Posted on 08/21/2002 8:33:39 AM PDT by xsysmgr
With Jimmy Carter, Newt Gingrich, and Sam Nunn all in political retirement, Georgia's most visible public figures are two U.S. House members that opponents love to hate: Republican Bob Barr and Democrat Cynthia McKinney. Improbably enough, both were defeated handily in yesterday's Georgia primaries.
Barr was gerrymandered into a fight with colleague John Linder in a new overwhelmingly Republican north-metro Atlanta's seventh district. Right up until the polls closed, political insiders were split on how the race would turn out. No one predicted the huge, two-to-one Linder win. Linder was expected to benefit from crossover voting from the tiny group of Democrats in the district (Georgia has no party registration), but they were ultimately irrelevant to the result. The quiet conservative and former Gingrich protégé rolled up a huge margin in his Gwinnett County base and ran even in the exurban precincts that were part of Barr's old district. It's unclear how much the result was influenced by the most recent Barr antics that have amused political activists around the country — his accidental discharge of a firearm in a meeting with gun activists, and his hilarious efforts in a direct-mail piece to suggest that Bill Clinton was the demonic force behind Linder. It is clear Atlanta voters had grown tired of Barr's act.
The same is true of Barr's mirror image on the left, Cynthia McKinney, who lost 58-42 to state judge Denise Majette in an even more stunning upset. Like Earl Hilliard of Alabama (who lost to Artur Davis in a primary in July), McKinney learned that holding a majority-black district does not mean you can blithely say anything you want about world events without paying a political price.
During the last year, the aggressively abrasive McKinney capped a decade of outrageous statements by issuing an open letter apologizing for U.S. policies to a Saudi prince whose offer of funds for 9/11 relief had been rebuffed by Rudy Giuliani, and by suggesting on a radio talk show that George W. Bush had welcomed the terrorist attacks as a boon to defense-industry friends. Like Davis of Alabama, the little-known Majette (also an African-American woman) took advantage of McKinney's unsavory reputation to build a big funding advantage, much of the money coming from Jewish donors in the district and around the nation. McKinney managed to compound her problems by accepting contributions from a variety of Islamic sources with ties to Hamas, Hezbollah, and even al Qaeda. She also attracted bad last-minute press with a phone-bank campaign that featured recycled old endorsements from Andrew Young (who repudiated them immediately), Bill Clinton, and Robert Redford. Meanwhile, her father, state representative Bill McKinney (who may have lost his own legislative seat yesterday, depending on how absentee ballots turn out) went on a local television stations on election eve and blamed Cynthia's problems on "Jews — that's J-E-W-S." Nice.
McKinney's margin of defeat was arguably attributable to heavy Republican crossover voting, but she clearly failed to generate the big turnout among middle-class African Americans that her long history of successful race baiting had led most observers to expect.
While the Barr and McKinney losses will rightly dominate news coverage of the Georgia primary, they will not affect the partisan balance in Congress. Thanks to a brilliant job of gerrymandering by Governor Roy Barnes, Democrats expect to change Georgia's House delegation from the current 8-3 Republican margin to a 7-6 Democratic advantage (Georgia picked up two new House seats). But primary results in two Democratic-leaning open districts give new hope to Republicans that they can dodge the intended bullet. In northwest Georgia's eleventh district, retired liquor distributor Roger Kahn appears to have defeated former Congressman Buddy Darden after an exceptionally nasty campaign. Kahn, who lost badly to Bob Barr in 2000, ran well to Darden's left, and may struggle to hold the district against one of two Republicans (including State Sen. Phil Gingrey) who will meet in a September 10 runoff. Kahn does, however, have money to burn. Meanwhile, in the Macon-based third district, another labor-backed candidate, former Macon Mayor Jim Marshall, beat self-styled conservative Democrat Chuck Byrd, and will face highly regarded Republican Calder Clay in November. Marshall ran an under performing "populist" campaign against then-incumbent Saxby Chambliss in 2000.
But depending on absentee ballots, Republican primary voters in the open twelfth district (running from Athens to Augusta to Savannah) may have denied themselves another upset opportunity. County commissioner Max Burns seems to have narrowly defeated Barbara Dooley (talk-show host and wife of legendary Georgia football coach Vince Dooley) for the Republican nomination. Dooley would have had an even chance to win the twelfth against the winner of a Democratic runoff; it's between African Americans Champ Walker and Ben Allen.
Georgia's statewide races produced little drama. Congressman Saxby Chambliss, anointed by national GOP officials and the White House as the challenger to Sen. Max Cleland, won nomination over state Rep. Bob Irvin, exceeding the 60-percent vote threshold that many D.C. insiders had set for him. And in a nice surprise for Georgia Republicans, state representative Sonny Perdue won the gubernatorial nomination without a runoff, which means he has more than two months to rattle his cup in an effort to overcome Roy Barnes's huge financial advantage.
— Ed Kilgore is the policy director of the Democratic Leadership Council and a native Georgian.
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No, he wasn't. The redistricting put him into the competitive but winnable 11th District. He chose to move into the 7th and abandon the 11th to the 'Rats.
And the GOP tried to convince Barr to run in another district so as not to set up a fight against Linder. From FoxNews' article on this:
"Barr was urged by party officials to seek re-election elsewhere but chose to run in a district that included much of Linder's old territory."
I probably would have cast my vote for Barr, but truth be told, I don't have too much sympathy for him. I would have preferred if he had put party first and sought re-election in what was left of his old district.
It's pretty unfair to Bob to put it like that ... Cynthia's an IDIOT!
The blame for this goes squarely on the shoulders of 10th District Rep. Charlie Norwood who didn't like that she used to be a Democrat (I think the greatest president of the 20th century was once one, too, but maybe I'm wrong and Norwood is right that once a Democrat always a Democrat). Everyone else endorsed her. The Georgia GOP should be blown up and they should just start over. What a dysfunctional family.
Dooley could have been a future GOP governor or senator for Georgia. I guess Senate Minority Leader Eric Johnson and GA-1 Rep. Jack Kingston were dumb for supporting her, eh Charlie?
That , of course, was the most satisfying part of the night.
Maybe we could knock of Wexler or Nadler if those of the Jewish faith knew to which party the real racists, anti-semites belong.
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