Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2008 > August > 05 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USA Vernon Jones show tonight? Nope.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Update/9:13 p.m.:
I’ve seen enough. Jim Martin has the nomination.
Mr. CEO’s voters stayed home. In counties where Jones was a runway winner in July, he either lost tonight or won by margins insufficient to overcome Martin’s gains elsewhere. And do they love him even in his home county of DeKalb? Apparently not. With 164 of 195 precincts reporting, Jones is losing by more than 14,000 votes.
It’s over.
Update/9:05 p.m.:
It’s beginning to look awfully much like it won’t be a Vernon Jones show tonight. He’s coming nowhere near the margins he had three weeks ago in the large counties. He was a no-show from Cobb County northward. He’s losing Cobb by 3-1.
I don’t see where he can make up the margins. It’s not over yet, but the loss of support for Jones between the primary and today is remarkable.
The Democratic Party establishment supported Martin. And it’s beginning to look that the party has some reach.
Update/8:40 p.m.:
I’m certainly not ready yet to abandon my assertion that it’ll be a Vernon Jones night, but he’s getting clobbered in North Georgia. Jim Martin is rolling up huge margins there.
And with partial returns just beginning to filter in from Douglas and Clayton, Jones is not getting the margins expected. Fulton and DeKalb are still out, though neither of those is a real gap-closer for either candidate.
Posted earlier:
Polls close shortly in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary runoff between DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones and former State Rep. Jim Martin of Atlanta.
My guess is that about 200,00 votes will have been cast today. In the primary three weeks ago, 493,243 Democrats voted for a Senate nominee.
I’m betting that Vernon Jones ends up being the nominee. Why? Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton count for about a third of the Democratic vote statewide. In DeKalb, Jones pulled about 30,000 votes in the primary to 23,000 for Martin. In Fulton, Jones got about 19,500 to 19,000 for Martin. In Clayton, Jones got 12,000 to 6,000 for Martin.
Fulton and Clayton Democrats have sheriff’s races that should help turnout, as does Newton County, where Jones ran well last month. There he took 2,300 votes to fewer than a thousand for Martin.
We will know soon. My bet before the polls close is that it’s a Vernon Jones show tonight.I’d be surprised if he continues writing much longer.
Comments
By No to Vernon
August 5, 2008 8:48 PM | Link to this
I think you underestimate us in Dekalb Jim. We know Vernon won’t stand a chance against Saxby, not in this racist red state. We’ll take Martin. He has a better chance with the rural repubs. Maybe they’re sick of Saxby also.
By Maniac is accurate
August 5, 2008 8:55 PM | Link to this
Methinks, ol’ Vern is going to lose.
Dusty, what say you?
Just kidding, I know she’s asleep right now.
By atlpaddy
August 5, 2008 9:55 PM | Link to this
Ha Ha, Wooten - you wish! Martin is the better candidate to take on Saxby Chamblee (why doesn’t he pronounce his name the correct, candy-a*, French way?). At the very least, Martin will stand behind the families of the Georgia workers who were killed in the Imperial Sugar explosion and not carry water for the negligent, Texas-based company that killed them. For you knee-jerks who don’t know what I’m talking about, check this out:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/5920036.html
Country Club Chamblee is a chickenhawk loser.
By Aquagirl
August 5, 2008 9:59 PM | Link to this
When I returned to the main page, the story had changed to say Mr. Threeway had conceded. His pathetic attempt to ride Obama’s coattails is over, thank God. I won’t have to get any more badly photoshopped mailings.
By TW
August 5, 2008 10:14 PM | Link to this
Can we consider McSame ‘ignorant’ if he doesn’t really know what he’s saying in the first place?
Change the old coots diaper and put him down for a nap.
Because a loser is a loser.
By Ray
August 5, 2008 10:39 PM | Link to this
As a resident of South Dekalb I can tell you the four reasons Vernon Jones lost.
Crime is increasing in Dekalb and the commissioner had to go to the media to try to get more officers which are sorely needed. Increasing crime is never good for porperty values.
