Ask, Georgia, and ye shall receive: Welcome to your fucking handbasket. Yeah, nationally it was a banner night for Democrats. To me that makes Georgia's pathetic Democratic performance that much more painful. Good Lord how could it happen? How could the nation be so angry with Republicans and incumbents and yet our state drools all over them like Mark Foley over a seventeen-year-old page? I didn't expect us to win all our contested races, especially with the weather – never think so. But the margins we lost by, in race after race that we thought we could be competitive in, were truly monstrous, unthinkable except for the terrible fact that they are real. I hope all of y'all that didn't help out feel great about the fucktastrophe that is now Georgia. Thanks!!!!
So here are the final grades for the 2006 Georgia campaign season:
- Mark Taylor - D. Mike, Brittany, and the rest of y'all who worked this campaign, please try to take this as non-personally as possible, but NOTHING YOU DID WAS RIGHT. How do I know that? My first clue might be that as of now Mark has more than 50,000 fewer votes than GAIL BUCKNER, who barely had enough money to print those silly little stickers to slap on people at fairs, never mind run a serious campaign. Mark was our gubernatorial nominee, the person allegedly bearing our standard in this calamity bearing vague resemblances to an election – you're telling me that you can't get more votes than Gail Buckner with vastly larger amounts of money and name recognition? PLEASE. Perhaps Mark should have learned the lesson that cost Cathy Cox the primary – DON'T FUCK WITH YOUR BASE. Swing voters mean jack if you alienate your base, say by adopting some ridiculous “tough on crime” crazy death penalty stance and piss off your black voters in some cockamamie attempt to maybe get some swing voters. Your base gives you money and volunteers for your campaign, not to mention votes. Is anyone really surprised that Mark was broke and had crappy volunteer support? Mark was supposed to have a phone bank at the SEIU bus this Saturday from 11 to 6 – I got there at 4 only to find that, due to a lack of volunteers, the bank was switching over to MIKE MCGRAW of all people. Pitiful. I'm embarrassed to be a Georgia Democrat after the 19% smackdown Taylor asked for and got from Sonny Perdue.
- Cathy Cox - F. At this point it doesn't really matter why Cathy evaporated on the campaign trail, or why her primary campaign sucked. Mark didn't do a damn thing to bring her or her supporters back into the fold and on board, and neither did she. In the end, they locked in a death embrace as the election plunged into the abyss, and they're both Professor Moriarty as far as I'm concerned.
- Jim Martin - A-. God, this one hurt. Everyone on Jim's campaign worked like dogs for this election, and it paid off in stupendous amounts of volunteer support and money. Who knew Jim could remotely contend with Casey Cagle? His staff – Jane Bradshaw, the Martin family, Bess, Kyle Bailey, and the rest of y'all four square players whose names I should have learned but didn't – made the difference between a Mark Taylor-style debacle and the most solid effort that could be asked of a statewide Georgia candidate running against the winds of Republican change in Georgia. Jim deserved, deserved God damn it, to do better than 10% down. It still hasn't sunk in just how bad things are going to be with Casey Fucking Cagle running the Georgia Senate.
- Gail Buckner - D+. Nothing personal against Gail, but she was a true wizard at not raising enough money to buy a Coke with. She didn't really earn her primary victory (admit it!) and she never got the clue about fundraising. Gail would have made a great Secretary of State but she's a bad candidate and a bad campaigner. Who knows – maybe if she had been first on the ballot one more time...
- Thurbert Baker - C+. Whatever, he won his race despite those silly accusations Perry McGuire kept dredging up in his attack ads. Praise the Lord for keeping this office at least.
- Denise Majette - F Wait, Denise ran a campaign? The next time you see Denise's name on a primary ballot, do me a favor and check that little box that says “FUCK NO”.
- Guy Drexinger - B-. Guy ran a sort of OK campaign aside from his brilliant attack ads. Given the margins that other people lost by, I don't think his past indiscretions had much to do with anything, he just got flattened by the juggernaut unleashed by the Taylor campaigns errors.
- Tommy Irvin - C+. Didn't see too much of Tommy on the campaign trail, but it appears, thankfully, that being the longest serving elected official ever does in fact speak for itself.
- Michael Thurmond - C+. All I know about the campaign is that their stickers sucked. He won. Yay. And there was much rejoicing.
- Jan Hackney - B-. The Young Democrats of Atlanta did a LOT of work on this campaign, and I feel like stabbing random Republican voodoo dolls because Jan lost by the same amount as in 2004. Jan didn't have good fundraising, which may or may not have been part of what doomed the campaign, but she had a volunteer family and I wish I could hug all of y'all that helped on this campaign.
