Bill Bozarth jogs through a different neighborhood every morning, stopping along the way to shake a few hands.
Bozarth, an independent candidate in the Georgia House’s 54th district, is conducting a grass-roots campaign, making daily runs to meet people out in their yards or driveways, knocking on doors and showing up at Starbucks to greet people standing in line for their mochas or frappuccinos.
“I’ve worn out a couple of pair of shoes already,” Bozarth said.
To run as an independent, Bozarth first had to collect at least 1,776 signatures, 5 percent of the district’s registered voters. He said that he collected more than 2,300 signatures and received certification as a candidate from Fulton County and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office in June.
Now he’s campaigning against Republican Beth Beskin and Democrat Bob Gibeling in the affluent, predominantly GOP district that runs from Sandy Springs through Buckhead. Held by House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey since 2004, the seat opened up when Lindsey ran for Congress. The front-runner Beskin declined to be interviewed for this article.
The former Common Cause executive director, former businessman and longtime Garden Hills resident says he’s burning shoe leather to make up for a shortage of money compared with his opponents. He’s limiting contributions to $250 from individuals, not taking any funds from advocacy groups or lobbyists.
Bozarth said his experience in the Legislature as the head of Common Cause showed him the disfunction of partisan politics. When he started with Common Cause, “the Democrats held all the big cards, then it flipped over to the Republicans. Over the years, I observed that a lot of the energy of the governing process is lost and wasted in gaining and maintaining power. I made the decision that if I ever ran, I would do it as an independent.”
If elected, he would at age 72 join Culver “Rusty” Kidd of the 145th District as the only House independents. Bozarth said his signature-gathering campaign showed him that “it’s a very arduous task to run for public office as something other than a Democrat or Republican, to run a campaign that’s not only independent of party but independent of big money.”
As a member of NPU-B and a community leader, Bozarth enjoys strong name recognition in Buckhead, and he said his signature-raising campaign allowed him to connect with more voters.
If elected, he plans to emulate Kidd, whom he said is “sort of looked up to as being an honest broker around some issues.” Bozarth said he’s particularly knowledgeable about ethics laws.
His purpose, he said, is “to get legislation passed that’s right for the people of Georgia, that’s balanced, and not catering to special interests.”
From Houston County to coast: U.S. Senate candidates Michelle Nunn and David Perdue share Houston County roots. Now they also have a coastal connection.
GOP nominee Perdue, whose Dad was superintendent of Houston schools and grew up in Warner Robins, lives on St. Simons Island. Coastal real estate rose as an issue in the Michelle Nunn campaign Thursday when the AJC reported that her family and advisers to her father, former U.S. Sen Sam Nunn, sought to develop marshland near Brunswick.
While the Nunns’ base is Perry, they looked to Glynn County to develop the 850 acres. Michelle Nunn’s husband, Ron Martin, was listed as the lead owner in the $2 million land deal that also involved the former senator, local builder Michael Wilson and former Sam Nunn aides Bob Hurt and Frank Norton, the newspaper said. But the plan to build 485 housing units went sour when the economy tanked, leading the developers to receive a special “conservation easement” that resulted in tax breaks.
The story broke just as Michelle Nunn was unleashing campaign ads calling Perdue a wealthy businessman out-of-touch with common people. While Michelle Nunn has begun attacking Perdue, the AJC story indicates that she too lives on a level above the average working family.
GOP Launches Fake Web Sites: U.S. Rep. John Barrow, seeking re-election in Georgia’s 12th District, is among national Democrats targeted by National Republican Congressional Committee web sites tailored to look like local news portals, the National Journal reported.
The NRCC created about two dozen of the false news sites, promoting them with localized Google search ads, the Journal said. The sites deliver partisan attacks that look like news articles.