We approved a one cent sales tax a while ago that was supposed to replace the country operations part of the tax bill. That lasted two years. That tax I was promised I would not have to pay now makes up $600 of my tax bill. And of course they still collect the sales tax.
Dekalb is not the destination county it once was for middle and upper middle income African Americans. Many now avoid it because of the increasing that happened on his watch and his inaction to address it.
And last but not lease, he voted for Bush not once but twice and bragged about it.
By Katie
August 5, 2008 11:16 PM | Link to this
Jim, exactly when was the last time you called a race correctly??? Give it up.
By kymmy
August 5, 2008 11:23 PM | Link to this
alot of you sound real racist…all of you better get on your knees!
By Pan Gloss
August 5, 2008 11:33 PM | Link to this
Racism is the reason for Vernon Jones’ poor showing in this election, but not the kind of racism he and his supporters will be blaming for his loss when you talk to them on Wednesday morning.
Jones expected he would win because he was African-American, not because he was the best man for the job. He tried to identify himself with other good politicians on the basis of his race and people saw through it. Vernon’s not in Obama’s league — not by a long shot.
His supporters will say he lost because white voters wouldn’t support a black candidate for the Senate. The truth is he serves the interests of Vernon Jones first and the people second. Both white and black voters were united in recognizing that.
By TCH
August 5, 2008 11:34 PM | Link to this
Hi five Ray! My sentiments exactly.
I grew up in DeKalb County, having moved there at the age of six. I am 32 now, and the state DeKalb County is in is pathetic. Once I moved from my parent’s home at the age of 21, I have never entertained the thought of living in DC. Since about 2003, I have tried to talk my parents out of retiring in DeKalb, not feeling comfortable with the state of the county on VJ’s watch. Finally, they moved to another county last year. I’m sad that we’ve all broken ties with DC, and even sadder with the way things are…
By EC
August 5, 2008 11:47 PM | Link to this
What is amazing is how some people think blacks just vote according to skin color.It is obvious that whites are more likely to vote against their own best interest if it is a white candidate going against a black or latino. Vernon Jones would have been a horrible choice, it is to obvious to notice this man is only looking out for his own self interest. A politician indeed. What we need are citizens willing to go battle career politicians and Martin fits the bill.
By Jeremy
August 6, 2008 12:03 AM | Link to this
Jim,
If you can be 20+ points wrong here, do you feel any less confident in your “no way, nohow” Obama win in Georgia come November? Considering that few people interpret Georgia journalism seriously, anyway, why don’t you entertain us by standing firm via some overly simplistic language? You could even tell us that offshore drilling will pay dividends before 2030 and that nuclear power creates no waste. Heck, why not predict that Saxby Chambliss will successfully follow through on his aspirations to “arrest every Muslim that crosses the state line”? Whatever you choose, it’s bound to be fun, if disgraceful and considerably inaccurate.
By CJKatl
August 6, 2008 1:31 AM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten, it’s a shame that after all these years commenting on Georgia politics your voice is pretty much going to be ignored for the foreseeable future. Anytime you express any opinion, someone will point out that you thought Vernon Jones would win, and he lost big, big, big. Kinda like no matter what good Michael Milken has done over the past twenty years, he will always be called the once-jailed Junk Bond King.
It will be interesting whether, in the following weeks, you take this as an opportunity to reevaluate your beliefs about the voters in Georgia, or if you try to weasel out of your prediction somehow. Hopefully, it will be a time for you to grow, and realize Georgia voters do not vote along party lines, nor religious lines, nor geographic line. Hopefully, you will come to appreciate that Georgia voters are intelligent, independent, and capable of evaluating the records and promise of each candidate and reach logical conclusions. And, hopefully, this will be a wake-up call on how out of step your views have become with what’s actually happening in this city and state. (If you remember, from back when you were a kid, there was that old man down the street who was always talking about things that hadn’t been important for 20 years? You know, the man who would still play a Victrola? Maybe tonight will make you realize that you have become that old man.)
