Cathy’s Revenge
The newspapers have been all atwitter about the absence of Cathy Cox from the Taylor for Governor campaign. Cathy has been very conveniently busy or travelling whenever an opportunity has arisen to appear with Mark and put on a good show for the cameras.
But today, the AJC reported that Cathy’s campaign chairman, a Democratic turncoat who became Republican to preserve his seat in the legislature, has endorsed Sonny Perdue for re-election. Dan Ponder was supposed to be emblematic of how Cathy would govern in a different way, and she would reach across the aisle for the best ideas from both sides of the political spectrum. Apparently, there were a lot of GOPers eager to support the first female governor of Georgia, even if she was a Democrat.
The problem is that Cathy’s campaign collapsed. Much of it was her fault, I think, and she didn’t handle Mark Taylor’s well-timed attacks too well. I’ve already documented on this blog my disappointment and anger over Cathy’s reaction to the gay marriage amendment "crisis" earlier this year. I think she totally blew it and flushed her chances of election at that time. Mark Taylor did play dirty with her, there’s no doubt. And the "Taylor Trolls" out there who were his most vociferous supporters (or the ones who just hated Cathy the most because she was a woman running for Governor) did more than their fair share of Cathy-bashing.
After Cathy’s loss, I thought her concession speech was fantastic. It was the old Cathy Cox that I had once known and loved. However, I cannot blame her for being angry over Taylor’s campaign tactics. She should not have been surprised though…he’s notorious for playing rough when he has to. He always waits for his opponent to mess up first, but then he goes after them with a vengeance. After that wikipedia scandal when her campaign director Morton Brilliant amended Mark Taylor’s bio to include information about his son’s drunk driving and vehicular homicide charges in South Carolina…she should have known it was coming.
Cathy and her people have every right to feel bitter and angry about the primary. I look at it as a missed opportunity. I think Cathy could have peeled off GOP voters from Sonny easier than Mark will. Her campaign, though, did not do what it needed to do in order to nail down the Democratic primary. It was a case of opportunities wasted.
I think Cathy’s revenge will be to stand idly by while Mark Taylor flounders and ultimately loses to Sonny in November. First, people aren’t pissed off at Sonny like they were at Roy Barnes 6 years ago. Sure, Sonny’s a mixture of greed, insider dealing, and broken promises packaged in a folksy grampa persona…but he doesn’t have people really pissed at him. That’s hard to fight in an incumbent governor. The sweetheart tax deal that Sonny had the legislature pass to save him $100,000 in taxes would have been a great start to the fall campaign, except for the fact that Mark Taylor’s daddy pays him $100,000/yr and the free use of a Buckhead mansion for a couple of hours of work a month. Which is worse? I would argue Sonny’s tax situation, because it was an abuse of his power and position as governor, but Mark’s situation is no less sleazy and self-serving.
I’m not sure what Cathy’s game plan is. Maybe she’s setting her sights on 2010 to try again for Governor, or maybe someone can convince her to run for US Senate against Senator Bush, errr, Chambliss. I’m not sure inaction to let Mark fail will hurt her in the long run. She can’t be seen as actively against Taylor, but she can just sit at home and do nothing to help him. Honestly, that’s what a lot of Democrats in Georgia seem to be doing. We want to beat Sonny, but we’re not sure Mark’s the guy to do that. Cathy could have done it, maybe, but she screwed the pooch on her campaign, and there are LGBT voters who will never forgive her for the way she handled the marriage amendment being overturned. I’m not quite as harsh. I withheld my vote in the primary, and that was my punishment for Cathy. I hope she learned a lesson from it, and I’m willing to support her again in the future. I also will cast my vote for Mark Taylor, but the race doesn’t get me as passionate or excited as, say, the Jim Martin campaign for Lt. Governor against that theocrat neanderthal Casey Cagel.
It will be interesting to see what happens.
