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Georgia: Lanier Wages Guerrilla Warfare Against Senator

Democrat Josh Lanier may be a long shot for winning his party’s nomination to take on Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) this fall, but his unusual campaign style and unique Internet videos have brought him some attention from Peach State newspapers in the crowded primary campaign.

In Lanier’s latest guerrilla marketing piece, he simply replays a video released earlier in the week by Chambliss in which the Senator blames Democrats for the country’s energy problems. But at the bottom of the screen, in a typed running dialogue, Lanier disputes the Senator’s message point for point.

It’s not the first time Lanier has used the Senator’s words against him. In late April, Lanier basically reproduced an attack ad that Chambliss released in his 2002 campaign against then-Sen. Max Cleland (D). But Lanier’s “Boomerang” ad substitutes Chambliss’ record at the points in the ad where Chambliss had attacked Cleland for his “failure to lead.”

Lanier said Tuesday that the videos, which he writes and directs himself, are part of his “un-campaign,” in which he has shunned the idea of chasing big donors and is working to show just how broken the American political system has become.

“It’s way more effective to show someone’s idiocy in their own words and by their own actions than it is to produce something that says that,” Lanier said of his latest video. Besides, “no one else [in the Democratic primary] is talking about Saxby Chambliss — they are talking about themselves.”

Chambliss’ campaign doesn’t appear too concerned with Lanier’s latest video.

By simply replaying Chambliss’ attacks on Democrats, Lanier “is doing more of our leg work for us,” a Chambliss campaign spokeswoman said Tuesday. “Essentially what’s he’s doing is sending everyone our message.”

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