All in all, this has been a good primary battle for reason and thoughfulness, wherein the electorate has shown it’s much smarter than the pundits.
By stan630a
August 6, 2008 1:32 AM | Link to this
Vernon Jones should’ve been pictured with Pres. Dumbya Bush since he BRAGGED about VOTING TWICE for him. He should’ve had Pres. Dumbya Bush to fly in here and campaign for him. This is from an African-American male who lives in Dekalb County.
By William
August 6, 2008 1:48 AM | Link to this
Vernon’s not in Obama’s league? — LOL They are in the same league, thats why Obama Hussein will lose in November. That is if Osama is even allowed to continue with his campaign seeing how he is not a US citizen, and not qualified to run for President. Barack Hussein Obama claims he was born in Waikiki, which is part of Honolulu County, but there is NO HOSPITAL in Waikiki. See Ya Obama. We hardly even knew ya, but we knew enough!
By Ralph
August 6, 2008 2:55 AM | Link to this
I thought we were commenting on Vernon Jones who I voted against. Why talk about Obama? Vernon was bad choice all around. I am an Obama supporter and I know read negative facts about Mccain but I do care to express my sentiments in this forum.
By Regular Joe
August 6, 2008 3:43 AM | Link to this
Wooten is a great political mind. He predicted the race perfectly.
Jones was lucky to get more the 10% of the vote.
By The Truth
August 6, 2008 4:33 AM | Link to this
See ya VJ. Maybe with new leadership in Dekalb they will reopen the rape case against Vernon. Perhaps justice will be served.
By AJC/DNC Management
August 6, 2008 6:36 AM | Link to this
Limbaugh got me to thinking about this whole tire pressure nonsense:
How many cars out there have improperly inflated tires? I know mine aren’t, not because I want to “save fuel” but instead because I do not want to buy a new set of tires all the time, as under or over inflated tires wear faster.
Does not everyone know this already? How often do the average Americans check things like oil, filter and inflation?
Tell me, does this not sound like a dhimwit issue, does the average moron even know how to check tire inflation?
Knowing Conservatives and how they do not rely on some mindless government agency to tend to the mundane and routine issues of their lives for them, including servicing their automobiles, is this not a simpleton dimwitocrat issue, driving around on improperly inflated tires, totally oblivious of the fact?
Pinko energy hogs.
~~~~~
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds emails: “It sounds like Paris Hilton supports John McCain’s ‘all of the above’ approach to America’s energy crisis - including both alternatives and drilling. Paris Hilton might not be as big a celebrity as Barack Obama, but she obviously has a better energy plan.”
Bwa.
~~~~~
The Lord High Dimwit, Thee Most Splendid, kkkampaign put words in McBushie’s mouth and now the little toadies are free to run with the lie:
What’s wrong with that? Forgive me for pointing this out to the history-challenged, but that is verifiably true. Obama, born to a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, doesn’t look like George Washington or Ben Franklin or Abraham Lincoln. Indeed, race (Obama’s, that is) is a central fact of this campaign, and it’s absurd to pretend otherwise.-Queen Pinko, Urinal/DNC
Got that America, you people are Neanderthal bigots who cannot rise above the race issue.
Somehow, I doubt it’s as simple as that. Many psychologists believe that recognition of “the other” —- those with obvious differences in skin color or hair texture or language —- is deeply embedded in human beings, a primal instinct.
See what I mean about liberal projection?
This bigot, who so obviously hates white people and cannot let go of her own inbred racism, is projecting her faults on you and scolding you for them.
Insane, isn’t it?
~~~~~
Two former CIA officers denied that they or the spy agency faked an Iraqi intelligence document purporting to link Saddam Hussein with 9/11 bomber Mohammed Atta, as they are quoted as saying in a new book. The White House issued the statement on behalf of the former officials, Robert Richer and John Maguire, after a day of adamant denials from the CIA and Bush administration about the claim, made in “The Way of the World,” a book by Washington-based journalist Ron Suskind. Suskind claims the White House concocted the fake letter, meant to come from Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, director of Iraqi intelligence under Saddam, in the fall of 2003 to bolster its case for the invasion earlier that year as it was becoming clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction to be found in Iraq.-Urinal/Jihad
When the libs go to such great lengths^^ to twist and spin they’re way around an issue, plus taking into account how they lie with such ease, it looks to me like Saddam may have been sponsoring POS Atta.
