administration would have been charged with some serious crimes if they carried on like the Bushies have. Thanks to Kucinich, there may be at least some hope of a day of justice, but our “leadership” is doing their damnedest to scuttle that.

    I understand the political calculation that the last thing we want to do to a demoralized Republican party is to give them a persecution complex and mobilize them. On the other hand, history will record some pretty major gut-punches to the Constitution that we may regret later.

  9. retreadredneck Avatar
    retreadredneck

    Zaid, I know you like to create your own arbitrary political spectrum but just because an elected official doesn’t “represent more than 10% of the D’s” does not mean they are far right (nor far left for that matter).

  10. Zaid Avatar
    Zaid

    Though I should clarify in saying that this does not apply to the individual candidate in question but to the really dumb generalization you made about all criticisms of Democrats who are unresponsive to their electorate.

  11. Zaid Avatar
    Zaid

    “Hearing that so and so is not a “real D” usually means they’re a moderate, or they voted Republican one time or that their spouse is a Republican, or even that their mama’s aunt’s best friend’s cousin’s sister is a staunch Republican.”

    Your talent for hyperbole to try to support weak positions is hilarious.

    Someone who supports a war that 70% of the country is against is on the far-right. They can technically be a “D,” but they sure as hell don’t represent more than 10% of the D’s according to polling on the war. A number of other issues are similar.

  12. RuralDem Avatar
    RuralDem

    Dg,

    I wasn’t pointing you out. I just meant that you have a fond way of saying most of my phrases are codewords for something else, so I decided to take a page from your book.

    Hearing that so and so is not a “real D” usually means they’re a moderate, or they voted Republican one time or that their spouse is a Republican, or even that their mama’s aunt’s best friend’s cousin’s sister is a staunch Republican.

  13. Decaturguy Avatar
    Decaturguy

    I think I would have supported a real moderate republican, in fact, over Lanette Stanley Turner or her corrupt siste.

  14. Decaturguy Avatar
    Decaturguy

    Rural,

    I’m not sure why you are pointing me out but I think we actually agree on this one.

    By all indications she sounds like at least she is an improvement on the previous officeholder (or her sister) who no doubt were Democrats.

  15. Decaturguy Avatar
    Decaturguy

    And Lanette Stanley Turner voted for the gay marriage amendment … twice.

    Where was the outrage?

    Just saying … just because there was a D by her name doesn’t mean she was a good reprentative and by all indications her sister would have been worse.

  16. RuralDem Avatar
    RuralDem

    I really have nothing to add except its sad to see that less than 48 hours after victory we get to basically hear that the candidate is not a “real D”, she MUST vote “correctly” (taking a page from Dg’s notebook, this is a codeword for liberal), etc.

    Single issue litmus tests are not good.

    It’s like people are itching to run this person out of the party already simply because she MIGHT not be a liberal.

    All I can say is, run people out all you want, but don’t complain about the lack of Democrats in office when you do it.

    No, this isn’t directed at any one poster, it’s just a general observation.

  17. Kimmiega Avatar
    Kimmiega

    I’d hardly call the Fulton County Democratic Party inviting you to speak at a place where you might get more votes the activist community.

    Oh and good Democratic invites you for coffee in a nice way offering to help and you can’t even be bother to say no thanks I’m good..

    Is it just me…but for cripes sake these are not “activists”.

    I love how you all are taking for someone sight unseen but having “at” the folks on this blog for being wary.. well don’t say we didn’t warn you.

    In fact we warned you about Mike after his vote on the Hawks rule in 2005.

  18. Decaturguy Avatar
    Decaturguy

    Thanks for the very interesting info Chris.

    Who knows how she will turn out, but just because she didn’t play ball with the activist groups doesn’t really mean that much to me.

    She obviously knows what she is doing. She stayed under the radar long enough and won!

  19. Kimmiega Avatar
    Kimmiega

    Chris,

    Couple things, one several Democrats reached out to her over a month ago and she never responded to them. I’m sure she’s been invited to any number of Dem meetings perhaps we will have a chance to congratulate her at one of those.