- Beth Farokhi - B. Bet you didn't even know Beth. She ran for a Cobb County School Board seat on a shoestring in a heavily Republican area, against a BAPTIST MINISTER, and outperformed all her Democratic friends – not that 40% would have been something to cheer about yesterday, but given that Darryl Wilson in House 45, a(nother) guy several of us thought was going to do OK against frat boy doofus Matt Dollar, was crushed 70/30, I think Beth did just fine.
- David Scott - B-. An incumbent Democrat with oodles of money from God knows where in a district gifted with even more favorable precincts stolen from Tom Price's district ought to be able to beat a crazy Republican woman better than 60/40, if you ask me. Even our victories weren't very convincing.
- John Barrow/Jim Marshall - A+. That's just for winning, praise Allah - I was deathly afraid that Georgia was not only going to plunge into political hell but would fuck up all the great stuff happening nationally. I think we can all be thankful for the Contract on the Bush Administration, because without that John and Jim would have lost for sure.
- DNC - F. Thanks for caring about John and Jim, you assclowns. You got lucky in Georgia, luckier than you deserve.
- Neil Garvin - F. Neil, running against my own Republican assclown Rich Golick in House 34, started canvassing, maybe, the week before the election. Neil, I appreciate you being on the ballot, but you ran a Denise Majette campaign.
- Jane Kidd, Lauren Benedict, Danita Knowles, Dawn Randolph, Scott Taylor - WTF. All lost, all lost by margins that hurt. I hate Mark Taylor so much...
- Kevin Levitas - A+. YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This and the fact that Holli Cash took back my Cobb School Board seat from the Republicans officially qualify as the Two Bright Points of Light In the Dark, Dark Night.
- Ballot initiatives - F. Fuck the traditions of hunting and fishing and old geezers flying around in military aircraft. Give me some health care.
- Yellow Dog Consulting - A. Page Gleason, Tim Cairl, Billy Joyner – you guys worked way, way, WAY too hard to deserve getting so crushed. Steve Sinton (6th Congressional) – lost 70/30. Melanie Eyre (House 46) – lost 75/25. Bob Roche (House 81) – lost 60/40. God Almighty, how did this happen to us? You should still hold your heads as high as anyone in this God-forsaken state. And hey, you didn't kill ANYONE – that's a victory! (Robert Bunn, shut your mouth and keep your snarky comments to yourself.)
- Democratic Party of Georgia - F. ASIDE from the abject lack of leadership and direction, and ASIDE from the fact that Georgia Democrats have about a billion different splinter groups rather than a real party, the number of stories I have heard of people going to the DPG offices and seeing everyone there idly talking or playing Solitaire while one lone volunteer slaves thanklessly over mountains of legal forms is not zero. Oh, and let's not neglect to mention how GREAT candidate recruitment was! *ahem* Sorry, that was the wine talking. At least we have officially hit rock bottom, although we may be here for awhile. Hopefully we'll have a state left to defend when we have a state party again. Mike Berlon for chair!
- Fulton County Democratic Party - B+. Melanie Goux, Sam Westmoreland, and company must have done something right if they managed to keep their county commission in Democratic hands while the rest of the state was collapsing around them. I'm sure there are lots of numbers to analyze before the effect of all those absentee ballot forms can be stated, but given the terrible weather yesterday, I'm going to put money on the canvass packets being a Good Idea. There was a pretty good crowd yesterday for rides to the polls at the CWA Local 3204 as well.
- North Fulton Democrats - C+. Is it just me or are the CallingPost calls getting to be a little like those HeadOn commercials? No, really, I'm sure the folks up in North Fulton worked hard, it's just that every damn thing in that neck of the woods sucked as far as I know. I guess when you live within a 5-mile radius of Eva Galambos it's a stretch to hope for anything good. I think I saw a few members at the Jim Martin campaign from time to time, so they knew where the fun times were at least.
- Red Clay Democrats - C. Thanks for the memories, and the $. And the $$. And the $$$. (And for bringing us John Rodgers, a good new member!)
- Young Democrats of Georgia - A. I don't know yet how our Youth Voter Alliance stuff turned out, but I think that went pretty well and we reached people. We just didn't have time to follow through. 2008 will be different. Thanks Will Curry!
- Young Democrats of Atlanta - A. Ok, fine, I should have recused myself from this grade, but hey, I have to include the new player in Fulton County politics in my ratings, right?? Reports seem to indicate that YDAtl did, in fact, significantly improve Democratic performance in two of the three Hackney precincts we targeted, and that counts as something to be comforted by on a night when EVERY FUCKING OTHER THING WENT TERRIBLY WRONG. Er, ahem. Sorry. The bitterness just comes out sometimes...
- John Kerry - F. Stick to your day job, Mr. Comedian. And shut the fuck up.
- Zell Miller - A. Georgia Assclown #1 gets an A for wasting all his time and considerable hot air campaigning in Pennsylvania for Rick Santorum and leaving us down here the hell alone. At least Zell got a stomach punch too!
