U.S. Senate debate in Georgia won't change much in heated race

Tuesday night the 13WMAZ hosted a U.S. Senate debate in Perry, Georgia with all three candidates vying to replace retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga).  Republican David Perdue, Democrat Michelle Nunn, and Libertarian Amanda Swafford met at the Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter forum, moderated by WMAZ news anchor Frank Malloy.  

Many supporters will rush to pronounce a winner, but neither one of the top two candidates said anything new to hurt or elevate their chances.  Nunn went after Perdue for outsourcing American jobs overseas, Perdue said that he’s proud of creating and saving jobs and that ”Michelle Nunn’s false attacks won’t change that.  Nunn pointed out that Perdue supported the govement shutdown; Perdue said that Nunn will be nothing more than a ”rubber stamp on Barack Obama’s agenda. All of that has been said in their many ads, emails and social media postings for several weeks now. 

Nunn has been polling slightly behind Perdue, and as an underdog she attacked Perdue almost every time she spoke. Perdue focused on linking the Democrat to President Barack Obama and Harry Reid, while Nunn kept reminding the audience her desire to work across the aisle, and that she’s not ”locked into a dogma.   

On major issues, the candidates voiced pretty traditional partisan views:

-on war against ISIS:  Perdue blamed Obama for withdrawing troops from Iraq and unleashing the violence. The Republican added that boots on the ground in the fight against ISIS should be justified with a clear mission plan, something that Obama has not provided; Nunn accused Perdue of saying a year ago that U.S. should do nothing in Syria because it was a ”popular thing to say, and now Perdue is saying what’s popular to say about ISIS.  Nunn (who supported air-strikes against the Syrian regime last year) said that any long-term engagement against ISIS should be approved by Congress.

-on immigration: Nunn supports the bipartisan bill that passed U.S. Senate and stalled in the House of Representatives; Perdue says he’d oppose the bill  in the Senate and believes that the legislation should be broken down ”into [smaller]components, and he opposes ”amnesty.  

-on minimum wage: Nunn supports an increase of minimum wage; Perdue believes setting minimum wage is bad for business.

-on Obamacare: "This law is one of the worst laws that's ever been passed," said Perdue. The Republican believes the law should be repealed and replaced with U.S. Rep. Tom Price’s (R-Ga) bill, but Perdue did admit that none of that can happen until Obama leaves office; Nunn believes that Obamacare should be fixed and that some components, like coverage for more people and children staying on their parents’ insurance longer, should be ”build upon.

In addition, Nunn said she had ”serious reservations about the Obama judicial nominee Michael Boggs, a conservative Democrat who's against abortion and gay marriage .

She believes that issues with long-term national debt are caused by the two parties refusing to work together, and that cutting out govement waste and establishing fiscal discipline can only be done by ”collaboration in Congress.  The Democrat also said she supports Sen. Mark Udall’s (D-Colo.) balanced budget amendment, and No Budget No Pay legislation.

Perdue maintained his conservative views and said that the national debt issue "pulled [wife] Bonnie and me into this race. The Republican said that bad govement policy is the reason for failing businesses. Perdue’s solution to the economic troubles in the country is to cut spending, grow the economy by cutting taxes, pull back govement regulation, and ”unlock energy resources.  

The Libertarian candidate Swafford said she’s the candidate ”who stands for true freedom and liberty, and represents normal Americans who ”go to work every day.  She argued that voters know that it doesn’t make any difference which party controls the U.S. Senate, because things never change.  Swafford said that she doesn’t support the leadership of either party in Congress.

Swafford also underscored that she’s the only candidate for Senate who has a proven record of voting for less govement; she’s the only one out of the three who’s been elected to political office (as a member of the Flowery Branch City Council). Swafford believes in the power of an individual and that the govement needs to stay out of citizens’ private decisions, such as whom they want to marry. In closing, she accused her opponents of wanting to simply ”rearrange govement instead of proposing something different.