Nunn and Purdue Enter Crowded Senate Race

David Purdue and Michelle Nunn entered an already crowded Senate race this week, vying for a seat left vacant by Saxby Chambliss’ retirement. Although hailing from opposite sides of the aisle, both candidates have business backgrounds. Purdue is the former CEO of Reebok and Dollar General, while Nunn currently is the CEO of the volunteer organization Points of Light.

As such, the two new-comers will present themselves as “outside the Beltway” candidates, trying to show voters they’re not career politicians. Based on a few early comments, the two will make the economy and debt the foundations of their campaigns.

In an interview this week with WSB, Republican David Purdue staked his ground as a businessman, not a politician.

“There are fewer than ten people in the United States Senate who have any business experience,”

he said.

“And, so with the economy and debt being the two primary issues of the day, it just seemed to me that I had to stand up.”

He’s also determined to distance himself from his cousin, former Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue, saying he’s not a proxy for Sonny.

Daughter of former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, Michelle Nunn will be the second Democrat in the race; Atlanta Psychiatrist Branko Radulovacki entered the race in June. Nunn’s first few comments show she’ll run as a moderate. In a recent Associated Press Interview she discussed the national deficit.

“I’ve spent a lot of time looking at how people are willing to sacrifice for others and to be called upon something greater than themselves (sic),”

she said,

“I think that is a big part of the education for solving the deficit.”

Although Nunn criticized Obamacare, she wasn’t so courageous to call for its repeal, but said only that certain parts needed to be changed and revised. She also leans left on abortion, saying they should be legal, safe and rare, adding that the choice should be between the woman and doctor. Even democrats in the ninth district will reject this part of her platform, which violates the Judeo-Christian tradition, not only in this district, but through out the majority of the state.

Local pundit and Radio Talk Show Host Martha Zoller says it’s a big leap to say the Georgia senate seat will go Democrat. Zoller calls Nunn an unknown quantity.

“If all they’re really looking at is the children and grandchildren of previously elected Democrats in Georgia,”

she said,

“then they’re still in serious trouble from a party standpoint.”

If Nunn is an unknown quantity, then how much more of an unknown quantity is Radulovacki?

Purdue and Nunn are entering an already crowded field. On the Democrat side there’s only Nunn and Radulovacki. On the Republican side, though, eight candidates have already entered the race: Congressmen Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey, Jack Kingston, Derrick Grayson, Former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, Eugene Yu and now David Purdue.

Zoller says it’s neither early nor late in the race. Candidates announcing as late as January, she says, wouldn’t be too late, because this is when most people in earnest start paying attention to elections.