WASHINGTON — State Rep. Mike Keown and tea party activists Rick Allen and Lee Ferrell may boast disparate backgrounds and levels of political experience, but they are united in the themes of anti-big government that have punctuated each of their bids in the upcoming GOP primary to face off against longtime incumbent Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, for the 2nd Congressional District seat.
As the only Republican in the race with experience as an elected official, Keown’s bid sets him apart from his fellow GOP contenders.
Such experience is a double-edged sword in a midterm election season that nationally has seen upset victories by candidates who espouse anti-establishment messages. Still, Keown, a state legislator, the former mayor of Coolidge, a former school board member and a pastor with a doctorate in theology, feels that his intimate understanding of rural Georgia’s needs, coupled with his outside-the-Washington-Beltway perspective, will prove the right blend to represent the district.
“I started looking (at running for the congressional seat) around August of last year,” he said. “I had a tremendous weight in my heart at the direction of where we were headed with the bank bailouts and auto bailouts. We are mortgaging the future of our children.”
Keown, 56, describes himself as a Christian, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Second Amendment, pro-military, fair-tax candidate who believes in less government, less taxes, securing the nation’s borders and resolving illegal immigration.
“I’d love to have a real good conversation about the fair tax. We need to simplify the taxes paid and not penalize people for making money. I’m for getting rid of the IRS,” he said, adding that the money the government needs to function would come by way of a consumption tax instead of taxing citizens on their income.
As a state representative, Keown supported a resolution urging the state’s congressional delegation to support federal legislation preventing the Environmental Protection Agency from adopting regulations to regulate carbon emissions.
Keown, a husband, father of two, and grandfather of three, has held special events, fundraisers and forums to try to get to know people in a district that has 32 counties and can take 2 1/2 hours to drive.
“I think Mike would do a wonderful job because he understands the district,” said state Rep. Terry England, R-Auburn. “The area he represents as a state representative is very similar to the 2nd Congressional District. That area is an agronomic-based district. It’s in the heart of Georgia’s farming country. His state house district is agricultural for the most part. The problems a peanut farmer has in Coolidge or up toward Macon and Bibb County, they are the same issues and he understands them.”
Still, should he win the Republican primary, Keown would have a hard time defeating Bishop, said David Wasserman, House editor for the Cook Political Report.
“Mike Keown is not well-known, though he comes from a corner of the district where he retains some name recognition,” Wasserman said. “He would have to raise a lot more money and increase his name recognition in other parts of the district to challenge Bishop.”
Keown is working to do just that and is taking the incumbent head on — even before the Republican primary is settled.
“In southwest Georgia, we can’t do a whole lot about Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid, but we can do something about Sanford Bishop. He is no longer listening to us or representing us,” Keown wrote on his Web site. “I will represent you first. I will do what’s right for southwest Georgia, period. I will not cave in to political pressure from either party or any special interests. I will go to Washington, truly represent you, and come home every chance I get.”
Tea party activist and small-business owner Rick Allen remembers the moment when he decided to trade in picket signs for a place on the ballot as a Republican contender for the 2nd Congressional District seat.
He’d traveled to Washington to protest the Obama administration-backed health-care reform efforts which, after a protracted battle in both chambers and in town hall forums across America, ultimately passed and became law this year. The law extends health-insurance coverage to 32 million people who currently are uninsured, expanding coverage to 94 percent of eligible Americans.
Most people will have to obtain and most employers will have to offer coverage by 2014 or face penalties.
For Allen, a 59-year-old political novice, standing in the U.S. Capitol when the bill passed was eye-opening.
“I could feel the consensus among people that they didn’t want it passed,” Allen said. “The majority of the American people didn’t want it. It further inflamed my passion to get involved and try to do something with my life and try to bring some conservative values to southwest Georgia.”
His campaign is a small one. Daughter Ashlea Ervin is his campaign manager and the two have crisscrossed the district knocking on doors and chatting up folks at Lions and Rotary club and tea party functions. Allen also has relied on his Gen-Y daughter’s familiarity with Facebook, Twitter and blogs to get the message out about his candidacy.
