Georgia state elections, 2008 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

's state elections will be held on November 4, 2008. The primary election

Primary election

A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....

s were held on February 5, also known as Super Tuesday

Super Tuesday

In the United States, Super Tuesday, in general, refers to the Tuesday in February or March of a presidential election year when the greatest number of states hold primary elections to select delegates to national conventions at which each party's presidential candidates are officially nominated...

United States Presidential election

Presidential Primaries

Democratic Primary

Georgia Democratic presidential primary, 2008
Candidate	Votes	Percentage	National delegates
Barack Obama Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...	704,247	66.39%	60
Hillary Clinton	330,026	31.11%	27
John Edwards John Edwards Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...	18,209	1.72%	0
Joe Biden Joe Biden Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...	2,538	0.24%	0
Dennis Kucinich Dennis Kucinich Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....	2,096	0.20%	0
Bill Richardson	1,879	0.18%	0
Mike Gravel Mike Gravel Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel is a former Democratic United States Senator from Alaska, who served two terms from 1969 to 1981, and a former candidate in the 2008 presidential election....	952	0.09%	0
Christopher Dodd Christopher Dodd Christopher John "Chris" Dodd is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States Senator from Connecticut for a thirty-year period ending with the 111th United States Congress....	904	0.09%	0
Totals	1,060,851	100.00%	87

Key:

Withdrew
prior to contest

Republican Primary

Georgia Republican presidential primary, 2008
Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Delegates
Mike Huckabee Mike Huckabee Michael "Mike" Dale Huckabee is an American politician who served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate in the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries, finishing second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won . He won...	326,874	33.9%	45
John McCain John McCain John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....	304,751	31.6%	3
Mitt Romney Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.The son of George W...	290,707	30.2%	0
Ron Paul Ron Paul Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...	28,096	2.9%	0
Rudy Giuliani Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....	7,162	0.7%	0
Fred Thompson	3,414	0.4%	0
Alan Keyes Alan Keyes Alan Lee Keyes is an American conservative political activist, author, former diplomat, and perennial candidate for public office. A doctoral graduate of Harvard University, Keyes began his diplomatic career in the U.S...	1,458	0.2%	0
Duncan Hunter Duncan Hunter Duncan Lee Hunter is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the House of Representatives from California's 52nd, 45th and 42nd districts from 1981 to 2009....	755	0.1%	0
Tom Tancredo Tom Tancredo Thomas Gerard "Tom" Tancredo is an American politician from Colorado, who represented the state's sixth congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009, as a Republican...	324	0.0%	0
Totals	963,541	100.00%	48

Key:

Withdrew
prior to contest

Presidential General election

In the General election, Republican nominee John McCain

John McCain

John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....

prevailed over Democratic nominee Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

in Georgia by 52.23% to 47.02%. McCain's five point margin of victory was significantly down from George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

's seventeen point margin of victory over John Kerry

John Kerry

John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...

in 2004. Though Obama benefited from high turnout by black and young voters as well as strong performance in Georgia's Urban areas, McCain's comparatively stronger performance in the rural northern and southeastern parts of the state as well as winning seventy-seven percent of white voters. gave him the overall victory.

The 2008 Presidential election was particularly interesting in the state of Georgia considering that of the several independent and third party candidates who ran for president that year, two of them were from Georgia (those being former Republican Representative

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

Bob Barr

Robert Laurence "Bob" Barr, Jr. is a former federal prosecutorand a former member of the United States House of Representatives. He represented Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2003. Barr attained national prominence as one of the leaders of the impeachment of...

Libertarian Party (United States)

The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...

) (who placed third overall in the popular vote in Georgia) and former Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney

Cynthia McKinney

Cynthia Ann McKinney is a former US Congresswoman and a member of the Green Party since 2007. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. In 2008, the Green Party nominated McKinney for President of the United States...

Green Party (United States)

The Green Party of the United States is a nationally recognized political party which officially formed in 1991. It is a voluntary association of state green parties. Prior to national formation, many state affiliates had already formed and were recognized by other state parties...

)).

United States Congressional elections

During the 2008 Congressional elections, Georgia's Class II

Classes of United States Senators

The three classes of United States Senators are currently made up of 33 or 34 Senate seats. The purpose of the classes is to determine which Senate seats will be up for election in a given year. The three groups are staggered so that one of them is up for election every two years.A senator's...

Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

seat and all thirteen House

United States House of Representatives

seats were up for election.

United States Senate election

In 2008, incumbent Senator Saxby Chambliss

Saxby Chambliss

Clarence Saxby Chambliss, Jr. is the senior United States Senator from Georgia. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a U.S. Representative ....

(R) ran for re-election for a second term. His opponents were former Commissioner of Human Resources Jim Martin

Jim Martin (Georgia politician)

James Francis "Jim" Martin is an American politician and former member of the Georgia General Assembly. He is a Democrat. Martin opposed incumbent U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss in the 2008 election...

