Democratic chances for governor in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina
For you Democrats in the crowd, veteran strategist Ed Kilgore has posted at The New Republic his theory that Democrats – despite the high Republican spirits currently in the air – have a better-than-average chance to win races for governor in three Southern states.
He starts with Georgia:
[Roy] Barnes lost his reelection bid in 2002 to Sonny Perdue, a party-switching state senator, despite the power of incumbency and a huge financial advantage. Since then, Barnes has regularly admitted his mistakes. And, amazingly enough, in the latest Georgia gubernatorial poll, he’s running ahead of every single Republican candidate.
Meanwhile, Georgia Republicans, who have dominated state politics since 2002, are having some serious problems with their own gubernatorial bench.
The consistent frontrunner in the polls, longtime insurance commissioner John Oxendine, is awash in ethics allegations about contributions from the insurance companies that he is responsible for regulating.
His record is so blatantly bad that none other than Erick Erickson, the Georgia-based proprietor of the nationally influential, hard-core conservative web site RedState, has said he’d vote for Barnes if Oxendine is the GOP nominee.
These lines about South Carolina also sum up Kilgore’s take on the situation in Georgia and Alabama:
As in Georgia and Alabama, the Republican gubernatorial field is a mess: Nobody is a frontrunner and all the candidates are stampeding to the hard right. And I do mean hard right.
In a sign of the times, Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer, who has few friends in the state’s Republican establishment, delivered a speech comparing recipients of subsidized school lunches to “stray animals” who should no longer be fed unconditionally.
While he took a few shots from fellow Republicans for his indiscreet language, nobody disputed, and some praised, his basic premise that any form of public assistance corrupts its recipients and should come with some sort of reciprocal obligation.
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44 comments Add your comment
Scott
March 9th, 2010
5:02 pm
Roy Barnes pissed off some people first go round, but I can say that he had a good transportation plan that Sonny Perdue promptly gutted. Perdue’s sitting on the sidelines for 8yrs has done this state no favors, unless of course you were against selling liqueur on Sundays, or into sport fishing. I think its going to be tough for the state reps as well if they pull a credible challenger.
Whatever
March 9th, 2010
5:28 pm
Barnes is no far left liberal. He learned his lessons and is ready to help bring this state out of the 20th century.
Republicanism is a Disease
March 9th, 2010
5:32 pm
The final solution to the Republican problem will be provided by the GOP themselves. They are self-destructive at every turn, spending all their time trying to convince people that government is the problem so that they can get elected and prove it. Republicans crusade against corruption, then get caught in record-setting corruption scandals. They crusade against gays, then get caught toe-tapping in airport toilets and sending sexy texts to young pages. They tell us Democrats are immoral, yet they get caught cheating on their wives with female (and male) lobbyists. They will destroy themselves because their insides are rotten and their brains are wired wrong from the outset. They are defective human beings who deserve the fate that they will suffer – total political irrelevance. The sooner these awful people are gone from the planet, the better off the world will be.
Republican turned Democrat
March 9th, 2010
6:23 pm
Maybe by electing a good Dem, GA can finally cut itself loose from the cronyism that has it mentioned in the same sentence as Mississippi and Alabama when it comes to backwoods ways and poor education.
Joe
March 9th, 2010
6:31 pm
Gotta love you tolerant, all inclusive, liberal haters. Disease, you are most certainly infected.
Porr3
March 9th, 2010
6:43 pm
There is NO such thing as a good Dem.
Linda
March 9th, 2010
6:54 pm
With the top Republican candidates awash in ethics violations, it’s time to give Roy Barnes a 2nd chance. Oxendine is being investgated for ethics violations and contributions from insurance companies and Nathan Deal is resigning from the U.S. Congress because of ethics investigation of his gaining private gains from deals he made. He says he is resigning early to get more involved in his run for governor but if you investigate further you will see he is resigning early to avoid the ethics verdict and repurcussions. No wonder the American people are disillusioned with our elected officials! Also….as to Porr3’s remarks about “there is NO such thing as a good Dem” I am sure that he will refuse Social Security, Medicare when he reaches the age of 65 because those were 2 major programs provided by Democrats as were ADA, Family Medical Leave. Name ONE program that Republcans have put in place that have benefited most average Americans and NOT the wealthier ones!
jim
March 9th, 2010
7:13 pm
Hey Linda – Don’t wait for a repub to tell you anything they have advanced for the regular guy, cause it has not happened. A more devisive, narrow minded group of people do not exist anywhere else with the possible exception of the middle east. As a former repub, I am grateful to say I am no longer part of the party of Palin, Limbaugh, Hannity, and other assorted wack jobs.