“I told him, win or lose, this has been one of the best experiences of my life,” Ervin said. “Learning about the whole second district has been an experience.”
Allen, a divorced father of two, including a daughter with autism, and grandfather of two, has lived in Columbus most of his life. The owner of a small medical supply company, he graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism, which he says helped further buoy his lifelong interest in politics, history and foreign affairs.
Allen says he also worries about the impact of the health-care reform law on his autistic daughter and calls the law “unconstitutional legislation that I want to repeal.”
Allen supports lowering taxes to stimulate the economy, is pro-Israel, favors a strong military and believes in term limits for elected officials. He opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants, cap-and-trade efforts and describes himself as a “pro-life, Christian candidate.”
If elected, Allen said he will work to shrink the federal government by eliminating the Department of Education and minimizing the power of the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and the Department of Labor.
As a Republican, and one with very little name recognition outside of his hometown, the political newcomer faces an uphill battle, Wasserman said.
“It’s an extremely difficult district for Republicans even in a good year,” Wasserman said. “Democrats drew the lines. The district includes very Democratic areas of Columbus. We would consider the Republican field average at best.”
Still, Allen remains optimistic.
“I’m a constitutional conservative candidate. I’m concerned with the agenda of the country that is running the country now,” he said. “There’s a drift in our social direction.”
Air Force veteran Lee Ferrell tries to make every area tea party protest he can.
“I only missed one, and that’s because I went to the wrong town,” said Ferrell, an artist who says his work hangs in several military installations across the country. “I took an oath to protect the Constitution from government takeovers and liberal courts ruling from the bench.”
Ferrell’s sense of libertarian-leaning patriotism comes from a family history deeply steeped in military service. His father and two uncles served in World War II and one of his ancestors fought with William “Light Horse” Lee during the American Revolution and was present at the capture of Cherry Bridge, N.C., and the second capture of Fort Augusta.
Ferrell, 58, who once served at Robins Air Force Base, says the nation is similarly under siege.
The health-care reform law passed this year, “along with (Veteran Affairs), illegal immigration and national security, are my lines in the sand,” he writes on his Web site.
“You want ‘free universal health care?’ Tell your congressman and senators to make you eligible for the health care they created for themselves and their families. There is no space available for me or other military retirees to use. But, if you are a member of Congress or the House of Representatives, you are given access to Bethesda Naval Hospital.”
Ferrell also wants to abolish the IRS, the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. He supports implementing a fair tax that would replace federal income tax with an across-the-board national consumption tax on retail sales.
Campaign staffer Susan Coates understands Ferrell’s pique.
“People are angry,” she said. “They are very unhappy with the way Washington is trying to order our lives. People are speaking out against the establishment. He’s not a politician, but everyone had to start at the beginning sometime.”
Ferrell was born and raised in Albany, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Valdosta State College, and took graduate art school courses at the University of North Dakota. After his medical discharge from the Air Force, he was trained as a medical illustrator at Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Fort Gordon.
“I was born with a pencil in my hand,” Ferrell said.
His campaign has largely consisted of tooling around the district on a shoestring budget shaking hands and meeting people. Though in 2008 he ran against Bishop and lost his bid for the 2nd Congressional district seat, Ferrell says since he got 31 percent of the vote the lessons learned from that campaign will help him this time around.
Wasserman, the House editor for the Cook Political Report, says the Republican chances of defeating Bishop are highly contingent on “repressed African American turnout in the 2nd district.”
“Republicans weren’t even able to win this district for Saxby Chambliss in the 2008 Senate runoff,” Wasserman said.
Still, Ferrell, like many tea party activists who are running for office this midterm election season, is hoping to ride a wave of voter dissatisfaction with Washington to victory. But first he’s got to get past the Republican primary.
“I believe that an overwhelming majority think that Washington is broken. Corrupt politicians, greed and power have made the average individual suffer through high taxes, recession, and even loss of jobs,” he writes on his Web site. “It is time to restore common sense solutions and responsibility back into government.”
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