We shall see.
~~~~~
I thought the surge “didn’t work?”
Iraq urged to step up amid budget surplus-Urinal/PMS
~~~~~
Check it out, if the libs are against all forms of energy production except for the Sun, even they know whining and moaning will not extinguish the Sun, so is their real target the Economy of the United States?
Even if no new reactors are built, getting rid of the country’s nuclear waste will cost $96.2 billion and require a major expansion of the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste in Nevada beyond limits imposed by Congress, blah, blah, blah-Urinal/Jihad
Think of all the evidence, propaganda kkkampaigns talking down the economy, these socialist POS are against drilling/ gas price relief, the hate oil, gas, nukleer, coal, and anything else that has made us wealthy and prosperous.
They want to shut this country down, make you and everyone else dependent upon them and their every Royal Whim, regulate all economic activity, undercut the very essence of our freedoms.
If France is 80% nuclear energy and they are not a smoldering ruins because of it, what are the libs whining about?
~~~~~
The Urinal Staff has completely taken over the Vent section and turned into a Lord High Dimwit, Thee Most Magnificent, propaganda rag:
No matter what concerns I have about him, I will have to vote for Obama, just to get rid of a Republican administration.
After all the vicious things that they said about Max Cleland, Republicans are now getting upset when somebody questions McCain’s qualifications. What hypocrites!
So we should ignore those secular, weak-willed Europeans? Guess that leaves you and those strong-willed Islamists to rule the world.
~~~~~
Now this: Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr plans to announce Friday that he will disarm his Mahdi Army, which was raining mortars on Baghdad’s Green Zone as recently as April. Coupled with the near-total defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq, this means the U.S. no longer faces any significant organized military foe in the country. It also marks a major setback for Iran, which had used the Mahdi Army as one of its primary vehicles for extending its influence in Iraq.
By AJC/DNC Management
August 6, 2008 6:44 AM | Link to this
My goodness, I’m so glad we do not have this sword hanging over our heads anymore:
In the past few years, the number of corporations flocking to places like the Cayman Islands to evade U.S. taxes has exploded. One of these companies, former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, has used offshore tax havens to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal taxes. To no one’s surprise, instead of cracking down on KBR, the Bush administration has rewarded the company in April of this year with a 10-year, $150 billion contract in Iraq.-Bruno KKKlintoon
Yeah, o.k:
“The Klinton administration made the same calculation in its own dealings with Halliburton. The company had won the LOGCAP in 1992, then lost it in 1997. The Klinton administration nonetheless awarded a no-bid contract to Halliburton to continue its work in the Balkans supporting the U.S. peacekeeping mission there because it made little sense to change midstream.
By AJC/DNC Management
August 6, 2008 6:57 AM | Link to this
An analysis of campaign finance records shows that about two-thirds of Lord High Dimwit’s, Thee Most Finest, bundlers are concentrated in four major industries: law, securities and investments, real estate and entertainment. Lawyers make up the largest group at about 130, with many working for firms that also have lobbying arms. At least 100 Obama bundlers are top executives or brokers from investment businesses - nearly two dozen work for financial titans like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. About 40 others come from the real-estate industry.
Aahhh, yes, change that we can count on.
By Cherry Picker Jim
August 6, 2008 7:18 AM | Link to this
William, you’ve been listening to too much Rush, Hannity, Savage, and the other right-wing wackos that pollute radio. Even if Obama was born in the back of a taxicab in Hawaii he’d still be a US Citizen. Get over it and do your own research. Stop listening to the drug addict, the college drop-out and the autism denying nutcase.
By Cherry Picker Jim
August 6, 2008 7:29 AM | Link to this
AJC/DNC Limbaugh got me to thinking about this whole tire pressure nonsense:
There’s your problem right there. A drug addict made you think.
