All Dressed Up, With No Tea Party to Go To: Primary 2010 Wrap-up

Submitted by Bob Griggs

If there is a "Tea Party" passion to toss out incumbents, it sure didn't manifest itself in the recently-contested Georgia primaries. Of the eleven federal incumbents of both parties, only Hank Johnson, John Barrow and David Scott (all Democrats) had challengers. (I am not counting Tom Graves, R-9th, who won a special election just a month ago... half a football team of Republicans came out for this essentially open seat.)

Things are not likely to change in November. In only one district-- Jim Marshall's (D) 8th-- were enough votes cast on the other side of the ballot to potentially oust the incumbent.

Not much will change in the State Senate, where most incumbents had no challenger in the primary and will face no opposition in the fall. Only one Senator in Gwinnett is in jeopardy of losing his seat-- Curt Thompson (D-5th, Norcross)-- where Republican Garry Guan has a great chance in what is seen as a solidly Democrat district.

In the Gwinnett House delegation only four incumbents faced primary challengers, and all won. Most incumbents not only faced no primary challenge but will skate into another term with no opposition at all.

While the elections last Tuesday were generally unexciting, there were a few remarkable votes.

Snellville Liquor by the Drink: Some restaurants began pouring yesterday after the LBTD referendum passed by almost a 2-to-1 margin. The true benefit of the vote may not be felt for many years. While the ability to pour on Sunday will attract higher quality restaurants, the economy will prevent many from coming to Snellville any time soon.

County Commission District 4: I am sure that this race will be the topic of much discussion between now and the runoff but, for now, it boils down to this-- a vote for former State Rep. John Heard is a vote to give Chairman Charles Bannister even greater freedom to steer this county into the toilet.

County Commission District 2: A runoff was expected in this race, and Republican voters ensured that the two most qualified candidates were in it. Both Lynette Howard and Keith Shewbert have a resume of public service, either as elected or appointed officials, and both would probably make a decent Commissioner. I plan to give this runoff a closer look in the coming weeks.

State Senate 9: Don Balfour will return to the Capitol as Snellville's representative in the State Senate. That is not necessarily a good thing.

State House 106: Former Snellville Mayor Brett Harrell handily defeated former Snellville Council member Warren Auld. This result was interesting in that Auld won most of the Snellville city districts while Harrell took the remainder. Auld was obviously the pick of the Snellville "Old Guard" as represented by former Mayor Emmett Clower and former Council members Wayne Odum and Robert Jenkins, who campaigned vigorously for him. The "Old Guard," quite frankly, is a dying voter base; however, it was interesting that the younger set didn't come out for Harrell, who is credited with moving Snellville into the 20th century after three decades of Clower rule.

U.S. Congress Seventh District: Most folks expected State Representative Clay Cox to win this seat or, at least, figure in a runoff. Instead, John Linder's Chief of Staff and hand-picked replacement, Rob Woodall, will face Baptist minister Jody Hice for the GOP nomination. The 7th District covers parts of five different counties with the majority being in Gwinnett. Cox finished second in Gwinnett but third district-wide. Hice easily won the Barrow and Walton precincts near his home, but Woodall ran away with Gwinnett, Forsyth and Newton. Until he announced for the seat, Woodall was essentially an unknown. In my opinion, Woodall would have finished way down the list of eight candidates except for what I'll call the "Boortz Effect;" the many minutes of free advertising provided by the very influential radio talk show host and Linder friend, Neal Boortz.

State House 103: Political newbie Steve Ramey didn't have the resources nor campaign savvy to defeat incumbent David Casas, which is unfortunate. Ramey would have made a great representative and Casas' return to the State House will ensure that on the tough and even controversial votes, the residents of District 103 will be unrepresented.

Governor: Karen Handel, who is in a runoff with former U.S. Congressman Nathan Deal, won all but four precincts in Gwinnett. On the Democrat side, former Governor Roy Barnes won them all. Handel received 22,730 Gwinnett Republican votes in a seven-person race while Barnes received 11,950 with an equal number of challengers. A total of 60,221 GOP votes were cast opposed to 17,440 Dem votes. Despite the changing demographics, Gwinnett will remain a Republican bastion for this election cycle, at least.

