When Gov. Sonny Perdue held his first meeting with Nathan Deal after the Republican runoff election, he exuded confidence about the upcoming general election battle between Deal and Roy Barnes for governor.
Asked by a reporter about the possibility of groups like the Democratic National Committee supporting the Barnes effort, Perdue tried to dismiss the idea that such a move might cause any problems for Deal.
”I kind of laugh at that and I hope the Democrats bring all the money they can to Georgia,” Perdue said with one of his characteristic smirks. “The more they spend futilely here, the less money they can spend elsewhere.”
Despite the outward display of bravado, it appears that Perdue is getting a little nervous about the fact that his old political enemy is making another try for the governor’s office. The organization that Perdue once ran as chairman, the Republican Governors Association (RGA), is already running attack ads in Georgia that attempt to link Barnes to President Barack Obama.
RGA will have plenty of financial resources to keep up this drumbeat of criticism against Barnes – one of the organization’s major financial backers is Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. has contributed $1 million to RGA.
The fact that the organization – whose director is a Perdue underling, Nick Ayers – is attacking Barnes so early and so often suggests that Republicans are clearly worried about Barnes’ prospects for November.
Jason Pye, a Libertarian blogger, called out his Republican friends for their “irrational fear of Roy Barnes” in a blog item today:
The “King Roy” meme is just ridiculous. Republicans held the minority during his term as Governor from 1999 to 2003, so I’m sure the Republicans that were in the legislature at the time remember unpleasant fights over legislative issue. That stuff happens, especially when your party isn’t in control.
On redistricting. Anyone that tells you that they are not going to vote for Barnes because of redistricting, which I have heard several times, is lying to you. This issue will be decided in the courts, just as it was in 2004.
As I’ve noted here before, Roy Barnes has received better ratings than Sonny Perdue on fiscal policy from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank.
Roy Barnes may be a lot of things and I certainly disagree with him on a number of issues, but his record doesn’t show him to be an Obama Democrat as so many Republicans are trying to do. He is a traditional Southern Democrat.
I’m at the point where I’m easily turned off by scare tactics and emotional reactions towards certain people or issues. Roy Barnes doesn’t scare me. You may say, “But Jason, we need to restrain government spending!” I agree and history shows is that one party government is good for any state or country because it holds down spending. Remember, whatever happens in November (or December, if there is a runoff), Republicans are not in any danger of losing control of the legislature.
It’s also important to note that spending under Republicans in Georgia has not decreased, it steadily increased until the recession. The argument can be made that the spending cuts were so tough in the last two sessions because of spending increases. Republicans had several years to do something about this problem, but they became addicted to the smell of the marble under the Gold Dome and decided that they enjoyed being in power, rather than make tough choices that were best for taxpayers.
