Paul Broun’s re-election campaign released another internal poll Monday touting the congressman’s huge lead.
Broun leads Republican primary opponent Barry Fleming 80-15, has an 81 percent approval rating and 97 percent name recognition, compared to Fleming’s 58 percent. The poll of 300 district residents was conducted by the Tarrance Group and has 5.8 percent margin of error.
The poll’s accompanying memo also says that Fleming’s negative campaign tactics – otherwise known as questioning Broun’s voting record – have backfired.
I still don’t believe these numbers, but there they are.
In other Broun-related news, he said he will introduce a resolution supporting property rights on the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s infamous Kelo decision, wrote a letter to the EPA urging it to deregulate the herbicide MSMA, voted for a failed bill to convert three closed military bases into oil refineries and urged the Supreme Court to strike down D.C.’s gun ban.
Good times.
Vernon Jones hates you
I hate to keep harping on this, but it really ticks me off when candidates think your votes are not worth courting. Vernon Jones has never shown his face in the heavily African-American, even more heavily Democratic bastion of Athens and skipped the two debates held here.
According to the AJC:
“Candidates will get to ask each other a question in the 1-hour debate that begins at 5 p.m. (Sunday) and will be carried live on Fox 5 and simulcast on its website.
“DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones, former state lawmaker Jim Martin, former WSB-TV reporter Dale Cardwell, Atlanta businessman Rand Knight and retired businessman Josh Lanier of Statesboro all plan to attend.”
Funny how Mr. Jones doesn’t have a scheduling conflict when he gets to be on the TV.
Here’s a prediction: Martin asks Jones if he took a wrong turn looking for the GOP debate, Jones asks the Three Amigos why they’re all such losers, Knight asks Martin where he learned to talk like that, Lanier asks Knight for gas money or a ride home and Cardwell asks Fox 5 if they have a job opening.
A little light reading for the beach
I am following up on the Tolstoy novel of an NBAF study that came out Friday. If anyone else read all or part of it and wants to sound off, knock yourself out.
- Blake Aued's blog
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Internal Polls
I am still waiting or Barry to release an internal poll which will show Paul Broun to be full of hot air. I guess he is waiting until the last minute to release his internal data. Based on what I am hearing and seeing in the northern part of the district I suspect Paul will garner around 70% of the vote north of Athens. Given that Barry spent Saturday campaigning door to door in his home district he doesn't have his base shored up. In an email I received on Friday of last week the Fleming campaign was asking for supporters in their email data base to drive to the Augusta area and spend Saturday working door to door. Poor planning waiting until around lunch on Friday to ask supporters to make such a commitment.
Reports I am hearing from Columbia county are that Broun's grass roots workers have covered GOP oriented subdivisions in the last 4 weeks and there are yard signs in place which show the fruits of their labor.
Did any one notice...
That when you look at the document properties of the accompanying memo that Jessica Morris is the author and the file was created at 6/23/08 11:50am. I guess the memo needed a little editing before they could put it on the press release.
Maybe Vernon Jones should
Maybe Vernon Jones should ask Keith Heard for directions.
Put a mark on the wall.
Now that's funny right there. Good one.
More good stuff
Cardwell asks Fox 5 if they have a job opening.
and that's hard.
Things are picking up.
The Flem
Fleming has just recieved a lifetime achievement award from the State Chamber of Commerce and still carries the endorsement of Georgia's largest group of medical professionals (he's running against a "doctor" too!)
I'm thoroughly shocked to find that Broun actually voted FOR a bill that didn't pertain to banning porn or legalizing weed.
Barry is going to take Columbia County for sure... I think the door to door was just to drum up support for the debate (at which he handled Broun and wooed everyone in the crowd not named Nikki Broun). It was probably an effort to ensure a big margin in Columbia... which is going to be vital in order to take the primary. From the looks of it, Barry's holding an advantage in Rabun, Towns, and Elbert up towards the northern section of the district. Its going to hinge on how much of Broun's home turf of Oconee Fleming can cut into.
