They’ll be a lot of political hope and hysteria this spring over the possibility that Congressman Paul Broun could either get elected to the U.S. Senate, or that he will cost the Republicans a majority in the Senate by losing a winnable election against Michelle Nunn.
Neither will happen. But that’s not the same as saying that Broun isn’t going have something to do with who wins the race to replace Saxby Chambliss.
Broun is a political phenomenon. The reason is that he keeps things disarmingly simple. He flanks you to the right. Every time, and without flinching or smirking. There’s little about his views that is original. He’s just a Christian fundamentalist tea party libertarian , if you will. What’s different about Broun aren’t his views but the times we live in. Georgia has changed. It has gotten more urban, secular, and ethnically diverse over the last generation. Paul Broun is the premier example of what it’s like to be a traditional white Southern populist in 2014 Georgia.
The other major GOP candidates for Senate – we count four of them – are both terrified of Broun and hopeful that he will inadvertently boost them to victory.
In the polls, Broun is drawing about ten percent of the likely voters in the May 20 Republican primary. It’s true that there are a lot of undecided voters. But it’s also true that Broun’s views are so conservative/libertarian that most people who are going to vote for him already know it. His support is deeper than it is wide.
Unless he comes into some serious money and turns them into clever TV campaign ads. Then he could tap into the frustration and anger that so many people have against elected officials and government in general. If Broun is smart, he will tack this way in the Republican debates. He should paint himself as being picked on by the corrupt party establishment.
The interesting part is it’s not impossible that he could get some substantial money. What if a liberal super pact feeds Broun money because they see him as unelectable, and want to help him win the GOP nomination?
We’re not here to judge Paul Broun, or his views. But he’s only going to get so far. There are only so many people who vote for elected officials who insist the world is 9,000 years old, or who believe President Obama is planning an armed takeover of America.
What he could potentially do is weaken the eventual Republican nominee after a brutal primary runoff campaign. That nominee might look extreme himself or herself by dint of having campaigned against Broun on something like equal terms.
Remember too that media probably across the world are going to give Broun lots of love. Sure, they will be utterly dismissive him as a legitimate candidate, but he’ll still be in the headlines more than, say, Karen Handel. And headlines make for name ID.
To the other Republican U.S. Senate candidates, Paul Broun is the skunk at the garden party. Nobody can escape the scent.
