Could Ralph Reed, former head honcho of the Christian Coalition and later a key player in the Abramoff scandals, be on the verge of running for Congress?
David Brody reports that Reed will announce tomorrow whether he will run for the House seat currently held by Rep. John Linder (R-GA), who is not running again this year. Reed is expected to make the announcement on Twitter, Facebook, and the websites for both his personal account (which is currently an empty page saying only “Under Construction”) and and his current organization, the Faith and Freedom Coalition.
Reed, a longtime power-broker in Christian Right politics, previously ran for lieutenant governor of Georgia in 2006. Although he started out in a very strong position, his campaign was derailed as the Abramoff scandal widened, with e-mails showing his own communications with Abramoff. Reed lost the Republican primary to state Sen. Casey Cagle by a margin of 56%-44%.
A Republican source handicapped the race for us, saying that Reed could start out in front, but could encounter problems under Georgia’s runoff system.
“He’ll start with more name ID than anyone else and he won’t lack for resources; with just over four months left in an expensive media market, that’s important,” the source said. “But he still faces an uphill climb. He may finish first on primary day - but runoffs usually aren’t friendly to highly polarizing candidates. And make no mistake, there are plenty of folks who can’t stomach Ralph Reed.”
Other candidates already in the race include state Sen. Don Balfour, state Rep. Clay Cox, and businessman Tom Kirby. The district is heavily Republican, having voted 60%-39% for John McCain in 2008, and for George W. Bush by 69%-30% in 2004.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition did not return our request for comment.
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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