Eye On The Senate: SD 50

Out Of The Hills Of Habersham, A New Battle For The Senate

(Editors Note: This is another installment in our occasional series of stories focusing on contested legislative primary races. House races are designated by the headline “House Watch.” Senate races are headlined “Eye On The Senate.” The election is July 15.)

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(6/30/08) The din of political warfare once again is echoing out of the hills of Habersham and bouncing through seven other counties in the northeast corner of Georgia where the Peach State meets the Carolinas. But this time it isn’t a Republican incumbent against a Democratic challenger. It’s a Republican incumbent against two challengers from within her own party.

Two years ago, Sen. Nancy Schaefer slipped past Democrat (and former senator) Carol Jackson to win a second term in the upper chamber but it was something of a squeaker. In fact, Schaefer was the only Republican incumbent in the Senate that year scoring less than 55 percent of the vote. (She won with 53 percent.)

Some think this year’s race looks even tougher for Schaefer because of what they see as potentially a self-inflicted political wound. More on that in a bit. First, a look at the district.

Senate District 50 runs from Rabun Gap at the top of the district to Lake Hartwell.

Habersham County, which is home to all three candidates in this year’s race, is the geographic center of the district and typically accounts for about one-third of the overall vote.

The other seven counties are Towns (home to former Gov. and Sen. Zell Miller, a Nancy Schafer supporter), Rabun, Stephens, Banks, Franklin and Hart, plus a bit of east-central White.

This is a very conservative district. In 1992, voters here went 64 percent against the lottery which nonetheless passed statewide and ultimately funded the HOPE scholarship and pre-k programs. George W. Bush won the district with 60 percent in 2002 and 74 percent in 2004.

Preacher and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won 45 percent in the district on Super Tuesday, followed by John McCain at 29 percent and Mitt Romney at 21 percent.

Here’s another statistic that also could prove important: in last year’s congressional runoff race between Paul Broun and Jim Whitehead for the 10th congressional district seat of the late Charlie Norwood, Broun carried SD 50 by 61 percent. Since Broun only won the overall race by less than 1 percent, you can see this is an area where he’s got some strength.

Yet back in March, Schaefer announced she was planning to forego re-election to her state Senate seat in order to challenge Broun for his congressional post.

“Most North Georgians want change right now,” she told the AJC at the time. “They’d like it to be a North Georgia seat - not a seat from Augusta.”

A month later, she withdrew, saying her husband was scheduled for surgery at the end of the month. The press release said: “Nancy has been aware following several doctor’s visits that to move forward with an active campaign at this critical time is unthinkable.” The press release said she would continue to represent the district until the end of the year.

Then, a few days later, she announced she would run for re-election to the Senate, after all.

By that time, however, challenger Jim Butterworth, chairman of the Habersham County Commission and a Delta Air Lines pilot, already had decided to run for what he thought would be a vacant seat, and businessman Terry Rogers had decided to run, whether Schaefer was seeking the job or not.

Butterworth said he went ahead and began planning his campaign on the assumption Schaefer wouldn’t run, then got a call from her asking him to get out of the race when she changed her mind. “I did give her the respect of considering it, but I called her back within 12 hours and told her I felt I had the support necessary to go forward and had made too many obligations and spent too much time and effort (to drop out.)”

Schaefer doesn’t remember it that way.

“That’s not accurate,” she told Insider. “I would never have asked him to get out and I didn’t. The minute we made the decision I told him we were going to run. I never asked him to get out.”

Rogers told Insider he had decided as far back as last October to make the race, long before he knew what Schaefer’s plans might be. He’s been active in local politics, too, and served for a time on the Cornelia city commission and in some of Newt Gingrich’s congressional campaigns. He runs a plastic recycling business.

Folks in Atlanta and in the district who watch these races closely (because of their cumulative effect on the balance of power in Atlanta) think Schaefer hurt herself politically by first announcing she would challenge a congressman who appeals to the same conservative Christian base she does, and then flip-flopping on whether she would seek re-election to the Senate.

