Georgia Senate candidate Matt Lieberman (D) “wrote and self-published a deeply bizarre novel in 2018, featuring a main character who believes that for most of his life he owned an imaginary slave who could communicate with plants and animals,” the HuffPost reports.
Lieberman, son of former Sen. Joe Lieberman, is running in the all-party special election to replace Sen. Johnny Isakson (R), who retired in 2018.
Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) deleted a Facebook ad targeting his Jewish election opponent, Jon Ossoff (D), that appeared to have been altered to make Ossoff’s nose bigger, the Forward reports.
Jon Ossoff (D), who appeared to be headed towards a runoff most of the day Wednesday, now seems to have clinched an outright win in Georgia’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, the AP reports.
Atlanta Journal Constitution: “Jon Ossoff built a commanding lead in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday as polls began to close after a day of voting marred by long lines and faulty equipment, but it was not yet clear whether he would face a runoff.”
Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Georgia required some “logistics somersaults” to accommodate the tensions between Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) and Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Loeffler flew with Pence to Georgia and “was invited to board the plane by top Trump aide Mark Meadows, who counts several of his former staffers in Loeffler’s office. That led Pence’s aides to ask Collins to join the greeting party—and ride with Pence back to Dobbins on the return trip. … Both got roughly 30 minutes of face time with the Veep.”
President Trump’s advisers are increasingly concerned about Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s (R-GA) campaign in Georgia, a newly competitive state where the president’s own poll numbers have tightened against Joe Biden, the New York Times reports.
“Because the field is so crowded, Georgia officials expect no candidate to get a majority, forcing a runoff. And the president’s team is planning to stay out of the race until the runoff approaches, which wouldn’t be until January 2021.”
“When Kelly Loeffler accepted an appointment to be a United States senator from Georgia, she left behind a high-paying job as a senior executive at the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. But on her way to Washington, her old employer gave her a lucrative parting gift,” the New York Times reports.
“Ms. Loeffler, who was appointed to the Senate in December and is now in a competitive race to hold her seat, appears to have received stock and other awards worth more than $9 million from the company, Intercontinental Exchange… That was on top of her 2019 salary and bonus of about $3.5 million.”
Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) will reserve about $4 million worth of airtime for a trio of new ads pushing back on criticism about her stock transactions during the coronavirus pandemic, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
The ads label the scrutiny from opponents, including Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), as “liberal lies” and claim she’s “unfairly targeted all because she’s a strong conservative woman.”
“Sen. David Perdue, a Georgia Republican up for reelection and a close Trump confidant, issued a blunt warning to GOP activists during an off-the-record conference call this week: Democrats are in position to turn his state blue and take the Senate,” CNN reports
Said Perdue: “Here’s the reality: The state of Georgia is in play.”
“The stark warning from a GOP senator — who is not considered among the most vulnerable Republicans this election cycle — illustrates the fear among Republicans that Democrats’ chances of taking back the Senate continue to grow.”
Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) rejected the idea of becoming the director of national intelligence after President Trump said he could tap the congressman to the post and spare fellow Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) of a formidable challenge, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Rep. Doug Collins’ (R-GA) Senate campaign in Georgia has prompted a raging intraparty fight leading to the departure of some of his top political advisers and recriminations with the Senate GOP’s main campaign arm, CNN reports.
“The National Republican Senatorial Committee is accusing Collins of running against Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), a Republican incumbent appointed by the governor, out of his own ‘selfish’ interests — while raising alarms that the bid has jeopardized the party’s chances to hold onto two GOP seats and made it harder for President Donald Trump to carry the Peach State in the fall.”
The move hasn’t dissuaded Collins from running. His spokesman told Playbook the “result is a positive one. Instead of a bunch of suits like the cast of ‘Law & Order’” working for the campaign, Collins has amassed a “colorful cast of characters who all have an aversion to authority.”
Rep. Doug Collins (R) has launched an attack ad against Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) in the Georgia Senate race by going after her past financial support for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT).
President Trump suggested that he’s working on a compromise between Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), two Georgia Republicans who are clashing over the same seat in a November election, the Atlantic Journal Constitution reports.
Said Trump: “I know, Kelly, that you’re going to end up liking him a lot.. Something’s going to happen that’s going to be very good. I don’t know; I haven’t figured it out yet.”
Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) launched a bid for U.S. Senate on Fox News, saying he’d center his campaign on support for President Trump as he dismissed concerns about opening a bitter Republican rift in Georgia, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Said Collins: “I’ve still got a lot of work left to do to help this president. We’re getting ready for a good time down here to keep defending this president and working for the people of Georgia.”
“The decision by the four-term congressman sets up a battle with Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), a wealthy Republican executive tapped by Gov. Brian Kemp (R) in December.”
“Soon-to-be Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler plans to spend $20 million of her own money on her 2020 Senate campaign in Georgia — a massive sum that could give potential rivals pause about trying to unseat her,” Politico reports.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) appointed Kelly Loeffler (R) to the U.S. Senate, selecting the financial executive over a congressman that President Trump repeatedly urged the Republican to pick, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Loeffler presented herself as a lifelong conservative who is “pro-Second Amendment, pro-military, pro-wall and pro-Trump” to counter criticism pitting her as a closet liberal.
Said Loeffler: “I make no apologies for my conservative values and will proudly support President Trump’s conservative judges.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) plans to tap financial executive Kelly Loeffler to a U.S. Senate seat next week as he pushes to expand the Georgia GOP’s appeal to women who have fled the party in recent years, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“The appointment would defy President Trump and other Republican leaders who have repeatedly urged him to appoint U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, a four-term congressman who is one of the president’s staunchest defenders in Washington.”
“President Trump quietly met Sunday in the White House with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and the governor’s preferred pick to fill the state’s Senate seat, Atlanta businesswoman Kelly Loeffler,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“But the private huddle turned tense and ended quickly… Mr. Trump has preferred Rep. Doug Collins, a Republican who has vocally defended the president during the impeachment process, and he told Mr. Kemp that he would be taking a risk by appointing the politically untested Ms. Loeffler. At one point Mr. Trump questioned why they were holding the meeting if Mr. Kemp had made his decision.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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