StatewideSenateThis is absolutely ridiculous! Look at all this red. In 2008, there were as many as 100 house republicans that went unchallenged. That has got to change if democrats want to have a say on issues facing the state in the near future. Here are some seat that democrats need to contend for next year:HD 169 Chuck Sims (R-Ambrose)HD 154 Jay Roberts (R-Ocilla)HD 171 Jay Powell (R-Camilla)HD 172 Gene Maddox (R-Cairo)HD 153 Formerly held by Austin Scott (R-Tifton)HD 180 Cecily Hill (R-St. Mary's)HD 147 Buddy Harden (R-Cordele)168 Tommy Smith (R-Nicholls)HD 136 Tony Sellier (R-Ft. Valley)HD 126 David Knight (R-Griffin)HD 152 Ed Rynders (R-Albany)All of these seats could be competitive for democrats if, that is if they put challengers to these crop of incumbents. But like always I will take a wait & see approach to this. I hope Andre Walker of Georgia Politics Unfiltered is wrong when he says the majority of republicans will go unchallenged again in 2010. Gosh, I hope he is wrong on that one!
3 comments:
Rynders in particular will be a fight. He is a solid political strategist who knows exactly what he has to do to win elections. He also already has a $40K warchest and solid name ID throughout the District- as well as being known throughout the REGION as the go-to man to get things done.
In short, I agree that I'd like to see more challengers in more races (I'd like to see more Libertarians... :D), but there are better places to spend your money than to put a lot of money into a losing fight.
True! I don't want to see money being wasted in a losing fight. The way I look at it for example, HD 171 has a 30% Black Voting population. It's represented by a republican who won because Richard Royal watied until the last minute to announce he wasn't going to run for re-election & worked up a plan with former mayor Jay Powell to run for his seat without opposition. Tha is one seat if demcorats recruit well can take back next year. I think Libertarians can make waves here in the state of Georgia, but some people see Libertarians as another extension of the Republican Party. Allen Buckley, who ran for the Senate in 2008 made some terrific points in the Debates with Jim Martin & Saxby Chambliss, but no one took him seriously. The way the Ga GOP is being perceived right now, the time is right for the Libertarian party to breal thru at the polls.
Greetings All,
I wandered in here quite by accident but when I saw the district map of Georgia I was compelled to see what was up.
I worked closely with the Allen Buckley campaign in the 2008 cycle and as a result, became a member of the Libertarian Party of Georgia and stopped being a voter and became a Libertarian activist. In the 2008 cycle there were 82 republicans running for state house and state senate that had no opponents and there were 62 democrats that ran with no opponents. Out of 180 elected positions in Georgia in 2008, 141 ran unopposed.
Georgia has been cut up into safe republican districts and safe democrat districts and this division has been maintained by our fair state's draconian 1943 Jim Crow ballot access laws for the last 66 years. The reason you seldom, make that never, see Libertarians running in these crucial local races is that they just cannot surmount the petitioning barrier. Most of our candidates that have tried have seen their volunteers drop by the wayside in the hot June sun, their hard won petition signatures disqualified by the Notary Public rule and other administrative hurdles and as a result they folded their tents and moved on.
I think that if you expect to see a major change in the 2010 cycle from what was experienced in 2008, you are bound to be disappointed. The numbers of unopposed races in Georgia has been fairly constant over the last 4 election cycles if the info over at Sec State Handel's office is accurate. It's almost as if the leadership of the state democrat party got together with the leadership of the state republican party and agreed not to poach on each others territory.
The only races you will see some change in are the Special Elections. Special Elections will have a Libertarian candidate because the petition requirement is dropped. The only requirements to qualify for the ballot in special elections are that the candidate is over the age of 25, has resided in the district for 1 year and can pony up the $400 qualifying fee. Thats it, no party affiliation, no petitioning. Sort of what it should be like all the time.
Libertarian Taylor Bryant is contesting the District 22 special election against three democrat candidates. It is curious that no republicans saw fit to run in this race, but since District 22 has sent a democrat Senator to the capitol for the last 20+ years, it is not surprising. Our candidate is operating on a shoe string as is usual for Libertarians, and we are encouraged by his performance in the forums held in Augusta to date. We believe that he will do well enough to force a run off for this seat, if he doesn't win it outright.
The special election for State Senate District 42 will start sometime after Senator David Adelman is confirmed as Ambassador to Singapore. LP Georgia also has a candidate waiting in the wings for that race and we believe that we will do well in this heavily democrat district.
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