Ga. Democrats feign enthusiasm, victory

Even as the top political aide to Barack Obama forswear this week a heavy Georgia footprint in the fall, the state Democratic party emailed supporters on Tuesday an invitation to attend the grand opening of the president’s local headquarters.

“Come join the WAVE of Georgia supporters for the Grand Opening and learn how you can make an impact in your community,” the invitation reads. Promising it will be a “fun and energetic event,” it also teased undisclosed special guest appearances.

But their new-found braggadocio is misleading — and most say unwarranted.

The state party has been in crisis for months, hemorrhaging cash and teetering on the brink of insolvency. It lost two top officials in as many months to intraparty revolts and its fundraising receipts consistently trail outlays.

And in recent weeks the party has assumed an especially defensive posture to qualifying anecdotes betraying the stranglehold it once had on rural partisan offices.

In a message to rank and file supporters on Monday, party chief Mike Berlon countered the thrush of party defection reports by noting a handful of down ticket victories.

“Our Republican friends are taking the ‘silly season’ to the next level this year,” Berlon wrote. “We are resurging in areas that they never anticipated, and frankly, they’re worried.”

As evidence of this grand resurgence that so frightened local GOP’ers, Berlon writes that voters in “Nahunta elected five Democrats, a recent record.”

Party performance in the southeast Georgia town, however, is not quite the smoking gun local operatives need to stem the negative tide: according to the 2000 census, its population registered at just 930.

One Republican operative noted in an email to Tipsheet the “inherent desperation” in a statewide political organization spotlighting down ticket victories in a municipality smaller than some metro Atlanta planned communities.

- James Richardson

June 5, 2012 0 Comments Short URL