Outsourcing Comment Could Cost Republicans Georgia U.S. Senate Race

Michelle Nunn, Georgia Democratic
candidate for U.S. Senate

In what is appearing more and more to be the Democrats' best chance for a pickup in the U.S. Senate, Democrat Michelle Nunn appears to have moved ahead of her rival Republican David Perdue in the battle for an open seat formerly occupied by Republican Saxby Chambliss.

Nunn leads in a SurveyUSA Today poll by 3 points.  In an August 14th Survey USA poll, Perdue led his rival by 9 points. 

SurveyUSA calls its periodic surveys of the race a "tracking poll" though it is not clear that it is designed as a true tracking poll.

David Perdue, Georgia Republican
candidate for U.S. Senate

Nunn's positive movement in the SurveyUSA poll, as well as a recent WSB-TV/Landmark poll which
shows the race tied, coincides with the release of 2005 deposition testimony of Perdue, former CEO of Dollar General, in which he testified he spent most of his business career outsourcing jobs.  When questioned about the testimony on the campaign trail, Perdue stated he was "proud" of his work outsourcing job. The comment received widespread media attention. Surprisingly though it took Nunn a week to get an ad on the air hitting Perdue on the issue.

While outsourcing is an inevitable part of a world economy that benefits consumers and workers alike, trying to educate voters on complicated economic matters in a political campaign dominated by sound bites is impossible.  Perdue's poor handling of this issue gives the Democrats renewed hope they can hold on to the Senate.