After a brief respite, the Georgia airwaves are again seeing ads from Senate Primary runoff candidates Jack Kingston and David Perdue.
Not surprisingly, the runoff candidates are each targeting the other’s vulnerabilities. First on the air is David Perdue, with an ad that opens once again with the crying babies, then attacking Kingston for votes cast during 22 years in Congress.
Kingston fires back, once again using a Barack Obama impersonator, but this time tying Perdue to the unpopular President.
Most commentators have said that Kingston appears to have the momentum, receiving endorsements from fellow Primary candidates Karen Handel and Phil Gingrey. Polls in the runoff have consistently shown Kingston with a double-digit lead, not surprising since most Georgia voters chose one of the experienced public servants over the “outsider” David Perdue.
But Kingston hit resistance when reports surfaced that his campaign received $80k in contributions from companies associated with a convicted counterfeiter. What should have been a one-day media hit that let Kingston keep moving threatens to extend into a second week and become quicksand, slowing his progress.
As far as “scandals” go, it’s very thin: no one has alleged that the felon at the center of the controversy, Khalid Satary, gave a direct contribution to Kingston, and most Georgia voters had never heard of Khalid Satary before this issue emerged. This shouldn’t be a mortal wound if Kingston can find a way to put it in the rearview mirror.
On a technical note, I would argue that Perdue’s ad is better than Kingston’s because Perdue puts the negative information about Kingston on-screen in text, while Kingston’s ad is more like a radio ad set over a slideshow. For those of us who process the written word better than spoken, Perdue’s allegations will stick better. But that’s a very minor point.
More problematic is the willingness of candidates and third parties advertising for or against candidates to stretch the truth to the point of breaking. It’s fair to criticize some of Kingston’s votes – over a long Congressional career, every member casts votes that can be used against them back home – but calling Kingston a “liberal” goes a step too far.
While some idelogical conservatives scoff at the national conservative groups who rate Kingston very highly for his conservative voting records, he does appear at or near the top of most rankings of the most conservative members of Congress.
Likewise, the Kingston ad’s assertion that Perdue has said he will raise taxes may be taking a statement Perdue made that arguably leaves the door open to “government revenue enhancement” too far.
Primary runoff elections are like Primaries, only more so. After a winnowing, the remaining candidates have to give their supporters sufficient reason to return to the polls, and often hyperbole dominates the advertising. Subtle differences in policy preference become stark contrasts when each candidate’s positions are taken to the absolute extreme. My advice for voters in the July 22 Republican Primary Runoff? Turn off the television. Keep calm and read a good book. Or make sure your own truth-o-meter is calibrated and robust.