If you want to base it off signs... Fleming might be undercutting Broun in Oconee as well. A good bit of the GOP voters in Oconee aren't cut from the Broun mold (for evidence I post to the alcohol by the drink initiatives which have gained more and more ground as the county has grown). If you look at the Georgia Presidential Primary, McCain won Oconee by a hair over Huckabee and Romney. The folks who Fleming appeals to seem to be the kind of folks that vote for a guy like Romney or McCain (fiscal, business Conservatives)... Broun voters tend to lean towards the Huckabee camp (evangelical, social conservatives).
If you go by that logic, which is just as flimsy as everyone elses basis for prediction, Fleming can not just play ball, but take, some areas throughout the district...
CNN has county by county results of the primary if you want to take a look:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#GA
Its important to note that Huckabee didn't take over 50% in any of the counties in the primary. So don't count Barry out anywhere. Especially now that he's got TV ads and plenty of money to spend... I think any name recognition discrepancies may soon be made up.
I think the internal polls are a joke. By the way, anyone notice it always gets really dark when Broun walks into a room? It must be that shadow he's always trying to crawl out of.
FLEMING IS TOO AMBITIOUS
The fact that he is a trial lawyer loses my vote. In addition, he is giving up a leadership position at the State House. Why does he not use it to improve things at the State Capitol? In regard to HR 3791, it imposes up to $300,000 fines on WI-FI operators for not immediately reporting porn download, but says they don't have to monitor. Do they expect the proud perp to come up and confess? In regard to HR 2517, hidden within, it increases government grants to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a private non-profit, for 2008 from $20 million to $40 million and such funds as necessary thru 2013. Congressional Budget Office estimates cost of $260 million. Hey, it's only money!! HR 2828 was introduced to pay relatives of US citizens killed in Kenya 8/8/1998. As passed it includes foreign national employees, foreign national appointees, and locally employed staff, for one years salary at highest step and grade available. Also ADDITIONAL PAYMENT to dependents of foreign service employee or executive branch employee at 8 times salary. Also retroactive compensation to relatives of all persons killed by terrorists from 8/8/1998 until today at $940,000 each. Hey, it's only money!!!Look it up yourself. Don't rely on Barry for the truth. Thank you Paul, thank you!
Fleming is ambitious? You
Fleming is ambitious?
You realize Broun ran for Congress and lost in 1990. He even ran as pro-choice so he could get elected. He was either pandering or his Christian credentials aren't what they seem to be.
Not being deterred by a crushing defeat in 1990 he even moved so he could get his butt kicked in another run for Congress in 1992. At least he was pro-life this time.
Apparently enjoying the taste of defeat, he got his fannie handed to him on a silver platter in a race for the US Senate in 1996.
If that aint ambition I don't know what is. If at first you don't win, run and run again... its the only way out of daddy's shadow apparently.
HR 2828, whats wrong with compensating those who serve the United States in the US Foreign Service. Often, their diplomacy is the first line of defense or offense we have with other nations. They served this country, regardless of nationality, they deserve to be compensated... their life is no less than a soldier who fights and dies for this country in Iraq.
HR 2517, what's wrong with giving the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children more money for a budget. Part of the reasoning for that budget increase was to combat child sex trafficking taking place in this country and to help those who are victims of illegal trafficking with psychological, medical, and social support. (Then again, they're probably foreigners... not worthy of our money right?)
HR 3791: Its pretty easy to limit someone's access to porn via WiFi... its called Internet restriction software... same stuff they do to keep elementary schoolers from accessing porn at school. I think we should have the toughest laws in place to crack down on child pornographers and why shouldn't illicit activity be monitored? You must have really drank the Kool-Aid on Broun saying that this would shut down all WiFi everywhere.
I don't trust Paul Broun as far as I can throw him... and I'm a pretty weak guy so its not very far. The guy is the king of pandering, just last week he told the debate in Columbia County that he was against expanding MCG anywhere outside of Augusta. He was certainly singing a different tune a couple weeks ago in Athens. He's lucky Saxby stepped in and saved the Campbell Center, or Broun would have been exposed for the inept congressman he is.
Thank you Barry for offering us a choice.
Saved By The Bell?