- Andre Walker - C. Not bad, Andre, getting mentioned in the AJC. But I have a radical idea for you for 2008 - more volunteering, less blogging. I know it sounds crazy, but it just might work.
- Robert Bunn - F. Keep the “I-Told-You-So”'s to yourself, Mr. glad to be in Florida working one of the biggest campaigns in the country. Congratulations, you (presumably) won. Why bother coming back here?
Angry Benson contributed to this post.
24 Comments:
Thank you Benson for being so candid about the problems with the Democratic Party of Georgia. I am one of those black voters that was offended by Mark Taylor's "tough on crime", "let me go after the bubba voters" ads. The first tough on crime ad that Mark did with the black man's hands hanging from the jail cell, told me that he had no clue how to win a race.
Mark and the Democratic Party of Georgia needs to understand that a campaign that is focused on insult your base because they have no where else to go is a campaign that is doomed to fail. It's no suprise to me that Mark Taylor and most of the ticket lost. There was no excitement for Mark as a candidate.
How do I know this? I know because I was out there canvassing and talking to black voters. They in essence said, Mark didn't support Cynthia McKinney, so he must be a "real dummy" to think he's going to get my vote! That was the sentiment from the educated black folks, especially the black women!!!!!
Darryl Hicks would have been a more viable candidate than Gail Boring Buckner, he would have pulled in the black voters and Mark probably would have had a chance. The Democratic Party of Georgia has a lot to learn about winning.
I am personally glad for the defeats on Tuesday, maybe if we clean house we can get some real leaders in the Democratic Party of Georgia instead of these people who have no vision.
Benson,
Keep doing what you do. Your posts are always informative and thought-provoking. You're expressing opinions; everyone doesn't have to agree. And if you've hurt anyone's feelings, it's probably best that they get out of politics now before they find themselves under a truly mean-spirited conservative attack--think Cleland, Clinton...
Sorry this wasn't the Fair and Balanced post-election wrapup you were apparently expecting.
As for apologies, you will notice that I at no time named you, as indeed I have no idea what you personally did or didn't do during the campaign, and I certainly didn't give YOU an F. I gave the F to the DPG, and I won't apologize for saying that the DPG failed to lead us, and I won't apologize for criticizing it for being lethargic.
When and where did Neil Garvin "work his ass off"? I know a number of people who DID work their asses off, and comparing what Neil did, if anything, to what, say, RuthE Levy, or Melanie Eyre, or Jan Hackney, to name a very few, did is ridiculous. Or do you want to claim that Denise Majette worked her ass off too?
The bottom line is that I respect people who work hard, and no one who tried got an F. I see no reason, however, to continue to look through rose-colored glasses and ignore our failings.
Emily, as usual you're super right (and the story about your mom was laugh-out-loud hilarious). The only person in all of this I really feel unkind toward is Denise Majette - the rest is, um, "venting with love". ;-)
Tahir, please check your voice mail; we'll discuss this further off-blog.
Dont fuck with your base? You shit head you just did! You are an idiot if you think the base should rally behind such mindless vitriol and if it does, its not worth rallying.
"hundreds of North Fulton Democrats"
Hahahahaha. Now there's a joke. There's about two dozen of them left.
Benson, your post are always right on. Everyone is thinking what you have the balls to write. Keep it up.
How's that resume coming Tahir?
Benson, You are a Golden God.
There is working hard, and then there is working smart..
How many can say we were working smart?
I saw a lot of hard work by many especially Benson, who quite frankly earned his right to speak his mind.
Emily is right too, but when the turd in already in the punchbowl, someone really ought to give the rest of the folks filling their punch cup up a heads up on that.
Benson, angry or not.. LOVE YA MEAN IT!
Benson - A+
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Pissed off admin here. That's it, you cowardly foul-mouthed dorks, no more trash talking from Anonymous losers. If you want to call someone a loser or say someone should be fired, GROW A PAIR and sign in. I'm not even talking about selecting "Other" and typing in some fake name or barely-crafty handle like "Pissy McFartknocker" -- if you're going to talk shit, you log on to Blogger or Gmail and sign your smartass name to your snark. ANY UNREGISTERED USERS TALKING SERIOUS SHIT WILL HAVE THEIR COMMENTS DELETED.
Whiners. Wash the sand out already or go join the GOP.
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Obviously "RestOfGeorgia" proves that Georgia is one of the dumbest states in the country because you CAN'T READ.
Shelby, aren't you supposed to be in NOLA sipping Hurricanes?
No, I'm supposed to be in the lab trying to finish a pile of analyses and write the paper I'm presenting at a conference in 5 days that hasn't been written now that the election is finally over.
But I'll be drinking anyway.
