Clean Republican sweep leaves Georgia Democratic Party in shambles

There hasn't been much doubt for eight years that Georgia was a solid Republican state. When Sonny Perdue upset Roy Barnes eight years ago to capture the Governor's Mansion and Republicans wrestled control of the state House and Senate from the Democrats, it was clear Democrats were on the ropes. While Republicans gained firm control, there were a few Democrats who held on to statewide office -- people like Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor for four years, and Attorney General Thurbert Baker, Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond and Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irwin for eight years. Taylor, Baker and Thurmond sought higher political office. All three were soundly trounced when they made their attempts. Irwin got very old and retired. When Tuesday's General Election results were counted, Republican candidates had swept all of these statewide offices. And the margin of victory was about the same in all of these races. The Republican nominee -- no matter who he was -- got somewhere between 53 and 58 percent of the vote.
It didn't matter if it was a Republican with stronger name recognition like Johnny Isakson, Nathan Deal or Casey Cagle; or if it was a Republican with much less name recognition like John Barge, Gary Black, Ralph Hudgins or Sam Olens --each one got somewhere between 53-58 percent of the statewide vote. We suspect you could put the name John Q. Republican on a Georgia ballot, and he would get just as many votes as long as he didn't have (D) -- for Democrat -- after his name. Tuesday's clean Republican statewide election sweep leaves the Democratic Party in shambles statewide. While Roy Barnes had his political baggage, no Democrat would have had a better chance of beating Nathan Deal. The problem for Democrats is there are no rising stars on the statewide horizon. Baker and Thurmond may get appointive positions, so who might be the top Democratic standard bearers in four years. We're scratching our heads, but no names jump out. Indeed, Georgia is a Republican state. It may stay that way for a long, long time.

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