Home > Election Day > Archives > 2006 > July
July 2006
Coweta Commission chairman is unseated
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tim Lassetter edged incumbent Greg Tarbutton in the Republican primary for the Coweta County Commission District 2 seat.
Lassetter, an operations manager with Eckerd Drugs, earned 52.9 percent of the vote in the district, which encompasses the western side of the county. He’ll face Democrat Jett Smith in November.
“I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome,” Lassetter said. “So many people that I have known all my life who said they were going to support me did so. But any time you run against an incumbent who is the chairman of the county commission, it’s not an easy task.”
Tarbutton, elected to a first term in 2002, is chair of the county commission, which has a rotating chairmanship.
The unofficial count in District 2 was 792 to 705, with a handful of provisional ballots yet to be verified. Overall turnout in Coweta County was 17.75 percent.
Tarbutton, a managing partner in Keystone Apartments in Jonesboro, said he was disappointed with the results but not “crushed.”
“I would have preferred it to come out the other way, but the long and short of it is that there’s finality to it,” he said.
Tarbutton said he had spoken with Lassetter.
“I’m convinced that he has Coweta County’s best interest at heart,” he said. “I’m going to do everything I can to help him get up to speed.”
For his part, Lassetter, a lifelong Coweta native, said he planned to take a week off from campaigning before gearing up again for the general election.
Permalink | | Categories: Coweta County
Belle Isle wins Alpharetta seat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
David Belle Isle defeated Mark Smith in the race to replace controversial former Councilmember R.J. Kurey.
Kurey was ousted by his fellow councilmembers for bad behavior.
Belle Isle took 51 percent of the vote, compared to 49 percent for Smith.
Permalink | | Categories: Fulton - North
Alpharetta tax district is approved
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alpharetta residents strongly supported a tax district to fund a downtown redevelopment project.
The special tax district would pay for public improvements on 7 acres of prime downtown real estate, most of which is underused. The city owns 3 of the acres — part of it tied up in parking, the rest the aging Eagle Village gym and Police Athletic League complex.
The proposal, approved in concept by the city but still in the development stage, calls for about 50,000 square feet each of retail and office space, new space for city government offices, 162 condominiums and nearly 900 parking spaces.
Permalink | |
Sandy Springs approves exemptions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Six ballot questions in Sandy Springs asked voters to approve city homestead exemptions that mirrored what residents received when the community was part of Fulton County’s special service district.
Two of the exemptions applied to all city residents. The other four were just for residents who are disabled or over a certain age and meet various income limitations.
All received overwhelming support on Tuesday. Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos said the exemptions will offset any increase in tax bills, starting with this year’s, except for inflation or an increased assessment.
Permalink | | Categories: Fulton - North
Crow, Dudgeon win school board seats
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two school board races were settled Tuesday, with no possibility of a runoff.
District 1 incumbent Ann Crow defated Ed Mitchell, and District 2 incumbent Luke Haymond was unseated by Mike Dudgeon.
Issues in the race have included school start times and the handling of sales tax referendums for school projects. The next sales tax referendum will take place during the general election in November.
Permalink | | Categories: Forsyth County
Incumbent commissioners face runoffs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Both Forsyth County Commission incumbents will have to compete again in an Aug. 8 runoff.
Whoever wins that race will win the seat, as no Democrats qualified to run for the County Commission.
In District 1, Charlie Laughinghouse will face Ralph “Pete” Amos, a county planning commissioner, while Commission Chairman Jack Conway will compete against Jim Harrell., former c Neither incumbent received more than 50 percent of the vote to ensure victory.
Both incumbents have antagonized different constituencies. Laughinghouse has drawn the ire of longtime property owners and builders for supporting tough development standards. Conway has angered homeowner advocates who believe he has become too pro-growth.
Permalink | | Categories: Forsyth County
Goreham scores easy victory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the Cobb County Commission District 1 race, incumbent Helen Goreham won the primary without the need for a runoff. With 57 of 58 precincts in, she had 53.3 percent of the vote.
Of her two closest challengers, former restaurant owner Johnny Woodward won 15.9 percent of the vote and former Powder Springs mayor Brad Hulsey took 14.2 percent
“I’m feeling positive and upbeat. As long as we’ve got more than 50 percent, it’s fanstastic,” Goreham said earlier in the evening as she gathered with supporters at a downtown Marietta restaurant to await returns.
Far back in the pack were former county finance department worker John Osborne, builder Scott Richards and retired police officer Charles Spann.
Goreham, a retired physical therapist, was first elected in 2002 on a platform of keeping residential growth in check.
Permalink | | Categories: Cobb County
Secretary of state: Crowded field delivers runoffs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The bitterly contested Republican primary for secretary of state between Bill Stephens and Karen Handel will continue for three more weeks.
Handel, the Fulton County Commission chairwoman, was leading Stephens, a state senator from Canton, late Tuesday. Because neither candidate won 50 percent of the vote in the four-candidate primary, a runoff is needed on Aug. 8.
The GOP race was marked by accusations of flip-flops, lies, distortions and dirty tricks. Both sides produced negative attack ads on the other. Stephens on Tuesday continued to call himself “the only conservative” in the race, a charge that infuriates Handel.
A runoff also is set in the crowded Democratic contest, where state Rep. Gail Buckner (D-Jonesboro) was leading Darryl Hicks, a former executive for the parent company of Atlanta Gas Light.
The Democratic primary was a relatively sedate affair with six candidates in the running. The Democratic candidates — several of them political neophytes — mostly struggled to distinguish themselves from the pack.
Both Handel and Stephens raised large amounts of money, and have plenty remaining to continue waging a campaign. Stephens has emphasized his work in the state Senate, where he helped build a majority for the GOP in recent years as one of the chamber’s top leaders. He also counted former Gov. Zell Miller, for whom Stephens had worked, as his supporter.
“Tomorrow we start over, and there’s a brand-new election in three weeks,” Stephens said late Tuesday. “Everybody starts from zero. We’re in the fourth inning of a nine inning game, and I know how to close a game.”
Handel cited a combination of her political experience, business experience — she’s former head of North Fulton’s chamber of commerce — and work for both Gov. Sonny Perdue and former Vice President Dan Quayle and wife Marilyn Quayle as qualifications for the job.
“We figured all along it would be a runoff,” Handel said Tuesday night. “What I’m real proud of is we’re coming in the strongest position.”
Buckner campaigned on her 16 years in the Georgia Legislature, saying that it gave her the knowledge to understand the inner-workings of state government.
Buckner said Tuesday night that finishing first was the best result she could have hoped for in a six-person field.
“We plan to work hard for the runoff,” Buckner said. “I have the experience of working with the issues relative to the duties of the office of secretary of state, and I think that’s the message the citizens will be looking for.”
Hicks said his experience as a lobbyist for AGL Resources helped him understand government workings, and said his many years as a manager in the customer service field would help him make the secretary of state’s office more customer-oriented.
“I believe that I’m going to be victorious,” Hicks said late Tuesday. “We’ve got a plan and a message. I believe that my experience will be my defining factor in this.”
Runoffs in the race were expected, given the crowded field for the post, vacated by outgoing Secretary of State Cathy Cox who waged her own campaign for governor.
Ten people — six Democrats and four Republicans — were competing for the statewide office.
The secretary of state’s office has become a plum job in recent years, in part because of controversial elections issues throughout the nation and its high visibility. Former Georgia Secretary of State Max Cleland parlayed the post into a seat in the U.S. Senate.
The office in Georgia has responsibility for a wide range of governmental functions, including oversight of elections; the licensing of 64 trades and professions, from cosmetologists and psychologists to auctioneers and geologists; regulating investment advisers, the issuance and sales of securities; and the registration of corporations and nonprofit groups. It also oversees the state’s archives and the Capitol museum. The job pays $114,376 a year.
Other candidates in the Republican primary included businessmen Charlie Bailey of Cobb County and Eric Martin of Dunwoody.
Democratic candidates who trailed the top voter-getters in the runoff were Atlanta lawyers Shyam Reddy and Scott Holcomb, former state senator and parole board member Walter Ray of Coffee County in south Georgia, and DeKalb County businesswoman Angela Moore.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
What do you think of cityhood results?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thousands of north Fulton County residents voted in overwhelming fashion Tuesday to form two new cities — Milton and Johns Creek — meant to replace the county as the focal point of local government. Do you agree with the outcome?
Permalink | Comments (26) | Categories: Fulton - North
Race for governor starts before dawn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Taylor, who won the Democratic nomination for governor, said he was working on three hours sleep. Gov. Sonny Perdue, who had only token opposition — and presumably a good night’s sleep — said he was ready to begin the contest for the governor’s mansion.
Both men looked fresh this morning as they appeared separately on the local morning news programs, beginning with Perdue’s appearance shortly after 6 a.m. on WSB-TV. Taylor, who won a concession from challenger Cathy Cox just before midnight Tuesday, was on in the second half hour of the morning news show.
“We feel it is critic that we be effective in the next three days, consolidating our support in the Democratic Party… so it is going to be back at it hot and heavy,” said Taylor, who is finishing his term as lieutenant governor.
Perdue said he was glad to see an end to the Democratic primary campaign for governor, which he called “one of the nastiest I can remember in Georgia history.”
Through the primary, the television advertising run by Taylor and Cox, who is secretary of state, hammered each other with allegations of misspending, improper influence and questionable alliances. Issues were rarely discussed.
“Now people have a choice between two candidates, we can hopefully get to the issues,” Perdue said.
Taylor said he was prepared to battle Perdue on the issues.
“We need a governor that will really get busy about the high cost of health care in Geogia,” Taylor said. Said Perdue: “I will not have any trouble defending my record.”
Campaign contribution and spending reports indicate Taylor goes into the race with about $1 million, while Perdue, because he had little need to spend on a campaign, has about $9 million.
“I feel when they take a look at the candidates…even though we will be outspent, we will win this campaign,” Taylor said.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Clayton finishes counting votes — at 2:30 a.m.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Voting went smoothly in Clayton County on Tuesday.
Vote counting did not.
Because of computer problems, votes were counted into the early morning hours, with the last results posted about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday — hours after other counties had finished.
County officials said voting machines could not be transported from the precincts when the polls closed at 7 p.m. because the computerized cards that were supposed to lock voting machines did not work.
New cards had to be sent to all precincts. That delayed the poll managers from bringing the voting machines to the county’s emergency operations center, where votes were tabulated. Some poll managers waited in line to deliver machines until 10 p.m.
“We got a bad batch of cards,” said Annie Bright, elections director.
“We can’t shorten the process,” said Bob Bolia, chairman of the county board of elections and registration. “We do the best we can with what we’ve got.”
Candidate Lee Scott stayed until the last votes were counted. He compared he ordeal to birthing a baby. “My goodness, I don’t know why it took so long,” Scott said.
CLAYTON COMMISSION DISTRICT 1 Carl Rhodenizer, the two-term incumbent, will face Sonna Singleton in a runoff. She is an employee of Clayton Sheriff Victor Hill, who has clashed with the commission. Rhodenizer’s opponents have attacked him for supporting the use of county funds for a proposed commuter rail line between Clayton and downtown Atlanta.
CLAYTON COMMISSION DISTRICT 4 A runoff will take place in Clayton’s most closely watched Democratic primary race. Neither Lee Scott nor Michael Lester Edmonson got enough votes to win outright. Scott is married to Clayton District Attorney Jewel Scott. In recent years, Lee Scott has helped several candidates, including Sheriff Victor Hill and Riverdale Mayor Phaedra Graham, win campaigns. Edmondson is a local banker. Longtime incumbent Charley Griswell did not seek re-election.
SCHOOL BOARD In District 8, incumbent Allen T. Johnston was beaten by Norreese Haynes. In District 4, incumbent Ericka Brown Davis beat Milton Mack. There will be two school board runoffs. In District 1, A. Michelle Strong will challenge incumbent LaToya J. Walker. In District 9, incumbent Connie Kitchens faces Sandra Scott.
Permalink | | Categories: Clayton County
Reed couldn’t shake ties to Abramoff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the end, Ralph Reed couldn’t do for himself what he had helped Republicans do all the way up to the White House: Get elected.
Despite the backing of top conservatives including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Georgia Gov. Zell Miller, Reed failed to win Georgia’s GOP nomination for lieutenant governor Tuesday. He lost to little-known state Sen. Casey Cagle of Gainesville.
“I’m not focused on being a candidate in the future, but I’m glad I ran,” Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, told supporters in conceding to Cagle before all of the votes had been counted.
Cagle credited his Senate colleagues with helping him win the nomination. In February, 21 Republican senators signed a petition urging Reed to drop out of the race — out of a concern, they said, that Reed would prove a drag on GOP Gov. Sonny Perdue’s re-election bid.
“We’ve still got one more hurdle to go,” Cagle told supporters Tuesday night after his win, “and that’s in November.” He said Reed called to offer his support.
Cagle will face either former state Sen. Greg Hecht of Jonesboro or former state Rep. Jim Martin of Atlanta in the November general election. The two Democratic candidates are headed to an Aug. 8 primary runoff.
Without a doubt, said state Sen. Cecil Staton (R-Macon), it was Cagle’s ability to tie Reed to convicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff that sealed Reed’s fate. In doing so, Cagle cracked Reed’s rock-hard base of Christian conservatives — whom Reed had led to the ballot box time and time again.
“The Cagle campaign was very successful at planting doubt among members of the faith-based community. They stayed home,” said Staton, a Reed supporter.
Star of religious right
With Reed as fuel, a normally dull, down-ticket race was transformed into a nearly national affair, fought out on Web sites and editorial pages across the country.
At the start of his 18-month campaign in 2005, Reed, 45, was considered a shoo-in, based on his national reputation with the Christian Coalition and his proven ability to churn out Republican votes — evangelical and otherwise — for two U.S. presidents, both named Bush.
After attending high school and college in Georgia, Reed in 1989 joined the Rev. Pat Robertson’s new organization, the Christian Coalition. As executive director, Reed applied a precinct-style organization that stressed grass-roots organizing.
It worked. With Reed at its head, the coalition was essential to the GOP’s 1994 takeover of the U.S. House, an effort led by Newt Gingrich. Months later, Reed made the cover of Time magazine as the boyish face of the religious right.
By 1997, Reed was back in Georgia. He had left the Christian Coalition to establish a private consulting firm — and to lay groundwork for his entry onto center stage in politics.
An early backer of George W. Bush in his 2000 presidential campaign, Reed parlayed those Bush contacts, and a reputation for grass-roots organization, into a successful bid for chairman of the state Republican Party in 2001. Republicans won the governorship and the state Senate the next year. Reed took an even larger role in Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign.
Telegenic, smooth and well-connected, Reed saw early money pour into his campaign for lieutenant governor at a record rate. One opponent, state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, withdrew early from the primary contest, leaving only Cagle, a 12-year veteran of the Legislature.
Reed pitched himself as the ideas candidate, with a 63-page, downloadable position paper that included his support for a state spending cap tied to population growth and inflation, and his call for a 20 percent across-the-board reduction in income taxes by 2011.
But while Reed was getting his campaign off the ground, a U.S. Senate committee and federal prosecutors were probing deeper into Abramoff’s affairs. A Reed associate, Abramoff pleaded guilty in January to bilking his Indian tribe clients of tens of millions of dollars, and of bribery of a public official.
Reed has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing.
But e-mails between Abramoff and Reed revealed that the longtime friends, who met as college Republicans, had developed a close business association, often sharing clients and trading favors. A Senate Indian Affairs Committee, chaired by U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), concluded that Reed had been paid $5.3 million by two casino-owning Indian tribes, both Abramoff clients, to rally Christian voters against attempts by other tribes to establish competing casinos.
Reed repeatedly denied that he knew the money that financed his anti-gambling campaigns came from gambling revenue, although several e-mails showed that Abramoff informed Reed of the money’s origins several times.
For the last six months of the campaign, Reed continually expressed regret for his association with Abramoff, and frustration that the media were not covering the important issues of the campaign. Cagle used the Abramoff scandal to repeatedly accuse Reed of hypocrisy.
“The way he sold out our values? That’s wrong,” Cagle said in one of several TV ads that saturated Georgia’s airwaves in the final two weeks of the campaign.
In the last three months of the race, Cagle’s barrage against Reed began to pay off. Cagle rose in the polls and raised more than three times as much as Reed from contributors. Reed closed the financial gap with a $500,000 personal loan to his own campaign. By June 30, both men had raised roughly $2.5 million.
Abramoff controversy
The lieutenant governor’s race in many ways became a measure of the continued influence of Reed and his Christian conservatives, nationally as well as within the state Republican Party.
Conservative radio-TV talk show host Sean Hannity and future presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani traveled to Georgia to help Reed build his war chest. Giuliani said it was “very important” that Reed get elected.
Bush, however, made only passing reference to Reed — and Cagle — when he visited in March for a fund-raiser for Perdue, which was attended by both lieutenant gubernatorial candidates.
“Two candidates running for lieutenant governor, Casey Cagle and Ralph Reed, we appreciate them both being here tonight,” Bush said.
