Election Night

So yesterday was election day. I voted, came home and rested, and then took off for Atlanta to watch the returns come in with some of my favorite candidates. I stayed at Manuel's with Carol Porter and RiRa's with Michael Mills for the most part, but I stopped by 12 Atlantic Station for a minute, where Roy Barnes was, but it was late and there weren't very many people left. Setting my itinerary aside, let's get into it:

Governor's Race: Roy Barnes wins and wins BIG. At last count he had about 66% of the vote, blowing the need for a runoff out of the water. I think people need to realize how impressive that really is; in a primary with 7 candidates, 2 out of every 3 voters in Georgia voted for Roy. Thurbert Baker was second, Poythress 3rd and Porter 4th. I think both Poythress and Porter deserved better than they received. I liked them much better than Thurbert Baker, but not every voter asks me. On the Republican side (not to pat myself on the back), I called that one. Karen Handel and Nathan Deal will go into a 3 week runoff to get the nomination. I said that all those attacks and all those debates only served to help Ms. Handel, and she came away with 1st place by about 11%, or ~86,000 votes. I will concede this, Deal's saving grace may be the fact that the candidates who didn't make the runoff are NOT going to endorse Karen Handel. They'll endorse him; so we'll see.

Lieutenant Governor: Carol Porter garnered about 70% of the vote in her thrashing of Tricia McCracken. And I still would like for the 30% who voted for Ms. McCracken to have to answer why. I think we'd all like to know. I think we all already know how I personally feel about Ms. Carol (see earlier post if you don't). She is the most impressive and most dynamic candidate in any race, in either party. She is the cream of this year's proverbial crop. I spent about two hours or so at Manuel's Tavern with her and her boys; and don't let them fool you. They stand back and great folks, shaking hands and engaging in conversation, playing it somewhat cool. But they are just as invested in their Mom's campaign as anyone else. They've put in the man hours, the effort, and the sweat, and they deserve to be recognized for that help. I'm so ready to see Carol on stage with Casey Cagle, if he's man enough. She'll rip him apart, and the only weapon she'll have to use: the truth.

Attorney General: What can I say? I said when the sketchy ad came out that it would be a knockout blow for someone. I just so happened to be on the wrong side of that one. Ken Hodges took the race by a WIDE margin. (About 66% of the vote). I think this has already been said by many others, but this may be a statement about purely negative campaigning: people don't care for it.

Secretary of State: This was the one I was most disappointed in. Don't misunderstand me, I wasn't disappointed in my vote or my candidate, just in the way things came out. I vehemently backed Michael Mills and I still do. I still believe he was the best candidate for that job. As I sat at RiRa's Irish Pub, I (and the others at the table) were flabbergasted as the returns came in. Michael ended up finishing 4th. The runoff will be between Gail Buckner and Georganna Sinkfield. And to be quite honest, I'm completely lost as to who to support. There's a part of me that doesn't even want to endorse in the runoff. I'll re-endorse Michael. He may not be able to get any more votes, but my conscience will be clear.

U.S. Senate: It was a Michael Thurmond kind of night. And I don't understand why. RJ Hadley put in so much more effort, and took the time to travel around this state, shaking hands and getting his name out there. I guess people were just more familiar with Mike, because the quality of his campaign certainly didn't get him the 84% that he ended up receiving. I guess RJ hadn't had enough time or "kissed the ring" on the hand of Georgia politics, as a friend of mine put it. Here's to hoping he's a little more visible against Johnny Isakson. It wouldn't take much.

State School Superintendent: Joe Martin pulled it out, no runoff needed. He ended up taking about 55% of the vote. Beth Farokhi was second, and Brian Westlake third. I had endorsed Mr. Martin, and was proud to see that he was in front all night long as the results were coming in. He'll move on to November to face John Barge, who took 52% of the Republican vote.

Commissioner of Agriculture: The only race was on the Republican side. And my hometown man, Gary Black won a resounding victory, taking 76% of the overall vote, including 87% of the vote here in our own Jackson County. Congrats Gary.

Commissioner of Labor: This is the interesting one. It is STILL yet to be called on the Democratic Side (I'm typing this at 11:40 a.m. on Wednesday the 21st). As of right now, Darryl Hicks leads Terry Coleman by 479 votes (out of about 332,000). There are some areas still out: 25% of the vote hasn't been counted in Dougherty County, and 34% of the vote is still out in Lanier County. Terry Coleman pulled in extremely close when Laurens County came in, but the two counties still out are very close, so Coleman is running out places to pull from.

So I think it's safe to say that you win some and you lose some. I went from ecstatic, to disappointed, to surprised and everything in between at some point last night. I'm proud of the candidates that won that I endorsed. I'm proud of the candidates that I endorsed that didn't win. I'm proud candidates that I didn't endorse and didn't win too. This could get confusing. Let me just say, I appreciate all the candidates in all the races who put themselves out, ready to answer questions and dedicate their time and services to the people of this state. There were a lot of good people in a lot of these races, and picking who to vote for was difficult. But that's what these elections are all about. ON TO THE GENERAL!!!