Posted on 07/17/2007 5:59:12 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
With 54% of the precincts in, Paul Broun is at 54.5% and Jim Whitehead is at 45.5%
Broun has really been able to pull in votes in Clarke County and Oconee County.
[UPDATE:] We might just be calling this race for Paul Broun. Athens has stomped Jim Whitehead. Did they not even try there? With 68% in, we’re at 54.9% to 45.1%.
A lot of crow will be eaten if Broun wins.
(Excerpt) Read more at peachpundit.com ...
The special election to succeed the late Charlie Norwood is today. This says that Dr. Paul Broun is leading state Senator Jim Whitehead, the GOP establishment’s choice, in the vote totals.
Can anyone confirm this?
who’s who?
WOW
Very close
Well, that’s quite a surprise!
Both candidates are Republicans in a runoff tonight that’s technically non-partisan. The Republican establishment has rallied around state Senator Jim Whitehead. The political outsider is Dr. Paul Broun, whose father was a state Senator years ago. This is claiming that Broun, who was thought to have no chance, is winning.
I am looking for confirmation of it and have been unable to find any so far.
“Well, that’s quite a surprise!”
Yes, and a GOOD surprise. Broun ran a conservative populist campaign, and took the more forceful stand against amnesty for illegal aliens.
Didn’t Whitehead endorse amnesty? If he did, and he’s losing to the outsider despite party support, this is good news.
Wow, this is a surprise.
I’d assumed that Whitehead would win 60-40%.
I’m not sure the votes are there for Whitehead to come from behind.
U.S. Representative, District 10 95% of precincts reporting PR=Precincts Reporting TP=Total Precincts Broun (R) 23,084 50.3% Whitehead (R) 22,813 49.7%
Whitehead didn’t endorse amnesty, but Broun was much more outspoken in his opposition to it.
So where do Whitehead and Broun stand on illegal immigration?
For the unitiated outsiders, what’s the significance of Broun’s lead? Beyond the fact that the other candidate was the establishment choice I mean.
This’ll be a nice, pleasant surprise. Sen. Whitehead isn’t a bad man, but it’s always refreshing to send anti-establishment Republicans to office... as long as they’re not too nutty (i.e. Dr. Demento).
It also demonstrates that placing first before a runoff isn’t always a guarantee of a victory.
Broun really emphasized his social conservative roots at the end of the runoff campaign.
thanks
As I recall, Clarke County is where one of the major Georgia cities is located, and I seem to remember it being a county with a strong Democratic presence, so, Broun might be benefitting from Democratic crossover voters.
I think it’s interesting because this election feels alot like the old primaries used to be. I personally think that the primary as nominating election system honestly clouds the way elections would progress if normally carried out. For example, I pretty much don’t get a vote in who represents me on the school board, or state house because both are black districts, and as such, are decided in the Democratic primary. Only way I’d concievably get a vote is if a special election was held, such as this. So what you might be seeing, at least in Clarke, is a desire among Democrats to basically, actually have a real vote for once.
Then again, this also the product of the fact that Georgia actually has a law that says that there are runoffs in partisan general/special elections, and most states don’t have that. The fact that this race is even happening is because of that quirk in GA law. I think that was the same thing that got Coverdell elected, could be wrong on that though.
96% reporting
Votes Pct.
Paul Broun 23,143 50.3%
Jim Whitehead 22,866 49.7%
For one thing, Broun was a virtual unknown who was massively outspent. Also, he was the more outspoken opponent of amnesty.
This is a loud voice of protest against the whole political establishment by Republican voters. Hopefully, Bush will listen to them.
If the Dems are voting in any sizeable numbers, then it would make little sense for them to be voting for the more Conservative candidate, as Dr. Broun is.
You are so right, especially about sending a message to the establishment. I was rooting for Broun (read my previous postings on this race), but I never imagined that he could win.
Here’s hoping Broun wins. Thanks for the background.
Broun is indeed more conservative than the late Charlie Norwood.
You could register as a Democrat so you have a say in the local results, and still vote R whenever you like in the General.
You’re very welcome.
The conservative grass roots has spoken, and they just said, “NO MORE POLITICS AS USUAL!!!!”
“Broun is indeed more conservative than the late Charlie Norwood.”
The only reason the liberal Athenians might have for doing so is perhaps hoping Broun ends up so right-wing in Congress that it gives a more moderate-sounding Dem a chance at the next election. But this district is highly unlikely to toss Dr. Broun for any reason other than personal impropriety.
He accused Whitehead of not being "Christian enough" because Whitehead refused to talk about his campaign in church due to "seperation of church and state."
Broun up by 277 votes with 11 precincts left. Most of the precincts still out are in counties that went for Broun, so unless the one remaining Columbia County precinct is *huge*, Broun will almost certainly win. (Unless the recount shows a mistake, of course.)
We don’t register by party, you declare it at election. And the problem is, school board elections run in even years with some sort of important primary, our county commissioners are elected in presidential years, and sheriff goes in the gubernatorial years, and both of those offices, sheriff and my particular commission district, go in even years, so actually, no, that wouldn’t work.
Then again, municipal elections are non-partisan, and so that has allowed some wierd coalitions to form in city politics that couldn’t exist under a partisan system. We actually have a special election in the majority black county commission district, that happens to be 35% white, and because it is the only thing that will be on the ballot, all the people who are normally disenfranchised because they vote in the GOP primary will be able to declare as Democratic if they want to, and they’ll be able to vote in that primary, which means the white vote will actually be important, which seems to suggest that they’ll get someone like the person who preceded the previous commissioner.
This is after the Oconee Republican establishment endorsed Whitehead and then withrdew their support.
Not a system I am familiar with......
Is ‘guge’ a synonym for ‘hugh’?
And serious.
I assume you mean “series.”
Did he say it in those words, or did he only imply it?
Series ? Oh the guge manitee.
And Whitehead is getting his beeber stuned something fierce.
I think this image should give one pause. Although Dr. Broun is only, IIRC, about a year or so younger than Sen. Whitehead, you'll note the age difference looks far more stark, by at least 10-15 years. I wouldn't want someone like Whitehead beginning his career in Congress based on that photo.
It’s no way to campaign, but to his credit, Broun did apologize and retract the offending statement.
I hope he wins this thing. We need more populist outsiders.
And the head of Charlie Norwood's poltical machine was in . . . Nashville with the Fred Thompson campaign for the past 3 weeks
You might wanna try that again. Long day ? ;-D
Wasn’t it Whitehead who declare his candidacy before Norwood was even buried? I seem to recall DJ pointing out that it was in bad form, and could rub potential voters the wrong way. I wonder, had Whitehead had waited another week before announcing his intention to run, could it have made the difference today? We’ll never know.
Whitehead not conceding. According to him there are 1700 absentees in Columbia county and 900 out in Athens (Clarke County).
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