GOP rides wave to control every statewide office

Georgia Republicans on Tuesday finished the job they started in 2002: consolidating control of state government by sweeping every major statewide office.

For the first time since Reconstruction the state is poised to have no statewide-elected Democrats.

The huge night for state Republicans follows a GOP wave that swept across the country and tilted the U.S. House of Representatives into GOP control and left Democrats with a narrow margin in the U.S. Senate.

With most of the votes in Georgia counted Tuesday night, the Republicans held leads in races for U.S. senator, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, insurance commissioner, secretary of state, state school superintendent and agriculture commissioner. The party was also poised to gain one, possibly two additional congressional seats, giving it a potential 9-4 majority in the state's delegation to the U.S. House.

The results will transform how business gets done in Georgia, Gov.-elect Nathan Deal said from the GOP victory party at the Grand Hyatt in Buckhead.

“Having a team that I can depend on, a team that can work cooperatively, that’s something we haven’t had in this state,” Deal said. “Having a team that is all on the same page is good for the state. We all know we have challenges in this state, and we have to work together to solve them.”

Tuesday night's sweep has been a long time coming and simply represents the culmination of a lot of work, said former state Sen. Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, who finished third in the GOP primary for governor.

"The reality is Georgia is a conservative state, and as much as Democrats make us sound like we're far-right-wing, the truth is we have a much bigger tent than the Democrats," said Johnson, who has written the official history of the Georgia Republican Party. "We're the majority of Georgians, and it shouldn't come as a surprise. Republicans are mainstream for Georgia."

Jim Coonan, an Atlanta-based Democratic consultant, said the results were showing what he had feared: that ticket-splitters are disappearing. It could be a phenomenon specific to this election year -- a year expected to greatly boost Republicans -- "or maybe it means the swing vote is being wrung out of the Georgia electorate by political polarization," Coonan said. "It signifies something; what remains to be seen."

Now, as Deal said, Republicans own state government. They have to use it wisely, said Chuck Clay, president of Atlanta-based media and polling firm InsiderAdvantage and a former state Republican Party chairman.

"There isn't a bogeyman to blame at this point in time," Clay said. "The Republicans have to prove they're worthy of control by creating jobs."

But the state party had help, Clay and Johnson said. The intense distrust for national Democrats fed their rise, Johnson said.

"America coughed up Nancy Pelosi like a fur ball," Johnson said of the soon-to-be-former Democratic speaker of the U.S. House. "It won't be pretty, but we'll feel a lot better when it's over."

Secretary of State Brian Kemp, re-elected to the office he was appointed to earlier this year, said the results showed voters not only agreed with the party’s vision but also its unity.

“We’ve certainly shown we’ve got a great team,” Kemp said. “We want to work together, and I think that’s what Georgians expect us to do.”

For Kemp, that means a chance to partner with Attorney General-elect Sam Olens and Labor Commissioner-elect Mark Butler on economic development initiatives, especially with small businesses.

Economic development was also a platform for Gary Black, the GOP nominee for agriculture commissioner. Black agreed that the ties between the top candidates is special.

What it means is he can work with Deal to promote Georgia produce internationally, Black said. Or he could work with Butler to explore better ways to improve farm labor issues.

“The camaraderie that has really galvanized in the last 10 days is really what Georgians are wanting,” Black said. “That teamwork will spell jobs for Georgians in the future.”

Olens said the unpopularity of President Barack Obama helped Republicans across Georgia. He compared 2010 to 1994, when the Newt Gingrich-led Republican contingent took control of Congress.

“This has been a national election,” Olens said. “This is a referendum on the president. This is another great year for Republicans.”

Republicans in Georgia saw the dream that began in earnest in 2002 -- with Sonny Perdue's election as the first GOP governor since Reconstruction -- come to fruition in stunning fashion.

While the Republican wave was a surprise in many parts of the country, in Georgia it had been growing since before Perdue upset then-Gov. Roy Barnes, the Democrat who on Tuesday lost a bid for a return to power.

"To a large extent, the transition to the Republicans in Georgia has already occurred," Clay said.

Clay remembers the heady days following Perdue's win, an election that also saw the GOP take away a seat in the U.S. Senate with Saxby Chambliss' victory over Max Cleland. It was also a night in which the GOP knocked off legendary state House Speaker Tom Murphy, D-Bremen, who for a generation had been a symbol of Democratic hegemony. Days later, Perdue and other Republicans persuaded four Democratic state senators to switch parties and, suddenly, the party had the governor's office and the Senate. The House followed suit in 2004.

"The growing pains were real when Republicans took over," Clay said.

But Republicans have governed at the top levels of power now for half a decade. The learning curve is over, Clay said.

Buddy Darden knows better than most the route the state's politics have taken. A former state lawmaker and congressman, Darden was the last Democratic district attorney in Cobb County before moving to the General Assembly. As a member of Congress, Darden served five full terms before being swept up in the last major GOP wave in 1994, when he lost a re-election battle to then-Republican Bob Barr.

What's happening now, Darden said, is a fulfillment of a deep pattern. And Darden, for one, doesn't necessarily see it as a good thing.

"I'm not saying the world is going to end by any stretch of the imagination," he said. "I do think the public will be served by a legitimate two-party system."

Given Tuesday's results, Clay said, it could be awhile before Georgia Democrats mount a legitimate challenge to the Republicans' power.

"What it says is they've got to do some serious rebuilding and just further solidifies Georgia into being as red as any place in the country," Clay said.