Marlow makes waves in the 10th District Special Election
Very quietly Lincoln County resident James Marlow has worked his way into the favorite status for the Democratic party in the supposedly non-partisan (not so) free-for-all10th Congressional District race for the June 19th special election to replace the late Dr. Charlie Norwood.
Marlow was endorsed by most members at a meeting of the Democratic County Chairs (Oconee chair Becky Vaughn was not there, nor at the last meeting of the local committee) in Habersham County a few weeks ago. Laura Floyd of Oglethorpe County did make the meeting and ultimately supported the decision to back Marlow.
"I thought the meeting was conducted in a serious and
professional manner," said Floyd, chair of the Oglethorpe Democrats. "Six candidates made presentations and answered questions from the
assembled county chairs."
(13 of 21 counties were represented, with some guests in the room including former Secretary of State candidate Carol Jackson and Ag Commissioner Tommy Irvin). While each candidate spoke, the others waited outside closed doors.
"One question that was posed to every candidate was, 'if
this committee were to vote in favor of someone other
than yourself as the most-electable candidate, would
you willingly drop out and put your support behind
that person?'," queried Floyd.
"It became evident that only a couple of
the candidates would go for that. At the end, as we
deliberated, we questioned whether we should even take
a vote since we obviously weren't going to accomplish
our goal of narrowing the field to one candidate. But
it was decided we should come up with some kind of a
recommendation, so we took a straw poll (with two
counties abstaining) of who we thought the
most-electable candidate was," wrote Floyd in a recent email exchange.
Marlow has a headquarters on Milledge Avenue in Athens across the street from Clarke Central High School. This former Yahoo marketing executive has the deep pockets necessary to defeat Jim Whitehead in a very probable run-off in July. He has employed various professional politicos in his race ranging from Georgia Democratic party executive Jeff DiSantis in the consulting area to local wiz kid Charlie Bailey to help run this race. Marlow also has a strong web presence with videos on You Tube, a group supporting him on Facebook and a passable website.
Secretary of State Karen Handel announced the qualifying dates for this election is April 24-26. It will be interesting to see if any of the dozen or so announced candidates do not following through with the filing of the nearly $5,000.00 fee to enter the race.
My brief encounters with the candidates so far have been restricted to several county meetings of the preaching-to-the-converted party committees, an Easter egg hunt at Heritage Park (Whitehead and militia man wanna-be Bill Greene) and an evidently no-show by local son Dr. Paul Broun at a Oconee River Coldwater Trout Unlimited banquet at Flinchum's Phoenix at Whitehall Forest last weekend.
Broun has the multiple yard signs up around his Athens Academy neighbors and Five Points area with a few more attached to the sides of G.O.P. friendly businesses.
For political junkies such as myself, some of the best gossip in this race have been in the comments sections of the Athens,Augusta and Atlanta daily newspapers' political writers' blogs. Former 10th district chair Terry Holley has been skewered almost every way imaginable in this rather narrow arena, which is admittedly a very small slice of punditry and political "Inside Baseball" if you will.
But this ill will toward Holley stems from repeated blunders echoing from the 2006 race, where Holley had a professional campaign chair from Delaware implode on him late in the race. Sure, Holley had 56,000 votes, but Norwood more than doubled that total. The calculus of the race is that a Democratic candidate is going to need at least 60,000 votes in the special election in order to make a run-off
Norwood made insensitive comments about "deserving" to shoot members of the U.S. Senate and House who did not agree with his xenophobic immigration stance, just as Jim Whitehead has said he wants to blow up the University of Georgia (except for football) because of bunch of dreaded liberals.
Whitehead also got to vote recently without being on the record to cover both ends of the UGA Medical School debate, which is one issue resonating far and wide in the 10th District. Generally speaking, folks in Augusta feel threatened by the thought of an Athens based medical school on the Navy School site in Normaltown. Whitehead could well lose his front runner status with a few more blasts from his loose cannon. After all, Ralph Hudgens pulled out already and evidently garnered a primary battle with Brian Kemp in 2008 for all his mistakes and misstatements.
U.S. Representative, District 10
100% of precincts reporting Votes Percentage
Charlie Norwood (R) 117,721 67.4%
Terry Holley (D) 57,032 32.6%
The following is from a press release from the Secretary of State office:
Voters have until May 21 to register
Secretary of State Karen Handel today set the dates for qualifying for the Special Election for the Tenth Congressional district for Tuesday, April 24 through Thursday, April 26. Qualifying on Tuesday and Wednesday will run from 9 am until 5 pm. On Thursday, qualifying will run from 9 am until 12 noon. Qualifying will be held in the Elections Division of the Office of Secretary of State, 1104 West Tower, 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE, Atlanta, Georgia 30334-1505.
The election, which will fill the unexpired term of the late Congressman Charlie Norwood, will be held June 19. A run-off election, if necessary, will be held July 17. The qualifying fee is $4,950. The election will be held in the following counties: Banks, Clarke, Columbia, Elbert, Franklin, Greene, Habersham, Hart, Jackson, Lincoln, Madison, McDuffie, Morgan, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Putnam, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Wilkes, and part of Richmond.