The Abramoff controversy forced Reed to conduct a campaign that was usually out of the view of even journalists inside the state.
Cagle, meanwhile, built his campaign around a network of Republican public officials, most of them state lawmakers, who were worried about the impact that Reed’s candidacy might have on the re-election bid of Perdue. Perdue himself remained strictly neutral.
Reed often blamed “the liberal media” for focusing on the his dealings with Abramoff, but in fact many evangelical Christians were also disaffected.
Clint Austin of Marietta is a former Reed employee who ran Reed’s successful bid to become state Republican Party chairman in 2001. On Monday, Austin, now a state Capitol lobbyist, posted on the Internet an article in which he explained why he would not vote for Reed.
“My reason for abandoning my support of Ralph is simple: Ralph Reed’s words and actions do not match up,” Austin wrote.
Anecdotal evidence showed some attempts, including by gay and lesbian voters, to pull Democrats into the race against Reed, but their effectiveness couldn’t be measured by early returns. For more than a decade, Reed has served as a lightning rod for those critical of the expanding influence of evangelical Christians in national politics.
“Tomorrow morning, I’ll be voting Republican for the one and only time in my life, to stop Ralph Reed. If we let Reed win this election, we can kiss our freedoms good-bye,” said one automated phone message left anonymously on answering machines in white Democratic areas of Atlanta on Monday night.
A spokesman for the Cagle campaign denied authorship.
Reed’s defeat has set a limit on the influence of Christian conservatives in Georgia’s growing Republican Party, said Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia. “They may be the tail now, but they’re not the dog anymore,” he said.
Bullock said he didn’t Reed running for public office anytime soon. “We’ve witnessed the final implosion of Ralph Reed,” he said. Considering the high expectations placed on his candidacy, it would be hard to reignite broad support, Bullock said.
Supporters in Reed’s emptying ballroom disagreed late Tuesday night.
“I’m obviously disappointed,” said a tearful Sadie Fields, head of the Georgia Christian Coalition. “The state lost an opportunity. But he will be back. He has far too much to offer.”
Staff writer Mark Davis contributed to this article.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
McKinney headed for runoff with Johnson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney is headed to a runoff against a relatively unknown challenger in a Democratic primary she was expected to win with ease.
The controversial 4th District incumbent, accused of striking a Capitol Hill police officer last March, narrowly led former DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson.
Alpharetta businessman John F. Coyne III came in a distant third but with enough votes to play the spoiler in his first election, keeping McKinney from topping 50 percent of the vote.
Few political analysts expected McKinney to have much trouble in her re-election bid even though her longheld status as a political lightning rod reached new heights over her very public confrontation with the Capitol guard.
Using a strategy that has been effective before, McKinney ran a low-key campaign — even refusing to appear at major debates against her challengers. She concentrated on her base in south DeKalb, meeting with constituents in the area.
In 2004, McKinney ran as an outspoken opponent of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism and ousted five Democratic primary opponents without a runoff. She then defeated the sole Republican in the general election to reclaim the seat she had held for 10 years before she was upset by Denise Majette in 2002.
Recognizing his daughter’s polarizing effect, former state representative Billy McKinney on Tuesday night discounted Johnson’s showing in the primary.
“There’s a love and hate of Cynthia McKinney,” he said. “Mickey Mouse would get a certain amount of votes.”
Anne Dishman of Decatur, who said she voted for Johnson, reflected voter discontent with McKinney. “I don’t know a lot about him [Johnson],” Dishman said as she left her polling place at Holy Trinity Parish. “It’s most important that Cynthia is not voted back in her office.”
Lance Blair of Decatur also supported Johnson. “I preferred his tone, which would be more advantageous for the district,” Blair said. “Right or wrong, Washington has tuned McKinney out.”
McKinney made a brief appearance before supporters late Tuesday. As Michael Jackson’s song “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” played in the background, McKinney said, “We won’t stop until we get enough.” McKinney also cited her opposition to “this administration’s war machine,” support of black farmers who sued for racial discrimination and bringing “hundreds of millions of dollars back to Georgia” for traffic and green space improvements and other projects.
“I’m asking the people of the 4th Congressional District to stand with me now,” she said. ” We’ve been here before, but you know what? It is impossible to keep a good woman down. …This battle is now engaged and we intend to win.”
McKinney is seeking a seventh term in Congress. She will face Johnson in an Aug. 8 runoff because no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote.
The victor in the run off in the heavily Democratic district would be a strong favorite in the general election in November.
The district encompasses most of DeKalb County, half of Rockdale County and a sliver of Gwinnett County.
McKinney has drawn support in the district despite widespread criticism over her confrontation with the police officer. A grand jury declined to indict McKinney.
“A lot of people don’t like her, but she’s a fighter, she’s a trouper and she’s a winner,” said Mary Harvey of Decatur, who said she voted for McKinney as she left the precinct at the Covington Highway Library.
“She’s trying to fight for equality for women, for the doors that have been closed” to minorities, Harvey said.
Johnson, who resigned his DeKalb County Commission seat in April to run for the congressional post, positioned himself as an alternative to McKinney. He called her confrontation with the Capitol Hill policeman “an embarrassment to the people of the district.”
He said he would “take care of home first,” focusing on issues like education, the economy, health care and transportation.
He said McKinney had not done enough for the district.
McKinney disputed that criticism.
She was joined at her campaign gathering Tuesday by Cindy Sheehan and Lithonia resident Patricia Roberts, two mothers whose sons were killed in Iraq and who have criticized the war.
Johnson said Tuesday he was prepared for a runoff against McKinney.
“We trained for 15 rounds, and this is round 12,” he told cheering supporters. “We’re not ceding any location.”
Staff writer Charles Yoo contributed to this article.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Hill fails in political comeback
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wayne Hill’s bid for a political comeback failed Tuesday as state Rep. Bobby Reese (R-Sugar Hill) handily defeated the former Gwinnett commission chairman in the race for the 98th Georgia House district.
“I’m relieved,” Reese said. “I’m glad it’s over.
Hill said, “We ran a clean hard campaign and kept it on the up and up, and I’m proud of that.
Hill, who once harbored ambitions for the governorship, added, “I probably will not run for office again, but still be involved in other people’s races.”
It was good night for incumbent legislators from Gwinnett. They easily swatted down their primary election challengers.
Victories by state Reps. Clay Cox (R-Lilburn), John Heard (R-Lawrenceville) and Pedro Marin (D-Duluth), as well as Reese, means all four incumbents are virtual shoo-ins for re-election this fall. None faces opposition from candidates from other political parties or independents.
In many respects the Hill-Reese race was a referendum on Hill’s 12 years as the head of Gwinnett County government as well as his tenure as appointed chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Hill entered the race with a pledge not to run attack ads or mail fliers against his opponent. In a odd reversal of campaign roles, Hill, the challenger, seemed to run as though he were the incumbent. On the stump, Hill rarely mentioned his opponent. Instead, both in public and in his direct mail fliers, Hill focused on his accomplishments as the leader of Gwinnett government and the expertise he gained as a major voice in the ongoing debates about metro Atlanta’s transportation and water supply problems.
It wasn’t enough. In running a resume campaign, Hill failed to convince voters that Reese needed to be replaced.
Meanwhile, Reese didn’t shy away from knocking his opponent. The incumbent also benefited from the support of longtime anti-Hill community activities and a statewide environmental group that actively campaigned against the former Gwinnett Commission chairman.
The group, the Georgia Conservation Voters Fund sent district voters mailers and ran cable television ads blaming Hill for metro Atlanta’s traffic problems. The group also accused Hill of allowing uncontrolled development to ruin Gwinnett’s quality of life.
Hill was hobbled by significant health problems. In early June, he underwent open heart surgery, which, though successful, kept him off the campaign trail for several weeks and prevented him from campaigning more aggressively, even after his doctor cleared him to resume his campaign.
Reese faced a significant personal distraction of his own. In recent weeks, the incumbent spent much of his time in southern Alabama visiting his ailing father.
Reese’s election will send him to the state Capitol for his fourth term. Reese was first elected to the House in 1998. He lost a bid for state Senate in 2002 and reclaimed the seat two years later.
Hill’s political career began in 1988 when the lifelong Gwinnett resident first ran as a Democrat for a north Gwinnett county commission seat. Hill lost. Four years later, Hill, who switched to the GOP, ousted incumbent Gwinnett commission Chairman Lillian Webb.
He was re-elected twice, in 1996 and 2000. Hill was denied a fourth term in 2004 by Charles Bannister, who defeated the incumbent in a GOP runoff election in August that year.
During his tenure, Hill presided over a growth boom that transformed Gwinnett from a bedroom suburb into a highly urbanized county with a population that continues to grow more ethnically and socioeconomically diverse.
Hill takes credit for preparing the county for growth and for the economic development successes that came with it.
He presided over hundreds of millions of dollars of public works projects including 47 new roads and the construction of a sewage treatment plant that bears his name and is considered to be among the best in the world. Other successes include a new four-year college, an arena, an expanded park system, scheduled public bus service and the giant Mall of Georgia near Buford.
Permalink | | Categories: Gwinnett County
Szabo prevails in solicitor’s battle
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Veteran prosecutor Rosanna Szabo prevailed Tuesday in the hotly contested race for solicitor general. Gwinnett voters chose longtime prosecutor Szabo over young defense attorney Jonathan Aurelia by nearly 2 to 1 in Tuesday’s Republican primary election. Szabo led with 66 percent of the precincts reporting just after 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“I am really humbled by the support I received,” Szabo said from a festive party at Lawrenceville restaurant Bistro Sol Terra. “I have realized that one person can’t win a political campaign; it takes a huge group of people.”
Aurelia conceded defeat from a gathering in Norcross late Tuesday.
“She won. It has been 2 to 1 all night,” said Aurelia. “I am not even paying attention to the numbers anymore.”
Szabo will take over as head solicitor for Gerald Blaney, who retired after 20 years in the office. Szabo, 44, had worked in the solicitor’s office for 17 years. For nine years, she was Blaney’s chief assistant in the solicitor’s office. Before that, she worked for about a year as an assistant district attorney in Milledgeville. Aurelia, 31, worked at the county solicitor’s office from 1999 to 2003. Szabo was his boss. After that, he worked in DeKalb County as an assistant district attorney for two years. Since then, Aurelia has been working in private practice.
The solicitor’s office prosecutes thousands of misdemeanor cases, such as those involving arrests for DUI, battery, shoplifting or traffic offenses.
The race between the two former colleagues had been cordial. But as the election approached, they began to attack each other in the press.
Aurelia claimed that Szabo had been lenient in dozens of DUI cases to solicit campaign contributions from defense attorneys. Szabo passionately denied the allegation then released to the media court records of a 10-year-old DUI arrest of Aurelia in Duluth.
Aurelia confirmed that he had been arrested when he 19 years old.
Szabo said she will continue to prosecute offenders aggressively and to keep numerous cases from backlogging in the system.
Permalink | | Categories: Gwinnett County
Robertson, James in runoff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Shelitha Robertson, a chief prosecutor for the Atlanta Police Department, and DeKalb assistant district attorney Robert James are heading for a runoff for DeKalb Solicitor General. They defeated former Newton County prosecutor Brian Ross.
All three candidates are Democrats. The winner will challenge Republican incumbent Shawn LaGrua in November for the right to prosecute criminal misdemeanors.
Permalink | | Categories: DeKalb County
Kenerly faces commission runoff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gwinnett Commissioner Kevin Kenerly did Tuesday what he always does on an election day — he went to an afternoon movie with his family. This year’s selection: “You, Me and Dupree.
Kenerly had hoped the three-way GOP primary for the District 4 commission seat would come down to just “me.” But Tuesday he had to settle for “you and me.”
Kenerly is headed for a runoff with real estate attorney Jodie Rosser after a heated race that included home-owner activist Butch Poss.
“I thought I could pull this thing off today,” Kenerly said Tuesday night. “When you get three people in a race, it’s very difficult to win it outright.”
Kenerly and Rosser will face each other in a runoff Aug. 8. The winner will go on to face Democrat John Kenney in November.
District 4 includes Buford, Sugar Hill and Lawrenceville.
Turnout at Gwinnett’s 158 voting precincts was 18 percent.
“I knew it was going to be a low turnout, but I thought there would certainly be more people,” said voter Fred Jones of Suwanee, who praised the efficiency of the county’s electronic voting machines.
Technical difficulties with new touch-screen machines poll workers use to check in voters caused delays at four precincts, Gwinnett elections officials confirmed. The four polls were kept open for up to 30 minutes past the 7 p.m. closing time to make up for the lost voting time.
The vote tally was delayed, as well, Tuesday because of a computer glitch that kept some precinct workers from transmitting results by modem to elections headquarters, County Administrator Jock Connell said.
Kenerly hunkered down Tuesday night at a relative’s house in Hoschton as he waited to see whether voters would give him a fourth term in his District 4 seat. Kenerly pulled on his cherished Dallas Cowboys ball cap — another of his election traditions — to watch poll returns.
Kenerly has spent the past two months defending himself against anonymous attacks from someone who blanketed the district with ads under the name beatkevin.com.
The mailings seem to be illegal under state elections laws because they are clearly political, but no registered campaign committee is identified and no candidate has taken credit for the expenditures.
One of the mailers included a DVD showing Kenerly gambling with developers in Las Vegas in March. Someone hired a private investigator to videotape Kenerly at Caesars Palace. The footage, which shows Kenerly gambling and dining with Gwinnett developers, also was sent anonymously to local media outlets. Kenerly provided canceled checks showing he paid his own way on the trip. He said he takes a similar trip with family and friends every year.
Rosser, Poss and Kenney all say they had nothing to do with hiring the private investigator or organizing the smear campaign against Kenerly.
Kenerly has said if he wins the election, it will be his last term in District 4.
Kenerly, 43, a real estate investor from Braselton, said he would focus his fourth term on reducing traffic congestion by finishing widening projects on Ga. 20 and Ga. 324 and finishing construction of the Sugarloaf extension south of Lawrenceville. He also wants to finish several park projects in the district. Kenerly spoke against impact fees even though he set up a citizen committee to study whether Gwinnett should adopt them.
Rosser, 27, a lawyer from Lawrenceville, campaigned on ethical government, saying she will serve no more than two terms and push for term limits. She wants to “stop overdevelopment” by imposing impact fees. Rosser said she wants to help control the spread of crime by putting 75 new police officers on the street every year.
Poss, 47, a financial adviser from Lawrenceville, promised to control growth by limiting densities in new subdivisions. He said he would fight crime by emphasizing the need for strong homeowner associations and participation in neighborhood watch programs. Poss also said he would do everything he could to “reduce and eliminate” classroom trailers at local schools.
Not surprisingly, Kenerly was able to capitalize on his 12 years in office to build the largest campaign war chest in the race, raising more than five times as much as his closest competitor and setting a new record for district commission candidates.
Kenerly raised $389,000, according to his most recent contribution disclosure June 30. He had $108,000 left as of that report.
Poss had raised $3,550, with $250 coming from his own pocket, according to his June 30 report. Most of the money remained in his account as of his June report.
Rosser took in a total of nearly $73,000 in contributions, according to her June 30 report. Of that, Rosser loaned herself $10,000 and donated $16,500. She had nearly $13,000 on hand as of June 30. Staff writers Rosalind Bentley and Laura Diamond contributed to this report.
Permalink | | Categories: Gwinnett County
Rader defeats Broussard
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In what was expected to be one of the closest local races of the evening, newcomer Jeff Rader narrowly defeated Don Broussard in the Democratic primary for District 2 commissioner. Rader had 51 percent of the vote, compared to 49 percent for Broussard.
The men, both city planners, want to replace long-standing commissioner Gale Walldorff, who is retiring at the end of her term. The winner will face Republican Hubert J. Rambo in November.
Permalink | | Categories: DeKalb County
Stokes wins District 7 race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the District 7 County Commission race, incumbent Connie Stokes scored a commanding win over challenger Willie R. Mosley Jr. She took 80 percent of the vote, compared to 20 percent for Mosley. Stokes will not face a Republican challenger in November.
A neighborhood blackout left poll workers and voters sweating in at least one of the District 7 precincts — Trinity Presbyterian Church in Decatur. The voting machines run on backup batteries and voting was never interrupted, said poll manager Christine Hameed. She said 231 people had voted as of 5:45 p.m.
Permalink | | Categories: DeKalb County
Lee May wins special election
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lee May handily won a speical election in DeKalb County for District 5 commissioner.
May, a theater owner, had 51 percent of the vote. His next closest challenger, Otis Marks II, received 16 percent of the vote. Other candidates were: Michael Leeper, Grady Yancey and Mary Louise Freeman. With five candidates, there had been speculation that there would be a runoff.
The winner of the race will take the seat previously held by Hank Johnson, who resigned to run for Congress in the 4th Congressional District.
Permalink | | Categories: DeKalb County
McKinney: “The battle is now engaged”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rep. Cynthia McKinney acknowledged about 12:50 a.m. that she is headed for a runoff election to see if she will represent the 4th District in Congress for a seventh term.