Wow. I can't believe what I just read. Everyone I know on the Taylor campaign put their heart and soul into the race, and for you to call them out is sickening.
Oh, by the way, What qualifies you to give campaigns a scorecard on their performance?
Exactly.
Gig, if you were at the Martin campaign at the end I may have seen you there. I agree - those phone calls were not real fun. But they had to be made...
Skyler: I called them out for their mistakes, not lack of effort. How much time did YOU spend on the Taylor campaign?
Benson, I lay our sorry performance at the feet of both Mark and Cathy. They each let their personal political agendas destroy any chance of a coordinated Democratic campaign against Sonny and his minions.
You and I both attended the DPG Committee meeting and heard from Mark. I thought his speech there was excellent and vainly hoped he would use that kind of message in his campaign. Instead he proposed expanding the death penalty and getting "tough on crime." He then went to negative campaigning and performed horribly in his first debate with Sonny. They both behaved like little children in a school-yard pissing contest. "Your're a crook." "No, you're a liar." "No, you're a crook." "You're Pinnochio." "No, you're a crook." I expecected any moment to hear, "Liar liar, pants on fire."
I think Mark's horrible campaign stategy alienated many Democratic supporters up and down the ticket. They had nobody to rally behind.
Meanwhile, Beth Farokhi visited more than 4000 homes in E. Cobb and planted so many Beth Farokhi signs we all thought she was going to be a winner. I saw many homes with Farokhi signs next to Sonny and Price signs. She was making real headway against the Republican base. She ended up losing 45-55, but perfomred far better than any other Democrat in our area.
Steve Sinton and his fiance' Angela worked tirelessly and energized volunteers from E. Cobb, N. Fulton and Cherokee. Steve attended many Republican-dominated meetings working to swing over voters to his campaign. He showed up at countless rallies and forums baiting Price on his no-shows.
I was extremely proud of our volunteers from our flegeling East Cobb Democratic Alliance who worked tirelessley for Beth, RuthE, Steve, Darryl and even some for Zack Smith.
There was no lack of dedication and support from Dems in East Cobb. N. Fulton donated $1500 to each of its candidates and $1000 for Steve (campagin finance limit). They then passed the hat and genearated another $1000 in individual contribitions for Steve at the meeting. We donated $300 for each of the E. Cobb candidates, pretty much exhausing or coffers. Cherokee Dems worked tirelessly for Steve.
So I think there was no lack of dedication from our volunteers. There was, however, nearly unanimous disgust for the Mark Taylor campaign. And I lay much of the blame on Mark's campaign strategy and the selfishness of both Mark and Cathy in dividing the Democrats of Georgia during the Primary season.
I also blame the DCCC for its lack of support for Steve Sinton. Not even a token donation. They came to Georgia and took away suitcases full of $1000 checks to use in non-Georgia races, but not one dime for E. Cobb/N. Fulton/Cherokee.
Benson,
I spent a lot of time on the campaign. Ask my family and friends. Also, This blog shouldn't be used for degrading candidates and their staff/volunteers, it doesn't do anything but piss a lot of already pissed off people even more, plus I can imgaine what the GACR is saying about all this garbage you posted.
oh man. I finally read the angry blog. I don't really find this insulting except formentioning names, because everyone worked hard (including the Taylor campaign and Democratic Party, who I know for certain were putting in 15 hour plus days), and for the most part this blog seems to be a 'crime of passion'...but god, for some reason I can relate to the bitterness and anger. I mean. Alcohol and shoes and lip gloss are nice, but seeing the cute, enthusiastic guys from the Martin campaign slumped over the bar as if they've just been assigned as Congressional pages is REALLY depressing. I give up on this state. I'm going back to Boston, Manhattan, or DC as soon as possible. It's on my Sonny-do list...and I hope to God that asshole isn't taking his Levitra.
Another thing...I find it ironic that certain people supportive of this type of divisive discourse (and again, "crime of passion", understood, but still insulting to a lot of hard working people who don't need to be kicked when down)...that certain types of people immediately freak out if this sort of tactic, or any criticism in general is thrown their way, yet support blasting other people who aren't here to defend themselves.
Also, Tahir is my hero and a great crippled prom date with laptop, and he worked 15 plus hour days on this campaign, and is smarter, more ambitious, honest, and generally a better human being than 50% or more of the bloggers here. Now I suppose this will turn into some sort of rumor, but I'm going to defend my friend.
oh for the love of god...no one cares enough to start rumors
oh and there is no such thing as an "F-"
Hey, the Buckner campaign got more votes with less money and name recognition than the Taylor campaign... maybe nothing wasn't such a bad plan. As long as you're going to point out that I'm biased, can I at least be Michael Moore instead of Fox News?
I need to get a +8 Cape of Criticism Deflection; this one is not doing the job.
Wtf is screed?
anon - sarcasm. learn to recognize it.
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