    Also, I’m getting that creepy feeling that says beware, she could be a relation to Mike J.

    It’s going to boil down to what she votes for and who she votes for. The Dem women folk at the capitol will suss her out in no time flat.

  20. chris Avatar
    chris

    Just a thought: I looked up Elly Dobbs in the voterfile I bought from the SOS and matched with election history. She’s voted in 3 Democratic primaries since 1998 and no Republican primaries. Her husband has just voted in 1 Democratic primary and no Republican ones.

    For all the harping about how she got elected (and really, if the Fulton page is to be believed she blew it out on absentee ballots so maybe some of us could learn a thing or two from that campaign) I think we should be glad that all of those ideologically moderate Buckhead voters finally have a Democrat they can call their own. Part of the problem for our party is that in large areas of the state we don’t have any local standard bearers and it reinforces the belief of those voters that there aren’t any Democrats “like them” and that hurts us from the Presidential race on down.

    She’s in now. There’s nothing in her voting history that suggests she’ll be anything but a Democrat. We may not like some of her campaign tactics but lets reach out again and give her a chance to play some catch up with some of our activists and welcome her to the fold.

  21. nicolette Avatar
    nicolette

    paula – great find! though, i gotta say, he’s not as good with the hover over titles

  22. Decaturguy Avatar
    Decaturguy

    That alone told me that she wanted to make sure her Buckhead garden club friends understood they could vote for her in OUR primary.

    I agree with Griftdrift on that one. If I’m running for office I want people to vote for me however I can get them there whether they are Republican, Democrat, or non affiliated. The rules are the rules in Georgia’s open primary system and you should use that to your advantage. That alone does not make her a Republican.

    However, you quick look at her contributors and you will quickly see a lot of $500 and $1000 contributions from Buckhead housewives. That carries more weight to me.

    But kudos for her. Maybe we should start doing the same with some of the more crazy or dumb GOP legislators in impossible for a Democrat to win districts (hello Bobby Franklin?)

  23. PaulaG Avatar
    PaulaG

    Re: what it takes to run for office

    http://seantevis.com/kansas/3000/running-for-office-xkcd-style/

    (totally worth your while to click through)

  24. griftdrift Avatar
    griftdrift

    Liking the open primaries = Republican?

    Uh oh

  25. politicalaka Avatar
    politicalaka

    The only thing I needed to see on Elly Dobbs to let me know she was a Republican was the huge shout-out to Georgia’s open primary system on her website. That alone told me that she wanted to make sure her Buckhead garden club friends understood they could vote for her in OUR primary.

    Why oh why couldn’t we have had a better candidate? If only Joel Alvarado had lived in that district instead of Rashad Taylor’s…

  26. Jules Avatar
    Jules

    I think the problem with those shenanigans wasn’t that the electorate would find out but the resulting non-support by:

    -the core leadership,

    –it’s energy

    -it’s membership

    -it’s networks

    -it’s money.

    Which again is the problem with any candidate that arrives with no history or network.

    One of the questions I ask any new candidate is “who are your “people”.. i.e the ones who will likely support you because of some smilar affiliation.

    So lawyers have the trial lawyer pacs, teachers have theirs, business people have theirs… you get the idea. But if you’ve never even joined your homeowners board and no one remembers you at the swim club it’s an uphill battle to reach out to anyone, and when you do-you’d better be prepared to pay your dues in the organization way before you ask them for their help and support.

  27. Decaturguy Avatar
    Decaturguy

    I’m not even talking about Vernon, who served in the legislature as a Democrat and ran as a Democrat twice to become Dekalb CEO.

    Unless we’re wrong it would appear that this woman has absolutely no Democratic background.

    But maybe we’re wrong?

  28. Zaid Avatar
    Zaid

    “Is the DPG so weak that now even Republicans are entereing our primaries and winning?”

    When a state is as politically inactive as Georgia, if you have a ton of money and some dedicated insider followers, you can get far, even if you are an ultraright douchebag running in a supposedly Democratic primary like vernon jones.

