Gen. Election Begins: Saxby hits hard and Martin lags with Outsider Groups

Via the Political Insider we get news of the opening ceremonies if you will of the general election race with dueling press conferences. Senator Saxby Chambliss was able to tout his recent bipartisan work with the "Gang of Ten" that has worked out an energy plan in the Senate that seeks to provide solutions for the current energy crisis.

Sen. Chambliss also previewed his campaign strategy against Democrat Jim Martin who was chosen by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to run this race. Martin will be cast as a liberal and a tool of Chuck Schumer.

Martin has already had outside negative groups started on his behalf like "Take Back Georgia Inc." which is run by Mike Cantone and Beth Hand out of Hand's mediation company office in Cumming.

You remember Cantone right? He used to work at the state party as field director and was one of the "confirmations" that the Democratic Party of Georgia was pressuring unions to retract their endorsements of Rand Knight.

Cantone wrote: ""I simply picked up the phone this morning and got it confirmed to me as well after making a few calls by more than one person that the meeting did take place, in Matt Weyandt's office at the DPG (Andre is not one of the sources either). The fact is, the DPG just got caught, not once, not twice, but all over the place. They tried to meddle in HD55 siding with their own staffer Rashad and got caught. Also, they have alienated the campaigns of Vernon Jones, Rand Knight, and I can't imagine Dale Cardwell or Josh Lanier being too happy with the state party either, so how in any way is that a good thing for our party? Also, I had two people that work at the DNC tell me they are aware of the growing number of grumblings coming from GA and none are too impressed with what's going on.""

That story was later retracted by Andre over at Georgia Politics Unfiltered and Cantone made out to basically be off his rocker.

Cantone has also admitted being paid for work on behalf of Vernon Jones' campaign. Looks like he didn't do his job well enough then, so what makes me think he'll do anything different this time around.

I guess theres a reason why they've only raised $420.