Road Warrior
March 9th, 2010
7:16 pm
is it any corralation that as bad as the economic situation is right now georgia has actually suffered less than most states? Not that its a good situation but consider the states where democratic legislatures & governors has been in control for at least eight years & they are in much worse shape Michigan , new jersey , new york , ohio , pennsylvania, illinois, California? and i know the governor is a repub but the state lewgislature in califonia is democratic contolled. could it be that republicans have acutally had a better idea? look at republican states overall they seemed to have fared better in this economic downturn ?? Texas, Florida states with no personal income tax are doing much better?
jekyllover
March 9th, 2010
7:26 pm
We either elect a Dem and start collecting all the taxes due from the sales tax and from special interests or we flounder into obscurity and ignominy along with our neighbors to the East and West. Let’s help Georgia enter the 21st century and emerge from its Republican attacks on the Middle Class and poor people.
jim
March 9th, 2010
7:27 pm
Georgia lost 150,000 jobs in January. We are only one of two states who have furloughed educators, and it will get worse. So no, alot of people do not think Ga. is run well or somehow has a better plan. In point of fact, we don’t seem to have a plan.
Alabama Communist
March 9th, 2010
7:28 pm
I don’t who this Democrat wiz bang consultant is! But he must be counting Democrat sheep by stomping his donkey hoof one at a time…..
tc
March 9th, 2010
7:29 pm
road warrior, yellow dog democrats set up the fiscally conservative practices this state has used for many years….republicans continued most of those practices…you couldn’t have more fiscally conservative folks like sloppy floyd, murphy, joe frank, zell, george busbee, barnes…..all of them were good to very good fiscal stewards….but these last 8 years something is amiss and investment is not flocking to this state… having read the blogs that last day or two, it appears ga is a fairly low tax state….unfortunately, we only seem to attract/retain lower wage jobs…..could it be our investments in education and transportation have been a large contributing factor?
jim
March 9th, 2010
7:36 pm
P.S. to Road Warrior – At the very least, do not distort the truth. Michigan has had a repub controlled legislature for the last eight years. Michigan also, as part of the rust belt, has been in deep trouble for more than eight years.
tc – right on the money re: the state tax. It is low and we will see even more problems shortly. I am consistantly amazed at the number of people who continue to vote against their own self interest. Makes you want to bang your head on the wall.
OnceUponATime
March 9th, 2010
8:04 pm
I still can’t understand how the GaGOP has the least ethical candidate in the race as its front-runner, and the runner-up as its 2nd candidate…then there’s the whackjob Ray McBerry…if those are the best the GOP can do, you’d have to be fool not to RUN to the Dems.
Rafe Hollister
March 9th, 2010
8:42 pm
Georgia has had one Rep Gov since Reconstruction, admittedly he hasn’t done much right, but i have this question. 140 years of Democrat controlled state house and legislature must have produced one great place to live. I grew up here and I don’t remember it being that great of a place to live. The schools, transportation, economy and segregation policies all reflected a backwater state. Think I will try once more to find a Rep who might could do better.
td
March 9th, 2010
8:55 pm
Most of the old yellow-dog conservative democrats are now republicans. A couple facts about our current crisis. Roy left the state with very little money in the reserve funds. Sonny spent his first term building the reserve fund to almost 2 billion. More money was spent and more people hired in K-12 and colleges than all other state agencies combined. I think Sonny is a RINO but he did do the right thing physically during his term.
td
March 9th, 2010
8:58 pm
OnceUponATime, Eric Johnson is a good man but he just does not have the money and does not live in the metro area to be the front runner. OX and Handle are losers and I certainly will not vote for either.
Cutty
March 9th, 2010
8:59 pm
Road Warrior @ 7:16- Are any of those states laying off teachers, while spending money on horse barns and boat ramps?