With 98 percent of precincts reporting, McKinney had 46.9 percent of the vote, compared with 44.5 percent for Henry C. “Hank” Johnson Jr., a former DeKalb County commissioner. A third candidate, Alpharetta businessman John F. Coyne III, received 8.6 percent of the vote.
A candidate must receive more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff.
McKinney was accused of striking a Capitol Hill police officer last March.
She pledged in a speech to fight for her seat.
“The battle is now engaged and we intend to win,” she said. “It is impossible to keep a good woman down.”
She also touted her opposition to the Iraq war and her ability to bring money to the district.
“I don’t mind speaking truth to power and I intend to speak truth to empower,” she said.
The district encompasses most of DeKalb, half of Rockdale County and a sliver of Gwinnett County.
A runoff will be held Aug. 8.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Brown ahead in race for labor post
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta businessman Brent Brown appeared to be headed to easy victory Tuesday night in his second straight bid for the Republican nomination for state labor commissioner.
Brown held a sizable lead over Woodstock state Rep. Chuck Scheid, in early returns. The winner faces Democratic incumbent Michael Thurmond in November.
“Things are certainly trending in the right direction,” Brown said of the early returns. “But some of the bigger counties haven’t come in, so we’re still watching.”
Brown ran for labor commissioner in 2002, but narrowly lost the Republican primary to Richard McGee, a former deputy commissioner with the labor department.
This year, Brown’s primary opponent was hampered by tax and ethics problems.
Scheid, who has been in the General Assembly for more than six years, was hit twice in the past year with tax liens, alleging he owed $42,467 in taxes, penalties and interest for the tax years 1998-2002 and $18,277 for 2003-04.
In addition, he was hit last July with a $1,000 fine and $1,450 in late fees by the State Ethics Commission for failing to file 11 required campaign disclosure reports from 1998 to 2004 and for being late filing nine other reports in that same six-year span.
Most of his tax problems were resolved before the campaign, but, as of May, he still owed the state $4,237, according to a letter he provided The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Brown, who is in sales for NCO Financial Systems, has said he’ll work to ensure that Georgia has a well-trained work force by forming a strong alliance between the Labor Department and the state Department of Education.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Kathy Cox, Denise Majette win bids
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Republican incumbent seeking a second term, a former Democratic congresswoman returning to politics and a Libertarian candidate will face each other in the November election for state schools superintendent.
According to unofficial returns from Tuesday’s primary elections, current superintendent Kathy Cox beat Republican Danny J. Carter, who left his job as a Department of Education administrator to challenge his former boss.
“I’m very pleased,” Cox said. “I’m looking forward to the next couple months of getting out on the campaign trail and telling the voters of Georgia all the good things that are happening in education.”
Carter could not be reached for comment.
On the Democratic side, one-term U.S. Rep. Denise Majette, who was conducting her first campaign since losing a bid for the U.S. Senate two years ago, bested Carlotta Harrell, a substitute teacher who was making her first bid for statewide office. Harrell conceded the race late Tuesday after receiving about a third of the votes.
“I’m excited, very gratified,” Majette said. “I’m looking forward to continuing the campaign, talking about the issues and how we can improve Georgia’s schools.”
One Republican and one Democrat will join Libertarian David Chastain of Acworth on the ballot in November. Chastain, a logistics analyst for Lockheed Martin, qualified for the race last month.
Chastain was watching the returns Tuesday, hoping that a split Republican vote would bode well for his campaign.
“I think there’ll be more people this year willing to switch parties on down-ballot races,” he said. “That’s what I’m hoping for anyway.”
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Governor enjoys easy primary
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They called it “Sonny’s Primary Party,” but it looked a lot like a campaign kickoff.
About 1,000 people crowded a ballroom at the Buckhead Westin late Tuesday night to cheer Gov. Sonny Perdue, who had only token primary opposition from Republican challenger Ray McBerry of Henry County.
Speakers blared John Cougar Mellencamp’s tune “Small Town” as slides and video of Perdue — much it from his 2002 underdog campaign — flashed across a huge screen near the stage.
Bouquets of red-white-and-blue balloons lined the room, and Perdue’s backers held signs that read: “Sonny — Georgia’s Governor.”
Perdue touted his administration’s accomplishments on the economy, private property rights, education, welfare reform and even wait times at driver’s license offices.
“This is our record. Do you want to go back?” Perdue asked. “No,” the crowd shouted back after he made each point.
Perdue, who comes from the tiny middle Georgia town of Bonaire, is Georgia’s first modern Republican governor.
He faces a tough, four-month fight to repeat his historic 2002 victory.
He’ll face Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, who beat Secretary of State Cathy Cox in the Democratic primary.
McBerry, Perdue’s opponent Tuesday, is chapter chairman of the League of the South, a Southern nationalist organization.
He had little funding and no support from the state Republican Party, which did not even list his name on its Web site.
“I want to give people, especially Republicans, a chance to vote for a conservative,” McBerry said in a recent interview.
“The main thing we are trying to get across is there is an alternative to Sonny.”
The GOP faithful, however, sided solidly with Perdue.
Now, a rested Perdue will face an opponent battered in the Cox-Taylor race, which was marked by waves of attack ads.
“They’re bloodied and they’re broke,” Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political scientist, said of the Democrats. “They also face the challenge of trying to reunite the party.”
Perdue has another big advantage — he begins the general election race with his campaign coffers brimming.
The governor has raised $10 million for the campaign and has about $9 million cash on hand, said campaign spokesman Derrick Dickey.
The governor gets his campaign rolling this weekend with an eight-county campaign rally in Hiawasee.
Despite his initial advantages, Perdue is well aware there are no guarantees in politics.
At this stage in the 2002 election, then-Gov. Roy Barnes, who was beaten by Perdue, had huge campaign reserves; the Republicans had just come off a divisive gubernatorial primary; and no one thought a guy named Sonny had much of a chance to become governor.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Cagle tops Reed for GOP nomination
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the end, Ralph Reed couldn’t do for himself what he had helped Republicans do all the way up to the White House: Get elected.
Despite the backing of top conservatives including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Georgia Gov. Zell Miller, Reed failed to win Georgia’s GOP nomination for lieutenant governor Tuesday. He lost to little-known state Sen. Casey Cagle of Gainesville.
“I’m not focused on being a candidate in the future, but I’m glad I ran,” Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, told supporters in conceding to Cagle before all of the votes had been counted.
Cagle credited his Senate colleagues for helping him win the nomination. In February, 21 Republican state senators banded together to sign a petition declaring that Reed should drop out of the race — out of a concern, they said, that Reed would prove a drag on GOP Gov. Sonny Perdue’s re-election bid.
“My senators,” Cagle said. “I knew that by having these guys behind me that we could reach out into every community and have a base of support.”
Cagle will face either former state Sen. Greg Hecht of Jonesboro or former state Rep. Jim Martin of Atlanta in the November general election. The two Democratic candidates are headed to an Aug. 8 primary runoff.
Without a doubt, said state Sen. Cecil Staton (R-Macon), it was Cagle’s ability to tie Reed to convicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff that sealed Reed’s fate. In doing so, Cagle cracked Reed’s rock-hard base of Christian conservatives — whom Reed had led to the ballot box time and time again.
“The Cagle campaign was very successful at planting doubt among members of the faith-based community. They stayed home,” Staton said.
Star of religious right
With Reed as fuel, a normally dull, down-ticket race was transformed into a nearly national affair, fought out on Web sites and editorial pages across the country.
At the start of his 18-month campaign in 2005, Reed, 45, was considered a shoo-in, based on his national reputation with the Christian Coalition and his proven ability to churn out Republican votes — evangelical and otherwise — for two U.S. presidents, both named Bush.
After attending high school and college in Georgia, Reed in 1989 joined the Rev. Pat Robertson’s new organization, the Christian Coalition. As executive director, Reed applied a precinct-style organization that stressed grass-roots organizing.
It worked. With Reed at its head, the coalition was essential to the GOP’s 1994 takeover of the U.S. House, an effort led by Newt Gingrich. Months later, Reed made the cover of Time magazine as the boyish face of the religious right.
By 1997, Reed was back in Georgia. He had left the Christian Coalition to establish a private consulting firm — and to lay groundwork for his entry onto center stage in politics.
An early backer of George W. Bush in his 2000 presidential campaign, Reed parlayed those Bush contacts, and a reputation for grass-roots organization, into a successful bid for chairman of the state Republican Party in 2001. Republicans won the governorship and the state Senate the next year. Reed took an even larger role in Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign.
Telegenic, smooth and well-connected, Reed saw early money pour into his campaign for lieutenant governor at a record rate. One opponent, state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, withdrew early from the primary contest, leaving only Cagle, a 12-year veteran of the Legislature.
Reed pitched himself as the ideas candidate, with a 63-page, downloadable position paper that included his support for a state spending cap tied to population growth and inflation, and his call for a 20 percent across-the-board reduction in income taxes by 2011.
But while Reed was getting his campaign off the ground, a U.S. Senate committee and federal prosecutors were probing deeper into the affairs of Abramoff, a Reed associate who pleaded guilty in January to bilking his Indian tribe clients of tens of millions of dollars, and of bribery of a public official.
Reed has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing.
But e-mails between Abramoff and Reed revealed that the longtime friends, who met as college Republicans, had developed a close business association, often sharing clients and trading favors.
Cagle used the Abramoff scandal to repeatedly accuse Reed of hypocrisy.
A Senate Indian Affairs Committee, chaired by U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), concluded that Reed had been paid $5.3 million by two casino-owning Indian tribes, both Abramoff clients, to rally Christian voters against attempts by other tribes to establish competing casinos.
Reed repeatedly denied that he knew the money that financed his anti-gambling campaigns came from gambling revenue, although several e-mails showed that Abramoff informed Reed of the money’s origins several times.
“The way he sold out our values? That’s wrong,” Cagle said in one of several TV ads that saturated Georgia’s airwaves in the final two weeks of the campaign.
In the last three months of the race, Cagle’s barrage against Reed began to pay off. Cagle rose in the polls and raised more than three times as much as Reed from contributors. Reed closed the financial gap with a $500,000 personal loan to his own campaign. By June 30, both men had raised roughly $2.5 million.
For the last six months of the campaign, Reed continually expressed regret for his association with Abramoff, and frustration that the media were not covering the important issues of the campaign.
Abramoff controversy
The lieutenant governor’s race in many ways became a measure of the continued influence of Reed and his Christian conservatives, nationally as well as within the state Republican Party.
Conservative radio-TV talk show host Sean Hannity and future presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani traveled to Georgia to help Reed build his war chest. Giuliani said it was “very important” that Reed get elected.
Bush, however, made only passing reference to Reed, and Cagle, when he visited in March for a fund-raiser for Perdue, which was attended by both lieutenant gubernatorial candidates.
“Two candidates running for lieutenant governor, Casey Cagle and Ralph Reed, we appreciate them both being here tonight,” Bush said.
The Abramoff controversy forced Reed to conduct a campaign that was usually out of the view of even journalists inside the state.
Cagle, meanwhile, built his campaign around a network of Republican public officials, most of them state lawmakers, who were worried about the impact that Reed’s candidacy could have on the re-election bid of Perdue. Perdue himself remained strictly neutral.
Reed often blamed “the liberal media” for focusing on the his dealings with Abramoff, but in fact many evangelical Christians were also disaffected.
Clint Austin of Marietta is a former Reed employee who ran Reed’s successful bid to become state Republican Party chairman in 2001. On Monday, Austin, now a state Capitol lobbyist, posted on the Internet an article in which he explained why he would not vote for Reed.
“My reason for abandoning my support of Ralph is simple: Ralph Reed’s words and actions do not match up,” Austin wrote.
Anecdotal evidence showed some attempts, including by gay and lesbian voters, to pull Democrats into the race against Reed, but their effectiveness couldn’t be measured by early returns. For more than a decade, Reed has served as a lightning rod for those critical of the expanding influence of evangelical Christians in national politics.
“Tomorrow morning, I’ll be voting Republican for the one and only time in my life, to stop Ralph Reed. If we let Reed win this election, we can kiss our freedoms good-bye,” said one automated phone message left anonymously on answering machines in white Democratic areas of Atlanta on Monday night.
A spokesman for the Cagle campaign denied authorship.
Reed’s defeat has set a limit on the influence of Christian conservatives in Georgia’s growing Republican Party, said Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia. “They may be the tail now, but they’re not the dog anymore,” he said.
As for Reed, Bullock said he didn’t see Reed coming back soon. “We’ve witnessed the final implosion of Ralph Reed,” he said. With initial expectations placed on his candidacy, it would be hard to reignite broad support, Bullock said.
Supporters in Reed’s emptying ballroom disagreed late Tuesday night.
“I’m obviously disappointed,” said a tearful Sadie Fields, head of the Georgia Christian Coalition. “The state lost an opportunity. But he will be back. He has far too much to offer.”
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
It’s cityhood for Milton, Johns Creek
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No two ways about it. This was revolt.
But it was an unabashedly American one, carried out by ballot as thousands of north Fulton County residents voted in overwhelming fashion Tuesday to form two new cities — Milton and Johns Creek — meant to replace the county as the focal point of local government.
The votes reflected decades of discontent over the urban county’s attitude towards two loosely connected areas about 30 miles north of Atlanta best known for their horse farms, cul-de-sacs and strip malls.
But it couldn’t have happened without the 2005 creation of the city of Sandy Springs, which provided the philosophical and practical model for a rolling movement that could see all of Fulton County — the state’s most populous — incorporated by the end of next year.
Residents in two communities in the southern part of the county will vote on turning that area into two cities next summer.
As in Sandy Springs, concerns about land use, public amenities and the use of tax revenues sparked voter passions in the new north Fulton cities, which are expected to open for business shortly after elections in November.
“As soon as I heard about Sandy Springs, I thought, ‘Why can’t we do that?’ ” said Ken Kacperski, who voted for the new city of Milton in part to help realize the longer-term dream of peeling away from Fulton County entirely. “Fulton County is just way too big,” he said.
Johns Creek supporters fittingly celebrated their victory in the parking lot of an as-yet unfinished shopping center called “Johns Creek Walk,” eating donated food as country band Banks & Shane wailed “Cheeseburger in Paradise” and other tunes.
Milton residents partied at an El Azteca restaurant.
A new city, according to supporters in the Republican-dominated area, means an end to their complaints of being ignored by the Democrats who control county government and funding for roads, parks and schools.
Such arguments have been at the heart of County Commission splits that have emphasized political and racial divisions in the county and have helped stall Sandy Springs’ incorporation efforts until Republicans took over the statehouse in the 2004 election.
“It means governing ourselves, having a say in what affects us,” said Wendy Bock, a real estate agent from the Wellington neighborhood.
Residents of Milton, a largely rural area of 20,000 people spread across 44 square miles, started this round of incorporation after Alpharetta rejected their request to become part of that city. Johns Creek, which has about 63,000 residents, followed shortly.
Not everyone was pleased with the decisions.
In Milton, for instance, retired UPS executive Bob Mathe said he feared voters didn’t think about the financial consequences of running such a large a city with such a sparse population.“A lot of these people went off the top of their head and never thought about what the consequences were,” he said.
While the new cities will remain part of Fulton County, the decision to incorporate will eventually put the county out of the business of providing the area with local services — such as public works, police and fire, County Commission Chairwoman Karen Handel said.
“The county will continue to transition out of the municipal service business,” Handel said. “We will now become more of a secondary service provider.”
Eventually, leaders of the new cities hope, the area will peel off entirely and form its own county, one called Milton — after the county that merged with Fulton in 1937.
“We’re going to have to take a lot of vacation days in north Fulton because we’ve got two Independence Days, July 4 and July 18,” said Rep. Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta), who helped lead the legislative effort leading to Tuesday’s incorporation vote.
The new cities are modeled closely after Sandy Springs, a community of 86,000 that uses private contractors to provide most services and has strict controls making it tough for city leaders to raise property taxes.
City leaders won’t have much time to celebrate. Those who intend to run for office must file between July 24 and July 26 to run in the November election.
Staff writers Paul Kaplan, Doug Nurse, Anna Varela and Travers Johnson contributed to this article.
Permalink | | Categories: Fulton - North
PSC’s Wise takes GOP primary
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Public Service Commission Chairman Stan Wise won the Republican primary.
The PSC is the five-member body that regulates utilities including natural gas, electricity and telecommunications.
Wise, who has been on the commission since 1994, had more than a 2-to-1 advantage over Newt Nickell. Nickell led a group that fought utility eminent domain rights and said during the race that Wise favored the utility industry.
Wise said Tuesday night that voters responded favorably to his work to promote diverse energy sources and affordable rates.
Real estate agent Chuck Eaton defeated Mark Parkman, a television executive with the Olympics, in the Republican race for the other commission seat. That seat is currently held by a Democrat, David Burgess.
PSC commissioners serve staggered, six-year terms. Commissioners must live in the district they represent but are elected statewide.
Wise will face Democrat Dawn Randolph and Libertarian Kevin Cherry in the November general election. Eaton will face Burgess and Libertarian Paul MacGregor.