"He's lucky Saxby stepped in and saved the Campbell Center, or Broun would have been exposed for the inept congressman he is."
The Campbell Center is saved? That's news to the employees, Congress and the President...
Saxby has tried to secure a
Saxby has tried to secure a couple mill to keep the Campbell Center in operation.
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/052408/news_20080524036.shtml
Right. Asking for money and
Right. Asking for money and receiving it are two completely different things, though. As far as ~accomplishing~ a save, Chambliss and Broun are even. Broun has expended less effort so far, though.
Every time someone posts here that Chambliss has "saved" the Campbell Center (and it's been written here more than once), it's at best misleading.
I know it when I see it.
Its pretty easy to limit someone's access to porn via WiFi... its called Internet restriction software... same stuff they do to keep elementary schoolers from accessing porn at school.
Actually you don't have to much to keep elementary schoolers from accessing porn. If anything they thing it's gross. Limiting their access to game sites is another thing.
Middle schoolers and high schoolers, on the other hand !!!!
At one time I would have agreed with the stated premise. Certainly all you have to do is block the objectionable material, and how hard can that be? Having worked in the local schools a great deal, I've found out it is not that simple.
CCSD (and other districts as well) go beyond the restriction software. They go to the next level and block specific sites from access to CCSD computers. The usual suspects, YouTube, Zebo, MySpace and so on. Sites are added regularly by teachers and administrators. Despite this site specific blocking, hundreds of hours are wasted with students surfing these sites, because the blocks are easily evaded. In fact there are accessible sites that clearly explain even to a geezer like me how to avoid the blocks.
You may recall the incident this year where a CSHS student used a computer in a computer lab to access all sorts of porno sites, and print out a couple hundred pages of porn on a school printer. He got caught not through any technological gee whiz, but by a teacher who came in early and caught him. This despite the fact that CCSD has overreaching filters on content. For example, at the suggestion of a teacher I tried to do research on "breast cancer" and you can't do it.
So regardless of the moral imperatives for tracking down child pornographers, and condemning them to the very lowest levels of hell, technology simple does not make this possible to do so electronically. I understand that the Fleming campaign is based on contradicting anything Paul Broun has ever said, done, or thought in his lifetime, but in this instance Broun is correct. Making the local coffee shop responsible for what enters the Internet (happy, Blake) through it's server is not technological possible, and will become less possible as time goes by. If the issue were truly one of punishing child pornographers, you can be sure the bill wouldn't be DOA in the Senate in an election year.
Let me give you another "fer instance". I can sit here in my skivvies, and access the wire-fi from a neighboring church and school and a State Farm office, and do so quite anonymously if I choose. There is virtually no way for either of this institutions to determine who is using their system. So should these innocent institutions be punished because I want to surf "Pre-Pubescent Pubes"?
Frankly, I was surprised that Broun voted against the bill. It was a throw away vote, and as Fleming is clearly proving, a "for" vote would have pandered to the cheap seats. Not only am I surprised that he voted against the bill, but he did it for the right reasons.
On the other hand, if Broun had voted for the bill, I'm sure Fleming would be on him like white of rice for being against small business, and trying to hamstring Georgia's technological enterprises.
Oh well.
P.S. I think an interesting project for ABH, maybe for Jim Thompson being as he gets the dog and pony show from the BOE, is to get the computer logs from any computer class in CCSD, and review them to see how much inappropriate surfing is done in a district that "strictly" forbids it.
FWIW, Dr. Hill is particularly diligent in trying to prevent this.
I have driven
Towns, Habersham, Rabun, Franklin, Hart, Madison and Stephens several times in the last 3 weeks. There is little support there from Barry. Between Royston and Clayton there are 3 Fleming signs compared to a slew of Broun signs which are planted on private property.
I had heard that Mrs. Nidja Davis of Towns county had the county covered for Fleming. I drove from Clayton to Blairsville and saw more Fleming signs there than anywhere else in north Georgia. Paul still outnumbered Barry. Mrs. Davis has made one terrible tactical error in placement of Fleming signs in Towns which will cost Barry votes. What that is I will not say. I don't want her to correct the tactical error she and her husband have made.
