Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for July 24, 2014

On July 24, 1778, Georgia ratified the Articles of Confederation.

Georgia’s John Walton was present on July 9, 1778, and signed the document then. Georgia’s other two delegates – Edward Telfair and Edward Langworthy – did not sign until July 24, 1778, which is the date most often used for Georgia’s ratification of the Articles.

An interesting sidenote is that John Walton‘s brother, George Walton, signed the Declaration of Independence on Georgia’s behalf.

On July 24, 1919, the Georgia General Assembly rejected ratification of the 19th Amendment, which extends the right of voting to women.

At 12:51 EDT, we mark the 45th Anniversary of the safe return from the moon of Apollo 11.

The number one song in America on July 24, 1982 was “Eye of the Tiger,” by Survivor, from the Rocky III soundtrack.

On July 24, 2000, former Georgia Governor Zell Miller was appointed to the United States Senate to serve in the seat vacated on the death of Senator Paul Coverdell.

Mark Rountree of Landmark Communications, was the General Consultant for Buddy Carter’s winning campaign for the Republican nomination in the First Congressional District, and offers these observations relevant to the Coastal district’s impact on the Senate race:

#1. Turnout in metro Atlanta was down 11%. This is where Perdue was running strongest in the May primary.

#2. Turnout was down a much more significant 26% outside of metro Atlanta. In general, Kingston did better in the May primary in non-metro Atlanta.

#3. In Kingston’s own first Congressional District, Chatham County turned out at essentially exactly the same number: 17,000 voters both in May and July. He was assisted by having two candidates who are both residents of Chatham County in a runoff election for Kingston’s own congressional seat: Buddy Carter and Bob Johnson.

#4. However, the First Congressional District *outside* of Chatham County experienced a significant decline of turnout: down 28%. That was even worse than the statewide average.

#5. The problem of a huge drop-off in turnout in the Non-Chatham part of the First Congressional District indicates that the Kingston campaign didn’t have the type of ground-game for Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts it needed. That of course should not have happened in his own district.

More Runoff Wrapup

Bob Weatherford bested former Cobb County Chairman Billy Byrne in the GOP Runoff for County Commission. From the Marietta Daily Journal:

With all precincts reporting, Weatherford received a total of 9,523 votes, or 62 percent, while Byrne received 5,960 votes, or 38 percent.

In total, 15,483 voters cast their ballots in the race.

Janine Eveler, director of the Cobb Board of Elections, said there are 102,730 active voters registered in District 1.

Weatherford will now face Democrat Derrick Crump in November’s general election, although pundits predict the race has been decided due to the Republican stronghold in northwest Cobb.

Byrne and Weatherford have jousted for the District 1 seat occupied by retiring Commissioner Helen Goreham, since edging out three other candidates in the May 20 primary.

Brett North was elected Alderman in Acworth.

In November, Cobb County voters will see a SPLOST item on the General Election ballot.

Commissioners voted 4-1, with Bob Ott opposed, to put a six-year special purpose local option sales tax before voters in November.

Several changes were made late Tuesday night to the list of projects to be funded by the SPLOST, which is expected to raise $750 million over its duration. Among the changes were a removal of a $72.5 million dollar project for intersection and pedestrian improvements along Cobb Parkway from the “tier two” section of the list, a move suggested by Chairman Tim Lee.

The $72.5 million line item was one of several in the SPLOST project list cited by critics as being connected to a controversial bus rapid transit project.

Initially, the BRT project was on the SPLOST list, but after receiving public comment on the issue, the commissioners decided to remove the project from the list. Lee reiterated the BRT absence from the list during the meeting.

Former Lawrenceville City Councilman P.K. Martin, IV won the runoff for State Senate District 9, formerly held by Don Balfour, who did not make the runoff.

Unofficial runoff results show Martin secured 53 percent of the vote to Mike Beaudreau’s 47 percent.

Martin and former Gwinnett County Commissioner Beaudreau edged out long-time State Sen. Don Balfour in the May primary to earn spots in the runoff. Martin will now face Democrat Timothy Swiney in the November general election.

As for his objective heading into the fall, Martin said nothing has changed.

“We’re still going to work to restore trust in state government,” he said. “That’s still my goal. I’m going to work hard, do the right things for the right reasons and try to make people proud.”

In Cherokee County (as well as Forsyth and Fulton), Wes Cantrell won the runoff for State House District 22 over Meagan Biello after a primary in which incumbent Sam Moore was knocked out after less than one full session of the Georgia General Assembly.

