ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) - As out-of-state parties continue to spend millions of dollars in the Georgia U.S. Senate race, the Democratic candidate is asking her rivals to refuse the helping hands.
On Wednesday, Democratic Senate nominee Michelle Nunn sent a letter to Republican contenders Rep. Jack Kingston and David Perdue, requesting that that they sign a "Peach State Pledge -- a pledge to refuse spending by outside groups in Georgia's U.S. Senate Race."
More than $6.7 million in outside spending has been expended already on the race, with only a little more than $68,000 going toward in support of Nunn, according to opensecrets.org.
Nearly $3 million of that total has been in support of Kingston, while PACs have spent $1.5 million in opposition of the Georgia businessman.
Outside PACs have spent more than $500,000 in support of Perdue and $100,000 in opposition of him.
Perhaps one of the motivating factors behind Nunn's letter is that she has already seen more than $300,000 exhausted in outside spending against her.
"In many cases, these groups will never be forced to disclose who is backing them -- preventing Georgians from seeing who is trying to influence our election. And unlike television advertisements from each of our campaigns -- where by virtue of a clear disclaimer voters know who to hold accountable for the message -- that is not the case with third party advertisements," Nunn wrote in her letter to Kingston and Perdue.
"I believe we have an opportunity to send a message to Washington. If we can join together and pledge to limit outside spending and third party ads, we can together show that the people of our state are tired of politics as usual. That message isn't exclusively a Democratic message or a Republican message, it's just common sense."
According to opensecrets, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the largest outside spender in the Georgia Senate with more than $2.3 million spent in support of Kingston. Legal Newsline is owned by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform.
Citizens for a Working America PAC comes in second, with a total of $2,077,900 spent, and Ending Spending Action Fund, a Super PAC, finishes third with nearly $1.5 million injected into the race.
Kingston and Perdue will face each other once again in a July 22 runoff.
Reach David Yates at elections@legalnewsline.com
Ga. Senate race: Dem candidate wants GOP rivals to swear off outside funds