All citizens residing in the Congressional district who wish to vote in the special election can register to vote through May 21. Voter registration forms can be obtained at http://www.sos.state.ga.us/elections/voter_registration/voter_reg_app.htm. Polls will be open from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm on Tuesday, June 19, 2007.
Marlow was endorsed by most members at a meeting of the Democratic County Chairs (Oconee chair Becky Vaughn was not there, nor at the last meeting of the local committee) in Habersham County a few weeks ago. Laura Floyd of Oglethorpe County did make the meeting and ultimately supported the decision to back Marlow.
"I thought the meeting was conducted in a serious and
professional manner," said Floyd, chair of the Oglethorpe Democrats. "Six candidates made presentations and answered questions from the
assembled county chairs."
(13 of 21 counties were represented, with some guests in the room including former Secretary of State candidate Carol Jackson and Ag Commissioner Tommy Irvin). While each candidate spoke, the others waited outside closed doors.
"One question that was posed to every candidate was, 'if
this committee were to vote in favor of someone other
than yourself as the most-electable candidate, would
you willingly drop out and put your support behind
that person?'," queried Floyd.
"It became evident that only a couple of
the candidates would go for that. At the end, as we
deliberated, we questioned whether we should even take
a vote since we obviously weren't going to accomplish
our goal of narrowing the field to one candidate. But
it was decided we should come up with some kind of a
recommendation, so we took a straw poll (with two
counties abstaining) of who we thought the
most-electable candidate was," wrote Floyd in a recent email exchange.
Marlow has a headquarters on Milledge Avenue in Athens across the street from Clarke Central High School. This former Yahoo marketing executive has the deep pockets necessary to defeat Jim Whitehead in a very probable run-off in July. He has employed various professional politicos in his race ranging from Georgia Democratic party executive Jeff DiSantis in the consulting area to local wiz kid Charlie Bailey to help run this race. Marlow also has a strong web presence with videos on You Tube, a group supporting him on Facebook and a passable website.
Secretary of State Karen Handel announced the qualifying dates for this election is April 24-26. It will be interesting to see if any of the dozen or so announced candidates do not following through with the filing of the nearly $5,000.00 fee to enter the race.
My brief encounters with the candidates so far have been restricted to several county meetings of the preaching-to-the-converted party committees, an Easter egg hunt at Heritage Park (Whitehead and militia man wanna-be Bill Greene) and an evidently no-show by local son Dr. Paul Broun at a Oconee River Coldwater Trout Unlimited banquet at Flinchum's Phoenix at Whitehall Forest last weekend.
Broun has the multiple yard signs up around his Athens Academy neighbors and Five Points area with a few more attached to the sides of G.O.P. friendly businesses.
For political junkies such as myself, some of the best gossip in this race have been in the comments sections of the Athens,Augusta and Atlanta daily newspapers' political writers' blogs. Former 10th district chair Terry Holley has been skewered almost every way imaginable in this rather narrow arena, which is admittedly a very small slice of punditry and political "Inside Baseball" if you will.
But this ill will toward Holley stems from repeated blunders echoing from the 2006 race, where Holley had a professional campaign chair from Delaware implode on him late in the race. Sure, Holley had 56,000 votes, but Norwood more than doubled that total. The calculus of the race is that a Democratic candidate is going to need at least 60,000 votes in the special election in order to make a run-off
Norwood made insensitive comments about "deserving" to shoot members of the U.S. Senate and House who did not agree with his xenophobic immigration stance, just as Jim Whitehead has said he wants to blow up the University of Georgia (except for football) because of bunch of dreaded liberals.
Whitehead also got to vote recently without being on the record to cover both ends of the UGA Medical School debate, which is one issue resonating far and wide in the 10th District. Generally speaking, folks in Augusta feel threatened by the thought of an Athens based medical school on the Navy School site in Normaltown. Whitehead could well lose his front runner status with a few more blasts from his loose cannon. After all, Ralph Hudgens pulled out already and evidently garnered a primary battle with Brian Kemp in 2008 for all his mistakes and misstatements.
U.S. Representative, District 10
100% of precincts reporting Votes Percentage
Charlie Norwood (R) 117,721 67.4%
Terry Holley (D) 57,032 32.6%
The following is from a press release from the Secretary of State office:
Voters have until May 21 to register
Secretary of State Karen Handel today set the dates for qualifying for the Special Election for the Tenth Congressional district for Tuesday, April 24 through Thursday, April 26. Qualifying on Tuesday and Wednesday will run from 9 am until 5 pm. On Thursday, qualifying will run from 9 am until 12 noon. Qualifying will be held in the Elections Division of the Office of Secretary of State, 1104 West Tower, 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE, Atlanta, Georgia 30334-1505.
The election, which will fill the unexpired term of the late Congressman Charlie Norwood, will be held June 19. A run-off election, if necessary, will be held July 17. The qualifying fee is $4,950. The election will be held in the following counties: Banks, Clarke, Columbia, Elbert, Franklin, Greene, Habersham, Hart, Jackson, Lincoln, Madison, McDuffie, Morgan, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Putnam, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Wilkes, and part of Richmond.
All citizens residing in the Congressional district who wish to vote in the special election can register to vote through May 21. Voter registration forms can be obtained at http://www.sos.state.ga.us/elections/voter_registration/voter_reg_app.htm. Polls will be open from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm on Tuesday, June 19, 2007.
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