“Nancy’s done damage to her base by jumping around,” said one observer. “When she was going to run for Congress, some of her supporters got on board with Butterworth. Then she got back in and they thought that wasn’t the right thing to do.”

Schaefer said she’s not hearing that from many people. “I ran into four people - actually three - that said they committed to someone else when they thought I was not going to run. Most people have called and said they were pleased I was going to run for the Senate.”

As to the “whys” of that decision, she said she had initially decided that Congress was a better place for her to work on issues that are of key concern for her, including protective services for children. “But Bruce came down with the need for abdominal surgery and I quickly made that decision not to run. We thought it would be almost immediately. It took three doctors before we found out what he needed.”

Now, the surgery is scheduled after the primary, she said, and the prognosis is good.

Schaefer carries the endorsement of Georgia Right to Life into the election. She’s labored in the fields with that organization and affiliated groups for years. She is, in fact, the founder of a nonprofit called Family Concerns, which served as a springboard for some of her political activities.

Statewide, her high water mark was in 1994 when she was recruited by then-GOP Chairman Billy Lovett to run for lieutenant governor and got 42 percent of the vote against Democratic incumbent Pierre Howard.

She ran for governor in 1998 and came in third in the Republican primary with 8 percent of the vote, trailing Guy Millner and Mike Bowers.

In a conservative state Senate, she is arguably well to the right of many, and some of her issues clearly transcend the state’s boundaries. A resolution she passed through the Senate this year urges Congress to withdraw the U.S. from the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, terming it a direct threat to U.S. independence. It is SR 827.

In her basic stump speech, she says she tells voters she’s “not just at the Capitol to make a living but to make a difference” and talks of the need for economic develop, jobs and tourism in the district. “I share about having worked hard on the statewide comprehensive water plan,” she adds. “Everybody up here is interested in water and how we’re going to maintain an adequate supply.”

Butterworth agrees that water is a key issue for the district, and says that his hands-on experience as county commission chairman gives him the edge.

“Three years ago before we were in the middle of this extreme drought we began putting a 50-year water plan in place. We were one of the first counties to do so. We have a road map. Something a lot of other communities in north Georgia haven’t gotten to yet. So I’ve been in the trenches working on water plans. I’ll be knowledgeable working with the statewide water plan,” he said.

Butterworth flies 767s and 757s for Delta some 10 or 12 days a month. He served in the U.S. Air Force for 12 years and rounded out his military career in the Georgia Air National Guard based at Warner Robins flying B-1s.

He’s a member of Georgia Right to Life and can’t quite figure out why Schaefer got the organization’s nod. “I never got a survey, phone call or any other communication from Georgia Right to Life.”

His wife is a 2nd grade teacher in the Habersham County public schools.

Rogers touts his business experience.

“We’re all Republicans. We all basically have a conservative philosophy. I think I bring two things: because of my business, I can stick my phone in my pocket and be available full time. Also, I think people are tired of politics as usual. They are looking for experience. I would like to bring a businesslike approach to the legislative process.”

There’s been talk on a popular political blog of Rogers’ three marriages.

Rogers said that’s no secret in a community where it would be hard to keep secrets, anyway. But it is, he says, “politics as usual. We need to get away from it.”

All three candidates have professional help.

Butterworth’s key campaign advisor is Joel McElhannon, who’s had a string of Republican success stories over the years, including Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.

Schaefer’s consultant is J.B. Coram, who lives just up the road and across the border in North Carolina.

Rogers is using Tim Baker of the Capitol Strategies Group.

There is some speculation that the race here two years ago flipped on the weekend before the election, when polls showed Democrat Carol Jackson with a healthy lead. Then a negative ad aimed at Schaefer was circulated by someone - Jackson insisted at the time it wasn’t her. It allowed Schaefer to go on the offensive and she ultimately won.

Previous legislative primary reports:

House Watch - HD 15: Key House Chairman Facing Fight?

Eye On The Senate - SD 46 Athens Incumbent Favored But No One Takes Race For Granted

House Watch - HD 9: The Big Boys Clash In The Gold Belt