(D) and Attorney and CPA

Certified Public Accountant

Certified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...

Allen Buckley

Allen Buckley is an attorney and CPA, who in 2008 ran for one of Georgia's United States Senate seats as a member of the Libertarian Party. He was the party's candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia in 2006, where he drew 3.6% of the vote, and for Senator in 2004, where he took 2% of the...

Libertarian Party (United States)

).

Despite holding a substantial lead over Martin for most of the year, however, the race tightened following the September 2008 market collapse

Subprime mortgage crisis

The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was one of the first indicators of the late-2000s financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, and the resulting decline of securities backed by said mortgages....

and Chambliss's vote for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Division A of , commonly referred to as a bailout of the U.S. financial system, is a law enacted in response to the subprime mortgage crisis...

, otherwise commonly known as the bailout package. Martin criticized his opponent for voting for the bailout and also, as earlier, repeatedly claimed he supported a supposed twenty-three percent increase in taxes (referring to the FairTax

FairTax

The FairTax is a tax reform proposal for the federal government of the United States that would replace all federal taxes on personal and corporate income with a single broad national consumption tax on retail sales. The Fair Tax Act would apply a tax once at the point of purchase on all new goods...

) during his career in Congress. Chambliss accused his opponent, who cast himself as a fiscal conservative, of acting hypocritically for increasing and padlocking his own salary as Commissioner of Human Resources from 2002–2003 while the state of Georgia was experiencing a budget crisis. Libertarian nominee Allen Buckley, who on occasion joined Martin in his disapproval of Chambliss's vote for the controversial bailout, campaigned positioning himself as an alternative to both of the major party candidates.

On election day, Chambliss was kept below the minimum of fifty percent plus one vote to win outright, winning 49% to Martin's 46%, and was thus forced into a runoff. Both campaigns sought the endorsement of Buckley, but he refused to endorse either candidate. Chambliss ultimately prevailed over Martin in the December runoff winning 57.4% to 42.6%.

United States House of Representatives elections

All thirteen of Georgia's incumbent Representatives sought re-election in 2008. Going into the elections, Republicans held seven of Georgia's U.S. House seats and Democrats held six seats.

Despite significant gains by Republicans in Georgia since 2002, such as consecutive Republican victories since in Presidential elections since 1996

United States presidential election in Georgia, 1996

The 1996 United States presidential election in Georgia took place on November 5, 1996 as part of the 1996 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President....

, gaining both of Georgia's U.S. Senate seats, the election of Sonny Perdue

Sonny Perdue

George Ervin "Sonny" Perdue III, was the 81st Governor of Georgia. Upon his inauguration in January 2003, he became the first Republican governor of Georgia since Benjamin F. Conley served during Reconstruction in the 1870s....

as Georgia's first post-Reconstruction Republican governor in 2002, successful elections of Republicans to other state executive offices, and gaining control of both chambers of the Georgia General Assembly for the first time since Reconstruction, Democrats have succeeded in gaining seats of Georgia's House delegation in recent House elections.

Despite Republican efforts to oust Representatives Jim Marshall (GA-8

Georgia's 8th congressional district

Georgia's 8th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Georgia. Located in central Georgia, the district is based in Macon and also includes Warner Robins, Tifton, and Moultrie...

) and John Barrow (GA-12

Georgia's 12th congressional district

Georgia's 12th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Georgia covering much of the east central parts of the state. From the city of Augusta it runs southeast, along the state's border with South Carolina, to the city of Savannah, taking in such cities as...

), who were each re-elected in 2006 by extremely close margins despite that being a bad year for Republicans, both of them were re-elected by significant margins. None of Georgia's House seats changed hands in this election.

Georgia Public Service Commission elections

In 2008, two seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission

Georgia Public Service Commission

The Georgia Public Service Commission is a public utilities commission, a quasi-judicial tribunal, which regulates telecommunications, transportation, electric and natural gas services in the U.S. state of Georgia....

were up for election. Though candidates must come from the districts that they wish to represent on the commission, however, they are elected statewide.

Georgia Public Service Commission, District 1

Georgia General Assembly elections

Georgia Senate elections

In 2008, there were no particularly competitive General election races for the Georgia State Senate. The closest state Senate election was in the Forty-sixth District in which incumbent State Senator Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) defeated Sherry L. Jackson (D) 57.8% to 42.2%. However, of the incumbents who sought re-election that year, two were defeated in the their respective parties primaries, those being Gail Davenport (D-Dis. 44) and Nancy Schaefer (R-Dis. 50).

Notable Races

District 8
Rep. Charles F. Jenkins

Charles F. Jenkins

Charles F. Jenkins was a Democratic member of the Georgia House of Representatives, representing the 8th district from 2003 to 2008.Charles F. Jenkins seat was won by Stephen Allison on November 5, 2008.-External links:...

