Congratulations to all the candidates who won outright yesterday.
Love her or hate her, you have to be impressed with the victory Cynthia McKinney pulled together. She did a remarkable job pulling her base to the polls. Following the results online last night, Woolard and Levitan were at one point both ahead as only the Northern Dekalb results were coming in. Then in the course of maybe a half hour, ward after ward of South Dekalb results came in hugely for McKinney.
I was for Woolard all the way in this race, but you have to tip your hat to McKinney's organization. This is also a good sign for Democrats in the General, as there is obviously a very motivated and pissed off African American voting block out there.
Hat's off also to Johnny Isakson, who defeated a truly repugnant candidate in Hermon Cain to win the Republican Senate nomination outright. Its very good news that even among Republicans in Georgia, an attack platform of "This guy isn't far right enough" failed miserably.
As Bradley Mentioned, Go Leah Sears. A fantastic victory, and I have little to add except that Radical Christians for the most part were beaten back all across the ballot yesterday.
In Georgia 12, last time I checked Doug Haines had lost to John Barrow and missed a run-off by a razor thin margin. Good try Doug, better luck next time.
On to the Run-Off's
The three races I have on my radar screen, in descending order of importance are:
Atlanta City Council President: The field was narrowed yesterday from 4 to 2, Lisa Borders barely won a plurality with 32% of the vote, followed by Michael Julian Bond (28%), Derek Boazman (24%), and Doug Alexander (16%). That's about as close to a random distribution of votes as you're likely to see.
In any event, Borders and Bond will Square off for the post. With only roughly 55,000 votes total cast in this election, and likely far fewer in the mid-august primary, this is one race where the activist community could potentially tip the balance of the election one way or the other.
My main issue has been the Piedmont Park, Parking Deck, but I am curious what other issues people might think are important to raise for these candidates (They both more or less have the same positions on the sewage problem and the beltline). Any ideas?
Democratic Senate Nomination: I guess I probably should care about this race more, but with the choices being Denise Majette and Cliff Oxford for the opportunity to be slaughtered by Johnny Isakson I just have a hard time getting excited. I suppose at this point my support would go to Majette, as at least she is actual politician (as opposed to a businessman who runs ads instead of campaigns). With her roots in Dekalb, if lightning struck and she was elected, the city would stand to benefit.
Fulton County Sheriff: This will be a runoff between Myron Eugene Freeman and (current incumbent?) Charles Rambo. To be honest, I don't even know what the Fulton County Sheriff does. Creative Loafing Endorsed Rambo, but any additional feedback on this race would be greatly appreciated.
All in all, a fun primary I think. I'm looking forward to the run-off, and can't freaking wait for election day in November.
One additional question with all that talk last night about Republican's "crossing the line" to vote against Cynthia McKinney, I wondered why don't Democrats run Moderates as Republicans primaries in Gerrymandered Republican districts in open primary states?
Has anyone ever tried to run a centrist in a red-meat Republican Primary, with the intent of atracting Democrats from the other side, and a few moderate Republicans. At the very least it seems like it might make the Republican have to move back to the Center rather than do everything in their power to appease the right. Once in while it might even be successful in knocking somebody out.
I agree with Kos that we should contest every election, but couldn't part of this strategy be contesting from within the Republican party by infiltrating their primaries?