Georgia Tipsheet

Rep. Tom Price offered his first thoughts since passing on a campaign for Georgia’s open Senate seat, predicting his three House colleagues who’ve thrown their hat in the ring might run into some trouble.

“I think the folks who are running from the House will have a bit of a challenge because … the popularity of Congress isn’t at an all-time high,” the Republican told The Daily Caller. ““So I think they will have a challenge getting over that hurdle. They also will have a significant voting record that they will have to answer to. And for those outside, it becomes an easier thing to target.”

Four candidates have formally announced for the seat, including Price’s fellow House members Reps. Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey, and Jack Kingston. They’re joined by former Secretary of State, and 2010 gubernatorial candidate, Karen Handel.

Former Dollar General CEO David Perdue has launched an exploratory effort, stopping just short of officially entering the race.

Price himself was considered a potential candidate for the seat, even before Chambliss announced his retirement. He ultimately opted against a bid last month, choosing to remain in the House where he serves as Vice-Chairman of the Budget Committee.

As for whether or not he would endorse in the primary, Price simply said “maybe.”

He was the lone member of the state’s Republican congressional delegation to back Handel over now-Governor Nathan Deal in the 2010 primary.

-Brandon Howell

The National Republican Senatorial Committee isn’t waiting on a formal announcement from Michelle Nunn on whether or not she will become the first announced Democrat in the race for Georgia’s open Senate seat, issuing a press release dubbing her a “liberal extremist” and calling on her to disclose unknown policy positions.

“While Sam Nunn would be considered a conservative extremist by Washington Democrats’ standards today, his daughter Michelle Nunn is to the left of Barack Obama and believes the Occupy Movement is the future of America,” NRSC press secretary Brook Hougesen said in reference to Nunn’s famous father. “Why has Nunn been silent over her stances? Because Nunn’s extreme record of praising radical liberal groups like the Occupy Movement illustrates just how dangerously out of touch she is with voters in Georgia.”

The release further cites a report claiming that key Democrats are still learning where the Points of Light CEO “stands on key issues,” and dubs her “all they have at this point” when it comes to fielding a candidate in Georgia.

Nunn herself has yet to make a formal announcement, but a weekend report from The Hill stated that she was gearing up for a summer announcement, likely to come in mid-June or early July.

-Brandon Howell

Another Republican is reportedly likely to enter the contest to fill Rep. Paul Broun’s congressional seat in Georgia’s 10^th district, with the AJC saying “chances are good” that conservative activist Jody Hice will join the fray.

Hice previously ran for the 7^th congressional district in 2010, losing a runoff battle to now-Rep. Rob Woodall after seeking to replace the retiring John Linder in Congress.

Should he ultimately decide on mounting another bid, Hice would likely appeal to those amongst Paul Broun’s socially conservative base. Prior to his 2010 campaign, he gained notoriety for a 2003 effort aimed at stopping the ACLU’s attempts at having a Ten Commandments statue removed from a Barrow County courthouse.

State Rep. Donna Sheldon announced he entry into the contest last week, following state Senator Bill Cowsert’s announcement he wouldn’t be running.

Stephen Simpson, who was vanquished by Broun in last year’s primary, is giving it another go and Columbia County’s Brian Slowinski has also announced his entry.

-Brandon Howell

U.S. Reps. Paul Broun of Georgia and Steve Stockman of Texas have collected the signatures of more than three dozen Republicans on a letter warning congressional leadership from green lighting legislation providing for universal background checks without majority support from the House GOP caucus.

“We are writing to express our strong opposition to legislation requiring private background checks for firearms purchasers,” the pair, joined by 45 other Republicans, wrote. “Under the precedents and traditions of the House, we would ask that no gun legislation be brought to the floor of the House unless it has the support of a majority of our caucus.”

The majority within the majority protocol is known within the conference as the Hastert Rule, named for former Republican Speaker Denny Hastert, and is intended as an ideological check on leadership.

Broun, an outspoken conservative now running for U.S. Senate from Georgia, said the proposed measure, which is a top priority of President Obama and Senate Democrats, violates the freedoms of gun owners on an “unprecedented scale” — and all for naught.