With 22,633 active registered voters in Cherokee County eligible to vote in the House District 22 race, a total of 4,835 people made it to the polls in the county to cast their votes for a new state representative, a more than 21 percent voter turnout.

With three counties represented by District 22, including Cherokee, Forsyth and Fulton, a total of 6,253 ballots were counted as of press time in the state House election, with all votes in for Cherokee. One precinct in Fulton had not reported, but those results would not affect the outcome of the race.

Voters chose Cantrell, 52, of Woodstock, as their new representative for House District 22, over challenger Meagan Biello, 32, of Ball Ground, in the Tuesday election.

“It feels great, it’s such sense of relief,” Cantrell said after all the ballots were counted. “We worked hard.”

Scott Gordon won the GOP runoff for Cherokee County Board of Commissioners District 4.

In a tight race that came down to the wire for the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners Post 4 seat, Woodstock Planning Commissioner Scott Gordon received 49 votes more than his opponent Larry Singleton to win the general primary runoff Tuesday, according to the unofficial results.

Gordon, 48, overcame Singleton’s touted experience as a former commissioner to win the seat by 50.63 percent, receiving 1,901 out of 3,755 total votes. Singleton received 1,854 votes, just over 49 percent. Gordon will replace present Commissioner Jason Nelms in January once he’s sworn in.

A “capital-L” Libertarian candidate to challenge State Rep. Scot Turner (R-Cherokee) was disqualified after his petition contained too few valid signatures.

Secretary of State’s office spokesman Jared Thomas confirmed Wednesday that Jeff Amason’s nomination petition failed, after 225 of 228 pages of the petition were disqualified due to a violation of Georgia law.

“Mr. Amason’s wife served as a notary on many of the pages of the petition. She also served as a circulator of the petition and signed the petition,” Thomas said. “Georgia law provides that ‘no notary public may sign the petition as an elector or serve as a circulator of any petition which he or she notarized.’”

Thomas added, along with Amason’s wife, “another person who notarized the petition served as circulator and also signed the petition.”

“The law states that any pages notarized by a person who also circulated and/or signed the petition have to be disqualified,” Thomas said. “Out of 228 pages, all but three had to be disqualified.”

After a campaign that included charges of racism, Sheriff Jeff Mann defeated former DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones. Mann carried more than three-quarters of the votes cast.

Michael Erwin (D3), Jim McMahan (D4), and Vickie Turner (D5) won seats on the DeKalb County Board of Education.

First-time candidate Michael WIlliams defeated incumbent Senator Jack Murphy in the Republican Primary Runoff for District 27.

Murphy, who was seeking a fifth term in the District 27 post he has held since 2006, is the senior member of local state legislative delegation.

Williams garnered 10,796 votes, or about 66 percent of the total, in Tuesday’s runoff to Murphy’s 5,518 votes, or about 34 percent of the vote.

With no Democrats running for the post in November’s general election, Williams will take office in January.

Bill Finch took a 60-40 victory over incumbent Forsyth County Solicitor General Donna Gopaul.

William “Bill” Finch secured 9,611 votes, or about 60 percent, to defeat incumbent Donna Gopaul, who tallied 6,317 votes, or about 40 percent, of the nearly 16,000 ballots cast in the primary runoff election Tuesday.

No Democrats chose to run for the post in the Nov. 4 General Election, so Finch will begin a four-year term in January.

The office prosecutes misdemeanor criminal cases — including driving under the influence, simple drug possession and domestic violence — in the county’s State Court.

In the election for Senate District 16, formerly held by Senate Majority Leader Ronnie Chance, Marty Harbin beat David Studdard for the GOP nomination.

Diane Basham won the Republican nomination for Fayette County Board of Education District 4.

Dave Belton won the Republican nomination for State House in District 112.

Dave Belton will face Democrat B.P. “Patsy” Harrys in the general election for Georgia House District 112.
The Morgan County school board member defeated Newton County’s Aaron Brooks in the Republican runoff by a margin of 108 votes. Belton, unofficially, tallied 2,885 votes, while Brooks, unofficially, had 2,777.

“I want to congratulate Aaron Brooks,” Belton said. “He had a fantastic race, and I think he has a great political future in front of him.”

The two Republicans were attempting to fill the seat voided by Doug Holt, who held the house seat for 10 years, before announcing his retirement.