Senate race starts attracting wild cards on GOP side – Daily Agenda – Atlanta Magazine

Even as the pieces fall into their expected places for next year’s U.S. Senate race, wild cards are emerging. This morning, it was some guy named David Perdue, a business executive who also happens to be the cousin of a certain former Georgia governor. The ex-CEO of Dollar General–as in, “Stores”–Perdue hasn’t yet officially jumped in, but announced his plan to spend the next several weeks “exploring” his chances.

If he does enter the race to replace Saxby Chambliss, he’ll be running as–wait for it–a Republican, which would put him in an already heady primary field that so far includes congressmen Paul Broun of Athens, Phil Gingrey of Marietta, and Jack Kingston of Savannah. Karen Handel, Georgia’s former Secretary of State, also is widely expected to throw her hat in the ring, now that U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Roswell, finally has made clear that he won’t leave his seat to run for the soon-vacant Senate post.

The Democrats, meanwhile, have been trying to show that they haven’t been knocked back on their heels by John Barrow’s decision not to shoot for Saxby’s seat. When the Democratic congressman from Augusta made his surprise announcement last week, someone immediately leaked a poll purporting to show that Barrow wasn’t as appealing a candidate as the largely unknown Michelle Nunn, daughter of Sam and a non-profit executive who, it should be noted, hasn’t entered the Senate race either.

Today, Better Georgia, a progressive group not officially linked to the Democratic Party, released its own poll indicating that Nunn could defeat Handel and run competitively against the GOP congressmen. Pollsters didn’t anticipate a candidacy by a Perdue, Sonny or otherwise.

via Senate race starts attracting wild cards on GOP side – Daily Agenda – Atlanta Magazine.