The Atlanta Press Club hosted a televised debate on Sunday for the Republican candidates running for Congress in the state’s 11th District, (the seat being vacated by Senate hopeful Phil Gingrey). We’re always skeptical of whether anyone watches these things or if they do any good in moving the polls, but it at least gives an interesting look into the state of the race just before the election.
An aside before we get into the debate itself, polling shows Loudermilk and Barr in good position to make a runoff. Lindsey seems to be the only other one with a shot, a fact which didn’t seem lost on the candidate from Sandy Springs as he came out with the most fire in his belly.
Barr to me was the big winner. He’s the wily veteran in this race, and it showed. First fending off a question about his past party switching shenanigans with relative ease, then tossing up a question to Mrozinski about veteran care that made both look sympathetic to the issues facing vets, Barr stayed out of any potential fights or ‘youtube moments’. He harped on his past experience in Congress and didn’t get dragged into the muddy waters that surround some of his history.
Loudermilk, the other frontrunner, caught the brunt of the attacks, particularly from Lindsey. After receiving questions from three candidates in a row he remarked that it was ‘pretty clear who the frontrunner is’. His first exchange with Ed Lindsey was probably the highlight of the debate, centering around his giving up his state Senate seat to run, thereby forcing his district to hold a costly special election. In turn he hit Lindsey for ‘campaigning on taxpayer dollars’ and using his time this session to advance his candidacy. He was also called a ‘career politician’ by Mrozinski, an accusation which fell flat since he hasn’t actually made it to Congress where politics would become his full-time job. He fought back when attacked though, even if these debates did have a big effect on the polls I doubt he would have taken a hit from his performance today.
Ed Lindsey clearly came into the debate with a purpose, unfortunately such a short debate with so many candidates wasn’t a great venue for it. Besides his hot exchange with Loudermilk, Lindsey did a good job of talking about his successes in the State House and laid out his cut and dry Conservative approach to dealing with the question of illegal immigration. Lindsey needed a good debate to help his attempt to surge up into the runoff, and he had one, but I don’t know that there’s enough time left.
Tricia Pridemore seems like a truly kind woman, but she needed to do more here to push her advantages, (female, small business owner). Instead she seemed content to sit back and talk about how she’s running a very positive race and wants to keep the American dream alive. Nobody wants to go negative, but at some point you’ve got to separate yourself from the field.
Mrozinski was certainly the most rehearsed candidate, taking several opportunities to address the camera and lay out his ‘outsider’ message. May be a little late to try to push across candidate ID, but hey, at least he tried. He was also aggressive, going after Loudermilk for being a ‘career politician’ and calling his SimpleTax idea political-speak that would never get done. A surprisingly good showing, but too little too late for a fringe candidate.
If Mrozinski was the most rehearsed candidate, Allan Levene was surely the most entertaining. Running in Hawaii as well as Georgia, Levene has some big ideas as to how to turn the economy around, (he could have it done by December if elected). He has some bizarre plan to bring over Chinese nannies to teach our children Mandarin while learning about American culture, and also wants to cut out a big swath of Texas to give to Israel so they can get out of the Middle East. Levene also tried to jump into the fray with Loudermilk, but his ‘question’ about Constitutional Conventions came out a bit incoherent, (kudos to Loudermilk for trying to answer it). I hadn’t heard of Levene before the debate and doubt I ever will hear of him again, but he definitely made a splash.
As we’ve written recently, light turnout can do some funky things to elections. The district favors Loudermilk and Barr, but a Lindsey surge wouldn’t be out of the question. I don’t know that a debate like this would effect the polls one way or another even in a Presidential cycle, as most people watching probably made their minds up months ago, but it’s a good exercise in political theatre.
