2014 Georgia: What If?

[JRP1994]

Just wondering/speculating....

How would the 2014 GA Senate race look if John Barrow was in Michelle Nunn's place? Would a Dem pickup be more or less likely?

[Flake]

More likely, he's a skilled campaigner who can run in an R+9 district and win, and he's a moderate who (as far as I know) is well-known throughout the state and seen as a Representative, not a politician.

[moderatevoter]

I actually think Barrow would have been a stronger candidate than Nunn.

[free my dawg]

Toss-up with Perdue, at the very least Tilts D with anyone else.

[old timey villain]

Well, we'll never know for sure, but we can't really speculate until later in the campaign. It's still primary season and most people won't be paying attention until the fall.

Barrow has proven that he knows how to win over Republican voters, but he has a lengthy record in congress that would certainly be used against him, probably tying to him to Obama based on certain votes. On the other hand, Michelle Nunn is more of a clean slate and Georgians seem to be pretty sick of entrenched politicians on both sides, but she is completely untested and we have no idea how she'll perform under the bright lights of a campaign.

[IceSpear]

This should be in the Senate forum, not gubernatorial.

Anyway, I think we're better off with Nunn. Barrow is a great campaigner and would do well in his district, but I don't think that would necessarily translate statewide after millions in Koch funded ads tarred him as a "Pelosi liberal" before his campaign could even get off the ground.

[Adam Griffin]

This should be in the Senate forum, not gubernatorial.

Anyway, I think we're better off with Nunn. Barrow is a great campaigner and would do well in his district, but I don't think that would necessarily translate statewide after millions in Koch funded ads tarred him as a "Pelosi liberal" before his campaign could even get off the ground.

The only thing is that they're going to say that/do that to literally every candidate. Zell Miller could run for Senate again at this point and they'd refer to him as "Pelosi's special lapdog".

With that being said - I think Barrow's fundraising ability would be on par with Nunn's, and his performance would be augmented by the fact that he's represented more than 1.1 million Georgians at one point or another:



He tends to do anywhere from 10-15 points better in his races than virtually any other Democrat; I could see Barrow automatically starting out with 10-20k more votes than Nunn just from the area above.

[TX Conservative Dem]

GA Dems better off with Nunn, fresh new face.

[IceSpear]

This should be in the Senate forum, not gubernatorial.

Anyway, I think we're better off with Nunn. Barrow is a great campaigner and would do well in his district, but I don't think that would necessarily translate statewide after millions in Koch funded ads tarred him as a "Pelosi liberal" before his campaign could even get off the ground.

The only thing is that they're going to say that/do that to literally every candidate. Zell Miller could run for Senate again at this point and they'd refer to him as "Pelosi's special lapdog".

Yeah, I agree. But it will be harder to do with Nunn since she's a blank slate, and never voted for Pelosi to be speaker.

[MATTROSE94]

Toss-up with Perdue, at the very least Tilts D with anyone else.