The Georgia Young Republicans, whose convention was held immediately following the Georgia Republican Party Convention, conducted a straw poll to gage the support the announced candidates have amoung Georgia’s young professionals.
While most of the clubs are in the Atlanta metro area, with two clubs in Fulton along with clubs in DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, Forsyth, and Fayette, the organization reaches almost every part of the state with clubs in Walker County, Hall County, Columbia County, Rome-Floyd County and Columbus-Muscogee County (and of course the Savannah Club which hosted the convention).
The YRs had a chance to hear from most of the candidates running for the various positions before voting.
NOTE: I was trying to write these results quickly so if any are off, please let me know.
The winners are:
Agriculture Commissioner:
Black: 32 votes
Wilkinson: 8 votes
Carter: 2 votes
Insurance Commissioner:
Harp: 15
Hudgens: 11
Purcell: 11
Logsdon: 1
Secretary of State:
MacGinnite: 39
Kemp: 13
Governor:
Oxendine: 17
Handel: 13
Johnson: 7
McBerry: 7
Deal: 5
Scott: 4
{ 32 comments }
I didn’t get the low down on the YR Convention, so we didn’t go. But we had a great time eating lunch and drinking Guinness with Ike Hall and the Campaign for Liberty Peeps.
Ox must be disappointed to have only received 17 votes since he’s been campaigning for over a year.
To be fair to Oxendine, the largest contengent of delegates belonged to the Atlanta YR’s by a large number, so I am sure Oxendine would be pleased with the results based on what the demographics were.
Gary Black lobbies for Monsanto as the President of the Georgia Agribusiness Council. He’ll fit in perfectly with all the other special interest prostitutes in Georgia government. Go Gary!
For Agriculture Commissioner, who is “Carter”?
Tried a Google search for “Carter GA Agriculture 2010″, checked a few other sites covering potential candidates, and checked the SEC, found nothing.
Thanks for the info!
Gary’s an excellent person and will be a fantastic candidate and hopefully the next Ag Commissioner.
I’m particularly thrilled with Doug MacGinnitie in the Secretary of State’s race. Doug is uniquely qualified and, should he win the nomination, bring solid balance to the ticket next fall. I think it’s great to have new blood in the statewide races.
I also think Karen Handel continues to present herself well as a change agent. There are few people that actually accomplish what they set out to achieve. Karen will make an excellent governor.
When will Austin Scott anounce he’s running against Jim Marshall?
I imagine as soon as Jim enters the Governors race…
I spoke to Cameron Fash Saturday evening and he said the the other candidate for Insurance Commissioner, Stephen Northington was accidently left off the ballot. Northington did receive a good number of write ins on the ballot. He’s also the only licensed agent, small business owner in the race. I thought he gave a great speech on Friday.
darwin carter–he had a booth at the convention–apparently was in the ag dept in reagan admin and ran for congress way back in 1980–according to the push card he gave me when i walked by which had an email address but made no mention of a website…
There are a lot of good folks in these races, about time. Senator Harp is a good friend and an excellent legislator. His legal and legislative background presents him very well for this post.
yellowB, I’m afraid you’re mistaken. Muscogee and Savannah had an equal amount of YRs there. It’s really early to take any sort of poll too seriously, but it’s interesting to see who is already establishing themselves with the YRs. That’s a good “demographic” to have in your camp. Congrats to John, Doug, Gary and Sen. Harp.
Macginnite is a 1 year councilman from Sandy Springs, where councilmen are elected in districts not at-large seats– what makes him qualified to be SOS?
His business and legal background are strong a strong pull for me. The odds are certainly against him, however, he is an engaging person. The varioius statewide races are dominated by political insiders. There’s not a thing wrong with that.
My point is that MacGinnitie brings a fresh face with a consistent message. Should he be the nominee, that will certainly provide balance to the ticket.
Think some gal from Wasilla became something from what was supposed to be nothing. And by George, we have a “community organizer” in the Whitehouse. So, why not a City Councilman with executive and legal experience running a department that is involved with nearly every industry in Georgia?
So foray, you have to be deeply entrenched in the political system to be qualified to hold political office. That thinking, along with being a completely asinine catch-22, is exactly why all we get is more of the same out of our state government. MacGinnitie/Kemp aside, that may be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read on this forum.
“…that may be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read on this forum.”
You’re new here, and welcome. Just keep reading. We can do better.
LMAO
You’re too funny Icky.
Kemp is the better candidate and I believe will ultimately win the SOS race.His statewide name ID is much higher and his Statewide network will serve him well.I dont know DM,but do know Kemp and he will do a good job as the next SOS.
drjay,
Thanks for the info!
Wow, at this pace Brian Kemp might out do Perry McGuire, and that’s saying something.
These are always fun to look at and discuss.
Congrats to all the winners. Although straw polls don’t really mean too much when it comes down to the vote, it can shown a campaign’s ability to organize and execute.
To those who didn’t win, don’t worry you’ll have your chance. I’m sure there will be hundreds more between now and the election.
RuralDem,
I think McGuire went from House to SoS to Atty Gen to Appeals Court. Kemp has only gone from Senate to Ag Comm to Senate to SoS.
