Georgia House incumbents win their races

The wave that swept Democrats into federal and state offices across the country didn’t reach Georgia’s 2008 congressional races.

All 11 incumbent congressmen in contested elections this year won easy victories Tuesday night.

That includes two of the national GOP’s favorite targets, John Barrow of Savannah and Jim Marshall of Macon.

Two Republican incumbents, U.S. House Reps. John Linder of Duluth and Tom Price of Roswell, handily defeated their respective Democratic challengers Doug Heckman of Norcross and Bill Jones of Marietta, while hardly lifting a finger.

The two skipped debates, ignored attack ads their Democratic challengers aired on cable TV and spent relatively little from their hefty campaign accounts to win re-election.

Price’s margin over Jones was more than 2 to 1.

Price said the election showed Georgia is “redder than ever.”

“Georgia is a red state. Georgians want responsible and smaller government, lower taxes and to support our national security system.”

Georgia’s other five incumbent GOP congressmen, Jack Kingston of Savannah, Lynn Westmoreland of Grantville, Nathan Deal of Gainesville, Paul Broun of Athens and Phil Gingrey of Marietta, also won decisive victories against Democratic challengers.

For Westmoreland, this may be his last term in Congress. The former Georgia legislator is contemplating a run for governor in 2010.

Kingston defeated Bill Gillespie of Tybee Island.

Westmoreland beat Stephen Camp of Newnan, Deal beat Jeff Scott of Chicamauga, Broun bested Bobby Saxon of Nicholson and Phil Gingrey defeated Bud Gammon of Rome.

The Georgia Democratic Party had sought to tip the balance of power in the state’s U.S. House delegation by running four moderate to conservative candidates with military records against GOP incumbents.

Three of the Democrats, Heckman, Gillespie and Saxon, are Iraq war veterans.

But none came close to raising the kind of money needed to mount competitive campaigns, especially in districts that lean heavily toward the GOP.

Then again, nearly $4.5 million didn’t help Republican challenger Deborah Honeycutt of Riverdale oust Democratic congressman David Scott of Atlanta. With two-thirds of the vote counted, Scott was carrying 6 of every 10 votes counted.

A pre-election poll that showed Scott was in danger prompted a flood of contributions to the incumbent congressman. In the final week of the race, donors pumped nearly $250,000 into Scott’s campaign

Republicans had hoped to increase their majority of 7 to 6 members in Georgia’s U.S. House delegation by picking off Marshall and possibly Barrow.

In 2006 both Democrats eked out re-election victories in two of the nation’s 10 most competitive congressional races that year.

This time Barrow handily defeated his Republican opponent John Stone by 2 to 1 in the contest for the eastern Georgia 12th District.

Marshall beat Republican Rick Goddard in the central Georgia 8th District congressional race.

Staff writer Craig Schneider contributed to this report.

WINNERS AT A GLANCE

DISTRICT 1: Jack Kingston (R)

DISTRICT 2: Sanford Bishop (D)

DISTRICT 3: Lynn Westmoreland (R)

DISTRICT 4: Hank Johnson (D), unopposed

DISTRICT 5:

John Lewis (D), unopposed

DISTRICT 6: Tom Price (R)

DISTRICT 7: John Linder (R)

DISTRICT 8: Jim Marshall (D)

DISTRICT 9: Nathan Deal (R)

DISTRICT 10: Paul Broun (R)

DISTRICT 11: Phil Gingrey (R),

DISTRICT 12: John Barrow (D),

DISTRICT 13: David Scott (D), incumbent