The Run-Off Election

It may be that you were as happy to see the runoff election day finally arrive as I was. I voted for Hunter Hill in the primary for governor and supported Brian Kemp in the runoff. Casey Cagle raised more than $6 million dollars for his campaign fund and used it to run smear advertising against Brian Kemp. The positive advertising that he ran claimed credit for Cagle that was actually achievements for Governor Nathan Deal.

I had an opportunity to meet and have a conversation several years ago when Cagle was running for re- election as Lt. Governor. He came to a Gordon County Republican Party meeting and I sat at the table with him. I did not get a favorable impression of him even though he did not say anything that offended me. During this runoff period, Cagle came to Calhoun and it seemed to me like the whole town came out to support him. I was there and the enthusiasm was very high in his favor. He talked to all of us and was very friendly but he seemed to recognize his own importance. I got the impression that Gordon County would vote heavily for Cagle.

Recently, Brian Kemp came to town to see a much smaller crowd. As far as a speech goes, he did not say a lot. The big difference was that he seemed to be one of us. He spoke sincerely to the people that were present and asked them for their vote. He had the same warm smile that he had on his TV ads. His family was with him and his beautiful daughters mingled with the crowd with a lot of smiles. He had a staff of young men that were in the crowd answering questions and trying to anticipate anything that Kemp might need. I had my picture made with Kemp and was at the much larger affair in Dalton later in the evening. I talked again with him in Dalton and had no doubt that I would prefer to have him as governor of Georgia.

In Gordon County, we have 28,664 registered voters. The voter turnout for the runoff election was very weak. We only had 3553 voters to cast a ballot in this important race. That is only 12.4 percent of the registered voters. If there was one thing that I believe influenced the vote in this election, it was over the top negative ads against Brian Kemp. The State of Georgia voted for Brian Kemp and gave him a 69 percent vote. Gordon County gave Brian Kemp a 71.6 percent vote. Cagle carried only two counties in the entire state. Hall County is the home for both Cagle and Governor Deal. Hall County voted for Brian Kemp. In his concession speech, Cagle did not take credit for causing the loss. He blames his loss on the endorsement of President Trump for Brian Kemp. Polls were already saying that Cagle was going to lose the election, but I am sure that the President’s endorsement helped to decide the margin of the election.

The race for the Lt. Governor position was so close that it qualifies for a recount. Geoff Duncan had the lead with 50.16 percent of the vote. That is 1730 votes of a 556,722 vote in the state. Gordon County voters gave Duncan a 234 vote margin over David Shafer. Geoff Duncan gave up his seat in the Georgia House of Representatives to run for Lt. Governor. His opponent was Senator David Shafer, who was serving in the Georgia Senate. Senator Shafer had a number of legitimate negative points that were used by Duncan to attack him. On the other hand, Duncan had very few points that could be used as negatives by Senator Shafer. To use an old term, Geoff Duncan was squeaky clean. Duncan is a graduate of my alma mater, the Georgia Institute of Technology. He had a long career as a professional baseball pitcher even though he never reached the major league status. He came to one of our Gordon County Republican Party meetings where I met him and talked with him for an extended period of time. I supported him and voted for him in the primary elections. The recount law in Georgia gives the loser in an election race with less than one percent of the total vote the right to ask for a recount within two days of the certification of the election by the Secretary of State. The recount might be statewide and it might be for specific precincts if errors are suspected. There are 2,634 precincts in the state of Georgia. It might take several days if each one of them had to be reviewed. I expect that Senator Shafer will not ask for a recount and that the election will be certified as voted.

The third Republican runoff vote in this election was the race for Secretary of State. This was a race between Brad Raffensperger and David Belle Isle. Raffensperger won the runoff with 62 percent of the vote. I was supporting David Belle Isle. I met him on two occasions and was very favorably impressed with him as a person and a businessman. The difference in the race was in the funds that were available to each of them. David Belle Isle never had the money to run the TV advertising that was available to Brad Raffensperger and could not compete in this campaign. I am sure that Raffensperger is also a good honest man and will do a good job in this position.

My opinions are just my opinions. I express them freely in this column each week. Elections are an exception. I do not feel comfortable endorsing candidates in my column because this might be interpreted as an endorsement by the Calhoun Times. I support candidates by emails and social media under my own name, which does not reflect on the newspaper. I have resigned my position in the 14th District Republican Party because of personal considerations, but I am still an active member and help them in every way that I can.