Gubernatorial Race 2018 (Atlanta: soccer, social, address)

[BELMO45]

Originally Posted by brown_dog_us

Yep.

The Dems can turn GA purple if they run candidates like Lucy McBath. Let that sink in. An African American Democrat won the 6th district. She ran on issues not race.

The Republicans can answer by running better candidates though, and that's when we all win. Most people in GA prefer a centrist.

Handel was a miserable candidate and barely campaigned. I would expect McBath probably loses in 2 years of a decent Republican candidate contests her

[mco65]

Originally Posted by BELMO45

There’s still tons of votes left in dekalb. It’s very possible

unlikely, MOST of those votes will have to go 3rd party ... that's simply not been the direction this election.

[ronricks]

Originally Posted by BELMO45

There’s still tons of votes left in dekalb. It’s very possible

Which will be offset by the ones in Cobb and Gwinnett. There are also 20,000 left to count in Gwinnett. So between the 77,000 that are in Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Athens-Clarke, Chatham, Douglas and Henry and 20,000 additional absentee ballots in Gwinnett she would need an almost impossible percentage to get the run off.

[-thomass]

Cobb is a solid blue county now. The 2 north Atlanta districts are now swing districts.

Things are definitely changing in Atlanta. Ironically, a lot of this can be credited to Gov Deal for expanding our diverse economy. Man I would love to keep him over kemp.

[BELMO45]

Originally Posted by ronricks

Which will be offset by the ones in Cobb and Gwinnett. There are also 20,000 left to count in Gwinnett. So between the 77,000 that are in Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Athens-Clarke, Chatham, Douglas and Henry and 20,000 additional absentee ballots in Gwinnett she would need an almost impossible percentage to get the run off.

DeKalb is only one left. Cobb completed everything as of 510am and Gwinnett as of 9am. I think those others which are minuscule numbers anyway were also completed sometime before 9am

[Iconographer]

Last night, I heard Deal say (once again) that he believes that Kemp will be a much more moderate governor than most have a right to expect. After all, Deal has a legacy to protect; he has, in short, positioned Georgia as one of the top states in which to do business. He's not about to let Kemp's irresponsible demagoguery and dopey ideas about taking Georgia retrograde blow all that effort into pieces. I'd bet dollars to donuts that Cousin Jethro has already been taken to the woodshed by Deal over this, and that Deal has let him know that he would come out against him publicly if he makes good on his vow to sign the Religious Freedom Bill or anything else that might send the wrong message to the business community.

[-thomass]

Originally Posted by Iconographer

Last night, I heard Deal say (once again) that he believes that Kemp will be a much more moderate governor than most have a right to expect. After all, Deal has a legacy to protect; he has, in short, positioned Georgia as one of the top states in which to do business. He's not about to let Kemp's irresponsible demagoguery and dopey ideas about taking Georgia retrograde blow all that effort into pieces. I'd bet dollars to donuts that Cousin Jethro has already been taken to the woodshed by Deal over this, and that Deal has let him know that he would come out against him publicly if he makes good on his vow to sign the Religious Freedom Bill or anything else that might send the wrong message to the business community.

Good points. Let’s hope so. Deal just seems better at “politicking.” He’s also clearly shown that he will put GA’s interests over ideaology. Let’s hope Kemp is more of the same

[jeoff]

Originally Posted by brown_dog_us

Yep.

The Dems can turn GA purple if they run candidates like Lucy McBath. Let that sink in. An African American Democrat won the 6th district. She ran on issues not race.

The Republicans can answer by running better candidates though, and that's when we all win. Most people in GA prefer a centrist.

McBath won what was essentially a coin-flip race, and Abrams lost what was essentially a coin-flip race.

That said, my gut sort of agrees with you, and really, I don’t think it was as much as what she said —but the high profile black get-out-the-vote folks coming in late that may have hurt her with potential white voters. It may have given the election a bigger push into it being about racial identity, as opposed to being about issues, likability, or trustworthiness—which may have been enough to lose it.

[CaliDreaming01]

I am just amazed at the election results. Mom duties prevented me from following the election returns last night as closely as I would have liked, and I went to bed thinking there was a good chance Kemp was headed for an outright win. Now looking at the news this morning it's looking like a runoff if still a distinct possibility. Every vote certainly has counted and all those provisional votes are looming large right now.

Some other highlights and thoughts I've been dying to post about:

* The last I checked Lucy McBath was in the lead?? I can't get over how close that race is. Behind Abrams, this was the win I most badly wanted. Not just from the D vs. R standpoint but as a mom of a boy.

* The Eagles Landing Cityhood push went down in flames. Usually you expect voters to be the architects of crazy and the courts to be the ones striking it down, but the reverse happened this time.

* I am going to call BS on any person who claims to be a "Libertarian" from now on. These are just Republicans, period. The Libertarian vote completely evaporated and that was one of the main reasons why Kemp is in a position to take a narrow win.

* If it does go to a runoff, I am not quite as pessimistic about the Dems chances. Metz was not a factor, so the state of the race last night would probably be repeated on Election Night. Both sides would have to turn out their base. Abrams would continue to get new voters to the poll. It would be anyone's ball game.

* Imagine what would have happened if voters in Metro Atlanta had had plenty of well functioning voting machines, did not have to wait 3 hours in line to vote, and did not have to contend with "exact-match" and other laws unfairly denying them the right to vote. If the playing field were level, this race would never have been this close.

* Even if Abrams ends up losing, she has really put the Democrats in a much stronger position than they have been after previous losses. Suburban metro Atlanta is now solidly blue, and several state legislators have flipped. Looks like at least one congressional district will have flipped.

* It is hard for me to call this a huge victory for Republicans. They are hanging on to power by their pinky finger at this point. They had to max out white turnout in order to eke out a 50% plus one win. With more and more Democratic voters moving to state and coming of voting age, I don't see how they can pull off another statewide win. It's a given that with Abrams' success Georgia is going to be major battleground state in the same league as Florida and Ohio.

So, I do have to admit I am a little disappointed that Abrams did not make a stronger shower. But after some reflection, I feel really good about the state of the Democratic Party after this election.

[Chevalier de Saint-George]

Originally Posted by Iconographer

Last night, I heard Deal say (once again) that he believes that Kemp will be a much more moderate governor than most have a right to expect. After all, Deal has a legacy to protect; he has, in short, positioned Georgia as one of the top states in which to do business. He's not about to let Kemp's irresponsible demagoguery and dopey ideas about taking Georgia retrograde blow all that effort into pieces. I'd bet dollars to donuts that Cousin Jethro has already been taken to the woodshed by Deal over this, and that Deal has let him know that he would come out against him publicly if he makes good on his vow to sign the Religious Freedom Bill or anything else that might send the wrong message to the business community.

Let's hope.