Georgia Senate debate: more talk of outsourcing jobs and partisanship

In the second debate for the Georgia seat in the U.S. Senate, which took place Sunday night, the candidates Democrat Michelle Nunn, Republican David Perdue, and Libertarian Amanda Swafford sparred about outsourcing, overregulation, and partisanship. The Atlanta Press Club and Georgia Publican Broadcasting sponsored the debate.

Nunn and Perdue spent the debate doing the same thing they’ve done in the other debates, and what they’ve been doing in their campaigns: Perdue kept tying Nunn to Democrats Harry Reid and Barack Obama, while Nunn kept hammering the Republican on outsourcing.

Swafford stayed on her message of limited govement. She’s repeated her support for the Fair Tax, and promised not to ”rearrange govement if elected. 

Perdue said that he wants to be ”a champion for jobs….not a rubber stamp for Barack Obama.  He also made a play for moderates, saying he would ”work with anybody who will help us get back to our founding principles….regardless of political party.

Nunn, while implying that Perdue is too partisan for the Senate and would only support the Washington gridlock, said that the answer to America’s problems doesn’t lie in ”prosecuting the other party.

”I think it’s about problem-solving, she said.

The Democrat also once again pointed to Perdue’s swo deposition from years ago, where he answers a question about outsourcing by saying ”I spent most of my career doing that.

Perdue was more aggressive in explaining his record as a businessman and in attacking Nunn in this debate.  Previously, as a frontrunner, the Republican focused more on what he wanted to do in Washington. But in recent weeks, Nunn took him over in the polls, albeit just by 2-3 percentage points, so their roles changed a little. 

Perdue challenged Nunn’s attacks about outsourcing and accused her of not understanding business. The Republican said that he’s worked for ”global companies with operations all over the world, so establishing them overseas didn’t have any effect on American jobs.

Neither one of the two candidates has ever held public office, and both are running their first political campaigns. They don’t have much to go on, no voting record to critique, so the claims from both sides are a bit forced.

Nunn is not very likely to be one of the very liberal senators. She’s is the daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn (D), who was a very moderate lawmaker.  She’s also spent her life working in the non-profit sector with the Bush family, and has repeatedly criticized President Obama on Keystone pipeline, cuts to military, and not working with Congress in bipartisan manner.

And there is no real record of Perdue ever actually outsourcing jobs, which he tried to explain during the debate. There is a record of Perdue saying that he was planning on moving some of the production jobs at Pillowtex overseas, but he left the company before he could do that and Pillowtex folded shortly after that.

In this debate, Perdue probably came out a little stronger than Nunn. He took his time explaining what he did as a businessman but also went after the Democratic Party quite a bit, linking Nunn to it.  The Nov. 4^th election will certainly show just how conservative Georgia still is.