Citing gunmen involved in recent mass shootings, the letter says the tightened purchasing regulations would not prevent criminals from legally obtaining firearms and would instead only punish law-abiding citizens.

“In additional to constitutional concerns, even if every private transfer of firearms were regulated by the federal government, it would not be an effective crime fighting tool,” the letter reads. “Typically, shooters steal firearms (Adam Lanza), pass a background check (James Holmes and Jared Loughner) or receive their firearms through straw purchasers (which is already illegal).”

Even though the state’s congressional delegation is among the most conservative and pro-gun in the nation, only one other Georgian, freshman Rep. Doug Collins, signed Broun’s letter.

- James Richardson

Politico’s Morning Score is reporting that Rep. Jack Kingston will officially announce that he’s raised $841,000 in the first fundraising quarter of 2013, boosting his coffers to $1.75 million in preparation for a probable Senate bid.

The numbers are one of the clearest indicators that he is taking a serious look at entering the race, as he raised just $90,000 in the first quarter of 2012, an election year.

Kingston has all but formally announced that he intends to run for the retiring Saxby Chambliss’s seat, speaking at GOP events far removed from his coastal Georgia district since the senior senator announced his planned retirement.

Reps. Phil Gingrey and Paul Broun remain the only two formally announced candidates in the race, with Gingrey having entered the fray already packing $1.8 million on hand. Broun started with a far less substantial warchest, sitting just over $155,000.

The Politico report of Kingston’s numbers went on to state that he “plans a mid-April announcement on his decision in the race.”

Update: A press release from Kingston’s office touted the fundraising totals as some of the strongest in his career while teasing his entry into the Senate contest.

“The report is by far the strongest Kingston has posted in his time in Congress. In comparison, he raised $89,993 in the first quarter of 2011 and had $956,627 on hand,” read the release.

Kingston went on to state in the release that he “will need a strong war chest to turn back their attacks and continue our efforts to cut deficit spending, encourage economic growth, and harness America¹s energy potential.”

-Brandon Howell

Following murmurings that he was looking at a campaign for the retiring Saxby Chambliss’s Senate seat, businessman David Perdue is now  reportedly resigning his post on the governing board of the Georgia Port Authority.

The move may well be a signal that the cousin of former Governor Sonny Perdue is indeed serious about making his first bid for public office.

Jim Galloway at the AJC reported that Perdue had “announced to fellow board members last week that he would be leaving,” though Governor Nathan Deal’s office reported that they had yet to receive a resignation letter.

The former CEO of Dollar General and Reebok is a resident of Sea Island, encompassed in the same coastal Georgia terrain that a campaign by Rep. Jack Kingston would call its base.

Galloway further notes the “obvious” connections to Middle Georgia he’d bring to the race, likely joined by the backing of much of the Perdue statewide network.

-Brandon Howell

U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey will formally announce a bid for Georgia’s Republican Senate nomination to replace retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a well-placed GOP strategist has confirmed.

A Republican with knowledge of Gingrey’s plans told Tipsheet the congressman, now in his sixth term in the House, would file a federal statement of candidacy Wednesday to run for Senate.

The Marietta Republican will chase the paperwork with a pair of kickoff events in Atlanta and Augusta, the first measure of how well the 70-year-old lawmaker will endure the physical rigors of a long primary.

Gingrey will be only the second candidate to enter the Republican contest, still 16 months out, and square off with outspoken conservative Rep. Paul Broun. Other possible GOP recruits include Reps. Jack Kingston and Tom Price.

Whatever the final composition, the primary will be a closely-watched affair by national Republicans concerned with the race’s more and most conservative dynamic.

The rightward drag was apparent last week when the once-uniform Georgia delegation frayed over the budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin wonk who Republicans nominated last year as vice president.

Days before the vote, Broun argued the budget was insufficiently conservative, even as Democrats complained it was maniacally austere. At the same time, Gingrey praised the proposal for reducing spending and reforming entitlement programs.

But when a vote was called by House leadership, Broun was not the lone Georgia dissenter. Gingrey, too, voted against the measure, later saying he found it unacceptable because it did not defund the Affordable Care Act. Both Price and Kingston voted for the bill.

