Everhart: Independent candidate won’t sour GOP chances in governor’s race
State GOP chairman Sue Everhart was on WGAU (1340AM) in Athens this morning. Radio host Tim Bryant kindly sent the sound our way.
He asked the chairman whether the state party had made it more difficult for Republicans to keep the Governor’s Mansion, by rejecting real estate executive Ray Boyd and his $2 million. Boyd, when last heard from, said he intends to launch an independent campaign.
Said Everhart:
“As Mr. Boyd already proved, he doesn’t want to work with Republicans. He didn’t want to sign the oath. The oath was something that all of the candidates signed. This oath has been in place for a number of years. The Democrats decided not to use it anymore, but we continue to use it because we want loyal Republicans representing Republicans of Georgia.
“So I don’t think this is going to do anything to the race. He got in very late. He made a real big grandstand on what he was going to do, but this was the only thing that happened – he just wasn’t going to sign the oath, and we cannot qualify him – I could not qualify him. Our rules say I couldn’t make any choice but follow the rules of the GOP.”
Everhart assumed that Democrats would nominate Roy Barnes this summer, but predicted that voters would refuse him in November, and that Republicans would win. “Roy Barnes had his chance. He didn’t do his job,” she said.
Addressing Tuesday night’s results, Everhart says the tea party’s show of force in the U.S. Senate race in Kentucky, which saw the defeat of a Republican establishment pick, poses no problem for the Georgia GOP:
“It doesn’t give me any concern, because we’re working very well with the tea party people in Georgia….They have the same hopes and dreams for Georgia that I have.”
For instant updates, follow me on Twitter.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Guides
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
19 comments Add your comment
Stir It
May 20th, 2010
4:49 pm
“…..representing Republicans of Georgia.”
That’s the problem right there….I want a governor who will represent all the people through common sense leadership…not someone who represents a party line.
Ricardo
May 20th, 2010
4:52 pm
The clock is ticking and the time will come to throw all the bums out!
Mike
May 20th, 2010
4:59 pm
After 8 years of Purdue, she should not be so confident, bnut we know whe has to talk the party line. The groups that Barnes mad made (including myself), who cost him the election, may be ready to try him again after the last eight years proved to be no better.
pcBobby
May 20th, 2010
5:11 pm
Everhart and the rest of the GA GOP continue to operate in a delusional groupthink state. That thinking has been the pinnacle of the failed Perdue administration and obviously continues to affect most of these 2010 GOP candidates, especially in the gubernatorial and congressional races. Even if no independents succeed this year, they will definitely be paving the way for their return in 2012.
TW
May 20th, 2010
5:12 pm
The oath? What are they, cub scouts?
Oh, that’s right – sign the oath, burn the Cross, etc. etc.
Garry
May 20th, 2010
5:14 pm
I’m hope the Democrats nominate somebody who can win – like David Poythress! That way we can actually WIN in November!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USJ4UF9npqY
downtowner
May 20th, 2010
5:23 pm
Boyd has to get 51,000 signatures on his petition by mid-July to get his name on the primary ballot in November. Any news on how many signatures he has so far? His web site complains that at first he couldn’t figure out the state’s directions for downloading petition forms…, now he wants everyone to download a form and mail it to him.
DJ
May 20th, 2010
6:00 pm
downtowner, you can request petitions from Ray Boyd’s website and he will mail them to you…
pcbobby…well stated!
Rural Education
May 20th, 2010
6:11 pm
I read to day where Arizona approved a 3 year hike in their sales tax to avoid cutting education any further. It went from 5.5 to 6.5. Why are our politicians so afraid to even propose an increase in ours. Arizona is a very conservative state, but the people support education.
downtowner
May 20th, 2010
6:19 pm
Democrats– request the Boyd petitions to sign so that this spoiler for the Republicans can raise the chances of your candidate getting elected!
DJ
May 20th, 2010
6:31 pm
downtowner, thanks!!!
The General
May 20th, 2010
6:50 pm
Georgia’s in trouble.
