On Tuesday, businessman David Perdue narrowly won the runoff for the GOP Senate nomination in Georgia. He'll go on to face Democrat Michelle Nunn in the general, in one of the 9 key races that could determine control of the Senate this year. There were few apparent policy differences between Perdue and his opponent Rep. Jack Kingston. Yet the race featured a bizarre escalating ad war in which each contender was repeatedly compared to a crying baby, as Slate's Dave Weigel and ABC's Chris Good point out:
1) Perdue premiered the baby strategy in his first TV ad in February, which depicted all 4 of his GOP opponents as crying children:
2) Kingston responded by depicting Perdue as a baby smearing cake all over his face while destroying Georgia jobs:
3) Perdue responded by depicting Kingston as a baby chewing on a pair of glasses, with a diaper helpfully labeled "Jack":
4) A Perdue ad in the runoff toned things down a bit, airing a mere 2 seconds of baby footage:
5) So in a failed, last-gasp attempt to stop Perdue, the US Chamber of Commerce decided to... compare him to a baby:
On Tuesday, Perdue edged out Kingston in the runoff, winning 50.9 percent of the vote. Then, in a very un-baby-like move, Kingston almost immediately endorsed Perdue for the general election, saying Republicans needed to unite to defeat Michelle Nunn:
I called @Perduesenate to congratulate him and offer my support for his campaign in the General Election.
— Jack Kingston (@JackKingston4GA) July 23, 2014
Perdue's ads were made by Fred Davis, a GOP consultant known for unusual ad choices. (In 2010, Davis became infamous for what became known as the "demon sheep" ad.)
