U.S. Senate challengers take aim at Isakson

Over in the Democratic primary, businessman Jim Barksdale, who has been seen as the favored candidate of party leaders, is running against AT&T Corporate Manager Cheryl Copeland and businessman John Coyne III.

Johnny Isakson

Isakson is the elder statesman in this race, with a political background that goes back to the 1970s and includes stints in both the state House of Representatives and Senate, as well as the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and a brief stint as chairman of the state Board of Education. He chairs the U.S. Senate’s Ethics and Veterans Affairs committees.

Isakson is running on a platform of repealing and replacing President Barack Obama’s health care plan; securing the nations borders; avoiding amnesty; “pro-growth, commonsense” tax reform; cutting unnecessary spending; supporting veterans, farmers and Georgia values; eliminating regulations that impede job growth; national security; supporting Israel; free and fair trade agreements and protecting Second Amendment rights.

“Georgians understand that the foundation of our country rests on the strength of our families,” he wrote on his campaign website. “The federal government must not promote policies that undermine marriage and strong families. We need to preserve the rights of parents to make decisions about their children’s education, and keep the federal government out of our schools.”

Derrick Grayson

Grayson, a Navy veteran and minister, is also advocating support of veteran affairs and avoiding amnesty. However, he also paints himself as a non-establishment Republican in a year when there is strong opposition to the establishment in both political parties.

His platform also includes implementation of the FairTax and the repeal of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913; changing military strategy take on a non-intervention stance; dumping Common Core; sentencing reform; ending the war on drugs; streamline the process for legal immigration and protecting Fourth Amendment rights.

“I believe the power belongs to the people and it is their duty to purge those in D.C. that infringe upon their Liberties and Freedoms,” Grayson wrote on his website. “Simply put, America needs men and women willing stand for what’s right and to expose the corrupt and I will absolutely do that.”

Mary Kay Bacallao

Bacallao comes into the race with an education background, having been a former teacher and college professor in Florida and Georgia since the late 1980s and a former Fayette County school board member. She ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for state school superintendent in 2014.

She is running on a platform of passing “just laws” while repealing unjust ones; confirming Supreme Court judges who “will not try to reinterpret the U.S. Constitution” and keep the next president “in check.”

“The desire to be free is deep within each of us, and as that desire for freedom awakens, we will work together to restore the liberty that has been legislated away,” she wrote on her website.

Jim Barksdale

Barksdale is a political newcomer who founded his investment firm, Equity Investment Corporation, in his home in 1986. He explains on his website that the company now manages approximately $5 billion in investments for its clients.

On his website, he pointed to deregulation of financial markets, the government’s inability to negotiate lower prices with drug companies, military spending on what he deemed “unnecessary wars” and trade deals he said cost the country high-paying jobs as the source of national problems. He is calling for policy changes designed to benefit the public rather than corporations.

“If there is anything I cannot stand, it is wasteful spending and poor investments,” he wrote on his website. “It is time for new policies that benefit the many, and not just large corporations.”

Cheryl Copeland

Meanwhile, Copeland is campaigning as the “champion of the underdog” and touts her Christian beliefs and the fact that she is a lifelong resident of Georgia on her website.

She wrote on the website that the government should “implement policies that promote strong marriages, families and country” while ensuring all children have access to a quality education without finding themselves buried in student loan debt after college. However, she also took aim at Barksdale’s wealth.

“We can’t afford to send another rich businessman to Washington to make laws that burden the citizens of Georgia and protect his business interest instead of the people,” she wrote on her website. “You need someone that is committed to serving you.”

John Coyne III

Coyne wrote on his website that this a pivotal election year and that voters should chose candidates who “clearly want for all the people they represent to have a better life for them and their family in years to come.”

His lengthy platform includes 12-year term limits for U.S. representatives and senators; extending the school year to 210 days while making a summer session available to students; banning dropping out of school; raising the Medicare tax to cover the cost of adding military veterans to the program and setting the minimum wage at $11 for workers under 22 and a living wage of $15.

“I will bring a fresh look to the important issues of health care, education reform, improving and strengthening social security, implementing the laws of immigration by protecting America’s jobs, and considering our national security interest first at all times,” Coyne wrote on his website.