Tuesday Is Election Day in Georgia

Regina Thomas: A voice For The Voiceless

Three Democrats who tend to take a great deal of money from corporations and then reward those corporations with their votes, even though those votes often harm the constituents they supposedly work for, are facing more progressive Democratic challengers in the primary. David Scott represents the 13th CD, south and west of Atlanta, from Smyrna in the north, through Douglasville and down to Union City and Riverdale. Bush only managed to get 36% of the vote against Kerry in 2004 and the district's PVI is R +12. Scott is being challenged by Donzella James, a retired state Senator, with a progressive voting record, who also ran against him in 2006. That primary was meaningless because of malfunctioning voting machines. She hasn't reported raising any money and Scott has raised $578,361 and spent over $300,000 of it.

Far worse than Scott are two Democrats who often trade off the #1 position as Bush's top Democratic ally among Democrats in Congress, Jim Marshall and John Barrow. On ProgressivePunch's "Chips Are Down" ranking, Marshall scores a 29.65 out of 100 and Barrow scores a 32.20. They are both virtually Republicans in all but name. Marshall at least has an excuse for voting like a Republican. He represents the Republican-leaning 8th CD, centered on Macon and Warner Robins but going all the way down to Tifton and Moultrie. (Still it isn't that Republican and he was the one Democrat to adamantly oppose children's health care every single time it came up.) Marshall certainly doesn't deserve to be re-nominated but his opponent, Robert Nowak has generated much excitement outside of a small and dedicated band of liberals.

The race where there is at least a chance of victory is in GA-12 (Augusta/Savannah) which pits progressive Regina Thomas against Barrow. Regina has managed to raise $45,000 on ActBlue, a drop in the bucket against Barrow's $1.4 million, at least some of it from an extreme right-wing Republican, anti-union outfit, the shady Business Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC), which has endorsed a handful of radical right Republicans and only one Democrat... Barrow, the worst Democrat. And GA-12 is a Democratic district, so Barrow has no excuse whatsoever for his treachery and cowardice.

Blue America ran a series of full page ads in many of the cities and towns in GA-12. Our pals at Democrats.com have done an amazing job standing up for Regina and getting out the progressive message to voters.

If you know anyone in Savannah, Augusta, Swainsboro, Vidalia, Statesboro, Milledgeville or anywhere in between, please remind them that Tuesday is primary day and that, for a change they have a real choice. Maybe you can send them this 12 second video:




BARROW RESPONDS TO ENDORSEMENT FROM ANTI-UNION PAC

Barrow has been pushing his endorsement by Obama as the reason why Democrats should renominate him to a House seat he misused so consistently. He's been less vocal about the endorsement he received from a right-wing front group called BIPAC which is a viciously anti-labor force that rarely endorses Democrats. In fact, Barrow is the only Democrat they endorsed this year. And Barrow says he is delighted to have the union-bashing group's donation.

“I’m honored to have BIPAC’s support in this election,” said Barrow. “We’ve got a lot of work to do to get the economy back on track for working families. The investments in our workforce, in our economic growth, and in our infrastructure that BIPAC supports will help get our economy working for the middle class again.”