  29. Zaid Avatar
    Zaid

    “As for Rand, I do hope he sticks around but i doubt it very much. After his comments about the state legislature, and his early shenanigans in this race, I bet he’ll be gone like the wind.”

    Considering that 1% of the electorate probably knows what you’re talking about, I don’t think that’ll determine whether he comes back or not.

  30. Decaturguy Avatar
    Decaturguy

    Is the DPG so weak that now even Republicans are entereing our primaries and winning?

  31. nicolette Avatar
    nicolette

    *silly

  32. nicolette Avatar
    nicolette

    my brothers making sill youtube videos make me smile 🙂

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4q1guX8PZc

  33. plange Avatar
    plange

    “his early shenanigans in this race”

    yep, it was those early shenanigans that really hurt him in my circle of political activists.

  34. Jules Avatar
    Jules

    Re: Research on Elly… I don’t think we had any “dirt” per se.

    What it was in general were lots and lots of little things that just don’t add up.

    First was not one D-party activist I know in the district knew her, ok so we go to the website and she doesn’t have much language that looks like a D either, so my friedns invite her to various D events, no one ever hears from her, she doesn’t respond to anyones questionarie etc..

    So yeah you want our D vote but beyond a yard sign we’ve never seen her or have any way to ask any direct questions. Sorry it just smelled.

    I am enccouraged to see at least one post from someone who knows her.. so we will see. But she ain’t under the radar any more lots of folks will be watching her votes. First vote I will watch is the election of Stashy, Glen Richardson. If she’s down with him then it’s on.

  35. M_Combest Avatar
    M_Combest

    For Pamela Stanley I know she had a list of issues that folks brought up – which concerned me and was leaning her way but I did as best job I could to do my homework on Elly Dobbs (since I know her husband is a Mike Huckabee Republican).However I could not find anything out there on her FEC Filings, her contributions, or stances on issues, etc.

    Where does one go to be schooled on this stuff? now I wish I would have known that going onto the booth Tuesday. Does anyone have a link over to any dirt on her? If so please share since I could not find anything…

  36. griftdrift Avatar
    griftdrift

    Sad too. Because somewhere in there is the makings of a really good candidate.

  37. CatherineAtlanta Avatar
    CatherineAtlanta

    Elly Dobbs? Are you kidding me? She is a republican in Democrats clothing. Unwilling to engage with Democrats, unwilling to complete Advocacy group questionaires.

    As for Rand, I do hope he sticks around but i doubt it very much. After his comments about the state legislature, and his early shenanigans in this race, I bet he’ll be gone like the wind.

  38. M_Combest Avatar
    M_Combest

    Love is in the air -lol

    I know as much as the next person how brutal it can be – to me a political blog is for venting, I mean where else can you vent about this stuff??none of this stuff do I take personally in any way what so ever..if you do, you won’t be involved in politics very long

    Wow I hope that no one actually thought I was ‘f-ing’ them- if that was directed to me, just felt I needed to address this..

    Aside from the senate race – I am celebrating victories for John Lewis, Jim Powell, and pulling for Elly Dobbs..

  39. odinseye2k Avatar
    odinseye2k

    Obama also had that exotic nature that made the press love him immediately. The only thing that trumps an exotic, well-spoken man that is the adult of adults is an old war vet that invites you to his bus for BBQ all the time (from the reporters’ perspective).

    I love that a guy like Rand ran, but eggheads are anathema to the press most of the time (when’s the last time you saw a scientist / engineer take the journalism major seriously?)

    All that said, I really hope Rand sticks around for local stuff. He can do a lot of good in a state where most of the “legislators” wouldn’t know an aquifer if someone tapped it and stuck the other end of the pipe up their ass.

  40. Decaturguy Avatar
    Decaturguy

    all of a sudden a complete long shot, a ‘nobody’ who’s come out of Chicago is the odds on favorite to be the next Prez.

    Yes, but even Barack Obama had to serve in the Illinois State Senate for 8 years … 8 years … before he had the audacity to run for a statewide race and run for the U.S. Senate.

    I would suggest to you that if Barack Obama had said in 1996 that he did not have the patience to serve in the State Senate and that he wanted to run for the U.S. Senate right away, he would have lost, and nobody would know who he is right now.

