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Regina Thomas on her challenge to John Barrow: It’s all about geography

State Sen. Regina Thomas of Savannah says she’s jumping into the Democratic primary against U.S. Rep. John Barrow to thwart an Athens Mafia that controls three of the state’s 13 congressional districts.

Thomas was on Tim Bryant’s talk show on WGAU (1340 AM) in Athens this morning, declaring that she hadn’t given the slightest thought to the possibility that she might be weakening Barrow to the point that Republicans might actually have a shot at the 12th District congressional seat in November.

Listen to a three-minute sound clip here.

“It is time for a change. It is time for equal representation. And we feel that we don’t have that at this time,” Thomas said.

Explain, please, Bryant implored.

“You have three congressmen from the Athens area,” Thomas said.

Indeed, Paul Broun is from Athens, though fellow Republican Barry Fleming of Augusta — in another instance of geographic chauvinism — would like to rip that prize away from him.

Jack Kingston, now of Savannah, spent his youth in Athens. And Barrow was an Athens/Clarke County commissioner — who was drawn out of his seat by a Republican state Legislature, and so shifted his headquarters to Savannah.

We just hope that Markel Hutchins doesn’t find out that U.S. Rep. John Lewis is originally from Alabama.

Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment |

Comments

By keith

April 22, 2008 1:32 PM | Link to this

That’s her reason why she is running? Because of geography? Give me a break. Barrow is a conservative democrat & will have a easy time of her & the republican nominee.

By Annoyed Dawg

April 22, 2008 1:58 PM | Link to this

Good grief, Jim. When are people in Atlanta going to realize that Augusta and Athens don’t hate each other. Yeah, there was one candidate who said stupid things about Athens, but he lost an election because of it. The rest of us don’t care.

By james adee

April 23, 2008 9:44 AM | Link to this

markel hutchins hopes you don’t find out he has inflated his resume like a blowfish!

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