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DEL.ICIO.USThe morning line on the 10th District race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Republican Jim Whitehead finished with 43.5 percent of the vote last night, according to the secretary of state’s web site.
But the real news is Democrat Jim Marlow’s third-place finish, out of the running. Republican Paul Broun of Athens came in second, with 20.7 percent, or 11,203 votes. Marlow, also of Athens, finished with 20.3 percent, or 11,016 votes.
All total, the three Democratic candidates in the 10-candidate race gathered up only 28.3 percent of a vote — hardly evidence of any broad-based dissatisfaction with the Republican brand.
In the 2006 race against U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood, who died in February, the underfunded Democrat received 33 percent of the vote.
Democratic blogger Jon Flack at Tondee’s Tavern has a cogent, early morning expression of frustration.
A number-crunching friend provides this:
— Athens and Clarke County accounted for 36.2 percent of Marlow’s total votes. Clarke was the only county he carried. Twenty-one counties are in the district. Whitehead carried 16, and Broun took four.
— Columbia County accounted for nearly 40 percent of all votes Whitehead received. Columbia County also had a disproportionately high turnout—-accounting for nearly a quarter of all votes cast in the race so far. In Norwood’s ‘06 victory, Columbia provided 18 percent.
Which means Whitehead’s strategy of avoiding the stage with other candidates seems to have worked. And he doesn’t appear to have been unharmed by grassroots anger at the Republican establishment for its role in the current debate over immigration reform.
Republican Bill Greene, who ran as the hard-core immigration candidate, obtained a mere 3 percent of the vote.
Turnout looks to have been about 16 percent, well above the 10 percent predicted by Secretary of State Karen Handel. Ninety-six percent of the vote has been counted.
If you check the county-by-county chart, the missing votes seem to be uncounted absentee and early votes, which trend Republican.
As most of you know, a 187-margin in the race for second place seems small. But in this era of automatic and automated recounts, the likelihood of this changing is relatively small.
Last night’s results go a long way toward guaranteeing the east Georgia seat will remain in Republican hands, dashing any Democratic hopes of wreaking a bit of summer havoc with the Iraq issue.
“There is little doubt that a Republican will be elected as Georgia’s newest congressman on July 17th,” said Tom Cole, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee late last night. “Georgia’s 10th congressional district is a Republican stronghold that has performed true to form by delivering approximately 70 percent of its votes for Republican candidates in this election.”
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By slow down...
June 20, 2007 11:00 AM | Link to this
The immigration thing was barely brought up and Whitehead’s connection to it is hardly known. I don’t think this is a referendum on the immigration issue, just the personal opinion of the 7 people who voted.
By Craig
June 20, 2007 11:43 AM | Link to this
slow down,
Immigration was barely brought up? I guess you missed all of the ruckus from Whitehead about what the number one issue was in this district or failed to listen to Greene as well.
By Craig
June 20, 2007 11:51 AM | Link to this
Also consider the turnout for the 24th election. This caused a higher turnout in those counties friendly to Whitehead. With this resolved, turnout for the runoff will be down to Athens and Augusta areas. Whitehead obviously needs to repair the gap in the Athens area counties.
By Ed Weirdness
June 20, 2007 4:06 PM | Link to this
I guess it just proves that given a chance to vote for a Republican Moron or a Democratic Moron, voters in most of the South, will vote Republican. The potential for harming citizens is always reduced by voting the conservative candidate. I agree, this proves nothing about the the publics massive opposition to the Senate immigration bill. If anything at all, it tends to support the view that in a little over 6 months in control, Democrats have managed to screw the pooch just as badly as GW and his cronies in the Senate have!
By Augusta
June 20, 2007 5:47 PM | Link to this
The AJC editorial staff is in mourning…again. ha ha ha ha!