Georgia election | Barge takes superintendent's race
Republican John Barge will be Georgia's next school superintendent.
Barge, a school administrator from Bartow County, had 53.5 percent of the vote with 97 percent of precincts reporting.
Democrat Joe Martin got 41.7 percent, followed by Libertarian Kira Willis, a teacher from Fulton County, got just under 5 percent.
A much closer finish was predicted, in part because it was a three-way race with no incumbent.
"My agenda is kids," Barge said Tuesday night, adding that, in the long campaign season, he had forged bonds with several other GOP candidates, including Gary Black, the likely winner in the race for state agriculture commissioner.
"Gary Black and I spent a lot of time talking about partnering with one another on school nutrition," he said, adding that they also discussed pushing hands-on learning in agricultural trades.
"A lot of times we teach only knowledge, but we don't teach (students) how to apply that knowledge," Barge said.
The victory makes Barge the longterm successor to former superintendent Kathy Cox. Cox, also a Republican who was known for winning $1 million on the television show "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?," had qualified to run for a third four-year term when she abruptly resigned in June to take charge of a new Washington education group.
The superintendent's post, which pays about $130,000 a year, takes on a higher profile with millions of dollars cut from education budgets, increased pressure on states to raise student achievement and Georgia's selection as a $400 million winner in President Obama's Race to the Top education reform initiative.
Barge was the only candidate who had worked at the state Department of Education, an agency with a $7 billion budget and about 1,000 employees that the superintendent runs. He was director of career, technical and agricultural education at the DOE in 2004-2005 but resigned after 12 months, saying he wanted to go back to being a high school administrator, "where my true passion lies."
Martin, a well-known Atlanta businessman and civic leader, has now run three times for post the unsuccessfully.
-- Marcus K. Garner contributed to this report