(D-Blairsville

Blairsville, Georgia

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 659 people, 226 households, and 101 families residing in the city. The population density was 619.7 people per square mile . There were 261 housing units at an average density of 245.4 per square mile...

) received a strong challenge from Stephen Allison

Stephen Allison

Stephen Allison, born 29 March 1971, is the elected representative serving the 8th District of the Georgia House of Representatives in the United States. He is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and a practicing attorney in Blairsville, Georgia. Stephen Allison was elected in November...

(R) in 2008. Jenkins had survived a close call in the previous state House election and thus was a prime target of Peach state Republicans. Allison ultimately prevailed by a narrow margin.

District 13
Rep. Katie Dempsey (R-Rome) sought re-election in Floyd County, and faced her 2006 challenger Bob Puckett (who lost by just 168 votes) again. Despite Puckett's strong and energetic campaign, Dempsey ultimately prevailed again, this time defeating Puckett by 289 votes.

District 15
Incumbent Rep. Jeff Lewis (R-White

White, Georgia

White is a city in Bartow County, Georgia, United States. The population was 693 at the 2000 census. As of the 2005 census the population was estimated at 716. Although the population of White may look minor, the area just north and just south of White boost White's population to a staggering 4,200...

) was defeated for renomination by Paul R. Battles by a margin of 51.6% to 48.4%. Battles subsequently won the general election without opposition.

District 16
Rep. Rick Crawford (D-Cedartown

Cedartown, Georgia

Cedartown is a city in Polk County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 9,750. The city is the county seat of Polk County...

) faced a challenge from Bob Culver (R). Crawford was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives

Georgia House of Representatives

The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly of the U.S. state of Georgia.-Composition:...

by narrow margin in 2006 and thus Georgian Republicans targeted the freshman Representative for defeat. Despite Republican efforts to oust him, Crawford would win re-election, albeit by another close margin.

District 28

District 38

District 95
Democrat George Wilson of Stone Mountain lost to incumbent Rep. Robert Mumford (R-Conyers) in 2006 by about 500 votes. Wilson is running again, but Mumford is retiring. "Obama at the top would be a plus," Wilson said. "We got so close."

Erick Hunt would win the Republican primary without opposition but Wilson would lose the Democratic nod to Toney L. Collins who would go on to defeat Hunt 61.8% to 38.2%

District 104

District 140

District 153

Judicial elections

In 2008, two seats on the Supreme Court of Georgia and three on the Georgia Court of Appeals

Georgia Court of Appeals

The Georgia Court of Appeals is the intermediate-level appellate court for the U.S. state of Georgia.-Founding of the court:The genesis of the Court of Appeals began with a report by the State Bar of Georgia in 1895, suggesting that the Georgia State Legislature create a new intermediate appellate...

were up for election. All judicial elections in Georgia are officially non-partisan.

Supreme Court of Georgia elections

Incumbent state Supreme Court Associate Justices Robert Benham and Harris Hines were re-elected without opposition.

Georgia Court of Appeals elections

Two judges, those being Gary Andrews and Charles B. Mikell, were re-elected without opposition and one, John H. Ruffin, Jr, retired.

Court of Appeals (Ruffin seat) election

Following Ruffin's retirement announcement, a field of candidates emerged to run for the seat. The seven candidates who would run in the election were Dekalb County

DeKalb County, Georgia

DeKalb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population of the county was 691,893 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is the city of Decatur. It is bordered to the west by Fulton County and contains roughly 10% of the city of Atlanta...

prosecutor Mike Sheffield

Mike Sheffield

Mike Sheffield was an American attorney who served as a prosecutor at the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office for nearly a decade. He ran for a seat on the Georgia Court of Appeals in 2008. He served in numerous leadership positions throughout Georgia...

, state Senators (former and then-current respectively Perry McGuire (R) (the 2006 Republican Attorney General nominee) and Michael Meyer von Bremen

Michael Meyer von Bremen

Michael S. Meyer von Bremen, a Democrat from Albany, was elected to the Georgia State Senate in 1998 to represent the 12th Senatorial District of Georgia. He served until 2009; he did not seek re-election and instead ran for a seat on the Georgia Court of Appeals in 2008. From 2002 until he...

(D) (who at the time was the Chairman of the Senate Special Judiciary committee), and attorneys Sara Doyle, Tamela Adkins, Christopher McFadden, and Bruce Edenfield. No candidate was able to win the race outright and so the top two vote getters, Doyle and Sheffield, would face each other in the run off. Doyle narrowly prevailed in the runoff to win election to the Court of Appeals.

Initiatives and referenda

Three proposed amendments to the Georgia State Constitution were placed on the ballot for Georgian voters to decide. The proposed amendments were:

Conservation Property tax reduction. The purpose of this amendment was to offer a conservation property tax reduction to property owners to encourage conservation of forests.
Allow Local schools districts to use tax dollars for community redevelopment projects.
Creating special infrastructure Development Districts.

The first two proposed amendments were passed while the third was rejected.