Asked whether his vote may have been informed by the position of a likely rival, Gingrey’s spokeswoman said the congressman “has been consistently conservative in his voting record, regardless of how Paul Broun or anyone else votes.”

Whether his right flank is vulnerable to an attack by Broun or not, Gingrey will have the resources to wage an aggressive campaign with a robust television component, campaign sources say.

According to the most recent federal campaign filings, Gingrey’s war chest is fully twelve times larger than what Broun has amassed. While Broun must initially scrape by with little more than $155,000, Gingrey has banked north of $1.8 million.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported of Gingrey’s intention to announce.

- James Richardson

Mitt Romney may be content with peppering small varmints with lead, but for Rep. Paul Broun, the outspoken conservative aiming to replace retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss next year, only big game will do.

The congressman told National Review for a new profile that he once hunted and ate a jungle cat, among other unconventional game.

“If I shoot it, I’m gonna’ eat it,” Broun, whose congressional office is infamous among Hill interns and junior staffers for the stuffed exotic beasts that decorate its walls, told the conservative mag.

Still, he warned that his eat-what-you-kill precept doesn’t always yield pleasant dining experiences.

“The lion wasn’t particularly tasty” he said, noting that he had also eaten warthog. “It was kind of chewy, but I ate it too.”

Inherent tenderness notwithstanding, Broun credited his haute cuisine techniques with rendering most meals at least palatable.

“I’m a French cook myself,” Broun said, “and I like to cook things with some fancy sauces and stuff that I’ll make at home.”

- James Richardson

A pair of Georgia Republican congressmen eying the state’s open U.S. Senate seat broke rank and voted on Thursday against the budget proposed by Rep. Paul Broun, criticizing the measure as insufficiently conservative even as national Democrats attacked it as maniacally austere.

The Ryan budget, which would eliminate the federal deficit in ten years, narrowly passed the House on a largely party-line vote Thursday. No Democrats voted for the proposal, but Georgians Phil Gingrey and Paul Broun joined eight other conservatives in opposing it.

The two lawmakers said they believe Ryan’s framework did not cut government spending as sharply as needed.

Gingrey, though a spokeswoman, told Tipsheet he voted against the proposal because it did not address the “enormous” taxes included the president’s health care reforms.

“As we mark the third anniversary of the health care law, small business owners, families and patients are beginning to feel its impact. Obamacare is bad fiscal policy, a nightmare for patients, and a drag on the economy,” Gingrey, an obstetrician from Marietta, said. “Based on this grim reality, I have opposed the continuing resolution because it does not defund Obamacare and — consistent with this position — I voted against the Ryan budget because it left the enormous Obamacare taxes in place.”

Broun, also a physician, had previously telegraphed his opposition to the Ryan plan in the opinion pages of the New York Times, a move that most GOP observers believe manifested Gingrey’s rightward lurch.

But Ryan was not without his boosters from the pool of potential Republican Senate recruits.

Both Reps. Tom Price, who serves as Ryan’s deputy in the Budget Committee, and Jack Kingston supported the proposal, which the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said “proves just how wrong they are for Georgia.”

“Today, Tom Price and Jack Kingston again embraced an extreme budget that would have disastrous consequences for Georgia seniors, students and middle class families,” DSCC Press Secretary Justin Barasky said in a statement.

The statement made no mention of Broun or Gingrey’s opposition–that’s an attack better suited to a splashier medium, like television–though it is the first time Senate Democrats have devoted resources to handicapping a potential run by Price.

Price was long expected to pursue Georgia’s Senate contest but speculation had decidedly cooled in recent weeks until Monday, when he huddled with senior officials at the National Republican Senatorial Committee to discuss a possible campaign.

Consider him back on the radar.

- James Richardson

It’s the first skirmish in any election: that mad dash by candidates to secure top shelf consultants and staff that signals a seriousness and grit to party financiers.

That backstage jockeying is well underway in Georgia’s Republican Senate contest, where one announced hopeful has already assembled a robust operation and two other likely candidates have begun retaining prominent campaign vendors at a breakneck pace.

U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston has hired McLaughlin and Associates, the GOP polling firm that once measured public opinion for Gov. Nathan Deal, a well-placed source told Politico Tuesday.

