That RAT-friendly moniker you give us is because Georgia has a large metropolitan black population that pretty much controls all the large urban areas. Transplants from all over the south and a lot from up north.
On a State level, statewide elected officials are all Republican now IIRC. Sure, we suffered under Democrat Governors for over 100 years straight, right up until 2000 when we broke those chains.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Governors_of_Georgia
We finally realized that the old line Democrats who could still manage a state transitioned into the likes of Jimmy Carter and Roy Barnes (a slimy effing weasel if there ever was one).
Even looking back on Zell Miller and while I disliked him immensely at the time, he ran the state well and he wasn't an ideologue out to fulfill the national DNC mantra like so many other governors are now. He may be an old style Democrat, but he is an honorable and honest man.
In retrospect though, yep, Georgia may have been RAT-friendly, but we came to our senses. Large majority R representation in the HOUSE and both SENATORS are R (even if they are backstabbing RINOS which we are going to fix 2016 with Isakson and in 2014 with Chambliss' replacementsd). At least it's more than you can say for some of our other states to the north.
Also the immigration issue will be a big deal. The statehouse has passed good immigration measures.
John Barrow (D) is the right of most Senate Republicans on the issue. He even tweeted support of Jeff Sessions.
Broun connects it instantly to creating millions of democrats who dont care about the constitution.