Local progressive activists have started a Facebook group encouraging Andy Rusk to run for Congress against Paul Broun.

Rusk, the grandson of former Secretary of State Dean Rusk, drew significant support from the liberal downtown hipster/townie crowd during a beer-soaked half-serious run for mayor in 2006. He wouldn’t win, but he sure would make life interesting.

The group’s founder, Ryan Lewis, reports that the group has more than 200 members and that he did not consult Rusk before forming it.

“Andy is exactly the kind of reluctant hero we need to end the shame that PBJ has brought on the 10th,” Lewis wrote to group members today. PBJ would be Paul Broun Jr., not peanut butter and jelly.

However, just 15 minutes ago Rusk posted a very politician-like message to the page, saying he has “no plans to run for elective office at this time” and that the “probability of yours truly being a candidate borders on impossibility.” Leave yourself enough wiggle room there, Andy?

In other news, Team Deal circulated a news release today proclaiming that five of Georgia’s six Republican congressmen, including Broun, “reaffirmed their support” for Rep. Nathan Deal for governor at a private event in Atlanta on Monday.

It is unclear why their support needed to be reaffirmed, but there you have it.

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