But he’s not scooping aides in a vacuum: fellow Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey, who conservative mag National Review reported Tuesday had firmly resolved to pursue the GOP nod, last week hired a host of well-regarded operatives and vendors.

- James Richardson

In a New York Times op-ed, Georgia Rep. Paul Broun deals harsh words on colleague, and fellow Republican, Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget.

Saying that the Wisconsin congressman’s “ax isn’t sharp enough,” the candidate to replace the retiring Saxby Chambliss in the U.S. Senate writes that the proposal “fails to seriously address runaway government spending, the most pressing problem facing our nation.”

“There is a ‘Path to Prosperity,’ but Mr. Ryan’s budget isn’t it,” he continues.

The Ryan budget would eliminate the federal deficit over the next decade, and includes many of the same staples of his prior efforts, including converting Medicaid’s federal funding into block grants for states and tax code overhaul.

Broun’s hard-right tact against the proposal, on grounds that it doesn’t go far enough, comes just a week after the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) attacked Broun, along with likely Senate competitors Reps. Jack Kingston and Phil Gingrey, for their potential support of the Ryan budget.

“Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey and Jack Kingston’s support for the Republican budget would have disastrous consequences for Georgia seniors, students and middle class families,” DSCC press secretary Justin Barasky told Tipsheet. “Georgians deserve to know that under Broun, Gingrey and Kingston’s anti-Medicare plan, seniors would pay more for health care and millions would be forced onto a voucher program when they retire.”

-Brandon Howell

National Democrats on Tuesday warned three sitting House Republicans widely expected to pursue Georgia’s GOP Senate nomination that their votes on Rep. Paul Ryan’s new budget proposal would be used extensively in paid media advertising.

Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, unveiled on Tuesday his proposal to eliminate the federal deficit over ten years through many of the same mechanisms from his earlier offerings: an optional transition for future Medicare enrollees into a premium support system, or voucher program; converting federal Medicaid funding into block grants for the states; and overhauling the federal tax code.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said this week they believe that Ryan’s plan would hurt those Republicans who embrace it and were willing to put significant resources behind the threat.

“We’ll be launching an online media campaign to educate voters on Facebook and other social media,” DSCC Executive Director Guy Cecil told reporters Monday. “We’ll be launching an email campaign to engage our volunteers and our donors in this fight. And really this is the first in several steps to hold Republicans accountable on the air, on the ground, in the mail and online.”

The group made good on that promise a day later, targeting more than a dozen current House Republicans who are or are expected to run for Senate. Among them were Georgians Reps. Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey and Jack Kingston.

Reviving a popular theme from the previous campaign season, a DSCC release said that the trio had embraced a plan that would “force Georgia seniors to pay more out of their pockets each year for health care.”

“Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey and Jack Kingston’s support for the Republican budget would have disastrous consequences for Georgia seniors, students and middle class families,” DSCC press secretary Justin Barasky said in a statement to Tipsheet. “Georgians deserve to know that under Broun, Gingrey and Kingston’s anti-Medicare plan, seniors would pay more for health care and millions would be forced onto a voucher program when they retire.”

Conspicuously absent from the missive, however, was Rep. Tom Price, Ryan’s lieutenant in the Budget Committee and also a possible top Senate recruit.

A DSCC spokesman declined to comment when asked why Price, who said he would delay a decision on the race until May, was not included in the broadside.

- James Richardson

Five Georgia Republican congressmen said Thursday it appears the recent decision by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to release upwards of 2,000 undocumented immigrants from federal detention was “politically motivated” and not a necessary consequence of sequestration budget cuts.

“The agency’s decision to mass release illegal aliens detained in federal custody under the guise of budget cuts is both puzzling and alarming,” reads a new letter signed by GOP Reps. Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey, Doug Collins, Lynn Westmoreland and Tom Graves.

Sec. Napolitano announced earlier this month that budget cuts had forced the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release hundreds of low-risk detainees from custody, but the conservative quintet say in a new letter that the release violates the agency’s “mission of ensuring the safety and security of the American people.”

The Associated Press reported last week the agency had designs on the release of an additional 3,000 low-risk undocumented immigrants to offset budget cuts that might otherwise affect investigative and protective units.