Commissioner of Labor: I wrote last week that this was an easy pick for me, but apparently not for Gwinnett voters. Former Snellville Council member and State Rep. Melvin Everson was trounced here and statewide by State Rep. Mark Butler. I am at a loss to explain why the 40-year-old real estate appraiser from Carrollton could defeat Everson by a 70%-30% margin in his home county where Everson did not even receive as many votes as each of the two candidates in the Democrat primary.

State House 98: Former four-term Commission Chairman Wayne Hill was defeated on his home turf by a political newcomer. Hill did not win a single precinct including his own. Despite his notoriety as the Chairman who presided over more than a decade of arguably out-of-control growth, I expected Hill to make a much better showing and maybe even win.

State Senate 5: In the pre-primary edition of The Gwinnett Gazette, I erroneously put Republican Garry Guan head-to-head with incumbent Democrat Curt Thompson for the Fifth District State Senate seat. Actually, neither had opposition in the primary, but will face off in November. The primary is notable, however, in that Guan received 2,172 votes in a heavily Democrat district while the incumbent Democrat received only 1,802. Anything can happen in the general election, but Tuesday's result shows that Guan has a legitimate opportunity to turn the 5th into a GOP-represented district.

The Ballot Questions

The GOP ballot questions focused on national issues; not unusual given what's happening under the Obama administration. Dem ballot questions centered primarily around local issues which, again, could have been expected since the county government, floundering a bit in recent years, is under Republican rule. The responses provided few surprises. (Questions are paraphrased.)

Repeal the federal Health Care Reform bill? 89.83% of Republican voters said YES. No surprise here. Should Georgia participate in lawsuits against the federally imposed health care mandate? 90.43% answered YES. Do you support a Value Added Tax (VAT)? 87.92% answered NO.

Then there was the obligatory right-to-life question: Should the State Constitution be amended to provide that the paramount right to life is vested in each human being from the earliest biological beginning until natural death? 71.40% answered YES. It is interesting that Republicans were more passionate about stopping Obama than they were about protecting the unborn.

The final GOP question asked: Should Georgia enact a law similar to the immigration law recently passed in Arizona? A very strong 93.01% said YES, again not a surprise as the law has substantial support across the nation.

Democrat voters also weighed in on illegal immigration with three questions of their own. Only 54.06% opined that immigration laws were not being enforced fairly in the county, a back-handed endorsement of the 287(g) program, currently the most visible aspect of local enforcement. Over 76% believe that county government should, as part of its enforcement efforts, prosecute employers who hire illegal aliens and 88% favor an ordinance that would require employers to verify the employment eligibility of their workers.

If you've been a long-time reader of this newsletter, you know that I have pushed the Commission for several years to require employers to register with E-Verify® as a prerequisite for receiving or renewing a business license. In May, when the battle lines were first being drawn over the Arizona law, I even drafted for them a resolution in support of the state. To date, the Commission has done nothing more than the bare minimum required by state law.

Ninety-three percent and 88% equal a lot of Gwinnett voters who want the politicians to take illegal immigration seriously. Judging by the Dems' response to the other ballot questions, many voters do not believe that the County Commission is up to the task.

Is the County Commission managing the county's finances properly? 65% say NO. Are you satisfied with the performance of the Commission? 62% say NO. Would you support a recall? 62% voted YES. Should the size of the Commission be increased? 71% say YES.

(This doesn't make sense... if the Commission is doing so badly, why do we want more of 'em ? Actually, adding two district commissioners was a good idea ten years ago and it's a good idea now. At the 2000 census, Gwinnett had just over 588,000 inhabitants. That's over 147K per district commissioner. Today, we're at more than 808,000.)

About 62% of Democrat voters also want to expand the School Board, believing (at least, 66% of them) that school clusters are not treated equally. About 65% are satisfied, however, with the quality of education in Gwinnett. Finally, Dems are equally split when asked if they would support a sizeable sales tax increase to eliminate the property tax, while 86% want the county to reassess all properties to establish their fair market value.