By Bud Wiser
August 6, 2008 7:36 AM | Link to this
“By EC
August 5, 2008 11:47 PM | Link to this
What is amazing is how some people think blacks just vote according to skin color.It is obvious that whites are more likely to vote against their own best interest if it is a white candidate going against a black or latino.”
What planet is this moron in orbit around? Of course blacks vote only color, when available, in their contests. I have to go no further than cite Pennsylvania primary exit polls that gave Obama a 97% black vote, and that was versus Hillary! National polls against McCain now may reflect a little less…only a 95% black solidarity vote for their boy v. whitey.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; blacks are too stupid not to vote Obama, because of his color. They will follow the color line every time, because that is what their puppet slave masters at DNC headquarters tell them to do - vote Obama or it’s forty lashes from the massa Howard Dean. They are enslaved (again), this time from over fifty years of welfare and entitlements from the government, in the trillions of dollars, thanks to the Democrats and Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society.”
I guess being a slave is in the blood, this time to a political party that has done nothing for them, and in reality will do nothing to endanger their servitude status, like provide a real education, real opportunity, real housing assistance as opposed to ghetto breeding farms, etc. All they get is a black front showpiece for the election, say ‘vote Obama’, and stillnothing will change afterwards.
So the slaves will vote the blood and not the man, a man who is elitist and socialist by his very nature, and won’t lift a finger if elected to help his ‘brothers and sisters.’ He will continue to perpetuate the martyrdom of slavery to the Dems so that cycle can peacefully continue, and the slaves can continue toiling in the fields of their Democrat slave masters.
And yes, whites will flock to the polls to vote McCain, not because he is superior, but because they see Hussein Obama for the danger that he really is. You see, it’s not about race, but the pocketbook. McCain wants to let some people have some of their own money, and Obama wants to redistribute the wealth to support his slave-perpetuating programs.
By Zach
August 6, 2008 8:01 AM | Link to this
I, myself, didn’t vote yesterday. I was in bed all day long with an ice pack on my painful knee.
My knee was badly injured while playing football in high school just like Senator Saxby Shameless.
Tricky, painful, and lingering knee problems can flare-up without notice. You know it! Monday, I was BUSH WALKING out on a trail. Tuesday, I was in bed. Life can be sooooo cruel at times. Ouch!
Thousands of us men probably had knee pain yesterday, and we couldn’t make it to the polls.
Mommy left town for a week, so no one could kiss my aching knee yesterday. Rats! Ouch! I want my mommy.
It’s a good thing Senator Saxby Shameless isn’t applying for Social Security disability benefits in Atlanta. Read the AJC article.
Senator Saxby Shameless got a military deferment for his bad knee. How nice! How lovely!
Seeking Social Security disability benefits?Apparently almost everyone is denied benefits. ALMOST?
Too bad! You CAN work? You can do something. Don’t expect benefits here in Atlanta. We don’t want to hear about your cancer. Tough luck!
Expect a check in the mail soon, Sweetie. You have our sympathy, Sugar. That is rough, Honey.
With a knee injury, this election campaign is going to be rough for Senator Shameless. Maybe ex-Senator Max Cleland can lend Saxby his wheelchair.
By southfulton
August 6, 2008 10:47 AM | Link to this
please stop the race baiting and the racism…why can’t we talk about a subject without going there. i’m black and voted for martin because i thought he was the better candidate.
By ERVIN
August 10, 2008 1:20 PM | Link to this
jim i read your reports you seem far on the right side always mcsame is this hero people think what his going along with his captors and he is so out of wack he wants his wife in a topless contest but he didnt know that did he you never talk about the people you love????
By Gene Wise
August 11, 2008 8:30 AM | Link to this
I appreciate your evolving commentary of Aug. 5 - it proves for sure that, no matter how much time either of us spends trying to understand the voter, neither knows the result until the votes are counted - then, speaking for myself, in major elections I still wonder how many of those votes were put into the count at unauthorized locations.