Burgess, Eaton and MacGregor will battle for the commission spot that represents DeKalb, Fulton and Clayton counties. Wise, Randolph and Cherry will fight for the seat that represents 19 counties that stretch from Cobb in the north to Muscogee in the south to Henry in the east.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Milton candidate ready to run
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The ballots were hardly counted before the first candidate for the Milton City Council announced her intention to run for the Fifth District post.
Tina D’Aversa-Williams, a 10-year Fulton County resident, sent an email to the AJC just after midnight Wednesday, hours after the polls closed in the referendum on whether Milton should incorporate. Supporters of cityhood overwhelmingly outpolled opponents.
Candidates don’t have much time to mull over their political prospects. Qualifying officially begins Monday, July 24, and ends Wednesday, July 26. The inaugural city council election will be Nov. 7.
The city council will have six seats, elected citywide, plus the mayor. The new city of Johns Creek, also approved Tuesday, will have the same number of elected officials.
Permalink | | Categories: Fulton - North
Black, Kemp in runoff for GOP agriculture bid
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The closely watched Republican race for state agriculture commissioner is headed for a runoff.
Returns showed agribusiness lobbyist and farmer Gary Black of Commerce consistently ahead in county-by-county returns from the four-person race and state Sen. Brian Kemp of Athens running a distant second place.
But Black was unable to capture a majority to avoid an Aug. 8 runoff.
The winner of that contest faces entrenched Democratic incumbent Tommy Irvin in the November general election.
State Republicans, who already control the state House, Senate and governor’s office, are openly targeting Irvin, Georgia’s longest serving statewide elected official.
Irvin was at home in Hiawasee on Tuesday night, waiting for news on who might be facing in his 10th and last election.
“I’m ready,” the 76-year-old Irvin said. “I’ve done a good job, and I’m going to run on our record.”
He said he had anticipated a GOP runoff.
Two of the candidates — farmer Deanna Strickland of Brooklet and Robert “Bob” Greer of Suwanee — have challenged Irvin before. Strickland tried to unseat Irvin four years ago. Greer’s attempt was eight years ago.
One of the unusual aspects of this year’s contest is that Irvin and all four of the GOP candidates claim to be millionaires.
Irvin reports being the wealthiest, with a net worth of $16,167,233, followed by Kemp at $6,202,537, Strickland at $2,567,561, Black at $1,048,500 and Greer at $1,012,524.
The state Department of Agriculture, with an annual budget of about $43 million, has a lot on its plate — from helping farmers and inspecting food to regulating pest control companies and measuring the accuracy of gasoline pumps.
The department also is responsible for protecting Georgia’s coveted Vidalia onion against inferior imitators.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Rep. Heard defeats challenger
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rep. John Heard won his bid for the Republican nomination to a third term in the Legislature. Heard defeated challenger David Rodriguez, a Lawrenceville city councilman, according to preliminary returns.
Both candidates described themselves as pro-life, pro-business conservatives. Rodriguez ran as an outsider pushing local growth issues while Heard touted his legislative experience and state-level issues.
“I hope people made their decision based on state legislative issues and not local growth issues,” Heard said.
Rodriguez called the campaign “a well-fought race on issues.”
“It was a grass-roots campaign and it was well-executed,” he said Tuesday after the polls closed. Heard, an architect, sold his firm in 2001 and began pursuing politics after befriending a state senator from Savannah. Heard is chairman of the Information and Audits Committee, which has oversight over state agencies. Heard also sits on the General Appropriations Committee, which controls funding for state programs.
Among other legislation, Heard supported Georgia’s new “stand your ground” law, which allows a person who is physically threatened or attacked to act in self-defense without retreating first. He backed a new law barring convicted sexual offenders from living near churches, schools and day care centers. And Heard supported a new law designed to make it more difficult for employers to hire illegal immigrants.
Rodriguez also supported the new law, but he often found himself explaining his immigration position to voters as a consequence of his Latino heritage, he said. Rodriguez said he favors strong borders and tougher federal enforcement, positions that earned him the endorsement of national border security leaders.
Rodriguez, a 38-year-old computer engineer and second-generation Cuban-American, started his political career in 2002 as a fight against the construction of some apartments in Lawrenceville. Rodriguez gathered a following of homeowners using his Web site, savelawrenceville.com, to coordinate opposition to the apartments. When Rodriguez challenged then-Councilman Sonny Brand for the 26-year incumbent’s seat, his activist base became a voting base.
Rodriguez made a campaign issue of a new law sponsored by Heard allowing contractors to use private companies to review permit applications. As described by the construction trade group Associated General Contractors of America, the bill allows permit applicants to use a licensed architect or engineer to review plans or inspect property for permit approval if government officials can’t review the plans within 30 days. Government officials can still issue or deny permits based upon the design meeting code requirements.
Rodriguez said he viewed the new rule as an unwarranted benefit to builders. Heard said the law helps builders cut through red tape.
Heard and Rodriguez also butted heads on an annexation plan earlier this year. Heard proposed the Legislature annex about 3,600 acres into Lawrenceville, an area roughly equal to all the land annexed by Gwinnett’s cities since 2001.
Had the plan gone through, it would have increased Lawrenceville’s size by about a third. Heard couldn’t raise enough support from property owners and his fellow legislators to enact the annexation.
Permalink | | Categories: Gwinnett County
Runoffs for secretary of state
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The bitterly contested Republican primary for secretary of state between Bill Stephens and Karen Handel will continue for three more weeks.
Handel, the Fulton County Commission chairwoman, was leading Stephens, a state senator from Canton, late Tuesday. Because neither candidate won 50 percent of the vote in the four-candidate primary, a runoff is needed on Aug. 8.
The GOP race was marked by accusations of flip-flops, lies, distortions and dirty tricks. Both sides produced negative attack ads on the other. Stephens on Tuesday continued to call himself “the only conservative” in the race, a charge that infuriates Handel.
A runoff also is set in the crowded Democratic contest, where state Rep. Gail Buckner (D-Jonesboro) was leading Darryl Hicks, a former executive for the parent company of Atlanta Gas Light.
The Democratic primary was a relatively sedate affair with six candidates in the running. The Democratic candidates — several of them political neophytes — mostly struggled to distinguish themselves from the pack.
Both Handel and Stephens raised large amounts of money, and have plenty remaining to continue waging a campaign. Stephens has emphasized his work in the state Senate, where he helped build a majority for the GOP in recent years as one of the chamber’s top leaders. He also counted former
Gov. Zell Miller, for whom Stephens had worked, as his supporter.
“Tomorrow we start over, and there’s a brand-new election in three weeks,” Stephens said late Tuesday. “Everybody starts from zero. We’re in the fourth inning of a nine inning game, and I know how to close a game.”
Handel cited a combination of her political experience, business experience — she’s former head of North Fulton’s chamber of commerce — and work for both Gov. Sonny Perdue and former Vice President Dan Quayle and wife Marilyn Quayle as qualifications for the job.
“We figured all along it would be a runoff,” Handel said Tuesday night. “What I’m real proud of is we’re coming in the strongest position.”
Buckner campaigned on her 16 years in the Georgia Legislature, saying that it gave her the knowledge to understand the inner-workings of state government.
Buckner said Tuesday night that finishing first was the best result she could have hoped for in a six-person field.
“We plan to work hard for the runoff,” Buckner said. “I have the experience of working with the issues relative to the duties of the office of secretary of state, and I think that’s the message the citizens will be looking for.”
Hicks said his experience as a lobbyist for AGL Resources helped him understand government workings, and said his many years as a manager in the customer service field would help him make the secretary of state’s office more customer-oriented.
“I believe that I’m going to be victorious,” Hicks said late Tuesday. “We’ve got a plan and a message. I believe that my experience will be my defining factor in this.”
Runoffs in the race were expected, given the crowded field for the post, vacated by outgoing Secretary of State Cathy Cox who waged her own campaign for governor.
Ten people — six Democrats and four Republicans — were competing for the statewide office.
The secretary of state’s office has become a plum job in recent years, in part because of controversial elections issues throughout the nation and its high visibility. Former Georgia Secretary of State Max Cleland parlayed the post into a seat in the U.S. Senate.
The office in Georgia has responsibility for a wide range of governmental functions, including oversight of elections; the licensing of 64 trades and professions, from cosmetologists and psychologists to auctioneers and geologists; regulating investment advisers, the issuance and sales of securities; and the registration of corporations and nonprofit groups. It also oversees the state’s archives and the Capitol museum. The job pays $114,376 a year.
Other candidates in the Republican primary included businessmen Charlie Bailey of Cobb County and Eric Martin of Dunwoody.
Democratic candidates who trailed the top voter-getters in the runoff were Atlanta lawyers Shyam Reddy and Scott Holcomb, former state senator and parole board member Walter Ray of Coffee County in south Georgia, and DeKalb County businesswoman Angela Moore.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Marin headed back for third term
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In what has become a rarity in Gwinnett — a winner-take-all Democratic primary — incumbent state Rep. Pedro Marin held off a challenge Tuesday from a young opponent, 22-year-old Torriel “Torry” Lewis. With all the vote counted, Marin led Lewis by about 100 votes in a race where only about 800 votes were cast.
A win for Marin would mean he was all but certain to return to the General Assembly for his third term representing House District 96. No Republican candidate has filed to run for the seat in the November general election.
Marin did not return several phone calls Tuesday night.
The candidates staked out polar opposite positions on immigration, in a district that is assumed to have a large number of recent Hispanic immigrants, both legal and illegal.
The campaigns clashed about the question of just who does a state representative represent — the residents or the registered voters?
“I feel you have to be a representative of the district,” Lewis said.
Lewis, a loss prevention detective at Saks Inc., said he believes the people in the 96th District support a recently passed state law that cracks down on illegal immigrants. On that part of the issue, Lewis aligned himself with the Republican majority in the Legislature and with Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Marin, a Puerto Rico-born business consultant, said he sought to represent all the district’s residents. “If you represent only the people who register to vote, you’re not doing your job,” he said.
He stated during the campaign that he opposed the state law, partly because he thinks the issue should be dealt with on the federal level. He also said the state law could damage the state economy.
The district is formed by an area lying between Norcross and Duluth, mostly on the northern side of I-85. The Marin-Lewis race was the only contested local race in Gwinnett’s Democratic primary Tuesday.
Permalink | | Categories: Gwinnett County
Taylor defeats Cox; readies for Perdue
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor on Tuesday finally got what he’s been itching for these past four years: a straight-up political fight with Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Taylor, 49, the self-proclaimed “Big Guy,” defeated Secretary of State Cathy Cox and two minor candidates in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Cox conceded the race at midnight.
Taylor quickly shifted gears to face Perdue, a well-funded incumbent who has gone from long-shot candidate to leader of the new political power base in Georgia since the 2002 elections.
Perdue has a $9 million war chest, at least nine times more than Taylor as the general election campaign begins this morning.
It’s the contest that many have anticipated since 2002, when Perdue upset Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes and Taylor won re-election as the state’s second-in-charge in — and quickly became the new governor’s most vocal critic.
Now, Taylor said he will stand his record of achievement, of helping to shepherd the popular programs of then-Gov. Zell Miller through the state Senate in the 1990s, against those of Perdue, whom Miller endorsed. “I have been in office longer than Gov. Perdue, and I’ve done more with my time,” Taylor said.
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) said Taylor’s record can’t compare with Perdue’s, something Republicans will point out in the fall campaign.
“In the last four years, we’ve taken Georgia from a $640 million deficit to a surplus $500 million,” Richardson said. “I think that speaks volumes about how this governor views the taxpayer’s money and the operation of state government.”
“The lieutenant governor does nothing but stand there and hold a gavel. He doesn’t even vote to break a tie.”
The Democratic governor’s race, along with the Republican contest for lieutenant governor, were the two biggest draws of primary elections that saw light turnout in many parts of the state and polling problems in metro Atlanta.
Perdue easily won re-nomination for governor Tuesday against long-shot Republican challenger Ray McBerry, head of Georgia League of the South, a “Southern nationalist” organization.
Taylor’s road to the general election was much more difficult. Only a few months ago Cox led in the polls, promising to become Georgia’s first woman governor and take on the “good ol’ boy” network that she said had run state government for decades. But Taylor chipped away at her lead with a $4 million TV advertising campaign and pounced on early mistakes made by the Cox campaign, branding her a “flip-flopper” after she appeared to change her stance on the state’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Cox, who lost her bid for governor on her 48th birthday, showed that she wasn’t afraid of a bare-knuckle fight, accusing Taylor of using his office for personal gain.
From her campaign, Georgians saw some of the soft spots in Taylor’s record that Perdue will likely exploit, such as his work to get prison labor for a recycling plant that had been doing business with a Taylor family company.
But Taylor also showed a political tenaciousness in besting Cox, and by Tuesday night his campaign was already preparing for Perdue.
“I think the 19th [of July] will be another day on the trail, the first day in the fall campaign,” he said. “We have so much work to do. No break.”
Taylor, who has won every race he’s run dating back to his first bid for the state Senate in the late 1980s, is expected to receive national money contributed by traditional Democratic sources, such as unions, and party officials think he will have more than enough to be competitive with Perdue.
The Democratic hopeful will use Perdue’s own commercials this spring against him. The state GOP ran a series of ads touting Perdue’s accomplishments, using the catch-phrase “Sonny did” after listing something the governor did.
Democrats are prepared to counter that theme with their own “Sonny did” list that will point out, for instance, that school funding was cut more than $1 billion under the governor.
Taylor also heads into the general election with a veteran campaign staff, including Jim Andrews and Rick Dent, who learned how to win races in Georgia when Democrats ruled the state.
But it will likely be an uphill battle. Conventional wisdom among statehouse veterans and political scientists is that voters need a pretty strong reason to dump an incumbent like Perdue.
“You basically have to give voters a reason to fire the person in charge,” said Alan Abramowitz, an Emory University political scientist.
And while Taylor touts his work to help pass the HOPE scholarship, the lottery, the pre-kindergarten program, two-strikes-and-you’re-out crime legislation and the removal of the sales tax from groceries, those all happened in the 1990s, almost ancient political history.
Cox, in an interview the day before the primary, said Perdue was beatable because the state was split between the two parties and independents could go either way. “The Republicans are bragging about him doing nothing as governor and they think voters will reward a do-nothing governor,” Cox said. “Voters are angry about what he has not done.”
Recent polls have shown Perdue with a high approval rating, and Taylor has so far offered few specifics on issues such as education and transportation. He has told voters he’ll replace the more than $1 billion in school funding cut during Perdue’s administration, but he doesn’t say how, other than that he’d “re-prioritize” the budget.
And he said he’ll cut class sizes, another costly proposal. Despite the odds against beating an incumbent, former GOP lawmaker Matt Towery, an Atlanta pollster, said the battle-tested Taylor and his team shouldn’t be underestimated by the Republicans.
“The $9 million question is how does Perdue and his campaign now deal with attack ads, because they haven’t had to do that so far,” he said. “They’re playing in the big leagues. The Big Guy knows what he’s doing.”
Staff writers Jim Tharpe, Jeremy Redmon and Ty Tagami contributed to this article.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
East Cobb runoff coming for school board
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
School board member Kathie Johnstone and Baptist minister John Crooks are headed for a runoff in the east Cobb Post 6 Republican primary.
With 30 of 31 precincts reporting, Crooks led Johnstone 3393 to 2155 in a four-person field.
Crooks and Johnstone strongly outdistanced two other Republican challengers, attorney Randy Turner who took 1271 votes and engineer Al Rowe with 824.
Most election watchers expected the race to end up in a runoff on Aug. 8. To avoid a runoff the winner must take 50 percent, plus-one vote.
Crooks had 44.3 percent to Johnstone’s 28.2 percent. The winner of the runoff will take on Democrat Beth Farokhi in the November general election in the heavily Republican district.
Crooks ran an aggressive campaign to unseat Johnstone, a one-term incumbent who championed a failed take-home laptop program for all middle and high school students. The courts ruled that the board’s attempt to spend sales-tax dollars on laptops was illegal because it was not what it had promised taxpayers.
Crooks slammed Johnstone with the laptop issue and other board controversies that have beset the school district in recent months, including: a west Cobb school redistricting initially based on racial balancing, “evolution is a theory” stickers on textbooks, and a school district that has landed on the state’s “Needs Improvement” list two years in a row.
Johnstone campaigned on her experience and the district’s improved test scores.
“We’ve kind of thought there would be a runoff all along. It looks like it’s going to be a long summer. I’m just going to continue to run an ethical, hard race and keep children first,” Johnstone said.
Permalink | | Categories: Cobb County
Taylor declares victory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A hoarse but upbeat Lt. Governor Mark Taylor thanked his supporters as he declared victory over Cathy Cox in the Democratic primary for governor.
Taylor addressed his supporters about 12:30 a.m. Cox had conceded defeat in the race about midnight.
“Tonight the voters spoke loud and clear,” Taylor said. “They’re looking for a governor who looks after every day Georgians,” Taylor said. “Tonight we stand in victory here in Atlantic Station. In November, we will stand in the governor’s office.”
