Georgia Republicans Attempt to Derail Democratic Primary

May 29, 2002 8:53 AM

Georgia Republicans Attempt to Derail Democratic Primary "Overzealous staffers" signed affidavits of identity for candidates in eight Senate seats to pose as primary opponents to more established Democratic candidates. Dirty pool or legitimate tactic?
posted by Irontom (9 comments total)

GOP activists attempted something similar to this in Washington State last year, going so far as to arrange a local Green Party convention to annoint a candidate to siphon votes from Democrats. Very poor.
posted by Ty Webb at 9:27 AM on May 29, 2002

This seems stupid and petty but how exactly is it going to "Derail" the primary?
posted by revbrian at 9:37 AM on May 29, 2002

What does Georgia have to do with this? This is taking place in Michigan.
posted by mariko at 9:58 AM on May 29, 2002

We don't do things like that," Steil said. "We're not in the business of running Democrats against Democrats."

Well, technically he is right. In reality they were running Republicans [who were signed up under false pretenses] against Democrats in the Primary. I love being able to talk around the issue and make it sound much like the truth.
posted by plemeljr at 11:26 AM on May 29, 2002

Now if Georgia Republicans ran fake Democrats in the Michigan primaries, that really would be dirty pool.
posted by briank at 11:54 AM on May 29, 2002

I also know for a fact that some Georgia Dems did the same thing.....
posted by mkelley at 3:58 PM on May 29, 2002

Not much differant then in Nevada where Republican strategists offered up a cantidate with the exact same name as the openly-gay incumbent.
posted by benjh at 5:37 PM on May 29, 2002

Similar tactic was used in Illinois, where Jesse L. Jackson ran against Jesse Jackson Jr. -- although this was a Democratic factional fight (the interloper was a tool of the Shaw brothers, Chicago-area black politicians who have long feuded with Jackson).
posted by dhartung at 6:51 PM on May 29, 2002

on a scale of one to shady, how would you rate republicans?
posted by mcsweetie at 10:26 PM on May 29, 2002