Sally T
March 9th, 2010
9:13 pm
With the Republican governor and legislature, many of Georgia’s gains in education have been wiped out. And now the budget fiasco (strange, disproportionate cuts to education) and recent scandals have way more their proven that priorities, ethics, and common sense have taken a back seat to political retribution and a far, far right pledge of no more taxes, no matter what. Barnes was imperfect, but I will gladly welcome him and a brand new moderate legislature back in just a few months.
Old Gene
March 9th, 2010
9:52 pm
The present Republicans, under the leadership of Sonny Perdue, have been the most corrupt crowd to hold office since the 1930’s. Roy Barnes is not particularly attractive, but he is not an outright crook. Sonny has all but wrecked higher education in the state by politicizing the Board of Regents and turning state government into a money-making enterprise for himself. Oxendine is a carbon copy of Perdue.
OnceUponATime
March 9th, 2010
10:16 pm
td, Eric Johnson has a lot of good points, but he’s drunk too much of the voucher koolaid — and I say that as someone who supported vouchers until I studied them further.
The really good private schools cost 2-3 times as much as public schools, so vouchers won’t cover the costs, and the parents of the kids in really bad schools either don’t know how to, can’t afford to, or won’t go to the trouble of getting vouchers for and enrolling their children in private schools, assuming they could find private schools which would accept their children for the price of a voucher.
Bobby Anthony
March 9th, 2010
11:00 pm
Barnes will lose.
Lynn43
March 9th, 2010
11:21 pm
I consider myself an Independent. I have voted for both Republicans and Democrats in the PAST. But never again will I vote for a Republican. If there isn’t a Democrat that I can vote for, I just will not vote.
m
March 10th, 2010
1:42 am
Oxendine is a joke.
I’ll actually vote for Barnes this time.
m
March 10th, 2010
1:45 am
Rafe–
You might wan to study some history before you vote and especially read about the “southern strategy” which hicks region-wide have been fallen prey to since the 70’s.
DirtyDawg
March 10th, 2010
2:58 am
I hope that ‘learning his lesson’ doesn’t include ‘not’ knocking heads together in order to get things done. The thing about Roy is that he didn’t suffer fools much and when he saw a job that needed to be done, got it done. He ruffled teacher’s feathers in an attempt to introduce ‘accountability’ to the process…He made the ’symbol of racism’ to a majority of the country – the Confederate Flag on our State Flag – go away (and it’s still gone, by the way, and needed to be). His right hand, Bobby Kahn, wasn’t exactly trying to ‘win friends while influencing people’ and I hope won’t be back in that position, but regardless, there’s a lot of mending to be done after this past eight years of ‘fubar(ed)’ Republican ‘leadership’, and he’ll only have four years to do it in.
Ocean of Wisdom
March 10th, 2010
3:39 am
‘Democrat’ chances for Governor …its democrat, as there’s NOTHING ‘democratic’ about them…
STRIVE to be SMARTER than the ORIGINAL ‘party’ of SLAVERY WANTs you to BE!
How Sad
March 10th, 2010
4:09 am
Have Georgians seen a more pitiful bunch of candidates, whether Dem or Rep? We will either elect some honest politicians or Georgia will not only be on the bottom in education, but everything else. The banker/lawyer//developer/politician that runs our State need to be run out of town. Barnes is the leader of that group. Barnes was Bill Campbell’s governor. Reed was skillfully maneuvered into office by Inside Advantage, AFC, and the power brokers.
CANDIDE
March 10th, 2010
7:29 am
To vote for the Democrats is to vote for the Negro Interest. It won’t happen.
MyBad
March 10th, 2010
8:03 am
Ignoring the last stupid comment from CANDIDE – and back to reality: Barnes was honored by the Libertarian CATO Institute during his losing campagn against Perdue for being one the top dozen governors in the US as fiscally responsible – he was the only Democrat in the whole mix! MyBad for voting my usual Republican way that year – huge mistake! Like a friend said: “at least Perdue didn’t win by one vote.” Small consolation.