    Maybe if Rand Knight had decided to run for the state legislature or something else instead of a statewide office right off the bat, he might have been ready to run for statewide office in 8 years or so, but it is likely that we’ll never hear from him again.

  41. Jules Avatar
    Jules

    The rules of politics by Jules:

    1. Politics is a contact sport, expect to be bruised

    bloodied and tired.

    2. There is never enough time

    3. There is never enough money

    4. Everything is quid pro quo. If you are not earning favors or exchanging them for something you aren’t doing it right. Related item, don’t fuck your friends on election night, literally or figuratively.

    5. Smile when stabbed in the back, but don’t forget. Hang on to thoughts of vengance for another day, when they don’t see it coming.

    6. Like baseball, there is no crying.

    7. Work with and for the best people you can otherwise it’s not worth it.

  42. M_Combest Avatar
    M_Combest

    Thanks for the thoughtful words – Don’t get me wrong- I will be out for Martin guns blazin. I think this campaign for me was extra tough just since Rand is a personal friend and its difficult to see him crushed.

    But if there is one thing that I have learned in my short time diving into politics is how to bounce back and allow this to add a layer to mile thick skin..

  43. Zaid Avatar
    Zaid

    Prince that was a very eloquent comment.

  44. J.M. Prince Avatar
    J.M. Prince

    It’s really difficult and really long odds to go against any incumbents and/or the known qualities & names who have long legislative track records.

    But it’s been done. Everything has to break right for you most of the time. And you’ll need more than adequate funding and enough campaign resources & surrogates & smarts to keep from making silly mistakes & keep on message & moving forward. And then all of a sudden a complete long shot, a ‘nobody’ who’s come out of Chicago is the odds on favorite to be the next Prez. And he’s got a complex family & racial history, and a really short legislative track record. But somehow he got here. And he’s seemingly competitive in Ga. too. Go figure. No one could have predicted it a few years back. Surprising does not even cover it.

    So it can and does happen. It’s rare though. Any race where you have more than 4 viable candidates are a mess to work out the motivations & calculations. But give the voters some credit. The ID’d the top likely finishers, and possibly the 2 stronger candidates based on experience. Cardwell (who did get better as the campaigning went along) probably took good advantage of his name & face recognition. Other than Jim Martin, no one was doing any sort of real adverts, and few had the money to. That’s a fair assessment too. We’ll need plenty of money to knock off Sax Shameless.

    I’m betting plenty of Dem voters made the assessment that given the circumstances, giving Martin the vote to ‘block’ VJ from gaining a clear majority was the most important action they could make with their votes.

    But I’m proud of the race Rand ran. It was unabashedly a campaign about new ideas, about greening the economy, and about bringing new & Yes scientific perspectives to bear on our energy & water crises. It was unapologetically a progressive one too. No doubt about it. No one much noticed, but he also came out in favor of allowing some sort of gay marriage right before the primary. Now some may say that was just a foolhardy move meant to pander to (mainly) Atlanta voters. Me, I thought I’d never live to see a Ga. politician actually say those words. We may all go a very long time before anyone facing a state wide race makes mention of it again.

    But a unique & yes qualified and clear progressive showed up in our ranks, Before the Martin ‘calvary’ was called in. We’re sometimes asked not ‘to saddle up and ride to the sound of the guns’, but just to show up and try to make a difference. Rand Knight tried, and I’m proud of his campaign and that he stepped forward to provide us with a clear choice & voice. Friends, that’s what Progressives sound like. Would that we had more brave souls like him too.

    Cheers & Good Luck,

    J.M. Prince

  45. MelGX Avatar
    MelGX

    M_Combest, yes my comment was meant constructively, even if it seemed otherwise.

    I’ve supported a boatload of losing candidates in my time, and one thing I know is that blaming the voters is no way to move forward.

    Frankly, I’m as shocked as everyone else, including his supporters. There was a point when I thought Rand might actually make it to the runoff.

    An honest postmortem of the campaign would better prepare him for the next race. It would help him benefit from this experience rather than be damaged by it.

