Rare Winner for Southern Democrats

[ProSense]

Rare Winner for Southern Democrats

By ROBBIE BROWN

ALBANY, Ga. — It is just one blue district in an ocean of red. But the surprising, come-from-behind victory of a Democratic congressman here has pundits wondering why Tuesday’s Republican tidal wave left this small conservative corner of the map dry.

And in an election cycle with few success stories for Democrats, the unlikely re-election of Representative Sanford D. Bishop Jr., 63, in Georgia’s Second District, is lifting the spirits of otherwise-demoralized liberal Southern Democrats.

Conventional wisdom suggested that Mr. Bishop’s district would probably be yet another tally on the Republican chalkboard. He is a longtime incumbent in an anti-Washington year. He is black in a district where whites narrowly outnumber blacks and elections often split along racial lines. He was chairman of President Obama’s state campaign, and voted for the stimulus and the health care overhaul, in a state where national Democrats are so unpopular that the party’s nominee for governor left town during the president’s recent visit.

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Yet there Mr. Bishop was Wednesday morning in the Albany Civic Center — hours after The Associated Press had declared his opponent the winner, based on an incomplete vote count, then retracted its decision — celebrating with supporters and thanking God for another win. Final results showed Mr. Bishop with 51.4 percent of the vote and his Republican challenger, Mike Keown, a state lawmaker, with 48.6 percent.
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[derby378]

1. A bright spot in the gloom

Texas has lost most of its Democratic representatives - nice to see this development out of Georgia.

[sonias]

2. Notice the tone of the losing side on this one

47% of the registered voters in the district are black according to the article.

“It was blacks. That’s how he won,” said W. P. Wilson, 86, a retired economics teacher and a Republican from Albany. “Bishop voted for everything Pelosi wanted, and that didn’t work for most Republicans. But enough Democrats showed up to vote.”

You can almost hear his ugly American bile dripping from his words. :grr:

[KingFlorez]

3. He's one of the few Blue Dogs left

Although, as the article points out, he voted with the administration a lot. I was very shocked when the AP called it for the Republican, since it is very hard for a Republican to win even a plurality black district.