MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) – Georgia Democrat Michelle Nunn has spent the past month hammering away at Republican David Perdue’s career as a business executive, making a dispute over his role in outsourcing jobs the hallmark of her campaign for U.S. Senate.
With two weeks to go, Republicans think they’ve weathered the storm and remain bullish on their chances to pick up the six seats they need to regain a Senate majority. But backed with fresh cash from national Democrats, Nunn could yet complicate the GOP’s path by squeezing out a victory – or at least force a runoff that would leave the midterm congressional elections unsettled until January.
“I think we’ve seen the worst of it,” said Rob Collins, executive director of Senate Republicans’ national campaign effort. “What we need to talk about more is that she would be another rubber stamp” for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the White House.
Therein lies the rub for Perdue. Nunn’s attack on his resume has forced him to spend his public appearances answering questions about his work as an executive, taking time away from his core message – linking Nunn to Reid and President Barack Obama. Both are broadly unpopular figures in a largely Republican state where Mitt Romney twice defeated the president.
Nunn was at it again Wednesday, highlighting Republican opposition to a minimum wage hike while portraying Perdue as an overpaid CEO who mistreated employees.
“We need to ask what David’s business career really equips him to do,” Nunn said at a campaign stop in the suburbs north of Atlanta. “Is it really to serve the people of Georgia?”
Nunn’s initial attacks on Perdue’s business record reprised an argument made by opponents in the Republican primary. Perdue left Pillowtex, a struggling North Carolina textile company, in 2003 after only eight months on the job and just months before it closed – a collapse that left 7,500 people out of work. Democrats have piled on by touting a legal settlement with female employees who alleged gender-pay discrimination during Perdue’s tenure as CEO of the retailer Dollar General.
Her argument gained steam in early October when Politico published a 2005 deposition Perdue gave in lawsuits that followed the Pillowtex closure. Asked about his “experience with outsourcing,” Perdue replied, “Yeah, I spent most of my career doing that.”
Days later, under questioning from reporters, Perdue doubled down: “Defend it? I’m proud of it. This is a party of American business, part of any business. Outsourcing is the procurement of products and services to help your business run.”
His deposition answer and the words “I’m proud of it” have since played thousands of times on Georgia airwaves. Several recent polls suggest the race has tightened amid the attacks.
Collins and other Republicans predict Perdue nonetheless will benefit from the historical trend of midterm elections producing electorates that are smaller, older, whiter and more conservative than in presidential election years.
But even on that score, Nunn’s backers say they’re optimistic. New voter registration figures released this week show the overall electorate in Georgia is slightly smaller than in 2012, with whites now making up 58 percent of the state’s roughly 6 million voters. That’s down from 63 percent just six years ago, when Obama lost the state by 5 percentage points.
Democrats argue that adds to the power of minority voters who make up Nunn’s core base of support, while her attacks on Perdue’s business record allow her to reach white moderates and independents who didn’t vote for Obama.
It’s Perdue, they add, who must spend the closing act trying to excite his base. He will campaign this weekend with national tea party favorites, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, in separate events. And this week he announced an endorsement from the National Right to Life Committee.
Both sides are investing to the very end. The National Republican Senatorial Committee recently moved another $1.4 million into the race, and its Democratic counterparts answered with a new $1 million for Nunn.
At the Perdue campaign, spokeswoman Megan Whittemore promises the message will remain consistent.
“President Obama said that every single one of his policies is on the ballot this November,” she said. “Michelle Nunn’s allegiance to Barack Obama and Harry Reid continues to hold her back with Georgia voters who want a new direction in Washington.”
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Babington reported from Washington.
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