    That’s all I’m saying.

  46. Kimmiega Avatar
    Kimmiega

    Um yeah..how did you know? My guy got his ass kicked too, but I ain’t whining about it.

  47. Zaid Avatar
    Zaid

    Kimmiega were you hitting that bottle hard yourself while typing that?

  48. Kimmiega Avatar
    Kimmiega

    Dear Rand Supporters…most of us here learned 5 years ago to not “blog” or comment with open sores and puss oozing wounds from lost campaigns.

    It won’t help you feel better and it won’t help your guy.

    Seriously it tends to put one off. Oh don’t get me wrong, we all feel you and most of us did it, either for Dean, Edwards, Kerry or any numbers of others.

    In fact most of our people lose at some point.

    What I’m suggesting is lots of brown liq’r and a a big bag of Doritos to take the edge off. First it’s really hard to type and not f’up the keyboard with that nasty orange crap and a couple glases of JD the words are swimming on the monitor.

    Chill, it will pass.

    It’s completely up to the candidate now to show what he’s made of. No ammount of you defending him will work.

    So. go to the mini mart.go now. That’s right the BIG bag!

  49. Zaid Avatar
    Zaid

    “MelGx –

    some of us as I am sure you can understand and be a little more sympathetic to, poured our heart and soul into Rand’s long shot race. ‘Crash & Burn’ as you mentioned is an easy description to make about his campaign — coming from a Martin sideline party.”

    Usually people on the internet seem to suffer from a sort of empathy gap. Don’t let it bother you very much, although I am bothered how the rank-and-file came out for one guy who’s A-rank nasty (Jones) and another who will probably put the electorate to sleep if he gets to debate with Chambliss (Martin).

    Like you said, the money and name ID game dominates, especially in a state with very poor grassroots networks to counter them (though Rand did wonderfully for a complete newcomer).

  50. M_Combest Avatar
    M_Combest

    MelGx –

    some of us as I am sure you can understand and be a little more sympathetic to, poured our heart and soul into Rand’s long shot race. ‘Crash & Burn’ as you mentioned is an easy description to make about his campaign — coming from a Martin sideline party.

    I would hope that you meant well in describing what we can take away from this rather than belittle the enourmous sacrifices Rand and his family endured for the last 14 months (not 4 mos, in Martin’s case).

    Not to mention he visited 100 counties in that time frame, listening to GA and had a real passion for this race from early on. If you want Knight & Cardwell’s, & Lanier’s votes in the runoff coming up, my suggestion is to be a little more careful how you talk about other races that did not win the money game as Martin did.

  51. RuralDem Avatar
    RuralDem

    Dg,

    Don’t forget Martin’s tenure as DHR head too. It might not be an elected position, but that likely provided him with high name recognition too.

  52. Decaturguy Avatar
    Decaturguy

    Jim Martin served in the state legislature for years.

    Vernon Jones served in the legislature, then served as Dekalb CEO for 8 years.

    On the other side Casey Cagle and Sonny Perdue served in the General Assembly before taking shots at statewide office.

    Unless you already have high name recognition for doing something else, or are extremely wealthy a political neophyte is just not going to win a statewide race. Not only that, but by serving in the trenches for a number of years, it helps build a party from the bottom up that will eventually help statewide candidates win.

  53. Zaid Avatar
    Zaid

    It may help them to run from some lower office first, but it’s not really necessary and can even be an advantage. The big boon to Knight was his lack of name ID unfortuantely. We don’t have publically financed elections so we cannot get parity on this TV airwave invasion crap.

  54. JerryT Avatar
    JerryT

    I think you’re right decaturguy.

    Same lesson from Shyam Reddy and Scott Holcomb and countless others before them.

  55. odinseye2k Avatar
    odinseye2k

    I really hope Rand gets into the state-level game as well.

    I don’t suppose he’d mind living in Druid Hills, would he?

  56. allison Avatar
    allison

    http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/politicalinsider/entries/2008/07/16/cardwell_endorses_martin.html#comment-95234803

  57. Decaturguy Avatar
    Decaturguy

    Democratic Primary voters apparently have an IQ of even less than that of Vernon Jones.