Taylor said his battle against popular incumbent Gov. Sonny Perdue will be a tough fight, but talked aobut things he said were worth fighting for, such as elimintation tof he sales tax on medicine,.
The “Big Guy” made a joking reference to his size when h e talked about how he eliminated the sales tax on groceries. “Don’t ever forget, the Big Guy has saved a lot by taking the sales tax off of groceries, because Big Guys buy a lot of groceries. “
Taylor said he would “hit the ground running” Wednesday in his campaign against Perdue.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Cathy Cox Concedes Defeat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Secretary of State Cathy Cox conceded defeat at midnight in the hard-fought Democratic primary for governor.
Cox acknowledged defeat to Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, setting up a November contest between Taylor and Gov. Sonny Perdue, who easily defeated a challenger in the Republican primary.
“This has been a tough battle, but make no mistake: Tonight the battle has ended,” she said. “The slings and the arrows have ceased.”
She said she would support Taylor.
“He can be assured of my support in the months to come,” she said. “Tonight a new season begins.”
During a concession speech, a tearful Cox summoned her husband, Mark Dehler, and thanked him for his support.
“Mark has really been my rock … so I thank you and I love you.”
At midnight., with 89 percent of precincts reporting, Taylor had 51.5 percent of the votes compared with 44.1 percent for Cox.
Taylor led Cox consistently as results filtered in Tuesday evening, but the prospect loomed of a runoff between the two Democrats.
A candidate must win more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff.
“This has been a tough battle,” Cox said.
.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Cathy Cox Admits Loss
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Secretary of State Cathy Cox conceded defeat at midnight in the hard-fought Democratic primary for governor.
Cox acknowledged defeat to Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, setting up a November contest between Taylor and Gov. Sonny Perdue, who easily defeated a challenger in the Republican primary.
“This has been a tough battle, but make no mistake: Tonight the battle has ended,” she said. “The slings and the arrows have ceased.”
She said she would support Taylor.
“He can be assured of my support in the months to come,” she said. “Tonight a new season begins.”
During a concession speech, a tearful Cox summoned her husband, Mark Dehler, and thanked him for his support.
“Mark has really been my rock … so I thank you and I love you.”
At midnight., with 89 percent of precincts reporting, Taylor had 51.5 percent of the votes compared with 44.1 percent for Cox.
Taylor led Cox consistently as results filtered in Tuesday evening, but the prospect loomed of a runoff between the two Democrats.
A candidate must win more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff.
“This has been a tough battle,” Cox said.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Solicitor’s rematch yields same result as ‘02
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Incumbent David L. Cannon Jr. beat Channing Ruskell in a rematch of 2002.
The Solicitor’s office prosecutes misdemeanors such as driving under the influence and certain domestic violence cases.
The two last battled in 2002, when Cannon beat Ruskell.
Cannon, 35, lives in south Canton with his wife and two children. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia and a law degree from Mercer University.
Permalink | | Categories: Cherokee County
Another incumbent victory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Incumbent Derek Vernon Good, 37, fended off challenger David Waldrop.
Good, an insurance salesman, and Waldrop, the owner of a local towing company, faced off to represent the county’s most intensely developed commercial area.
Good ran on his record as a commissioner who takes a thoughtful, smart-growth approach to the county’s rapid expansion.
Waldrop is a political newcomer who criticized Good for being too accommodating of developers.
Permalink | | Categories: Cherokee County
Incumbent commissioner wins
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two-term incumbent Harry Johnston easily defeated challenger Sharon Statham.
“I am just the evidence in the maturation of the responsible growth movement,” Johnston said. “Ten years ago people who wanted to control growth were considered tree-huggers, and today it’s just about everybody. That’s why Buzz Ahrens is doing real well.”
Johnston, who was raised in Cherokee, is a CPA who works for Southern Co. and Georgia Power.
Johnston said he is determined to keep the county’s growth rate sustainable, or about 3 percent a year.
Statham, a semiretired marketing director for Northside Hospital-Cherokee, said taking an anti-growth approach is unrealistic.
Permalink | | Categories: Cherokee County
Chairman Loses
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cherokee County voters tossed out their commission chairman, but kept two other incumbents Tuesday.
Cherokee Chairman James Michael Byrd wanted to do what no recent chairman of the commission has done — get re-elected. But with all the votes counted — except for provisional ballots — the night belonged to Leavitt “Buzz” Ahrens Jr.
Ahrens said Byrd had called him to concede. Ahrens was winding down at 11 p.m. from his day that started at 3:30 a.m. planting campaign signs.
“I think the residents … recognized a change was needed and they made it happen,” Ahrens said.
Ahrens is a retired corporate officer for Newell Rubbermaid who’s making his political debut. He emphasized the need for balanced growth.
“I think there’s a dimension of leadership they can see. What you see is what you get,” he said.
Since the county switched to its current governing system in 1991, no incumbent for the county’s top job has managed to fend off a political challenge. Since there are no Democratic contenders, the primary is the deciding contest.
Permalink | | Categories: Cherokee County
Adams, Bowman runoff likely
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the end of Tuesday night, it looked like incumbent Gerry Adams and Reid Bowman, both Republicans, were headed for a runoff.
But Phil Crosby trailed Bowman by only a few votes, with the provisional and military votes not counted Tuesday night. The race heated up in the final week, with the surprise endorsement of state Rep. Steve Davis (R-McDonough) for Bowman. The winner faces Democrat Edith Gonsal.
Permalink | | Categories: Henry County
Holman, Basler headed for runoff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Incumbent Lee Holman and John Basler will face each other in a runoff for the District 5 county commission seat in Henry County.
Holman’s campaign has focused on convincing voters his knowledge of county government makes him best-equipped to serve the district. The incumbent’s five primary opponents said he has been ineffective. The winner will face Democrat Bruce Holmes.
Permalink | | Categories: Henry County
Runoffs likely in secretary of state contests
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Voters are likely to go to the polls again on Aug. 8 to pick a Democratic and Republican candidates for secretary of state.
Results showed that no candidate won more than 50 percent in either party’s primary Tuesday. A candidate must win with more than 50 percent to avoid a runoff.
As of 11:25 p.m., with 82 percent of precincts reporting, Karen Handle led the pack in the Republican primary with 42.5 percent of the vote. Handle is chairwoman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. She led Sen. Bill Stephens (R-Canton). He had 33.2 percent.
In the Democratic primary, Rep. Gail Buckner (D-Jonesboro) had 24.8 percent of the vote. In second place was Darryl Hicks, former executive for the parent company of Atlanta Gas Light. Hicks had 21.7 percent.
The Democratic primary was a relatively sedate affair with six candidates in the running. The Democratic candidates — several of them political neophytes — mostly struggled to distinguish themselves from the pack.
It was the GOP primary that commanded attention, with Stephens and Handel waging a bitter campaign, loaded with accusations of flip-flops, lies, distortions and dirty tricks.
Both Handel and Stephens raised large amounts of money, and have plenty remaining to continue waging a campaign. Stephens has emphasized his work in the state senate, where he helped build a majority for the GOP in recent years as one of the chamber’s top leaders. He also counted former Gov. Zell Miller, for whom Stephens had worked, as his supporter.
“Tomorrow we start over and there’s a brand new election in three weeks,” Stephens said late Tuesday. “Everybody starts from zero. We’re in the fourth inning of a nine inning game and I know how to close a game.”
Handel cited a combination of her political experience, business experience — she’s former head of North Fulton’s chamber of commerce — and work for both Gov. Sonny Perdue and former Vice President Dan Quayle and his wife Marilyn Quayle as qualifications for the job.
“We figured all along it would be a runoff,” Handel said Tuesday night. “What I’m real proud of is we’re coming in the strongest position.”
Permalink | |
Martin, Hecht headed for runoff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former state Sen. Greg Hecht and former state Rep. Jim Martin were headed for an Aug. 8 runoff in the Democratic race for lieutenant governor.
Whoever wins the race will face state Sen. Casey Cagle, who defeated Ralph Reed in the Republican primary.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Kathy Cox wins schools super race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Current superintendent of schools Kathy Cox defeated Danny J. Carter , who left his job as a Department of Education administrator to challenge his former boss in the GOP primary.
On the Democratic side, one-term U.S. Rep. Denise Majette , who was conducting her first campaign since losing a bid for the U.S. Senate two years ago, appeared headed for victory over Carlotta Harrell , a substitute teacher, who was making her first bid for statewide office.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Taylor and Cox go down to the wire
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor maintained a lead over Secretary of State Cathy Cox late Tuesday night in the hard-fought Democratic primary race for governor.
At 11:10 p.m., with 78 percent of precincts reporting, Taylor had 51.2 percent of the vote, compared with 44.3 percent for Cox.
A candidate needs more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff.
Cox’s campaign manager told reporters he was waiting for results from precincts in DeKalb and other counties that may yield votes for Cox.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Maxwell wins seat; Wells faces runoff with Smith
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Attorney Eric Maxwell beat eight-year Fayette County Commissioner Greg Dunn in the Post 5 race. Dunn’s battles with Fayette’s longtime sheriff, Randall Johnson, appear to have cost him support. Dunn has been commission chairman since 2001.
Maxwell accused Dunn, a retired U.S. Army colonel, of wasting more than $200,000 in taxes on court battles with Johnson. Dunn wants the county to have more input into the sheriff’s spending.
Dunn, meanwhile, claimed Maxwell was pro-development and trying to hide it.
Last year, Maxwell sued the county in U.S. District Court after he was cited for having more than one political sign in his yard. After that, Fayette loosened the sign law.
Besides having a private law practice, Maxwell is Peachtree City’s Municipal Court judge. He took 51 percent of the vote to Dunn’s nearly 49 percent.
Despite the heated rhetoric between Maxwell and Dunn, voter turnout in Fayette was only 22 percent of eligible voters.
In Fayette’s other commission race, vice chair Linda Wells easily bested CPA Jack Smith and banker Sam Chapman in Post 4, but the margin of victory wasn’t big enough for Wells to avoid an Aug. 8 runoff against Smith.
Permalink | | Categories: Fayette County
Todd, Wright win school board seats
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the two Fayette school board races, Bob Todd, a retired educator, beat retired U.S. Army officer Frank Oakley, and incumbent Lee Wright, a Delta Airlines employee, defeated former educator Faith Hardnett.
The school board races in Fayette could have been confusing to voters after the names of two disqualified candidates were on the ballot.
Post 4 incumbent Greg Powers was ruled ineligible because of a question of whether he still lives in the district he represents.
Kay Seabolt was working for the school system when she qualified to run for the Post 5 seat, a violation of state law, according to the county Elections Board.
Votes for those two candidates did not count.
Permalink | | Categories: Fayette County
Incumbent Tarbutton loses
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In Coweta County, Eckerd Drugs employee Tim Lassetter beat County Commissioner Greg Tarbutton, managing partner in an apartment complex in Jonesboro. Turnout in Coweta was less than 18 percent.
Permalink | | Categories: Coweta County
Susan Bailey takes Hapeville seat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Susan Bailey defeated Ed Ray in a special election to fill a vacant city council seat in Hapeville.
Bailey, an assistant to senior vice president and to the chairman emeritus of the Atlanta Braves, is currently a member of the board of directors of the Hapeville Development Authority.
The seat became vacant after councilman Bruce Gindlesperger died of complications with pancreatic cancer in February.
Ray was first elected councilman in summer 2003, after current mayor, Alan Hallman, gave up his council seat to run for mayor. Ray finished out the remaining two years of Hallman’s term and ran again last November, losing to Gindlesperger. He also has served as chairman and vice chairman of the Hapeville Development Authority.
Bailey had 357 votes to Ray’s 182.
Permalink | | Categories: Fulton - South
“Do you want to go back?” Perdue asks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They called it “Sonny’s Primary Party,” but it looked a lot like a campaign kickoff.
About 1,000 people crowded a ballroom at the Buckhead Westin late Tuesday night to cheer Gov. Sonny Perdue, who had only token primary opposition from Republican challenger Ray McBerry of Henry County.
Speakers blared John Cougar Mellencamp’s tune “Small Town” as slides and video of Perdue — much it from his 2002 underdog campaign — flashed across a huge screen near the stage.
Perdue touted his administration’s accomplishments on the economy, private property rights, education, welfare reform and even wait times at driver’s license offices. The governor said when he came into office, the state had a $640 million deficit, but now has a half-billion dollar surplus due to his “solid conservative leadership.”
“This is our record. Do you want to go back?” Perdue asked. “No,” the crowd shouted back after he made each point.
Bouquets of red-white-and-blue balloons lined the room, and Perdue’s backers held signs that read: “Sonny — Georgia’s Governor.”
Perdue, who comes from the tiny middle Georgia town of Bonaire, is Georgia’s first modern Republican governor, and he faces a tough, four-month fight to repeat his historic 2002 victory. He’ll face either Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor or Secretary of State Cathy Cox, who battered each other with waves of attack ads.
Perdue also has another big advantage — he begins the general election race with his campaign coffers brimming. The governor has raised $10 million for the campaign and has about $9 million cash on hand, said campaign spokesman Derrick Dickey. He gets his campaign rolling this weekend with an eight -county campaign rally in Hiawasee .
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Cagle declares victory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cagle entered the reception area shortly after Reed’s concession speech to loud cheers and chants of his name. He said that Reed called him to tell him he would concede.
A clearly joyful but humble Cagle thanked his supporters and said his three boys motivated him to serve in public office.
“…As I look across this room tonight, I see the many, many people who have given of their time, their resources and their hard earned money to make this dream become a reality,” Cagle said. “And it wasn’t just for Casey Cagle. It was because we believe in hope and we believe in opportunity. We believe in the American dream. And we believe that if people – good decent people will offer themselves for elected office – then we can make this state a better place.”
Cagle was surrounded at the podium by his wife, Nita, their three sons, his mother and stepfather George and Jeanette Liotta, and several of his fellow Senate colleagues, including Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) and Sen. Dan Moody (R-Alpharetta).
Cagle gratefully acknowledged their support of his campaign.
“My senators,” Cagle said. “My senate colleagues. I knew that by having these guys behind me that we could reach out into every community and have a base of support.
Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) threw his support behind Cagle early in the campaign. Williams, reached by phone Tuesday night, said that while he liked both candidates, he thought Cagle would provide good leadership for the state.
“I think Casey has a great chance in the fall elections and we look forward to helping him get there,” Williams said. “He’s very sellable. When he comes to talk to farmers in a coffee shop in Toombs County, he’s well-received. He’s a true conservative, which is what most Georgians are. And he’s a hard worker.”
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Coming up: Two new cities (probably)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While official results were still unavailable, supporters of creating the new cities of Johns Creek and Milton both say their numbers show incorporation winning overwhelmingly.
Supporters of Milton who gathered at an El Azteca restaurant saw victory within their reach.
Tallies at election parties for the two cities show each proposal passing with yes votes in the mid-80 percent range.
“It’s very gratifying to have your vision become a reality,” said Johns Creek incorporation leader Mike Bodker said. “Now the work begins.”
Johns Creek volunteers planned to fan out after results were final, planting green “Welcome to Johns Creek” signs throughout the city.
At the Milton party, supporters said they have heard that 85 percent of voters supported the new city, according to results from six of seven precincts.
Supporters cheered each time someone updated results on a large sheet of paper.Then conversation would resume. It was more like a cocktail party than the celebration of a hard-fought victory.
Buck Bell, 52, said he supported the creation of the city of Milton because he didn’t think that people in Northwest Fulton County were getting their money’s worth from the county government.
“It had become obvious we were suffering from a lack of representation from Fulton County,” he said.
“I think we’ll be ready for the next step. Most of the people here are business people and they know how to run a business. This shares the same traits these people possess. I’m optimistic.”
George Ragsdale, the primary force in creating the township of Milton, said most people at the party had all experienced a disappointment in the services provided by Fulton County, the same motivator that drove the creation of the city of Sandy Springs last year.
“They had 30 years to get there so we feel pretty good,” Ragsdale said. “This is is about self control, local representation, no tax increases and improved services. Sandy Springs led the way in dealing with Fulton County.”
He said he doesn’t feel bad about the dismantling of Fulton County as a provider of municipal services.
“They weren’t willing to manage the hard issues,” he said.
Permalink | | Categories: Fulton - North
Ralph Reed concedes defeat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed conceded defeat about 9:50 p.m. in Georgia’s Republican primary for lieutenant governor.
“Tonight my candidacy for lieutenant governor comes to an end,” he said.
He promised to work for the GOP ticket, including Sen. Casey Cagle (R-Gainesville), his rival in the lieutenant governor’s race.
Reed conceded at 9:48 p.m., speaking to a crowd that cheered for the first time all night.
With him was his wife, Jo Anne, and their four children.
“Today, Jo Anne and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. It was an important reminder of what’s really important.
“Stay in the fight, don’t retreat, and our values will win in November,” he said.
Reed left quickly but stopped to say he was proud of the race he ran.
“I’m not focused on being a candidate in the future, but I’m glad I ran,” he said.
