PBS高端访问:两个新人争夺乔治亚州的参议院席位

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And exactly two weeks from Election Day, and Georgia is a surprise place Democrats² are suddenly hopeful about.

　　The two major-party candidates running for the open Senate seat are first-time candidates, but both come from well-known political families.

　　This weekend, I traveled to the Peach State to find out how a race between two non-politicians has become a nail-biter.

　　Worshipers at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in downtown Atlanta were fired up on Sunday, determined³ to make their voices heard.

　　REP. JOHN LEWIS, (D) Georgia: So, we have got to go out and vote like we have never voted before.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: It was the sort of stars-of-the-civil-rights-movement turnout you would expect in a presidential election year, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s sister, Christine, arm in arm with Congressman⁴ John Lewis, leading the way at a large get-out-the-vote drive called Souls to the Polls.

　　But it's not a presidential election year, and the first African-American president, Barack Obama, is not on the ballot⁵, except in TV spots being aired by most Republican Senate candidates this year, including David Perdue here in Georgia.

　　Perdue campaign ad: Job losses come from bad policies in Washington, the policies of President Obama and Michelle Nunn. The president himself said, make no mistake, these policies are on the ballot.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Perdue, a 64-year-old former corporate⁶ executive and first-time candidate, is trying to take advantage of President Obama's unpopularity with most Georgia voters by saying his Democratic opponent, Michelle Nunn, would be a rubber stamp for Obama policies.

　　ERIN KRENZ: Would that be Michelle Nunn or David Perdue that would get your support there?

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: It's an argument that Perdue supporters, like 31-year-old massage⁷ therapist and mother of three Erin Krenz, who regularly volunteers to make calls and knock on doors for him, enthusiastically embraces.

　　ERIN KRENZ: Because there are so many bad policies coming out of Washington that are going to kill all of the jobs, that are killing⁸ jobs right now. There are small business owners that are trying to put their heads together, figuring out, how am I going to surmount⁹ this Obamacare thing?

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Meanwhile, the 47-year-old Nunn, daughter of former four-term Georgia Democratic Senator Sam Nunn, has spent her adult life running large nonprofit volunteer service organizations.

　　She has focused her campaign on how she wants to be a voice for moderation in Washington, someone who will work with both political parties to get things done.

　　I spoke¹⁰ to her after she greeted people at the Morehouse College homecoming tailgate parties.

　　MICHELLE NUNN, Democratic Senate Candidate: I am going to work across party lines. But there are places where I differ from the president. I believe that we should have already moved forward with the Keystone pipeline¹¹. I believe that the president and the Congress should have done more to address our long-term debt.

　　But I also do agree with the president that we should raise minimum wage, that we should pass pay equity¹² legislation, that we should pass bipartisan immigration reform.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Michelle Nunn has had to walk a careful line in this campaign. She's had to appeal to white voters, who have lately been voting mostly for Republicans in Georgia, but not in a way that turns off black voters, whom she needs to show up in record-breaking numbers for a midterm election.

　　(SINGING)

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Those we spoke to say they understand the balance she must strike. Valerie Dorsey rode the Souls to the Polls bus on Sunday to cast her vote.

　　VALERIE DORSEY: I don't think in our politics that it's necessary to absolutely support the president in 100 percent of all his policies. But if you're able to reason, if you're able to be willing to be educated about the issues, and try to find common ground, I believe that Michelle Nunn will try to do that.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Emory University political scientist Merle Black:

　　MERLE BLACK, Emory University: She's got to get — do two things, according to her own strategy. She's got to get a composition of the electorate¹⁴ in which African-Americans make up 30 percent of the voters. Barack Obama got 98 percent of that vote in '08 and still lost by four or five points. But what's the other target? The other target is white voters. The Democrats need at least 30 percent of the white vote.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Black says this is a tall order for Nunn, but he believes she can pull it off. He argues that's because she's run a strong campaign, while Perdue has run a weak one, since he won the Republican primary.

　　MERLE BLACK: But he's not doing the number one thing that we think an unknown politician needs to do, and that is to advertise himself, show his stuff, get out there debate and engage. He doesn't do that right now, so this has given a tremendous opportunity for the Michelle Nunn campaign to paint their portrait of David Perdue. And that's a very, very unattractive portrait.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Merle Black says Nunn is trying to appeal to white voters, particularly women, by saying Perdue has made a career out of outsourcing jobs to other countries.

　　NARRATOR: The attorney asks, "Can you describe your experience with outsourcing?" Perdue responds: "Yes, I spent most of my career doing that."

　　MAN: And when asked by reporters how he defends the outsourcing, Perdue doubled down.

　　DAVID PERDUE: Defend it? I'm proud of it.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Perdue was unavailable for an interview while we were in Georgia, but his cousin, former Governor Sonny Perdue, speaking on his behalf, insists Nunn has taken those remarks out of context.

　　FORMER GOV. SONNY PERDUE, (R) Georgia: When David said that, it was in a legal document. And what has David talked about is, that is what corporate America was about. It may be outsourcing to a small business next door that can do that particular task more efficiently¹⁵ than a big corporation can do.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: He says Georgia voters want someone to go to Washington to undo¹⁶ Obama policies.