The White House said the decision was made by career civil servants and not political appointees, but the Peach Staters say the timing of the release–Napolitano delivered congressional testimony on the impact of sequestration on DHS the day before the ICE release but made no mention of the pending discharge–gives reason to believe politics infected the decision.

“We fail to see how releasing 2,000 illegal aliens before sequestration went into effect on march 1 nor plans to release 3,000 more during March … ‘minimize[d] the impact of sequester,’” the bunch wrote. “In fact, your repeated failure to be forthcoming about the releases gives the impress that the decision was politically motivated.”

The group have asked Napolitano to respond to a series of questions probing the release’s provenance and want an accounting of the number and offenses of detainees released in Georgia.

One of the letter’s signatories, Rep. Broun, has already announced a campaign for the Republican Senate nomination and a second, Rep. Gingrey, is also expected to pursue the nod.

- James Richardson

A joint poll between Georgia-based firms Landmark Communications and Rosetta Stone Communications show Casey Cagle with an all-too-narrow lead in an unset field of potential Republican candidates who may vie to replace the retiring Saxby Chambliss in the U.S. Senate.

The lieutenant governor edges out Rep. Phil Gingrey with 17 percent to 15 percent. Rep. Jack Kingston follows with 12 percent, edging out House colleagues Reps. Tom Price and Paul Broun, who clock in with 11 and 10 percent, respectively.

State Senator Ross Tolleson, who’s name recognition would be considerably lower coming out the gate, clocks in at fifth place with 2 percent support from those surveyed.

As was the case with recent polling data, ‘Undecided’ still rules the roost with 33 percent.

“If Lt. Governor Cagle decides to run he would initially lead the pack because he has statewide name recognition,” stated Landmark President Mark Rountree. “However we also found that, based on our poll question regarding of his job approval, voters don’t know as much about him beyond name recognition. That’s normal for a down ticket elected official.”

John Garst, who heads Rosetta Stone Communications, noted that Price leads the pack amongst Metro Atlanta voters, though the media release did not specify by what margin.

Following initial reports that he had put a poll in the field to test his viability, Cagle’s camp has been virtually silent on whether or not he intended to launch a bid for the open seat.

The lieutenant governor himself recently told the AJC that his focus was on the current session of the Georgia General Assembly, saying that his plate is “full right now.”

To date, Rep. Paul Broun remains the only formally announced candidate in the still-developing primary field.

Multiple outlets recently reported that Gingrey is set on mounting a statewide campaign and Kingston told a gathering of Forsyth County Republicans that his intentions were to pursue the seat, though he stopped short of a formal announcement.

Price, who was an oft-rumored potential primary opponent for Chambliss, was expected to be one of the first announced candidates but has opted to instead delay his decision until May.

-Brandon Howell

Multiple reports indicate that Congressman Phil Gingrey is set to enter the race for the open Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Saxby Chambliss.

“Two strategists with knowledge of Gingrey’s plans on Thursday told The Washington Post the congressman is, for all intents and purposes, a candidate for Senate,” read the report from the Post.

That news came hours after a separate piece from The Hill indicated as much. Tom Perdue, a Georgia consultant who has long been a part of Senator Chambliss’s inner circle, told The Hill that Gingrey was making the rounds on phone calls, “telling them he’s going to run and his staff is telling people he’ll probably make his announcement sometime next week.”

His entry would make him the second official candidate in the contest, following Rep. Paul Broun.

Rep. Jack Kingston told a gathering of Forsyth County Republicans last Saturday that his plans are to pursue the seat, but no official announcement has been made.

Ethan Underwood, who chairs the Forsyth County GOP, later told Tipsheet that “Rep. Kingston said he is not officially announcing his candidacy, but that he plans to seek the Republican nomination.”

Gingrey spokeswoman Jen Talaber pushed back on the assertion that her boss is 100 percent set on seeking Chambliss’s seat.

“I spoke with Phil and he hasn’t sent any email indicating a Senate run, so I’m not sure what all of this is about,” she told The Hill.

Perhaps of note is the fact that Gingrey spoke to the University of Georgia’s College Republicans chapter on Wednesday, far removed from his district. Though nowhere near the site for making an official announcement, the hotbed of conservative activism is a likely stop for any would-be candidate looking to recruit volunteers.

-Brandon Howell