Technically, that’s only three different offices so McGuire still has the lead. And that’s even if he doesn’t qualify for something this time.
Name ID did nothing for Perry McGuire. What will hurt Brian Kemp is that he was a State Senator, he then ran for Ag. Commissioner, and now this. While I have nothing personal against Brian, I do have a problem with politicians who always have to have a bigger position, who run for anything they can get their hands, and who are not consistant in their choices. If he was qulaified for Ag. Comm. then why not run for that again? Why SoS? It is fine to move up in the world but run for an office because you are qualified, not because you want to be a career politician.
Mike,nothing against Perry but he is not in the same league as Kemp as it relates to having a state wide base.I think anytime Georgia can have a person the caliber of Kemp seeking public office ,the better.I feel Kemp is qualified for the SOS position and think he will be a good one.
I know this about Kemp he is a tireless worker and is a good campaigner so if you are going to beat him you better be willing to cover this State from one end to the other,because Brian will.I have not seen his Steering Committee or endorsements but I would be willing to bet it is as geographically diverse as any candidte running statewide.
I would encourage anyone who has not had a chance to meet Doug MacGinnitie, to go to one of his events. Listen to him and then speak to him afterwards. You’ll be impressed.
At the top of the ticket Ox, Handel, and Scott stayed very busy working the crowd. Johnson had a decent presence. Deal was hard to find. (I’m for Johnson, who will beat the Ox/Handel survivor in a runoff).
Down ticket, Kemp was the best prepared and hardest working candidate I observed. Those not staying at the Westin were greeted by a hundred or so Kemp signs along the entrance, and Kemp himself personally greeted and attempted to sticker every delegate coming and going from the breakfast and at the close of the convention.
Ox’s sticker team was especially aggressive. I bet they handed out 5ooo stickers to the 1000 delegates, whether you wanted one or not. As soon as you ditched one sticker, another Oxlet would appear to replace it. I admired the moxie, but found it somewhat off putting. All those Yankees in Gwinnett are rubbing of on Ox.
I was suprised Deal did not have a bigger presence in Savannah. Gary seemed to be pretty strong. And I was not that imppressed with MacGinnitie. I talked to him and Kemp both and was a lot more impressed with Kemp, he seemed to have more support at the convention in my opinion.
fundy1611: Are you serious about Austin Scott running against Jim Marshall because I will get in my dirt red pickup, roll my sleeves up and get to work. I think the main reason more people aren’t think about that matchup is that Marshall and the Blue Dogs will continue to work the Dem White House in Georgia’s state interests the way the GOP members of the delegation did before January.
There might be concern that Marshall would then jump into the governor race and could actually win. As a person in rural Worth County who lives three miles from Tift County, I can tell you that Scott’s supporters in the southern part of the district could bring plenty Democrats and Blacks around for a congressional race. And that whole flag thing would actually seem courageous juxtaposed against Marshall never supporting Obama in the heat of the battle or the thin air of the DNC Convention in Denver.
Take the GA Young Republicans Straw Poll with a grain of salt. These guys are more irrelevant than Daily Kos and MSNBC. Ox should be ahead with 48 compared to Deal’s 26 and Handel’s ZERO while Kemp should have won 195-76.
Slyram,
All of your rants about Marshall go back to him not endorsing Obama. He did the right thing in his district.
Besides, this entire advocating Scott to run against Marshall because Marshall did not endorse Obama thing really makes no sense. Scott isn’t going to support Obama either.
If you had policy disagreements or something then it’d be more understandable, but sour grapes because Marshall didn’t support someone most Conservative Democrats in Georgia didn’t support is pretty bad.
Why aren’t you calling for challenges to state legislative members who did not endorse Obama or 2010 candidates?
So lapel stickers vote for statewide office
Interesting that you connect Kemp and McGuire. Didn’t Joel McElhannon run Perry McGuire’s last place campaign too? He ran the last Kemp campaign for sos into the dirt too.
Remind me of the definition of crazy again. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?
Congressman Whitehead. Commissioner Kemp. Fat chance, so to speak. Kemp needs to do something different this time, not the same.
Back in Black,
The only reason I connect the two is because they’re so similar in the sense that they seem to randomly pop up for statewide office.
I fully expect to see a Kemp/McGuire Gov/Lt Gov combo in 2014. However, within two months I’m sure they’d switch and McGuire would run for Gov, Kemp for Lt. Gov.
For the baseball fans out there, these guys are hitting for the cycle!
B in B,
I don’t think McElhannon ran McGuire’s campaign.
However, he did run the following, and rather successfully too:
Rep. Bill Heath (who defeated Tom Murphy in 2002)
Senator Bill Heath (2004?)
Senator Chip Rogers (2004)
Senator Judson Hill (2004)
Lt. Governor Casey Cagle (2006)
Senator Bill Cowsert 2006, 2008)
Judge Debra Bernes (2004)
Judge Sara Doyle (2008)
And, a few other wins. Yes, Joel has lost a few too. VERY few, though.
Do tell us, what campaigns YOU have personally consulted on and won?
Joel has also worked on Sen. Jeff Mullis’s campaigns as well.
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