July 19, 2006
Reed's Rise And Fall Writ Small
As state party chair, Ralph Reed led GA Republicans to historic victories in '02. They elected a governor for the first time since Reconstruction, knocked off an incumbent U.S. Senator, gained a majority in the state Senate and made gains in the state House. Two years later, with Reed running the southeast part of the country for Pres Bush's re-elect, Republicans took over the House and the president gained an additional 500K votes in GA over what he received there in '00. Much of this success came as a result of Reed's effort to register and turn out conservative-leaning voters in the burgeoning suburbs and exurbs around Atlanta, his own home base. It is in those very places where he saw his political career sidetracked last night.
Thanks to an aggressive advertising effort by state Sen. Casey Cagle (R) in the last few weeks of the campaign and similarly aggressive coverage of Reed's candidacy by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Metro Atlanta Republicans decided they could not take the risk of supporting a tarnished candidate. Cagle won the four big counties (Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett and DeKalb) in and around Atlanta by a combined 19K votes. Add in the further afield exurbs (including Cagle's native Hall Co) and over half of Cagle's margin came from just the Metro area.
The further away from Atlanta, the better Reed seemed to do. He won or broke even in the three most sizable GA locales outside of Atlanta, Savannah (Chatham Co), Augusta (Richmond Co.) and Macon/Warner-Robins (Bibb and Houston Co's), and won a number of scattered rural counties. As Reed well knows, however, GA elections are won and lost around the capital city.
[JONATHAN MARTIN]
Posted at 08:41 AM
Comments
The lying, evil, immoral hypocrite couldn't fool even his pathethic right-wing, mindless religious base when he was caught with his pants down in the Abramoff scandal. Amen.
Ken | 07.19.06 09:04 AM
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I have a hard time believing that anyone would still vote for Reed.
The Southern Dem | 07.19.06 11:04 AM
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That serves Reed right. I hope he learns a lesson from that.
Toby | 07.19.06 10:10 PM
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Maybe he could get a room at the Roach Motel with Tom Delay?
go west young man | 07.20.06 09:32 AM
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