Top Georgia Republicans lined up Monday to run for re-election while Democrats began rounding out a ticket they hope will challenge the GOP’s grip on statewide offices.
Gov. Nathan Deal and House Speaker David Ralston were the first two Republicans to qualify for another term on Monday, with both saying they had unfinished business to tackle in 2015. Across the hall, Democratic Party chair DuBose Porter said he’s aggressively lining up recruits to offer voters an alternative.
Hundreds of candidates are set to file paperwork at the statehouse this week to qualify for the elected offices up for grabs in November. Both parties hold their primaries on May 20, the earliest in Georgia’s recorded history.
Deal led a lengthy line of Republican officeholders as he qualified for what will likely be the last time he’ll appear on a Georgia ballot.
“We haven’t finished everything that I would like to complete before I leave office as governor,” Deal said. “We’ve done a lot of good things, but there are some things that still need to be finished.”
Soon, a flood of Republican candidates for marquee offices filled out their paperwork. Four of the best-known Senate candidates filed in within a few hours of each other. U.S. Reps. Phil Gingrey, Jack Kingston and Paul Broun, as well as former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, all quickly made their Senate intentions clear.
Democrats already had marquee names for the marquee races. Jason Carter announced in November he would run for governor, months after Michelle Nunn announced her bid for Senate. This week, they hope to round out the rest of the ticket.
Porter said former state Rep. Keith Heard is jumping in the race for insurance commissioner and former state Rep. Robin Shipp will run for labor commissioner. Former state Sen. Greg Hecht will challenge Attorney General Sam Olens, Porter said.
The party’s efforts to convince Atlanta psychiatrist Branko Radulovacki to drop his bid to challenge Nunn in the primary went nowhere, as he signed the paperwork to stay in the Senate race.
But Porter said he anticipated a top-notch challenger to state Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan, the Democrat running for state superintendent who is no favorite in her party for her support of the charter school amendment.
“What I’m waiting is to be able to tell you the variety of people we have running for school superintendent,” said Porter. “There will be someone who has a record and history in support of public education that I’ve got in touch with. There’s a lot of excitement about this.”
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