　　SONNY PERDUE: This is essentially¹⁷ a national election about the policies of this current administration and who will support those and then who will repudiate¹⁸ those in the Senate.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Both the Nunn and Perdue families come from Houston County in rural Central Georgia. We found that voters here and nearby are as divided as across the rest of the state.

　　Don Wood will likely vote for Nunn because he worries Perdue is too partisan¹³.

　　DON WOOD: He's not going to be able to do anything to help fix the problems that are there, because you at least have to be able to talk and get along with the people for something to happen.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: But Terri Marcum says she likes a candidate who stands firm.

　　TERRI MARCUM: Sticks to principles and sticks to the conservative. I'm a very conservative person, and so I really kind of like the conservative way of thinking.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: To keep her distance from Washington, Nunn rarely uses the word Democrat¹, refers to herself as a moderate.

　　But there's no question that you would, the majority of the time, be voting with the Democrats in the Senate?

　　MICHELLE NUNN: I spent 26 years mobilizing volunteers and solving problems. My lens for this race and for service is to get things done that matter to people. It's not from a partisan lens.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: In these final weeks, both the Nunn and Perdue camps are spending millions of dollars airing TV spots and getting out their vote. She's helped by a new infusion¹⁹ from national Democrats, who praise her for keeping the race competitive, and Perdue with help from national Republicans, worried at the closeness of a contest they thought they could count on.

　　But political scientist Merle Black notes neither party has a majority in Georgia. He argues even if Perdue captures the Republican base, he has another hurdle²⁰ to jump.

　　MERLE BLACK: When the Republicans have been doing well, it's because they have been carrying very large majorities among the independents. Currently, in these polls, Perdue is not achieving that degree of success with these independents.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Perdue's cousin, the former governor, acknowledges the steadily²¹ rising percentage of African-Americans and other minorities in Georgia does make Republicans' job harder.

　　SONNY PERDUE: I think that's part of maybe why the race appears to be tightening²². I don't think that we believe the race is as tight as current media is portraying²³ it to be.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Complicating²⁴ matters for both is the libertarian candidate, who polls show is drawing around 3 percent of the vote, enough to deny either Nunn or Perdue the 50 percent Georgia law mandates²⁵.

　　A runoff would be in January, requiring both to turn out their supporters all over again.

1 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

4 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

5 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

6 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

7 massage   

n.按摩，揉；vt.按摩，揉，美化，奉承，篡改数据

参考例句：

• He is really quite skilled in doing massage.他的按摩技术确实不错。
• Massage helps relieve the tension in one's muscles.按摩可使僵硬的肌肉松弛。

8 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

9 surmount   

vt.克服；置于…顶上

参考例句：

• We have many problems to surmount before we can start the project.我们得克服许多困难才能著手做这项工作。
• We are fully confident that we can surmount these difficulties.我们完全相信我们能够克服这些困难。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

12 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

13 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

14 electorate   

n.全体选民；选区

参考例句：

• The government was responsible to the electorate.政府对全体选民负责。
• He has the backing of almost a quarter of the electorate.他得到了几乎1/4选民的支持。

15 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

16 undo   

vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销

参考例句：

• His pride will undo him some day.他的傲慢总有一天会毁了他。
• I managed secretly to undo a corner of the parcel.我悄悄地设法解开了包裹的一角。

17 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

18 repudiate   

v.拒绝，拒付，拒绝履行

参考例句：

• He will indignantly repudiate the suggestion.他会气愤地拒绝接受这一意见。
• He repudiate all debts incurred by his son.他拒绝偿还他儿子的一切债务。

19 infusion   

n.灌输

参考例句：

• Old families need an infusion of new blood from time to time.古老的家族需要不时地注入新鲜血液。
• Careful observation of the infusion site is necessary.必须仔细观察输液部位。

20 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

21 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

22 tightening   

上紧，固定，紧密

参考例句：

• Make sure the washer is firmly seated before tightening the pipe. 旋紧水管之前，检查一下洗衣机是否已牢牢地固定在底座上了。
• It needs tightening up a little. 它还需要再收紧些。

23 portraying   

v.画像( portray的现在分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The artist has succeeded in portraying my father to the life. 那位画家把我的父亲画得惟妙惟肖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ding Ling was good at portraying figures through careful and refined description of human psychology. 《莎菲女士的日记》是丁玲的成名作，曾引起强烈的社会反响。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

24 complicating   

使复杂化( complicate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• High spiking fever with chills is suggestive of a complicating pylephlebitis. 伴有寒战的高热，暗示合并门静脉炎。
• In America these actions become executive puberty rites, complicating relationships that are already complicated enough. 在美国，这些行动成了行政青春期的惯例，使本来已经够复杂的关系变得更复杂了。

25 mandates   

托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Individual mandates would require all people to purchase health insurance. 个人托管要求所有人都要购买健康保险。
• While I agree with those benefits, I'm not a supporter of mandates. 我同意上述好处，我不是授权软件的支持者。