Yesterday,
ihlin posted a diary about an article from The
Christian Science Monitor discussing
"How Georgia Turned from Blue to Red". In replying to the diary, I said, in passing,
"For what it's worth, though, y'all don't have to worry about me turning all Republican on you" — which is, of course, why I'm about to ask which Republicans I should vote for in next week's primary.
Let me explain.
I live in Cherokee County, a small sliver of which is included in House District 6. In fact, I live very near the area used by the
Christian Science Monitor as emblematic of Georgie's increasing Red Shift (does this mean that Georgia is
rapidly receding from the rest of the United States?) in their article. The area I live in is, if anything, even
more Republican than the bit of North Fulton County that the
CSM highlighted.
How much more Republican is it?
There are no Democratic candidates running for office anywhere in Cherokee County this year, that's how much.
If I walk into the polling place and ask for a Democratic primary ballot, I will be able to vote in the open judicial elections, and for the Democratic nominee to succeed Zell -ack, ptui!- Miller... and that's it.
As a result, the only real chance I have to make my vote matter is to vote in the Republican primary, where I can, hopefully, choose the least insane option from occasionally very crowded fields (the House race for my district features seven Republicans all vying to run against no Democrats in November) of Republican politicians. I already know that I'm voting for Johnny Isakson in the US Senate race — never mind "strategic voting"; I'm not interested in trying to pick a weak GOP candidate for November, especially not when Isakson is the one Georgia Republican of note who I actually think is worth a damn (I've never liked "strategic" voting anyway; as I've said before, if you vote for a bufoon, you just might wind up with him).
At the moment, I'm leaning towards Chuck Clay for the House race in GA6, based in part on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's endorsement, which reminds everyone of his role in upgrading Georgia's indigent defense fund into, well, actually existing finally. Since that was just about the only really good thing to come out of the Georgia legislature this year, that's pretty powerful stuff, unless I learn something later to change my mind.
Aside from that (and, of course, voting to retain Leah Sears to the Supreme Court), however, I'm at a bit of a loss for the various downticket races. Do any dKossacks who are local to metro Atlanta have any thoughts or recommendations?