With 43 percent of precincts reporting, the Georgia Secretary of State’s office showed Cagle with 55.2 percent of the vote, compared with 44.8 percent for Reed.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Auld wins Snellville City Council seat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Snellville voters elevated Warren Auld back to the City Council with 60.8 percent of the vote Tuesday.
Auld had previously served on the council before leaving it for an unsuccessful state House representative run last year.
“I’m just honored that they gave me this opportunity to serve the city again, and humbled by the turnout of the vote,” said Auld from his Snellville law office, where he was celebrating with supporters and some homemade vanilla ice cream.
Auld’s closest competitor in the five-candidate race was Terri Dippel, a schoolteacher. She received 21.4 percent of the 1,519 votes.
It was the second time in nine months that she fell short in her bid for the Post 5 seat. She lost in November to Mike Smith, but Smith resigned in January over his indictment on felony charges of illegal telemarketing. Smith, named mayor pro tem in January 2005, denies the charges. Councilman Robert Jenkins replaced Smith as mayor pro tem.
The victory preserves a council voting bloc for allies Jenkins, Auld and Bruce Garraway that was imperiled by Smith’s resignation. They have oft butted heads with Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer and his supporters. Dippel had the endorsement of the mayor.
“I think Warren will do an excellent job,” said Kelly Kautz, who finished third in balloting with 14.2 percent in her first campaign. “I think the council will be better united now.”
The results were delayed because of a problem with the vote-reading machine. The tally was read around 8 p.m., an hour after the polls had closed.
Characteristic of the divisions that sometimes marks Snellville politics, Dippel and Auld both made small talk with Kautz, but not with each other, as they waited out the results.
“There are always personality issues, but my training as an attorney is that you don’t deal with personalities, you deal with issues,” Auld said. “We ought to be recognize we’re still neighbors, we go to the same stores, we eat at the same restaurants. Our purpose, at the end, is bringing a stronger, safer Snellville.”
Permalink | | Categories: Gwinnett County
McKinney watches documentary
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was watching a documentary called “American Blackout” with about 50 of her supporters at the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Center in south DeKalb County on election night.
The documentary is about voter disenfranchisment in American and other political issues. She was seated next to anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.
Permalink | | Categories: DeKalb County
A city is born?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In north Fulton County, Johns Creek supporters chose a fitting location for their post-election celebration: an as-yet unfinished shopping center called “Johns Creek Walk.”
They partied under two big tents in the parking lot as country group Banks & Shane played “Cheeseburger in Paradise” and other standards.
Results were late arriving in the referendum on creating a new city, but that didn’t stop revelers from celebrating.
“We’re going to have to take a lot of vacation days in north Fulton because we’ve got two Independence Days, July 4 and July 18,” said Rep. Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta), who led the legislative effort for today’s incorporation vote.
They even looked ahead to their next possible goal: peeling off from Fulton County entirely and creating a new county.
Permalink | | Categories: Fulton - North
Mark Taylor’s Suite: Cheering and Applauding
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and his wife, Sacha, and his parents and two sisters were watching election results on television in their room in hotel in Atlantic Station about 9:15 p.m.
They were in a festive mood, cheering and applauding as they watched the numbers.
“I feel really good,” Taylor said. “The folks that were voting seem to be for us.”
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Mood dampens at Reed gathering
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At 9:15 p.m., Reed still had not come down to greet supporters at the InterContinental Buckhead Hotel, but was huddled with close friends watching returns come in. On his cell phone, Cobb County GOP chairman Anthony-Scott Hobbs got word that Reed was losing Cobb County by 10 percentage points, 11,000 votes to 9,000 votes. “You can’t win without Cobb,” he said.
Chip Lake, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, who had supported Reed, said the party had to start preparing to deal with the aftermath of a bitterly fought race. “I think it’s a divided party right now, but it has to put itself together in the next few weeks,” Lake said.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
“We are very, very encouraged,” says Cagle
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Early in the evening, Cagle showed a strong lead over Reed with about 15 percent of total precincts statewide counted. Although he and his supporters acknowledged the night was still young and a lot could happen, high spirits and excitement filled the arena.
State Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) took to the podium to introduce Cagle, who thanked his supporters and gave an unusually peppy talk so early on an election night. A beaming Cagle said he woke up Tuesday morning with a good feeling and quipped that one of his three sons shot an even par on the golf course today- another good sign.
“The night is young, and we’ll continue to keep you updated as things progress but we are very, very encouraged tonight,” said Cagle, amidst loud cheers. “I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart how humbled and how grateful I am to have you here, part of this team. When we started out on this journey, there were few who thought we had any chance. But we have proven the pundits wrong, I believe.”
A few minutes later, Cagle’s mother and stepfather, George and Jeanette Liotta, and two of his sons, went into a room to hover over a computer showing incoming election returns by precinct. The boys eagerly studied the numbers, and then filed out to join the rest of the party-goers. The Liottas chatted for a bit before heading out as Madonna’s “Holiday” filled the reception area.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Cathy Cox: “Feeling good …”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cathy Cox retreated to a hotel suite as about 200 supporters mixed and mingled in a hotel ballroom.
“I feel good about it,” Cox said. “We’ve given it our best effort. I hope the voters will respond to our message.”
Her supporters lined up for food and drink, craning their neck every so often as election results crawled across the bottom of a TV screen.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
McKinney, Johnson appear headed for runoff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As election results poured in, U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney and Democratic challenger Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr. appeared headed for a runoff in the 4th District race.
With 90 percent of the vote counted, McKinney had 47 percent of the vote to Johnson’s 45 percent.
Many statewide races were as close as expected shortly after polling places in Georgia closed and election results began rolling in Tuesday night.
Some polling places in the metro area opened late and stayed past the normal 7 p.m. closing time.
The last polling place to close in the metro area was at Ocee Elementary in north Fulton. The precinct was one of several ordered to stay open because the precinct started business nearly 90 minutes late Tuesday morning.
Even though Ocee Elementary is located in proposed city of Johns Creek, the subject of one of the ballot questions on Tuesday, turnout was light. Only 171 of the precincts 1,440 voters cast ballots.
In the major statewide races, many were close.
In the Democratic race for governor, Mark Taylor slowly crept ahead of Cathy Cox. With 90 percent of the vote counted, he had just over the 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a runoff. Cox admitted defeat at midnight.
In the other hotly contested statewide race, Casey Cagle comfortably defeated Ralph Reed, about 56 percent to 44 percent.
Other close races include:
• Jim Martin and Greg Hecht appeared headed for a runoff in the Democratic race for lieutenant governor.
• Karen Handel and Bill Stephens seem to be destined to face each other in a runoff in the Republican race for Secretary of State.
• Gail Buckner led a crowded field of candidates in the Democratic race for Secretary of State.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Reed faithful gather to watch returns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Reed faithful began gathering at the InterContinental Buckhead Hotel before the polls closed.
One of the first in the door was Lumpkin County Sheriff Mark McClure and his 15-year-old daughter Anna Beth. McClure recorded a telephone endorsement for Reed that rang in Republican households all over the state, and introduced Reed around his home turf in North Georgia.
With only 1 percent of the returns in not long after the polls closed, McClure was already prognosticating. “I know,” he said. “Ralph Reed, all the way.”
He was less comfortable about the anemic voter turnout. One report from home, at about 4 p.m., indicated that only 1,600 of 12,000 voters in Lumpkin County had turned out so far that day — about 13 percent.
State Sen. Cecil Staton (R-Macon), one of two members of the state Senate supporting Reed, said he sent out 5,500 letters last week, urging his consituents to vote for Reed. He also recorded an automated phone call.
At 8:30 p.m., he still expected Reed to win, though early returns gave the edge to Cagle. Staton also was willing to imagine a different electoral outcome, too.
“By no means, if he doesn’t win tonight, is he [Reed] finished,” Staton said.
In other words, Staton expects his friend to run again if this bid fails.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Polls close quietly in Clayton
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At Clayton County’s Mt. Zion High School, the scene as the polls closed Tuesday bore no resemblance to the last countywide election in November 2004, when some voters waited for more than three hours to cast their ballots.
Inside the school cafeteria, only a handful of people were voting as the 7 p.m. deadline approached.
Shortly after 7 p.m., poll workers locked the doors to the cafeteria, as did other polling locations in the county.
In perhaps a bit of superstitution, Clayton election officials were hesitant to comment, saying it was too early to talk about how they had fared.
Permalink | | Categories: Clayton County
Cagle’s supporters cheer early returns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia state flags, festive balloons and the undeniably upbeat sound of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” floated throughout the Gwinnett Center Arena Tuesday evening as state Sen. Casey Cagle of Gainesville and his supporters waited for election results.
Cagle has been locked for months in a tough Republican primary battle for Lt. Governor against Ralph Reed, former Christian Coalition executive director and state party chairman.
But, Tuesday evening, the atmosphere on the balcony of the arena was relaxed as more than 100 of Cagle’s friends and supporters – including state Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) - sipped drinks and munched on popcorn and other snacks.
Cagle and his wife, Nita, moved freely about the reception area, stopping to chat with friends. Three larger-than-life posters featuring Cagle with the words, “Vision,” “Experience,” and “Character” adorned the arena entrance.
Joe and Margie Lewis of Braselton were among the Cagle supporters in attendance at the arena. The couple attend the same church as Cagle, Blackshear Place Baptist Church in Flowery Branch – and said they have known the state senator personally for about 11 years.
“We just think Casey Cagle is the best,” said Joe Lewis, a soon-to-be-retired builder and decorator. “He’s honest and he’s got the experience to lead this state.”
Wife Margie Lewis chimed in: “I think he’s going to make a great Lt. Governor!”
At about 8:20 p.m., a television monitor showed Cagle leading Reed - with only nine percent of precincts counted. Still, several of Cagle’s supporters laughed, clapped and cheered - and then quickly sat back down for a long night of nail-biting.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
McKinney opponent optimistic
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He hadn’t seen any numbers, and only a handful of supporters had arrived at the start of his 8 p.m. election watch party at Decatur’s Holiday Inn.
But Hank Johnson, who is hoping to unseat Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney in the 4th Congressional District, said he had reason to be optimistic.
“I feel good to be at this point, ” said Johnson, a former DeKalb County Commissioner. “It’s been a long campaign against the odds.”
He said although political pundits discounted his candidacy, the voters did not. “We won it through the volunteers that came to this campaign as a result of wanting to restrore credibility to the 4th District,” Johnson said before any numbers came in. “The congresswoman has waged a low key campaign and has taken her opponents for granted and taken the voters for granted.”
Among the supports in a small room decorated in red, white and blue balloons was Michael Armstrong. The 33-year-old from Lithonia said he liked the way Johnson carried himself on the commission. He said of McKinney, “she’s more on a civil rights thing of the past.”
Permalink | | Categories: DeKalb County
Cathy Cox has entered the building
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cathy Cox strode into a hotel ballroom about 8 p.m. to applause from supporters.
Just before her arrival, anticipation buzzed through a crowd of supporters. They cheered after Cox entered.
An old college roommate, Delphine Carter, said she drove from Tifton to attend the party, at the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Atlanta.
“I think she’s going to squeak it out,” she said.
After Cox arrived, she went around the hotel ballroom hugging supporters.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Coming soon: Mark Taylor’s party
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A DJ got things started with some disco music at the site of a party for Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor.
The beat bounced off mostly empty walls about 7 p.m. as campaign workers got ready for the main event.
Volunteers inflated balloons of blue, green and white — Taylor’s campaign colors — as they waited for their man to arrive.
Taylor was due at the Twelve Hotel in Atlantic Station about 8 p.m. He plans to watch results with his wife, Sacha, in a room at the hotel. Then he’ll make an appearance in a ballroom where the party will unfold.
A few campaign workers mingled in the ballroom as final preparations took shape.
Hotel workers arranged trays of pasta and chicken in an elaborate display. About eight TV news crews were set up in front of the stage. Two waiters stood ready at a cash bar.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Of all days to paint the lockers …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was a challenging day for poll workers at E.T. Booth Middle School in south Cherokee.
The air conditioning wasn’t working in the morning. But the real problems started when it began functioning.
“For some reason the school decided to paint all its lockers today,” said poll manager Cheryl Witherspoon. “They were using some sort of strong lacquer paint that was overwhelming. The poll workers began complaining of burning eyes and having difficulty breathing.”
After moving people outside for fresh air, poll workers moved their operation to west side of the school, turned off the air conditioning and — in an attempt to keep the room cool — turned off the lights.
At 7 p.m., as the 400th voter walked through the door into a dark cafeteria, four fans churned at top speed.
“We didn’t have to turn away a single voter today,” Witherspoon said. “But we had to act quickly.”
Permalink | | Categories: Cherokee County
“Fairly busy all day”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Woodstock poll manager Sherry Rakestraw said about 250 people voted at a new precinct location with no problems reported.
“We’ve been fairly busy all day,” she said. She noted that some voters were confused by the precinct change and were rerouted. She had more people in the last hour before the polls closed.
Voter Valerie King slid into the polls 15 minutes before closing.
“I can’t believe I got in at the last second,” King said and she was annoyed by the precinct change. “I wish they would pick a place, anyplace and stick with it.”
King said the State House District 20 race was a big reason to go to the polls .
“I have supported Sean (Jerguson) throughout this campaign and I wanted to make sure I got my vote in. Every vote counts … especially in Cherokee.”
Elections Supervisor Janet Munda estimated turnout today in Cherokee at 20 percent.
Permalink | | Categories: Cherokee County
Just one snag
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
School board member Kathie Johnstone, who faces three Republican challengers in her quest for re-election, said the only snag she heard about was confusion over a change in polling place from Chattahoochee Baptist Church on Johnson Ferry Road.
The polling site was moved about a mile north to Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.
“Some people told me they didn’t realize it had been changed. My concern is that some people who had planned to vote on their way to work might not have gotten back into traffic to drive north to Johnson Ferry Baptist,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s going to make a difference one way or the other.”
Permalink | | Categories: Cobb County
In south DeKalb, it’s on ….
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In several polling stations across south DeKalb, the major fight was between Cynthia McKinney and Hank Johnson. Voters were polarized.
Pauline Thomas, a 63-year-old IRS retiree from Stone Mountain, said she voted for McKinney.
“I don’t remember hearing a lot about Hank Johnson,” she said. “She gave me the impression she’s a person’s person.”
As for the tussle that took place a few months ago, Thomas said she understands McKinney’s reaction.
“Being a woman, I don’t want anybody grabbing me either. To walk up and grab somebody may not be such a good idea,” she said.
Ron Spencer, a 38-year-old engineer from Stone Mountain, chose Johnson.
“It’s time for a change. I think Johnson did a good job as a commissioner,” he said.
Michael Gaines, 50, a flight attendant and customer service representative, also supported Johnson.
“I think McKinney has issues that she has to deal with personality-wise. She seems egotistical. I don’t want her representing me,” he said.
Regarding the tussle, he said McKinney’s “was totally wrong. It’s obvious to me her reaction was totally incorrect. Even worse, she got away with that.”
Permalink | | Categories: DeKalb County
No glitches and on-target turnout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With an hour to go before polls closed, Cobb elections officials reported no glitches and a smooth primary.
Voter turnout appeared to be on target for about 25 percent, as predicted by elections director Sharon Dunn.
“It’s pretty light, normal for a primary,” said Janine Eveler, elections manager.
Eveler said all polls opened on time with no major problems throughout the day.
“It was normal,” she said. “‘Nothing unusual.”
Permalink | | Categories: Cobb County
Libertarian hopes for voter angst
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Perhaps no other Georgian is as curious as David Chastain about today’s primary elections for state school superintendent.
After registering last month as a Libertarian candidate, Chastain, a 49-year-old father of three, already is on the November ballot.
“I need to know who’s going to be running against me,” he said of his plans to watch tonight’s poll returns.
In the Republican contest, current Superintendent Kathy Cox is facing former Department of Education administrator Danny Carter. On the Democratic side, one-term Congresswoman Denise Majette is competing against Carlotta Harrell, a police officer-turned-substitute teacher.
Chastain, an Acworth resident, said he’ll be keeping an eye on the Republican race, figuring he’s got a shot at the constitutional office if he can pick off some voters unhappy with the choices.
“I think there’ll be more people this year willing to switch parties on down ballot races,” he said. “That’s what I’m hoping for anyway.”
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
Smooth sailing despite a little confusion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Poll workers in Cherokee County spent lulls today chatting, snacking and reading Ladies’ Home Journal and Redbook magazines.
Some voters showed up at the wrong place. Some polling sites had been moved.
Cheryl Janezic went by mistake to Liberty Elementary School in Canton, which is next door to her new polling station. Her old polling station, a fire station/community center, had been closed due to a lack of parking.
At Freedom Middle School in Canton, poll manager Bob Tiedemann expected about 15 percent of the precinct’s 3,616 registered voters to vote. Next door at Liberty Elementary School, 166 voters had cast their votes by noon, said assistant poll manager Kathryn Young.
At Little River Elementary School in Woodstock, voting went smoothly. “Some people who voted here before didn’t receive notification that the polling place had been changed,” said poll manager Art Wick.
