10th Congressional District of Georgia Run-Off Election Map

[Hosnon]

Republican Jim Whitehead and Republican Paul Broun faced off in a run-off for the 10th Congressional District of Georgia. The district consists of one very liberal town (Athens) and one very conservative town (Augusta, the larger of the two). The Georgia Republican party annointed Jim Whitehead and he was definitely the front-runner (took 44% in the original election). His challenger, Paul Broun is from the more liberal town and was considered the "outsider". Because of these two facts, i.e., Jim Whitehead was chosen by the Republican Party and Paul Broun is from Athens, the liberals and Democrats came out in huge numbers. As a result of this (and poor turnout in Augusta for Whitehead) Broun is ahead by ~300 votes.

Georgia law allows a recount if the difference is less than 1% (which it is) so there are no final results yet.

Anyhow, all of that is background. I really just wanted to show off the map I modified to show the election results. :) How does it look?

Disclaimer: Map created by Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia



Edit: Style and smaller image.

[CottonBear]

1. Thanks for the map. I sat out this election runoff vote (first time I've ever not voted.)

I simply couldn't vote for Broun and definitely I could never have voted for Whitehead.

Broun's dad (Paul Broun, was our state senator for about 30 years. He was a conservative Democrat.

The younger Broun is an anti-choice Republic physician. He lives in the county where I work.

Still, Broun is better than that crazy Whitehead dude. He wouldn't even debate in the primary election campaign. He said that Athens should be bombed leaving only Sanford stadium because we're too liberal.
:grr:

[Hosnon]

2. I couldn't vote for Whitehead either. I voted for Marlow (D) in the election

but even that vote was strategic. I thought that Whitehead would probably win so I wanted to vote for #2 to force a run-off. I thought that was Marlow (if there had been accurate polling showing Broun in second, I probably would have voted for him).

It was between a good ole boy Republican (Whitehead) and simply a Republican (Broun) - Broun it was!

[CottonBear]

3. Marlowe only lost getting in the runoff by 200 votes.

It's pretty sad when there are not enough Democrats who'll get off their asses and vote in a specail election. Maybe, though, Democrats thought that they'd rather have Broun than Whitehead. A Republic was bound to win over Marlowe so maybe there was some strategy in getting Broun into the runoff.

Oh well, hopefully, we can vote Broun out of office in two years.

:hi:

[Hosnon]

4. It turned out to be a wonderful setup for Broun.

There was not a Democrat in the run-off but he was from Athens-Clarke County. In that situation, it is reasonable to vote based on a different, but still significant, priority, i.e., the local candidate. As a result, Broun got a large portion of the Democratic and Republican vote in the Athens area. Many Augusta area Republicans, on the other hand, were lulled into complacency because the race was between two Republicans. Therefore, Whitehead received no more votes than he did in the election (and, most likely, less).

This combination swept Broun to victory. Had the run-off been between a Democrat and a Republican, Whitehead would have most likely won.

[CottonBear]

5. Phil McCommons (Flagpole editor) wrote that Whitehead is so incompetent

that he would probably show up for work in Washington, GA if elected. :rofl:

I don't agree with Broun's politics but at least he's educated and not a complete idiot like former tire salesman and all around good old boy Whitehead.

[Hosnon]

6. I agree. I voted for Marlow and then Broun. Whitehead did not seem to have

the necessary intelligence requirements for me to vote for him. Plus, he very rarely said anything of substance that I saw.

Given our two choices in the run-off, I am comfortable with the outcome.