rey
March 10th, 2010
8:06 am
VOTE State Rep. DuBose Porter, D-Dublin Ga New Govenor
Republican turned Democrat
March 10th, 2010
8:33 am
I can’t say a lot of bad about Sonny as far as a person. I met him, he’s a nice guy. His problem is he tried to stay true to his GOP roots while balancing the common sense approach to improving this state. This conflict caused some very bad fiscal issues which now if not immediately dealt with effectively will take GA backwards. Take education. Many don’t realize that education is actually the long term plan for success. It’s the way to move up in the world. Look at Candide’s comment and you can see that GA hasn’t come far education wise. When GOP cuts are made, some of the deepest are made to education. What’s that mean, in 20 years GA will STILL be in the lower 1/4 of the country education wise…and we’ll still have ignorant fools like Candide spewing their nonsense.
grizzybear
March 10th, 2010
9:15 am
first of all, governor perdue has been and always will be a democrat, do not fool yourself. republicans in office let glen richardson do whatever he pleased as speaker, they knew of his actions but nobody wanted to stand up to him, except the now” speaker ralston” who got railroaded for standing alone against richardson. governor perdue wants 9 million dollars for the state fair grounds in perry, this should be cut out of the budget. both parties are to blame.
RetiredSoldier
March 10th, 2010
11:47 am
The next governor in GA will be republican and will not be Ox, Deal or McBerry. There are a number of other good candidates republicans can choose. How many people stood up to Murphey? Very few, now I don’t think he had a zipper problem like Richardson, but he certainly wasn’t without fault. In Ralston, we have the first good speaker in decades.
Sandy Spring For Roy Barnes
March 10th, 2010
12:03 pm
Barnes will win and all these republicans need go packing there bags.
Vote for Barnes
by the way I am a republican and I am voted for Barnes
Chuck Shick
March 10th, 2010
12:24 pm
I too am a republican and I am voting for Barnes. We dont have time to train another governor. All of the state agencies are in a mess and several of the leaders of those agencies have no business in their respective jobs, thanks to good ole sonny. I just hate that my senator has no oppositiion because I would love to see him sent packing.
Bobby Anthony
March 10th, 2010
2:15 pm
Enter your comments here
Bobby Anthony
March 10th, 2010
2:15 pm
I am a Democrat and will not vote for Barnes.
Scott
March 10th, 2010
2:18 pm
td…where as Perdue might have increased the reserve fund, to what end? He gutted GRTA which was exactly what we needed to get infrastructure built (a Barnes creation). Georgia is 50th in state revenue collection per capita…thats dead last, and 49th in spending. You have to invest in the state to make any gains. Also, that pile of cash is long gone now, and my guess is that had it been well invested in infrastructure we’d be way better off now. Then you have bozos Rep Shafer (R Duluth) who is making people pay more for phone service and gutting PSCs ability to help people with claims against AT&Twhich totaled over $300000 last year…and we keep electing them…WHY?
Republican turned Democrat
March 10th, 2010
2:25 pm
I’d vote for whoever is best. Right now it just seems the entire GOP, state and federal, are misguided and lost and are trying to take their states and the US backwards. This is likely because they have run out of ideas. If they would get back to focusing on the constituents FIRST, then their party ideas, individual aspirations and pet projects, they might gain some momentum.
Maybe one day I’ll be a Republican turned Democrat turned Republican again…but at this rate it will never happen. I find my own views and beliefs are lining up more with Democrats now-a-days. Unless one heck of a candidate is unveiled by the GOP real soon, I’m probably voting Barnes or not at all.
Intown
March 10th, 2010
3:08 pm
If Perdue was the cure to Barnes’ overactivity, Barnes is the cure for 8 years of complacency. Georgia has fallen behind in investing in its economy. Barnes is probably the only Dem who can win, and the only potential winning candidate that can reverse the do-nothing trend and govern responsibily.
Scott
March 10th, 2010
5:43 pm
Dear GOD our legislators are fighting about allowing people to have CHICKENS in their back yard…I kid you not cause I read it here at ajc.com…if there was ever a sign that we need a change under the dome…I think that nails it. I think local governments have a pretty good handle on the chickens guys
woodshed guy
March 11th, 2010
8:50 am
My votes in the comming elections will be for good ethics, honesty, trust, believeabilty, and morals. A “D” or “R” by the names won’t sway me. I’ll just pick the ones which I believe will steal the least. All names with an “I” wil be ignored. An exception might be that I would vote for someone who showed a little humbleness even though they possessed few other attributes. No Ox no Deal.