ATLANTA - Filmmakers illustrate vulnerability in the outdoors with sharks circling in the waters for nautical scenes or vultures hovering overhead in westerns. The political equivalent would be multiple challengers lining up a year ahead of the election and a growing number of interest groups taking pot shots.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss has begun drawing attention he may not enjoy now with two challengers already and at least one former support group issuing threats.
A plum job like a seat in the U.S. Senate naturally tantalizes anyone with an ounce of political ambition. But there have been elections in Georgia when no one felt bold enough to taken on a sitting senator, such as the venerable Sam Nunn in 1990.
Nunn was able to keep both major parties happy enough with his performance to want to keep him in the post.
But Chambliss, a freshman who also happens to be the state's senior senator, has already drawn the aim of two challengers.
For months, DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones has been campaigning, spreading enough signs and volunteers across the Democratic Party of Georgia's annual Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner last month to make it look like his personal political rally. Jones is a telegenic Democrat who positions himself as conservative on issues like national defense.
However, Jones has a platoon of critics and a few scandals following him that could become a significant drag on his campaign.
Then last week, a veteran Atlanta TV reporter named Dale Cardwell announced his intention to run. Cardwell also has an ease before the cameras, obviously, and a level of name recognition throughout the state's largest media market where nearly two-thirds of all voters live, an advantage few rookie candidates enjoy.
He's already hired a savvy bunch of consultants in Jeff DeSantis and Emil Runge, the former executive director and communications director of the Georgia Democratic Party. More importantly, Cardwell has staked out populist positions, such as support for abortion rights as well as gun-ownership rights, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service and cutting government spending. He's upfront about his deep faith, and he's already drawn a handful of union leaders willing to stand with him at his announcement. On Iraq, Cardwell takes a middle ground in calling for the imposition of benchmarks for the Iraqi government the way liberals wants while also saying he would not pull troops completely out of the area, just stop patrolling streets and concentrate in a secure base to fight terrorists from instead.
And Cardwell wants to go a populist route on immigration, too. He wants to stop illegals at the borders but also make it a crime to hire them.
It's immigration that may cost Chambliss support from some of his allies. When party loyalists at the Republican convention last month booed comments about his support for the Senate bill, Chambliss had to feel queasy.
Then Wednesday, arch conservative writer Phil Kent sent an announcement to reporters that the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Immigration Reform Political Action Committee was considering targeting Chambliss for his stand.
Of the two challengers, Cardwell may be the senator's biggest worry. On nearly every issue that reporters asked him about Cardwell has taken the position reflecting the majority view, according to public polls, even when those positions don't all jive with the Democratic leadership, casting him in sort of the Zell Miller mold without the nasty temper.
And after 11 years as an investigative reporter, Cardwell is clamoring up the moral high ground to lob rocks at both Chambliss for being a "pawn of special interests" and Jones for his various scandals.
Cardwell's first test is winning the nomination as white man running against a well-known black in a party whose primary is often decided by blacks - usually blacks from DeKalb County who have repeatedly elected Jones. Plus, Cardwell may be too far to the right for the increasingly liberal Democratic primary voters.
For Chambliss, having multiple opponents doesn't automatically guarantee defeat. Just last year Democrat Tommy Irvin survived as agriculture commissioner even after 4 Republicans were gunning for him.
Still, as Cardwell's platform shows in contrast, Chambliss isn't on the popular side of some major issues, and the vultures are beginning to circle over his head.
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