Tiger Woods + Jesse James = SuperBAD meets SuperEVIL in "SuperUGLY"
May 20th, 2010
9:05 pm
Rural Education
May 20th, 2010
6:11 pm
“I read to day where Arizona approved a 3 year hike in their sales tax to avoid cutting education any further. It went from 5.5 to 6.5. Why are our politicians so afraid to even propose an increase in ours. Arizona is a very conservative state, but the people support education.”
Our politicians are afraid to propose an increase in our sales tax to support education because they don’t support or place a high value, or any value on education. Keeping their credentials as taxcutters and staying in bed and curled up with big business is much more important in Georgia than it is in Arizona. You can tell that the “leadership” we have now places very little value on education when horse barns and fishing take presidence over books in classrooms and schools.
Mike
May 20th, 2010
4:59 pm
“After 8 years of Purdue, she should not be so confident, bnut we know whe has to talk the party line.”
pcBobby
May 20th, 2010
5:11 pm
“Everhart and the rest of the GA GOP continue to operate in a delusional groupthink state.”
Of course Sue Everhart has to toe the party line because she’s the party chairman. Even if she believed that the GOP gubernatorial field was total crap, which if there were any year to believe it, this would be it, she couldn’t just come out and say “Deal and Oxendine are two of the biggest crooks anywhere in politics who should be on their way to a jail cell instead of running for governor and Handel is an idiot who is a handpicked successor to the moron Perdue, who is quite possibly one of Georgia’s worst governors ever, if not arguably the worst!”
While the best the Democrats could do was an old one-term retread in Roy Barnes who managed to anger every significant voting constituency and powerful interest group from teachers to cops to wealthy Golden Crescent/Northern Arc landowners to those lovable flaggers, after eight years of a nearly mindless Sonny and with the threat of even worse from the GOP (Heartless hardened criminals like Deal and Oxendine who could take the state down in disgrace, as if things aren’t bad enough and a favorite of the current nearly do-nothing idiot Sonny in Handel, who doesn’t even have a college degree? Really?) Barnes looks like a knight in shining armour when compared to what the GOP has up on deck this year. That’s saying something that a one-term Democrat has a chance at winning the governor’s race in a decidedly right-leaning state where anger at national Democrats is palpable.
Kenneth
May 20th, 2010
10:08 pm
Does anyone have a copy of what the GOP oath says?
The Snark
May 21st, 2010
8:52 am
Why do you guys report on what party chairmen say? Do you really think they will say anything other than “oh yeah, the people are behind us and we’re gonna win”?
Disavantaged Insider
May 21st, 2010
9:40 am
General, you just realized that? We’ve been in trouble ever since the Maddox administration.
????
May 21st, 2010
4:54 pm
The GOP oath can’t be much if Saxby signed it. It surely doesn’t cover taking money & golf trips from LOBBYIST.
Paddy O
May 21st, 2010
4:57 pm
Sue is living in delusion land. Barnes did his job – made tough decisions that ultimately benefited Georgia – no more conflict over the flag. Established GRTA, which Perdue was to much of a moron to understand. What does Georgia have to show for 8 years of Sonny? Mass transit? no. Reservoirs being constructed? No. Educational attainment? No. Low property taxes? No, because all the cuts to state education (austerity cuts) were compensated for by an increase property taxes. The list goes on & on. Georgia can not affort to have republicans in charge of both the executive & legislative. How did taking drivers licensing out of the State Patrol save the state $$$? When Barnes was in, once a month a “mobile” licensing team came around, why did that disappear? Because we had to rent crappy metal buildings with gigantic signs (like the office in Cedartown) to be able to efficiently issue licenses? (Efficient for who – the government or the citizens?)
Billy in Savannah
May 21st, 2010
11:50 pm
I long for the good ole days of Roy Barnes. Georgians, again be the more moderate state in the South and surprise the nation. Vote D!!! (I do not know how all these R’s claim to be such Christians and talk about immigrants and anyone different the way many do. It makes me sick). What would Jesus do?