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Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Deja vu in the Legislature; Porter says he’ll stand again
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A weird, weird election. Democrat Sonny Perdue tickles 60 percent in the race for governor. Then Democrat Tommy Irvin delivers a similar stomping in the race for agriculture commissioner.
And not a single, solitary member of the Legislature loses a seat. Republican or Democrat. Though Republicans clearly had the edge when it came to open positions — at just about every ballot level.
The Republican-dominated state Senate will operate with the same 34-22 split it had last year.
It appears as though Republicans will have 106 seats in the state House when the Legislature convenes in January. Depending on who you talk to, that’s a two-seat pick-up, or a six-seat pick-up.
Republicans were at 100 seats when the Legislature adjourned, but four Democrats quickly switched in May. So Republicans had 104 going into Election Day.
House Minority Leader DuBose Porter on Wednesday said that — considering the cash Republicans had to throw against his members — he was happy to come out of Tuesday night with 74 members.
One measure of satisfaction: He’ll stand again for minority leader next week, when a slightly pared-down Democratic caucus gathers.
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No champagne for these Democrats
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forget about the confetti and the booze and “Happy Days Are Here Again.” To the extent that Georgia’s two beleaguered Democratic congressional candidates were doing any celebrating Wednesday, they did so very quietly. And carefully.
“We’re getting the numbers and dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s,” said Doug Moore, spokesman for 8th District Rep. Jim Marshall Wednesday morning.
It appeared Marshall had a lead of more than 1 percent, and that votes from a few outstanding precincts wouldn’t be enough to bring Republican Mac Collins within range of a recount, Moore said. But the campaign was watching the process down to the final vote, and Marshall planned no victory announcement Wednesday. Or perhaps, at all.
“It is what it is,” Moore said of the incumbent’s modest lead.
For Rep. John Barrow in the adjoining 12th District, closure was even more elusive. At about 2 a.m., after Effingham County officials had handcounted totals to produce an unofficial result, he claimed a lead of about 1,100 votes overall. That’s not enough to get past the 1 percent mark, and this race appears headed for a recount. Barrow called a late-morning press conference, at which there wasn’t likely to be any high-fiving.
If they hold on to their hair-thin leads and walk away quietly while Democrats party elsewhere, however, no one should underestimate what the two Democrats here were up against.
Consider this stat from National Journal’s Hotline: Across the country, Republicans won 14 of the 23 congressional races decided by two percentage points or less and 13 of the 19 races decided by 5000 votes or less. The two Georgia races fit both categories. And while the blue tide favored Democrats in other states, Marshall and Barrow swam against a red wave.
A victory in either of these races would have given George W. Bush some comfort that he had a positive impact somewhere on the political map. Interestingly, what we hear from both Democratic and Republican sources in the 8th District race is that Sonny Perdue was a much bigger drag on Marshall than George W. Bush, who came to the district twice to campaign against him.
And even if it’s just a hair over 1 percent, doesn’t Tuesday’s outcome position Marshall as someone to be reckoned with in the severely shaken Georgia Democratic Party?
Well past midnight, some thoughts for the morning:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Among them:
— Republicans Sonny Perdue and Casey Cagle rolled over Democrats Mark Taylor and Jim Martin, respectively, in similar fashion. But with 88 percent of the vote in, Martin had outpolled Taylor by nearly 60,000 votes.
Which might be the closest we ever come to a count of ticked-off Democratic women in Georgia.
— A quick, thumbnail assessment of the Taylor campaign: It operated as if Democrats were still the establishment party, when it should have operated as a populist insurgency. Like Perdue in 2002.
In the 1980s, the members of the state House rose up and put one of their own, Joe Frank Harris, in the Governor’s Mansion. Taylor never had that relationship with the Democratic senators he ruled over for eight years. Or at least, it never showed.
This was the cruelest criticism of Taylor wielded by a prominent disappointed Democrat, mid-campaign: “He’s just Roy Barnes, but without the $20 million.”
— In terms of Republican votes gathered up, Perdue was finishing behind State School Superintendent Kathy Cox, who now needs no “with a ‘K’” to set her apart from the departing secretary of state. John Oxendine looked to be the top GOP vote-getter.
— On the Democratic side, State Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin was jousting with Attorney General Thurbert Baker for top honors. You have to think that Baker was helped by the strong campaign run by state Supreme Court Justice Carol Hunstein.