    Say what you will about Vernon Jones, and I will, but he does not have a low IQ. In fact, I’d bet he has a very high one. I will never, ever vote for the man (even if he is the Dem nominee), but you must give him credit in that he knew what he had to do in order to get into the primary and he did it. I mean he got 62% of the vote in Chatham County (a long way from Dekalb).

    I think he will ultimately lose the runoff, but it will be interesting to watch.

    Rand Knight, if he wants to remain in politics, needs to run for the state legislature or city council or something. You can run a low budget, high energy campaign and be successful in that kind of race. But a statewide race is another animal and I hope that he learned a lesson.

  58. Jules Avatar
    Jules

    We will miss you whoever you are.. safe travels in PRC.

  59. retreadredneck Avatar
    retreadredneck

    Thunder

  60. griftdrift Avatar
    griftdrift

    I can’t wait to watch the 81 race. And it’s right next door! So much awesome.

  61. JodiC Avatar
    JodiC

    Now that I can say it out loud:

    “CONGRATULATIONS CHRIS HUTTMAN!!!”

    Having to be publicly neutral as the district chair in 81 has been a real bitch. Thank God that part is over….like I told a few people at Manual’s last night, the race in 81 is now going to be like Thunderdome. It’s not only going to be two very savvy candidates against each other but their ad groups as well.

    Watch for the fireworks 🙂

  62. Zaid Avatar
    Zaid

    I learned that money and TV time still seem to dominate our politics, that Georgia’s utter lack of grassroots civil society can’t combat someone with good name ID and lots of money, and that our Democratic Primary voters apparently have an IQ of even less than that of Vernon Jones.

  63. innerredneckexposed Avatar
    innerredneckexposed

    All I learned was to never believe in anything and become jaded and bitter.

  64. JerryT Avatar
    JerryT

    All the Rand thing means to me is that it takes more than a half a million bucks to win that primary… and that’s IF you already have some name recognition.

  65. RuralDem Avatar
    RuralDem

    I know quite a few people around here who voted for Martin due to name id. When I went to Macon last week Knight and Jones signs were scattered in some areas, but around here the only thing we saw from any candidate were Martin’s tv ads.

    Few of the people I spoke to remembered his run in ’06, they simply saw him on tv and voted because of that.

  66. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    hey M_C, something to keep in the back of your head too –

    On a statewide race, those 200-300K Primary voters never met a single senate candidate and probably only recognized or THOUGHT they recognized one name on the list of 5.

    In a US Senate race, without thousands of volunteers, ability to raise a boatload of money, and a good campaign plan and saavy communications, not to mention about 16-18 months organizing time pre-primary GOTV phase, it’s not possible for any candidate to reach those 200-300K voters even if they were all standing in a reception line.

    one or two circumstances being different for any of the 5 candidates in the areas above wouldn’t have mattered, you need all of areas to make it.

    Can go into a longer conversation next time we’re in person about other senate candidates who’ve made it that were on the same experience level as Rand. But too long for a blog post or comment.

  67. Jules Avatar
    Jules

    Note to candidates:

    What Chris said -check. Get the best team you can either afford or repay in kindness.

    What Melanie asked-do it-put your ego aside. Regroup

    What I suggest- get some experience and call me in three election cycles when you are a homeowner, have children in the public school system, pay property tax, oh and repair you relationship with your peer group.

    Lessons learned in 2006 could model some of the way.

    Examples: Darryl Hicks worked hard, had a great team, stayed classy and earned the respect of anyone who helped him, gave him money or voted for him. Did not dissolve into the woodwork and is admired.

    Scott Holcomb- same same Classy and admired still around working and being visable.

    On the flip side, Cobb County candidate who strung along supporters, begged us for help and money for 1.7 years, sat on Dem State committee then flipped parties to run with GOP yesterday came in third in 4 person race. Yeah, didn’t even have the sense to cut a deal in that race. Might also want to re-assess.

    For a couple of our candidates, it’s not too late to pull your shit together and run a decent race for Nov.

