Handel, Deal survive first round in governor's race, head to GOP runoff

By Aaron Gould Sheinin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Riding the strength of Sarah Palin's endorsement and a boatload of votes from metro Atlanta, Karen Handel on Tuesday bolted to the top in the race for the Republican nomination for governor. Nathan Deal finished second and will face Handel in a runoff Aug. 10.

John Oxendine, long the front-runner in the race, saw his candidacy fall down an elevator shaft. The insurance commissioner faded to fourth, finishing behind former state Sen. Eric Johnson. Handel, the former secretary of state, won 33 percent of the vote, and Deal, the former congressman, won 23 percent.

"Nobody believed we could take on the career politicians and the establishment and win," Handel told ecstatic supporters at about 11 p.m. "But you, you believed. And because you did, we're standing here tonight and we finished first today."

Handel's campaign was certainly elevated by Palin's endorsement, first delivered via Facebook on July 12 and then in an automated phone call to Republican voters. But Handel herself said she felt the momentum turning two months ago.

Deal had a heavy-hitter endorsement of his own, winning the support of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Now, Handel and Deal will make a final three-week charge to decide the GOP nomination, and all eyes turn to an unusual place: Alaska. Does Palin, the former governor of that faraway state, fly to Georgia to rally -- and raise money -- for Handel?

Handel said Tuesday she was hopeful that both Palin and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer will come to lend their help. Efforts to reach Palin have been unsuccessful.

On Tuesday, Handel's strategy of focusing on her home base of Roswell, Sandy Springs and Alpharetta, and Atlanta's northern exurbs, paid off, while Deal got a boost from portions of his old 9th Congressional District, in the northwestern corner of the state. But Handel was well ahead of the pack even before Fulton County results were in, and she led Deal by 1,000 votes in Forsyth County, one of the largest in the 9th District.

Once Fulton County reported, it was over. Handel, who served on the county commission before becoming secretary of state, was carrying 60 percent of the county's ballots.

Handel also carried Columbus, Macon and Augusta, as well as many surrounding rural counties. Deal, not surprisingly, did well in north Georgia and led in Athens. Johnson carried counties near his home base in Savannah as well as some rural sections of Georgia. Oxendine carried a smattering of rural counties in the middle of the state and along the Florida border.

Oxendine's showing in his home county of Gwinnett mirrored his finish statewide: Late Tuesday night, with almost a third of the vote counted in Gwinnett, Oxendine was a distant fourth, with 17 percent of the vote. Handel was leading in the GOP stronghold, with both Johnson and Deal ahead of Oxendine. Oxendine, a statewide official since 1995, conceded at 10:30 p.m.

"It's been fun," he told supporters. "It's been a heck of a lot of fun. This experience has been so great, to find people from every nook and cranny of Georgia to set their lives aside to help this cause. I want to let you know, I'm always going to be here for you. I'm not going to change my e-mail. We're going to continue to work together."

Oxendine supporters denounced Sarah Palin and her late endorsement of the Handel campaign.

Debra Lieb, who began volunteering for Oxendine in the spring, said the endorsement made it clear that "Palin did no research, with this off-the-fly endorsement."

"Newt I can understand," she said, because Gingrich and Deal know each other.

"But Karen is a liberal," she said. "Oxendine is the most conservative candidate in the race. Oxendine was ahead until she did that."

Regardless of what happens with Palin and Gingrich in the next three weeks, several other dominoes could still fall. Do Johnson and Oxendine endorse Handel or Deal? There are logical arguments to be made for Johnson backing Handel. Most of incumbent Gov. Sonny Perdue's former campaign team split between Handel and Johnson. Their coming together for the runoff makes sense.

But Johnson might also resent Handel's lumping him in with Deal and Oxendine as having ethical issues. That resentment could lead Johnson to Deal's camp.

Oxendine is more of a wild card. A self-proclaimed party outsider, he and Handel have blistered each other during the past few weeks. It's difficult to see the two now raising their hands together in triumph.

Deal told his supporters Tuesday night he won't change his approach for the runoff.

“Just do what we’ve been doing, and that is getting our message out and making sure people do understand that I am the true conservative and that is the principal, underlying distinction that I think will exist between me and Ms. Handel,” he said.

Handel, meanwhile, referred to the runoff as just "this little matter to clean up," before the main event: taking on Democratic nominee Roy Barnes.

"It's because you believed and you're going to continue to believe that when we finish in three weeks we're going to finish on top again," Handel said. "And then we're going to take on Roy Barnes! We're going to put an end to Roy's political career once and for all."

Earlier Tuesday, Peri Fletcher, 40, a Canton chiropractor and a Republican, had already done her research on Handel and was prepared to vote for her. Palin's endorsement sealed it.

"I know she is a hard worker," Fletcher said of Handel.

Handel didn't get all the votes in her hometown of Roswell. Homemaker Cindy Bowling, 38, voted for state Sen. Jeff Chapman of Brunswick.

“I read about everybody," Bowling said. "I went to their Web sites. I read the news agencies.”

She said she canceled out the top three candidates – Oxendine, Deal and Handel. She did not like Handel’s views on charter schools. She does not like Palin, so Palin’s endorsement worked against Handel for Bowling. The same goes for Gingrich and Deal. She doesn't like Gingrich, so she didn't vote for Deal. As for Oxendine, she said she did not like the questions surrounding his “ethical issues.”

University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock, an expert on state politics and elections, said Oxendine's campaign had simply fallen apart. He was getting 30 percent support in the polls just 10 days ago.

Bullock said that, as voters began playing closer attention to the race, some were energized by the Palin endorsement, and others were turned off by Oxendine.

"It's probably a combination of the two," Bullock said. "Voters have become attentive this close to the election and now have some additional cues."

And as Oxendine fell, Deal was in position to benefit.

Staff writers Cameron McWhirter, Margaret Newkirk, Christopher Quinn and Craig Schneider, and Ashley Fielding of The (Gainesville) Times  contributed to this article.