VOLuntarilyConservative

It appears that the voters of Georgia had enough of big money, scandals, and pompous powermongers.


**Source of Picture: AmericanIdle.net

Ralph Reed, whose primary fight for the GOP nomination as Lieutenant Governor with conservative Casey Cagle had been one of the nastiest in America, conceded defeat last night. Cagle was a small-timer in Georgia politics until last night, a label that no longer applies after taking out one of the state's most prominent establishment Republicans that had been endorsed by none other than Rudy Guiliani and Sean Hannity.

Most political commentators believe Reed's loss to the upstart Cagle was predominantly a product of Cagle's success in linking Reed to the indicted Jack Abramoff. From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

But while Reed was getting his campaign off the ground, a U.S. Senate committee and federal prosecutors were probing deeper into the affairs of Abramoff, a Reed associate who pleaded guilty in January to bilking his Indian tribe clients of tens of millions of dollars, and of bribery of a public official.

A Senate Indian Affairs Committee, chaired by U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), concluded that Reed had been paid $5.3 million by two casino-owning Indian tribes, both Abramoff clients, to rally Christian voters against attempts by other tribes to establish competing casinos.

Reed repeatedly denied that he knew the money that financed his anti-gambling campaigns came from gambling revenue, although several e-mails showed that Abramoff informed Reed of the money's origins several times.

It should be noted that Van Hilleary also has these connections to Jack Abramoff and the casino-owning Indian tribes. One has to wonder if his poll numbers are suffering the same fate as Reed's did.

In the last three months of the race, Cagle's barrage against Reed began to pay off. Cagle rose in the polls and raised more than three times as much as Reed from contributors. Reed closed the financial gap with a $500,000 personal loan to his own campaign. By June 30, both men had raised roughly $2.5 million.

For the last six months of the campaign, Reed continually expressed regret for his association with Abramoff, and frustration that the media were not covering the important issues of the campaign.




Meanwhile, the surprise of the night was reserved for Cynthia McKinney, who has been drawn into a run-off with the virtually unknown Hank Johnson. McKinney, who has a substantial series of bizarre and irrational behavior, was nevertheless believed untouchable as a candidate due to her purporteded popularity within Georgia's 4th District.

With only 1,500 votes separating the two Democratic candidates, a run-off must be held on August 8th to decide the nominee.

Of course, this shows candidates what can happen when you play the roll of the frontrunner and refuse to debate your opponents, as McKinney did in this race. Voters don't like such pompous behavior, and it sometimes comes back to bite you on the posterior.

When all is said and done, McKinney will probably win re-election. I suspect that she'll find the votes to win the run-off, possibly with a call to Memphis to see how the Ford family seems to uncover those few votes that can put you over the top when faced with political death.

Is that what it has come down to for some Democrats? Get the dead to vote, or watch your political career die?

MORE: Donkey Cons has an extremely thorough analysis.