    However in once case it might take surgery to remove giant head out of ass. It damn near killed me to press the button yesterday for you- Mr 31%-you ain’t fooling anyone but most of us will give you one more chance if you ask nicely.

  68. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    While I support Jim, I was very impressed with Rand Knight. (nothing against Mr Lanier, I just never met him).

    If I were in charge of candidate recruitment and development, he’d be high on my list for other offices.

    I hope this isn’t the last we see of him.

    Bob Roche

  69. chris Avatar
    chris

    To everyone: thanks so much for all your help and as Bob and Melanie have hinted we’ll need a lot more going forward.

    So far, it looks like there were just shy of 1,200 voters in the Democratic primary in our district. By comparison, about 500 Republicans voted. The district stretches from Ashford Park and Drew Valley in Brookhaven through Chamblee to Doraville and includes a lot of DeKalb’s Buford Highway corridor. Our pool of voters is pretty small as we have a lot of non-citizens living in the district.

    Our total registered voter number is around 11,000. Compare that to close to 30,000 in Kevin Levitas and Mary Margaret Oliver’s districts and you’ll see that percentage-wise, our turnout is about the same (looks like just about 11% or so for the Democratic primary).

    We won by putting together an awesome team and communicating an effective positive and contrastive message about the candidates. We didn’t take anything for granted and actually mailed to a very large universe (about 3,800 potential Democratic voters).

    For the last four weeks, my crew has been phonebanking 3 hours a night for either 3 or 4 weekdays and then doing followup letters. For this, we focused on the 750 or so “super voters” that voted in all 3 of the last Democratic primaries as we figured they were the most likely to turn out. All of these voters either spoke directly with me or a volunteer or had at least 3 messages left on their answering machines if we were unable to reach them.

    I’m so glad about the results from last night. It just goes to show that if you put together a smart campaign plan and stick to it (and do all parts you need to do) that good things can happen. Research, mail, phones, personal contact. Let’s go on to the general election now!

  70. siri Avatar
    siri

    Neither the SOS or the AJC has more than 90% reporting for HD53.

    AJC says Stanley is winning 52/48, SOS says Dobbs is winning 51/49.

  71. MelGX Avatar
    MelGX

    M_Combest, voters don’t lose elections, candidates do.

    It’s time for you and your favorite candidate to do some serious soul searching about why his campaign crashed and burned. Otherwise, it will have been a useless exercise for everyone involved.

  72. odinseye2k Avatar
    odinseye2k

    PS – I know little about the demographics of the counties and all, so feel free to help an out-of-stater out.

  73. odinseye2k Avatar
    odinseye2k

    Alright, I ran some numbers from the SOS site (Excel is your friend when you know how he operates):

    Fulton and DeKalb counties are essentially microcosms of the race at large.

    Fulton:

    Cardwell Jones Knight Lanier Martin

    16.2% 37.8% 6.8% 2.1% 37.1%

    DeKalb:

    Cardwell Jones Knight Lanier Martin

    17.0% 42.5% 5.6% 2.1% 32.8%

    Jones’ Top 10 counties:

    THOMAS

    RICHMOND

    MCINTOSH

    HANCOCK

    UPSON

    CHATHAM

    TIFT

    DOUGHERTY

    BURKE

    LIBERTY

    Jones’ bottom 10 counties:

    ECHOLS

    FANNIN

    LUMPKIN

    WHITE

    GILMER

    UNION

    FRANKLIN

    RABUN

    TOWNS

    DAWSON

    Martin’s top 10 counties:

    TATTNALL

    DODGE

    BLECKLEY

    WILCOX

    JENKINS

    PULASKI

    CANDLER

    WHEELER

    LONG

    MARION

    Martin’s bottom 10 counties:

    MCINTOSH

    NEWTON

    WARE

    RICHMOND

    BUTTS

    UPSON

    TROUP

    PIERCE

    CAMDEN

    THOMAS

    Jones max-min in a county: 69.1% – 5.8%

    Martin max in a county: 64.8% – 14.6%

  74. PaulaG Avatar
    PaulaG

    The lesson of the Senate race is that name recognition/familiarity will get you everywhere.

