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Friday, July 21, 2006
Run this one up the flagpole
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We caught up with Ray McBerry, who got 48,444 votes in Tuesday’s GOP primary against Gov. Sonny Perdue, and asked a question that has been hanging out there all week. What are those voters going to do in November?
“What they’ve told me almost universally is that if Sonny’s folks don’t sit down with me in the very near future and put some things in writing, they’re either sitting it out or they’re voting for Mark (Taylor),� McBerry said.
For those who have come in late: Not every vote for McBerry was an expression of continuing unhappiness over the state flag controversy. On a list of issues he wants to talk with the governor about, McBerry listed immigration, eminent domain, the 2nd Amendment, the flag, abortion and the 10 Commandments, in that order.
Concerns over the proposed confiscation of firearms in natural disasters (that’s the 2nd Amendment issue) have probably edged past the flag at this point, McBerry said.
It’s also likely that some who pushed the screen for McBerry were Democrats who wandered into the room to vote against Ralph Reed in the lieutenant governor’s race.
But it is true that just about all the “heritage people,� as Sons of Confederate Veterans spokesman Dan Coleman called them, did vote for McBerry. And they accounted for enough votes, Coleman believes, to earn “a little bit of respect� from those who have doubted how many votes they represent.
Coleman said he’d been hearing much the same sentiment as that expressed by McBerry.
You figure the Democratic strays who voted for McBerry will be voting for Taylor. So if McBerry and Coleman are right, almost none of those votes come back to Perdue.
If Perdue’s lead stays as wide as it is at the opening bell, this may not be a great concern. If the race tightens, well…