About 191 voters had voted by 1:10.
Things were slow too at Holly Springs United Methodist Church. “We have little splurges every once in a while,” said poll manager Carolyn Hopkins.
High school student and poll worker Meghan Gilmartin, 17, who was handing out the cream-colored cards for voters to fill as they came in, said she woke up at 5:15 this morning and was at the Holly Springs location at 6 a.m.
Poll workers in Cherokee cherished new “express poll” machines, which find voters names by computer and issues a yellow card for voters. This was done manually until these elections, with the poll workers sifting through pages of voters’s names to find them and having to encode the information in a machine.
“You don’t have to look through lists,” said Linda Maphet, who was working at the Marie Archer Teasley Middle School in Canton.
Kay New, who voted at Holly Springs United Methodist Church, was surprised to see she was the only voter as she entered the polling station in the church’s basement. She said she voted for Sonny Perdue.
“I don’t agree with everything Sonny Perdue has done necessarily but overall I have confidence in him,” said New, 59. “I know he has a heart for people. He does respect education.”
New, an elementary school teacher, said that if he were re-elected, “I hope he will continue to support education.” She would like to see smaller classes. “Children generally learn better in smaller groups,” New said.
In the race for lieutenant governor, she said she voted for Cagle after doing some research: “It did seem that Ralph Reed had not represented Cagle fairly in his ads.”
Rosalind Schwart, 64, of Canton wouldn’t say who she voted for as she left Freedom Middle School in the early afternoon. “It’s been a nasty, dirty campaign,” she said, referring to both Republicans and Democrats. “It’s pathetic.”
She said she voted because she has to.”I’m here but I’m unhappy, with a capital ‘un,’” Schwartz said.
Permalink | | Categories: Cherokee County
Precinct 007 seeking more action
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gwinnett County precinct 007 sits in the heart of downtown Duluth. Riffing off the James Bond signature numerals, precinct manager Ken Blacknell said “anybody who comes in here better not act up.”
As the clock ticked past 5 p.m., no one was acting up — or voting — for that matter. Less than 10 percent of the precinct’s 3,378 registered voters had cast a ballot. Most of the 14 voting machines stood empty as a few people came in and out.
“I knew it was going to be a low turnout, but I thought there would certainly be more people,” said Fred Jones of Suwanee. Jones praised the efficiency of the electronic voting machines, saying “It’s about the time voting went into the 21st century.”
Judy Terry of Duluth came in to cast her vote shortly after 5 p.m. Despite what she said was confusing directions to the polling place, Terry was determined to find the right spot because “somebody’s got to try to do something about this mess that we are in as a county, as a state and as a country.” She cited immigration issues and taxes on small businesses as her primary concerns.
Permalink | | Categories: Gwinnett County
Waiting for voters and killing time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Clayton County poll workers at one precinct had so much time on their hands today that they got excited when four of six voting machines were in use at the same time.
In eight hours, only 84 of the 1,309 people registered to vote at the Clayton Senior Citizens Center had shown up, according to Becky Wells, the chief poll manager.
Poll workers predicted that they would not see 10 percent of the voters registered to cast ballots there. A statewide prediction called for a 20 percent turnout.
The poll workers killed time.
“We do a lot of joking and eating,” Wells said.
They also used spare time to prepare for the next balloting.
“We’re doing cross-training today so everyone can do everything for the next election,” she said.
Next door – literally – at the Lee Library, poll manager Kimberly Thomas-McPherson reported a “steady trickle” of voters.
“It’s not a bad turnout for this precinct,” she said.
Thomas-McPherson said about 100 of 1700 registered voters had voted by 3 p.m.
“We’ve had no major problems and we’re enjoying each other’s company,” she said.
Permalink | | Categories: Clayton County
Votes for Perdue and Cagle in Clayton
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jonesboro Republican Ann Holbrook, 61, voted to renominate Sonny Perdue for a second term as governor because “of what he’s already done for Georgia.”
If he gets a second four years, she wants Perdue to “straighten out the voting problems” and “improve state public schools.
“If he could do something with the Clayton County schools, that’d be something,” she said. “We’re having wars all the time around here.”
Holbrook said her daughter moved from Clayton to Coweta for the schools.
“My grandkids are in Coweta and they have the best schools,” Holbrook said. “My daughter said she will never come back here.”
Meanwhile, Holbrook voted for state Sen. Casey Cagle (R-Gainesville) in the Republican race for lieutenant governor because she was concerned about former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed’s background.
The negative campaigning disturbed her.
“All that bickering back and forth, I don’t like it,” Holbrook said. “I think it reflects on how they will be in office. We don’t need them fussing and fighting like that before they ever get elected.”
Permalink | | Categories: Clayton County
…And they’re into the final turn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Most top-of-the-ticket candidates in the Democratic and Republican primaries got in some last-minute campaigning and voted Tuesday.
Although no firm figures were available from the state elections office, anecdotal evidence in metro Atlanta suggest turnout might be less than the projected 20 percent of registered voters.
However, heavy voting was reported in a few spots, including Virginia-Highland and Auburn Avenue areas, according to a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s Office, which handles statewide elections returns.
Scattered trouble with the new voter registration database and some late arrivals by poll operators kept some precincts open beyond the scheduled 7 p.m. closing time. Four were reported in Gwinnett; nearly 90 in Fulton County expected to extend operating hours but none past 7:30.
The two Democratic contenders for the gubenatorial nomination — Cathy Cox and Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor — voted and campaigned in their hometowns.
Taylor started his day in his hometown of Albany, where he stood on street corners and waived campaign signs at motorists, one of his election traditions.
He attended a send-off barbecue at his campaign headquarters in Albany before heading back to Atlanta. He is scheduled to be at his “Election Night Party” at Atlantic Station starting at 7 p.m. tonight.
In an interview Monday, Taylor admitted he is typically nervous on election days and has a few “superstitions.”
For example, he said he always votes at his polling place in Albany, where he has been casting ballots since the age of 18.
“I feel really good. I want to just make sure by 7 p.m. tonight that we have done everything we can do. And it will be in the hands of the people,” he told reporters Monday as he flew around the state in a last-minute effort to rack up crucial votes.
Cox began her day campaigning at the Five Points MARTA station in downtown Atlanta. She voted about 1 p.m. at Lakeside High School on Briarcliff Road.
The winner in the Democratic primary will face Gov. Sonny Perdue in November.
Perdue, who has only token opposition in the primary, voted by absentee ballot and spent today conducting day-to-day business, said spokesman Dan McLagan.
“The governor is busy governing today, not campaigning,” McLagan said.
Perdue attended a series of meetings, including one on policy, and a later viewed a hurricane readiness exercise at GEMA headquarters in Atlanta.
The governor will attend a victory party at the Westin in Buckhead at 8 p.m. or so.
The big race among Republicans is for the lieutenant governor’s slot. Ralph Reed and state Sen. Casey Cagle (R-Gainesville) are the top contenders for the nomination.
Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition, spent the morning with family, according to his campaign spokeswoman Lisa Baron. Reed cast his ballot last week during advance voting.
This afternoon, the Republican candidate dropped by his campaign office to talk to volunteers, thank them for their hard work over the past few weeks and encourage them to keep trying to get out the vote until the polls close at 7 p.m.
Reed and his supporters plan to watch the election results this evening at Atlanta’s Intercontinental Hotel.
Cagle spent most of the day in his hometown of Gainesville. He voted at 10 a.m. at the Chicopee Agricultural Center in Gainesville, and then stopped by two local restaurants for lunch: Loretta’s and Curt’s in Gainesville.
He also went on-air on two radio stations. He was on WGST radio in Atlanta this morning, and then on WGAC in Augusta about 3 p.m.
Tonight, Cagle and his supporters will watch the election returns at the Arena at Gwinnett Center.
The Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor was among five candidates: Greg Hecht, Griffin Lotson, Jim Martin, Steen Miles and Rufus Terrill.
Staff writers Sonji Jacobs, Jeremy Redmon, Jim Tharpe, James Salzer and S.A. Reid contributed to this report.
Permalink | | Categories: Statewide
McKinney tussle motivates voters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Voters trickling in and out of Holy Trinity Church on East Ponce de Leon Avenue, walking distance from Decatur’s downtown square, said U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s run-in with Capitol police prompted them to vote against her.
Anne Dishman, 37, a stay-at-home mom, voted for McKinney’s opponent in the Democratic primary, Hank Johnson.
“I don’t know a lot about him, but it is important that Cynthia is not voted back into office,” she said.
Dishman, referring to the congresswoman’s infamous tussle a few months ago, said, “Both parties should have said I am sorry and moved on. But, she made a big deal out of it.”
Dishman said she voted for Cathy Cox in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
“I very familiar with her work, very impressed with her track record,” she said.
Lance Blair, a 36-year-old Democrat and audio engineer said one thing is clear in his mind: McKinney needs to go.
“Right or wrong, Washington has tuned McKinney out,” he said. “I understand her anger and frustrations, but there is a limit. I don’t appreciate politicians of either party being blustery.”
Permalink | | Categories: DeKalb County
A ‘Hecht’ of a reason to vote
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
People have interesting reasons for choosing one candidate over another.
Clayton County voter Edward Hector, 72, said the campaign ads had no effect on his decision today in the Democratic primary. “I don’t pay attention to all that mess,” Hector said.
His chose Mark Taylor for the gubernatorial nomination because “I know him. He’s the big man.”
And he picked former state Sen. Greg Hecht (D-Morrow) because “his name sounded like mine.”
By early, afternoon it was still slow going in some parts of Clayton County.
Out of the 2,171 voters in the Mount Zion precinct, only about 10 percent had showed up by 1:30 p.m.
That left poll workers with little to do but talk. It’s pretty dull, poll workers agreed.
“Well, we gossip,” said poll worker Agnes Tyler, drawing laughter from her co-workers. “But don’t tell people that. We swap recipes, catch up on family.”
“We get to know each other really,” said assistant poll manager Mary Pemberton. “We form friendships here but usually don’t see each other between elections.”
Because their reunions are few and far between, the ladies look forward to election time. And 87-year-old clerk Elsie Overton’s pound cake.
“We always ask, ‘Did Elsie bring her cake?’” Williams said.
Elsie did but, perhaps inspired by the stickers she hands out to voters as they exit the polling place, Overton, a poll clerk for 30 years, may change up for an August run-off.
“I’m thinking about bringing a peach pie next time,” she said.
Permalink | | Categories: Clayton County
‘Lesser of two evils’ gets vote
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some Republicans voters at east Cobb County’s Dickerson Middle School made their decisions based on whom they disliked the least.
“I took the lesser of the two evils,” said 80-year-old Bill Lester of Marietta. “I’ll keep what that is to myself.”
But public relations account executive Nick Stowell, 25, was willing to talk about his choice in the GOP lieutenant governor’s race: Casey Cagle.
But he was turned off by the negative campaign ads.
“The whole thing was just dirty,” Stowell said.
Permalink | | Categories: Cobb County
McKinney, Reed detractors cast votes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The pace was slow — not dead though — at Chamblee Civic Center, off Peachtree Industrial Boulevard just inside I-285 on the north side of the metro area.
A Republican voter, Robyn Cooper, 52, said “yes” to Perdue but “no” to Reed.
“I feel a little suspicious of Reed’s background,” Cooper said. “His connection with the Christian Coalition is why I couldn’t vote for him.”
But Cooper, a teacher, endorsed the current governor: “I’m very happy with what he’s done for education,” Cooper said.
A 53-year-old Democrat from Chamblee, Steve Bancrost, 53, said he “specifically voted” in the Republican primary to cast a ballot against Reed.
“He’s way too right-wing,” Bancrost said. “I don’t like the Christian Coalition. They’re dangerous and close minded.”
Vicki New, a 40-year-old Democrat, voted for Secretary of State Cathy Cox to become the Democratic nominee for governor.
“I just wanted to get rid of the ‘good ole boy’ system,” New said.
She said she didn’t pick Cox because of “where she stood” on the issues. New said she was “was mostly voting against” Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor.
In the Fourth Congressional District, New said she selected Hank Johnson over incumbent Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.
“She makes Georgia look bad,” New said of McKinney. “That’s why I hope voters show up.”
Permalink | | Categories: DeKalb County
In Cherokee, all is quiet on the voting front
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was very slow at the Holly Springs United Methodist Church voting precinct this morning.
By 11:10 a.m., poll workers had given ballots to only 77 out of the 1,800 people registered in the Forsyth County precinct.
“We have little splurges every once in a while,” said poll manager Carolyn Hopkins.
Permalink | | Categories: Cherokee County
Some Fulton sites open late, extend hours
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some Fulton County polling sites are expected to remain open later than 7 p.m . Tuesday because of delays caused by machine glitches and facility access problems.
County elections officials estimate about 25 percent of Fulton’s 357 polling sites opened late for some reason.
The delays in opening ranged from 5 to 25 minutes, Voter Education Coordinator Al Hanson said. But all locations were fully operational by 7:30 a.m., a half-hour after polls were scheduled to open.
Affected polling sites will offer extended hours, though Hanson couldn’t provide an exact number or locations.
Election officials said they were preparing to seek court permission to extend the operating hours at the polls. Hanson said he was certain the county would receive approval.
“Polls will be open late,” Hanson said. “We’re going to extend the time to make up for the lost time.”
Most of the problems had to do with the new ExpressPoll voter verification system, which precincts in many metro Atlanta counties are using for the first time.
The system lets poll workers identify voters electronically instead of manually from computer lists, which takes significantly more time. ExpressPoll takes less than a minute.
At some locations, ExpressPoll laptops initially weren’t in sync requiring officials to reboot the touch-screen system at the affected polling sites, Hanson said.
“This is new to voters here in Fulton County,” he added. “The poll workers did go through ExpressPoll training, but it was a very short time frame.”Despite the glitches, ExpressPoll has reduced the verfication time significantly by providing poll workers one-touch access to voter information, Hanson said.
Access to voting locations for poll workers was another problem.
Facility representives showed up late to some sites, giving poll workers a late start.
“If they are runing late, that’s going to delay our process for getting in to set up the polls,” Hanson said.
The problems, though resolved early, prompted complaints from voters such as Janice Mitchell.
Mitchell said the doors didn’t open at south Fulton’s Love T. Nolan Elementary School until 7:15 a.m.
Poll workers, she added, wouldn’t let more than eight voters in at a time. Both situations caused a line to form and forced some who couldn’t wait to go on to work.
“I was just there,” Mitchell said. “It was a mess. Everytime we vote there it’s always a problem.”
Permalink | |
Poll workers stifle yawns; some voters cast ‘negative’ votes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Machines at the Little Five Points Community Center were down briefly and one voter lost a card in a machine, but for the most part the process has gone slowly and smoothly, poll workers said.
By late morning, less than a tenth of the precincts 1,783 registered voters had come to the polls but workers were hoping for 400 to 500 by 7 p.m. when polls close.
Meanwhile, bored poll workers passed the time snacking, chatting and reading books.
Jennifer Stafford was one of the voters to come to the community center this morning, taking a ballot for Democratic candidates.
In the governor’s race, “I didn’t care for either one” so Stafford said she chose the one she disliked the least, Cathy Cox.
Stafford, 34, believes Cox has a better chance of beating sitting Gov. Sonny Perdue, in November.
As she moved down the ballot, Stafford said she skipped several races because she had not researched the candidates.
Pat Westrick considers herself an Independent but took a Republican ballot this morning simply “to vote against Ralph Reed.
“I don’t think he’s an honest man,” Westrick said about the Republican candidate. “It scares me to think he might be lieutenant governor.”
Westrick was disturbed by the campaign ads Cox and Taylor ran. “It was very terrible. It was very difficult to see what each of them stood for,” Westrick said.
Permalink | | Categories: Atlanta
AC failure puts heat on North Fulton voters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Voting machines at Hopewell Baptist Church in North Fulton cooperated today but not the air conditioning, at least not when the doors were left open.
Only two voters at a time could squeeze into the entry where workers had placed the table to sign up. And that meant the door stayed open.
One of the big draws in this area was the question of whether another unincorporated area of Fulton County should be carved into a city, Milton.
Tim and Kelly Becker voted for the move to shift some government services out of Fulton County and closer to home.
“Anything we can do to get out of Fulton County’s authority and oversight is good for us,” Kelly Becker said. “They’re just too big and don’t do a good job for us.”
Tim Becker, 45, added, “I think we get shortchanged on services here.”
Both Republicans, they said they voted for Ralph Reed for lieutenant governor and were not concerned with negative television advertising in that campaign.
Permalink | | Categories: Fulton - North
Marietta voters diss negative campaigning
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Marietta residents Bob and Jimmie Green were doing their “patriotic duty ” Tuesday morning voting in the state primary, but they weren’t thrilled about it.
“We’re tired of all the negative campaigning,” Bob Green said outside of Marietta Middle School.
His wife concurred: “Most of the candidates spend all their time telling you what the other person is for or against, and they don’t even talk about what they are going to do in office.