    Hey Chris – I was surprised by the (low) total number of votes cast in your primary. Is that about what you were expecting? Just wondering.

  75. MelGX Avatar
    MelGX

    Good suggestion Bob. Here’s his URL:

    http://www.chrishuttman.com/

    Congrats to Chris!

  76. odinseye2k Avatar
    odinseye2k

    “Oh, and the experience bit I hear about Rand is crap, how many US Senators had no political experience before entering office?”

    I don’t know, but I would be very interested in knowing how many of those were self-funded.

    I also don’t know what to say to Rand. The polls showed something like 30 percent undecided up until the end and the numbers just didn’t convert his way.

    He should definitely pump Dale Cardwell for answers, though. He also had no experience other than as a pretty boy in front of a mic but still got 3 times the love.

    I think we can assume the Knight / Lanier votes go straight to Martin, but Cardwell is a little bit more difficult for me to figure.

    It’s ABJ time.

  77. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    Congrats to Chris Huttman on his landslide victory!

    Now is time to go to his website and chip in; he’s going to need every nickel against Chambers.

    Bob Roche

  78. M_Combest Avatar
    M_Combest

    Rand is as shocked as anyone else, he is very disapointed and it really hurts to see voters totally blind about who VJ really is. I do believe I have lost faith in almost 200K dems in this state that voted for him, sometimes I wonder if GA Dems like these belong in a third party- what is the matter with these people? If you want a candidate like him go vote Republican. If VJ god forbid prevails in this runoff I will put all of my time and energy with as many folks as possible to try and bring him down as drastically as possible.

    Oh, and the experience bit I hear about Rand is crap, how many US Senators had no political experience before entering office? Last I checked our democracy does not require you ‘pay your debt’ to serve people of GA. good greif.

    Why exactly are folks so sure Martin can beat Saxby? I mean what info are we looking at? because info I see HARDLY makes him a shoe in…Contrast like Obama/Mccain would have given Dems the best chance in an era like we are in, and Rand offered that. Too bad people gave thier vote to a criminal and a candidate who truly does not have a passion to run. I like you Jim but cmon, you know good and well you really didn’t want to jump into this race. Rand Knight Did.

  79. Jules Avatar
    Jules

    Thunder baby maybe you were overwhelmed by all the “politicalness” of the day! I can tell you sometimes it’s worse than that crack Shebly is growing at home.

  80. innerredneckexposed Avatar
    innerredneckexposed

    What I learned is that I walked out on my tab at Manuel’s…how embarrassing! I will be going there at lunch to pay (in my defense, I went about 2.5+ hours without purchasing anything and I just forgot that I had stuff to pay for). I also left my phone at the bank yesterday so it was a very embarrassing day to say the least.

  81. Jen B. Avatar
    Jen B.

    I voted for three losers: Senate, PSC and State Senate.

    Yay for Chris Huttman!

    Keith Gross still sucks.

  82. Jules Avatar
    Jules

    I’m not sure why folks are surprised by Rand, or Josh or Dale for that matter. In all of these cases, whether they worked themselves to death or not the issue that I believe it came down to was; they really didn’t have the political experience to run for a job that only 100 people on the planet have.

    While relevant experience in business and “life” might get you a seat else where, it isn’t going to get you to the show in DC.

    Just my .02

  83. MelGX Avatar
    MelGX

    The runoff between Jim Martin and VJ will be more difficult, but I think Jim will prevail. It was good to see Jim Powell clean up, even after the SOS tried to tank him. Fingers crossed that he wins his case.

    Myron Freeman? Really? Unbelievable.

    Rand was the shocker of the night.

  84. Decaturguy Avatar
    Decaturguy

    One lesson learned is that you cannot have a winning statewide campaign strategy built on union endorsements in Georgia, even in the Democratic Primary. There just aren’t enough of them and just because you get their endorsement it doesn’t mean that their members will vote for you, or vote period.

    Myron Freeman will get trounced in the runoff. No incumbent getting only 30% of the vote stands much of a chance in the runoff. At least I would hope not.

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