Video: GA-12 candidate Ray McKinney

In the last of my videos from the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, I interview Ray McKinney, who is running for the Republican nomination in Georgia’s 12th Congressional District. McKinney made a big push at the SRLC, hosting two blogger events and talking with as many people as possible. By the time I conducted this interview, I had already had some opportunity to speak with McKinney about his run to unseat Blue Dog Democrat John Barrow, who came into office in the 2004 election. Barrow voted against both health care and cap-and-trade when they came to the floor, but at least on the latter, that was just dodging his responsibility for the legislation being on the floor at all. Barrow provided the vote necessary in committee that allowed Nancy Pelosi to get that vote, and McKinney points out the way it works:

McKinney works as a project manager in the energy sector, including nuclear power plants. He declares Barack Obama’s proposed drilling plan a “sham,” saying that we know what we need to do to get better energy production in America — and that we should just do it. But the big takeaway here is McKinney’s exposing Barrow as something of a sham as a moderate.

Does McKinney have a chance? Barrow won this district 2-1 in 2008, but things have changed significantly in 2010. If McKinney can expose Barrow’s hypocrisy on cap-and-trade, he could undercut the safe lead Barrow enjoyed in the last election.

Update: HA reader Charlie R contacted Barrow’s office, which claimed that he voted against the cap-and-trade bill in committee — and it looks like he did, too, on the final vote.  Charlie found the relevant portion of the bill’s record, lines 7731-7735 and 7784-7786, which shows Mr. Barrow voting no.  I contacted the Mckinney campaign, which apologized for offering the “technically inaccurate” statement, and then issued the following response:

John Barrow’s committee votes with respect to Cap and Trade legislation in 2009 were “yes” votes to advance the Pelosi Agenda.  His votes violated free market principles and allowed for exemptions for developing nations such as China and India, an unfair competitive edge which will lead to additional job losses in the United States.

John Barrow voted in committee:

–against outlawing international carbon offsets

–against requiring reauthorization of the bill every five years

–against republican alternative proposed by Rep. Joe Barton

–against a provision suspending the cap and trade provisions of the bill if average residential electrical bills double as compared to 2009 levels, and

–against suspending the act if China and India do not implement similar measures.

While Nancy Pelosi may have let John Barrow vote against a bill she was certain would pass, his actions in committee added to the destructive, statist nature of the Cap and Trade bill which violates free market principles and further weaken the American economy.

Fundamentally if [B]arrow and just a few others worked across party lines for a real defeat, the bill would have stopped in committee.

As I recall, those were a series of amendments offered by Republicans while the bill was in committee.  If the above is accurate, then Barrow provided party-line support until the final committee vote.   That’s not quite what McKinney accused Barrow of doing, but if this is accurate, it’s not far off from it.  One would have to wonder what Barrow found objectionable about the bill that wouldn’t have at least been improved by the adoption of these amendments.