“People are fed up with it,” said Jimmie Green, a former poll worker. “I think that’s why you’re seeing lower turnouts.”
Glynn Bozeman, of Marietta, said he voted for Gov. Sonny Perdue because he supports his views on illegal immigration. In the lieutenant governor’s race, he chose Ralph Reed, “even though he was Pat Robertson’s right-hand man.”
“I won’t hold that against him. I just know a little bit more about him than [Casey] Cagle.”
Permalink | | Categories: Cobb County
Fulton, Gwinnett precincts extend hours
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At least eight polling places in Fulton and Gwinnett counties had to stay open late Tuesday night because didn’t open on time for Tuesday’s primary election.
Problems with Georgia’s new $14 million voter identification system delayed some openings.
In Fulton County, Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter cleared four polling places to stay open up to an hour and 15 minutes past the mandated 7 p.m. closing time.
Secretary of state’s spokeswoman Kara Sinkule said Ormewood Park Presbyterian Church, Ocee Elementary, Seaborn Lee Elementary School and Northwestern Middle School were open late in Fulton.
Four Gwinnett County voting polling places also were to remain open between three and 30 minutes late, said Lynn Ledford, elections supervisor for the county.
It is not unusual for large counties to have problems in a few polling places requiring extended hours, Sinkule said.
Poll workers received training on the new equipment known as Express Poll, but Ledford said that in Gwinnett some panicked.
“There wasn’t anything wrong with our equipment,” Ledford said. “Poll workers were just nervous. When they went to turn the polls on, they saw something unfamiliar, and all their training just went right out the window.”
The extra time the precincts were scheduled to remain open depended on how long the machines were down. If the problems lasted for 10 minutes, for example, the precinct was scheduled to remain open until 7:10 p.m., Ledford said.
Potential voters waiting for Ormewood to open called a candidate’s campaign headquarters to see if they could help find out why it wasn’t open.
Lauree Hayden, working for State Senate candidate Nan Orrock, said her office called the secretary of state and Fulton County to report the problem.
Ormewood was to be open until 7:53 Tuesday night as a result.
“I think it’s the right thing to do absolutely, but I’m certain that some people who did everything right, showed up on time, won’t have an opportunity to vote,” Hayden said. “I know we can do a better job. I hope that we will come November.”
Express Poll was paid for with Help America Vote Act funds, Sinkule said. More than 6,000 machines were purchased for $14 million, allowing at least two for each precinct in Georgia.
They were used in the municipal elections in 2005 and in some counties’ special elections earlier this year, she said.
There were no problems with the machines at those times, she said.
Tuesday’s glitches appeared to be more with poll workers than with the hardware, Sinkule said.
“Some counties had no issues with it at all. In others, poll workers were a little bit hesitant to get it handled,” she said.
Poll workers were trained to use Express Poll before the election and a manufacturers’ representative was available in each county to answer questions. Poll workers also could ask their elections offices for help and the secretary of state’s elections division provided telephone help, Sinkule said.
Express Poll is intended to speed the check-in process by automating voter lists and eliminating the large paper poll books where long lines have formed during high voter turnout elections, Sinkule said.
During the statewide rollout of the new system, all precinct also had their paper poll books to fall back on, she said.
Express Poll can retrieve records from every unit in every precinct anywhere in the state, a major benefit for voters who mistakenly show up at the wrong precinct, Sinkule said.
It also allows poll workers to select the correct ballot style for each voter based on stored information from voter registration files.
That was helpful in places like north Fulton where two areas were considering cityhood questions.
At Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church in north Fulton, for example, some residents showed up to vote thinking they were in the area considering cityhood when, in fact, they were part of a sliver outside those boundaries, poll manager Holly D. Hunter said. Express Poll eased the task of giving voters the correct ballot, she said.
Hunter said that two poll workers were unfamlilar with the new system, but they were “walked through it” in time to open at 7 a.m. for the 100 voters already in line.
Voters in some areas reported that polling places opened late because poll workers or facility managers did not have keys. Others feared their votes would not be counted because of disorganization.
— S.A. Reid, Laura Diamond and Marcus Garner contributed to this article.
Permalink | | Categories: Fulton - North, Fulton - South, Gwinnett County
Morrow voter recalls Cox’s kind words
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Businessman and part-time landscaper, Vincent “Tree” Williams voted at McGarrah Elementary School in Morrow for Secretary of State Cathy Cox in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Williams said Cox visited him shortly after his wife, Sherry Lyons-Williams, was slain. Lyons-Williams was the first female Atlanta police officer killed in the line of duty, and Cox offered the grieving husband an idea of how to give back to the community and set up a scholarship in his wife’s name.
“Once I met her, I really liked her demeanor,” Williams said. “She wasn’t trying to get my vote and that meant a lot to me.”
Williams was turned off by the dirty campaign ads and that is what guided his voter in other races.
“I try to remember the names that come across the TV who are not spitting dirt. I think that shows character,” he said. “You should win by what you can actually do for people.”
In the Democratic race for lieutenant governor, Williams chose former state representative and one-time Department of Human Resources Commissioner Jim Martin because his ads did not attack any opponents.
“The past is the past, let it go,” Williams said.
Permalink | | Categories: Clayton County
Voting looking up at Teasley in Canton
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Voting started slowly at Marie Archer Teasley Middle School in Canton, but it picked up a bit after 10 a.m.
Precinct manager Charles Cash was projecting he’d see about 15 percent of the 4,109 registered voters registered. State elections officials are hoping to see 20 percent statewide.
Poll workers praised the new electronic system of verifying voter registration. Linda Maphet was intimidated by the technology at first. But then the work got easier.
“You don’t have to look through lists.” Maphet said. “It does everything. It’s very straightforward to use.”
Ann Head, a 48-year-old Canton bookkeeper, considers herself an independent but took a Republican ballot because she wanted to vote for Cherokee County Commissioner Harry Johnston.
“I feel strongly about keeping him in office. He’s honest.” Head said.
She also said Johnston was trying to prevent over-development of the county and he was “fiscally responsible.”
Head said she skipped over the choices for Republican nominee in the governor’s race and she probably would vote in November for Secretary of State Cathy Cox if she wins the Democratic nomination for governor.
She said she did vote in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor: “I held my nose and I voted for [Casey] Cagle just because I didn’t want to vote for Ralph Reed.”
Permalink | | Categories: Cherokee County
‘Slow but steady’ turnout at Medlock Elementary
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By late morning, 123 Democratic ballots and 117 Republican ballots had been cast at Medlock Elementary School, the polling place for District 5 in DeKalb County.
Poll manager Patricia Bowens described turn out as “slow but steady” and said she was expecting things to pick up around mid afternoon.
Sonny Goff, 55, took a ballot for the Democratic primary. He said his decisions were guided by the candidates’ concerns for the issues of the gay community.
“I’m a gay man and I’m going to vote for candidates that support gay issues,” Goff said.
Goff singled out former state legislator and one-time Department of Human Resources Commissioner Jim Martin, who is running for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. Goff said Martin “holds true to our values.”
Permalink | | Categories: DeKalb County
Voting slow at Dunwoody High
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Voters trickled in at Dunwoody High School in late morning in the heart of affluent north DeKalb County.
Die-hard Republican Mike Daniel, a 63-year-old accountant, cast his ballot for the GOP gubernatorial nomination for incumbent Sonny Perdue and chose state Sen. Casey Cagle (R-Gainesville) as the party’s lieutenant governor nominee over former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed.
“I don’t know where he stands on anything,” Daniel said of Reed. “I don’t think he does either.”
Daniel said he was swayed by news accounts of Reed’s affiliation with Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges. “He [Reed] comes across as a con man,” Daniel said.
Daniel said he didn’t think people should be allowed to vote if they could not produce a picture identification card.
“If you don’t have your photo ID, you should not be able to vote,” Daniel said. “Voting is a privilege, not a right.”
Sean Twiddy, a 28-year-old hobby shop clerk, was bothered by the negative ads produced by Kathy Cox’s campaign so he chose Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor for the Democratic gubernatorial nominee.
Twiddy admitted he didn’t know much about Taylor or his position on issues, but the current lieutenant governor got his vote all the same. “It was counter-voting,” Twiddy said. “I wasn’t happy with a lot of the attack ads.”
Permalink | | Categories: DeKalb County
Valet parking at this Forsyth polling place
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Poll manager Larry Nelson is hoping for good voter turnout out today.
Though election officials expected about 20 percent of the voters to come out for the primary election, Nelson was hoping to see at least 30 percent of the 3,300 people registered to vote at Grace Chapel Church of Christ in Forsyth County.
“If we get them in two-by-two, like Noah’s Ark,” Nelson said, “that’s pretty good.”
Grace Chapel, outside the exclusive Polo Fields, offers an amenity not usually available to voters — valet parking — but no one had used the service by 10 a.m.
The only problem so far was a couple campaigning too close to the building. Judy and Jim Harrell stood at the end of the driveway in front of a long row of campaign signs waving to voters. Jim Harrell is one of three Republicans vying for the district three Forsyth County commission seat.
Nelson asked them to step outside the 150-foot buffer Georgia law requires around polling places.
Jim Harrell had been working since 5 a.m. repositioning his campaign signs that were blocked by others.
“It was so rude,” his wife, Judy, said. “But, it’s sign wars and we’re used to it.”
Permalink | | Categories: Forsyth County
‘Hot’ turnout in Marietta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Marietta Middle School gymnasium in Marietta was hot this morning so poll workers were “having to resort to fans” to cool things down.
Poll manager Louise Knapp said the school was having problems with its air conditioning. She said turnout was “fair” in the first hours of voting at one of Cobb County’s busier precincts, but she was still hopeful.
“We usually beat expectations,” Knapp said.
For example, if Sharon Dunn, director of the Cobb Board of Elections and Registrations, projects a 25 percent voter turnout, “we’ll have 28 [percent]. We keep hoping for 30, 35 or 40 [percent]. But that’s probably wishful thinking,” Knapp said.
Permalink | | Categories: Cobb County
174 in 2.5 hours at Liburn precinct
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the Mountain Park Park precinct in Lilburn, 174 voters had cast ballots by 9:30 a.m. “There was a crowd when we first opened, “ said precinct manager Jim Hodges. But after the initial push, voting was steady with no waiting.
Peter Newman, 59, of Lilburn turned out to cast votes in the Republican primary. The most contested race he had to decide on was between Clay Cox and Woody Woodruff, who are running for State House District 102.
“Cox is a big boy in this part of the country, but I agree with what Woodruff has said,” Newman said.
Permalink | | Categories: Gwinnett County
Technical problems at Grady precinct
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The start of voting at the precinct in Grady High School was delayed about 15 minutes because of problems with the new voter verification program.
The new system is supposed to save poll workers from having to comb lists to verify voter identification. But they returned to the printed sheets for the first 15 minutes today while technical problems with the ExpressPoll verification system were worked out.
Despite the glitch, workers there are happy to have the new system. “It’s the first time we’ve used the machine, but it’s really going smooth now,” said Helinda Scott, poll manager. “We’re saving a whole lot time now.”
Permalink | | Categories: Atlanta
A change in voting location in Canton but no big problems
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There was a little confusion this morning at two polling places in Canton. Voters who had been going to the fire station were to be sent to the school down the road. But which school, some voters wondered.
Voters who had voted in the past at the fire house were to go to Freedom Middle School, which happens to be next door to, and shares an entrance with, Liberty Elementary School.
So poll workers had to divert some of those stray voters.
Aside for the slight confusion, there was a steady stream of voters coming in before work and a new system of looking up names on a computer, instead of on paper lists, made things move quicker.
Joel May, a 25-year-old attorney from Canton, voted in the GOP primary for Gov. Sonny Perdue. The governor, May said, has “done a good job and I know him personally.” May especially liked Perdue’s ethics reforms but he hoped the governor would focus more in a second term on immigration legislation and education, especially reducing class size.
With only token primary opposition to Perdue on the Republican ballot, the top attention-getter in the GOP primary was for the office of lieutenant governor.
In that race, May said he voted for state Sen. Casey Cagle (R-Gainesville) instead of former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed because “I really, really, really, really don’t like Ralph Reed.” May, who worked with the state GOP when Reed was head of the Georgia Republican party, described Reed as “pompous and arrogant.”
May also thought Cagle was better qualified for lieutenant governor because one of the duties of that office is to run the Senate during the annual Legislative session. Cagle has been in the Senate 12 years while “Ralph Reed’s never been there,” May observed.
On the other side of the Cagle-Reed debate. Riley McFetridge, a 64-year-old retired Navy pilot, prefers Reed.
“I like his Christian values. I like everything he stands for. I don’t trust Cagle,” McFetridge said.
McFetridge also approves of the job Perdue has done but, like May, he hopes the governor will do more in a second term to improve education in Georgia.
“He needs to nail down education,” McFetridge said of Perdue. “I want the local boards to have more say over the money.”
Permalink | | Categories: Cherokee County
Roswell turnout ‘light’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Turnout was “really light” in the first hour and a half of voting at Roswell’s main precinct at the Cultural Arts Center, said Jason Head, the poll manager.
Those who did turn out seem pleased with the new computerized sign-in system that poll workers were using for the first time.
“The new machines seem to make everything go quicker,” Head said. “People have been complimenting us.”
Permalink | | Categories: Fulton - North
Polls open for primary business
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When poll manager Dottie Cadenhead opened the doors at 7 a.m. at the voting precinct in DeKalb County’s Briarwood Recreation Center, she met three waiting voters. That’s four fewer than she is used to in presidential elections, but Cadenhead has hope for the day.
She said her two ExpressPoll touchscreen voting machines are running just fine. The new machines incorporate electronic voter verification, so poll workers do not have to manually identify voters from computer lists.
“I”m excited about the new machines,” Cadenhead added. “I think it will be so great.”
State elections officials believe no more than one in five registered Georgia voters will go to the polls today.
Because Georgia does not require specific party registration, voters today can choose to vote in either party primary.
Other than heat, weather should not be a factor today. Voters will walk in the sunshine throughout most of the state, except in extreme south Georgia, where skies will be partly cloudy with a slight chance for afternoon and evening thundershowers. Parts of the state could approach 100 degrees.
Bartow County Election Supervisor Tracy Brown said opening operations were going well in her county Tuesday, where she expects no more than 19 percent.
“It’s down a little bit because we don’t have any highly contested [local] races and no local races on the Democratic ticket,” Brown said.
The Democratic nomination for governor and the Republican race for lieutenant governor lead today’s ballots.
The Democrats, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox, crisscrossed Georgia on Monday to cap a raucous gubernatorial primary battle defined more by attack ads than a debate of the issues.
Republicans have their own high-stakes race to settle in today’s primary election. Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and state Sen. Casey Cagle (R-Gainesville) are locked in a bitter primary battle for lieutenant governor. Polls indicate the two are neck and neck, and they spent Monday drumming up grass-roots support at get-out-the-vote rallies.
Some Democrats see a silver lining in the Cox-Taylor brawl — they hope its prime time sniping will boost the party’s sagging turnout numbers when voters go to the polls today to pick Democratic and Republican nominees for national, state and local offices.
“We have a great opportunity to make historic change,” Cox told about a dozen supporters in Savannah. “We need to change the tune and tone of government.”
Taylor warned several dozen supporters at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport in Albany of sweltering Election Day temperatures.
“I hope that you will load up with your ice water,” Taylor said. “I hope that you will hit the streets for me. Urge everybody to help the Big Guy so I can do more to help the little guys of Georgia.”
Democrats hope the party faithful respond. Primary turnout numbers for Georgia over the last two decades tell a sobering story for the party, which once dominated the state and now finds its fortunes dwindling.
For more than 100 years, the Democratic primary essentially was the election — the November general election was little more than a coronation for Democratic nominees. But those nominees now must face well-funded Republicans, who often enjoy a broadening base of support.
The number of people voting in the Democratic primary in Georgia has been nearly halved since 1990, while Republican primary turnout in the same period quadrupled. More than a million Democrats voted in that party’s primary 16 years go, but by 2002, the number had dropped to 576,000. Only 118,000 people voted in the 1990 Republican primary, but the number had swelled to 527,000 by 2002.
Permalink | |
Clayton results delayed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Voting went smoothly in Clayton County on Tuesday.
Vote counting did not.
The first results weren’t posted until 9:40 p.m. Tuesday, and counting went well into the early morning hours Wednesday.
County officials said voting machines could not be transported from the precincts when the polls closed at 7 p.m. because the computerized cards that were supposed to lock voting machines did not work. That meant new cards had to be sent to all 53 precincts.
“We got a bad batch of cards,” said Annie Bright, elections director.
“We can’t shorten the process,” said Bob Bolia, chairman of the county board of elections and registration. “We do the best we can with what we’ve got.”
Permalink | | Categories: Clayton County
Test
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Test
Permalink | | Categories: Atlanta, Cherokee County, Clayton County, Cobb County, Coweta County, DeKalb County, Douglas County, Fayette County, Forsyth County, Fulton - North, Fulton - South, Gwinnett County, Henry County, Rockdale County, Statewide
Related Links
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Permalink | | Categories: Related Links
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