Now for a Green county update. A burgundy van was seen there Friday putting Fleming signs out in right aways. They (the men in the van) didn't look very experienced placing the signs in the ground.
Here is a recap of the Broun vs Fleming debate in Columbia county. The Augusta Chronicle didn't give the same report we got in the post above. Here is the article.
http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=211215
One last note. Given a choice I always vote against trial lawyers.
Kandrew
You can't have it both ways. Fleming asserts strongly that HR 3791 provides that WI-FI operators don't have to monitor everyone in their establishment. Now you say they should.
Whats wrong with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is that 49% of their budget goes to employee compensation and perquisites, not to mention another $3,228,225 for travel. HR 2828, ADDITIONAL, RETROACTIVE compensation of $940,000 each seems a might excessive to me. But, hey, it's only money, right?
What is wrong with trial lawyers?
It seems everybody hates them until they need one. They serve one of the most important function of our political system.
Much like when a pro-lifer's teenage daughter gets pregnant. They do not believe in abortion until they need one.
Really, who would you rather vote for: A bad doctor or the guy that helps you when that bad doctor has wronged you?
Paul Broun Loves Trial Laywers
He's worked as an expert witness for them numerous times, testifying against other doctors. He even had his former business partner and trial lawyer Mark Wiggins write a letter to the editor on his behalf.
If he loves them so much,
If he loves them so much, why doesn't he marry them?
Oh, wait ...
Where is the comedy drum
Where is the comedy drum roll and cymbal crash when you need them??
Grace on the case.
Blake, implicit in your little joke is the assumption that all trial lawyers are male.
I think that probably makes you a sexist pig.
I'm sending your name and picture to Nancy Grace.
This is probably squirrelly
This is probably squirrelly of me, but I just looked at the Augusta Chronicle, and there's a letter today in support of Broun from a guy who wrote a letter in support of Broun for our paper. I recognized the wording, so I looked it up in the ABH, and sure enough, there was the same letter. However, the writer listed his address as "in town" in both papers. So then I got really curious, which I know killed the cat, but I was on a mission. Was it the one writer, or was it like that for all the pro-Broun letters?
Not only is Vern Simon submitting himself as a resident all over the district, so is Mark Wiggins. Where do these people really live, and why do they not submit the letters with at least different names in the different papers? I suppose they thought people were too stupid to notice, but surely if even I were smart enough to realize this, other people have, too.
Does the Broun campaign pay
Does the Broun campaign pay their token letter writer? If so, sign me up!!!
Good to know the letters in his support are as legit as his polling.
No Taxpayers
No his taxpayer paid congressional staff writes the letters. I'm interested to see if he even bothered to put Jessica Morris and company on the campaign payroll even in a token amount. Unfortunately the disclosures aren't due out till election day, I'm sure Broun will take full advantage of this fact.
Well, I can't speak for the
Well, I can't speak for the rest of the district, but I can speak for me and the people I talk with. I've been talking to my friends and family about voting in the Republican primary for Fleming, and the Campbell Center is only one reason. No, it's not saved yet, but at least Saxby Chambliss did more than sit on his hands and declare he couldn't help - which I'm sure the employees appreciate more than if he, too, had done nothing. I'm not starting a tidal wave or anything, but every little bit helps, and I really can't believe that I'm the only Democrat planning to cross over.
Don't trust Paul's polls
Just got of the phone with a delightful machine conducting a poll for what appeared to be Paul Broun.
Asked me if I planned on voting in the Republican primary... I pressed 1 for "yes"
Asked me who I would vote for if the primary were held today. Press 1 for Paul Broun, Press 2 for Barry Fleming, and press 3 if undecided. After pressing 2, I was told I had put in an invalid response.
So I did what any person would do, I pressed 2 again. Got the same invalid response message. Pressed 2 a third time, a fourth time, so on and so on with the same invalid response deal.
Now I'd like to believe that this wasn't a crafty concoction of the Broun folks but rather an error with the machine. If it's not a mechanical error, I think I just discovered why his polling numbers are so high.
That's hilarious
I wonder if the same thing will happen with the voting machines.