Now That’s More Like It

originally published June 6, 2007

It was one of the best-kept secrets ever in Georgia politics. Broadcast journalist Dale Cardwell, who’s been investigating scoundrels for Atlanta’s WSB-TV for the last 11 years, unexpectedly quit last Friday, June 1, so he could announce on Monday that he will enter the race for Saxby Chambliss’ Senate seat. Cardwell, a lifelong Democrat whose father was a Kentucky coal miner, had spent weeks and even months preparing for this move, but not a word leaked out until after he left his job.

It’s not the first time a TV personality has jumped into a major statewide race in Georgia, but it doesn’t happen often. Back in 1970, another WSB-TV news personality named Hal Suit decided to run - as a Republican that time - for governor. Suit upset party favorite Jimmy Bentley in the GOP primary, but in the general election he was squashed by Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter.

Cardwell’s surprise entry into the Senate race may or may not be a problem for the Republican incumbent Chambliss, but it has to be considered good news for the downtrodden Georgia Democratic Party. Up until now, the only person who had talked about running in the Democratic primary was DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones, who so far has danced around reporters’ questions as to when he was ever going to “officially” announce his candidacy. Jones, to put it politely, is a major headache for Democratic Party officials. He has a personal background that includes charges of rape, incidents of violence against women, and allegations of racial discrimination against white government employees. His pitiful fundraising efforts have generated less than $18,000 so far.

As a prominent African-American politician, however, Jones could scare away better candidates who would run a more credible campaign. Democrats thus faced the real possibility of having a nominee at the top of the ticket next year who would draw even less than the 38 percent of the vote amassed by Mark Taylor in last year’s race for governor. Cardwell, who has to be taken seriously as a candidate, can lift a huge burden off the Democratic Party’s shoulders by forcing Jones either to make a formal declaration of his Senate candidacy or do what many political observers have figured all along he will do: run against 4th District Congressman Hank Johnson of DeKalb County.

Cardwell is planning a campaign that will be interesting in a couple of respects. He’s taking a decidedly populist stance by saying he will run against a broken political system and by refusing to accept money from Political Action Committees or special interest groups.

Cardwell is also staking out a position to the right of Chambliss on one of the most explosive issues on the political landscape: immigration. Like Chambliss’ critics among the Republican base, Cardwell criticizes the immigration reform bill that Chambliss supports and says that it promotes amnesty for illegal aliens. “You’ve got to build the wall [between the United States and Mexico], you’ve got to secure the border, you’ve got to have a clearinghouse of Social Security numbers [for employers to check],” Cardwell says, arguing that the Chambliss bill does not adequately address those issues. “Washington has had the opportunity to do something about it,” Cardwell adds. “The reason they won’t build the wall is because business wants the cheap labor - holding down the wages of hard-working Georgians.”

By refusing to accept PAC contributions, Cardwell ensures that he will be outspent by the opposition in the Senate race. He figures that his media exposure as an investigative reporter for more than a decade on Atlanta TV will offset some of the financial disadvantage. “The reason you have to raise millions is because people need it to raise their name recognition,” he says. “I have name recognition. If people don’t know me by name, they generally know me by my face, as a guy who goes after the sacred cows.”

You have to consider Chambliss a heavy favorite for reelection at this point in time. Georgia is very much a red state and Chambliss, who is not placing any artificial restraints on his fundraising, can count on getting millions of dollars from corporate PACs and the national Republican establishment that won’t be available to his Democratic challenger. Even so, Cardwell has the media savvy to make this an interesting race. If the Democratic Party ever wants to be taken seriously as a political organization, they have to keep clowns like Vernon Jones off the General Election ballot. They’ve got a good shot at doing that with a candidate like Dale Cardwell.

Tom Crawford

Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report, an Internet news site at www.ciclt.net/garpt that covers government and politics in Georgia.