*updated 4/25/22 | 2:18pm
Well, friends, May 24th has come & gone and we have a pretty good lay of the land.
At the state level, other than pretty much Herschel (whom I naturally voted for - GO DAWGS!), most of the other Trump-backed candidates went down in flames, notably Perdue & Hice, though Vernon Jones did end up making the runoff in GA 10.
The People have spoken.
I read an interview with a Trump supporter in Georgia who said the despite what Trump had said, he believed that Kemp was the right one for Georgia, and how he fought against the mandates, was a true conservative, etc.
By all accounts, that was pretty much a consensus view.
For the record, I did say the gubernatorial polling numbers showing Kemp hitting 60% was wrong. What I didn’t know was that it was wrong going the other way.
Kemp finished w/ a 74/22 split over Perdue.
Just wow. An a$$-kicking that even the Ericksons & Bluesteins of the state weren’t expecting.
Hindsight, especially in politics, is always 20/20. Perdue obviously was not a strong statewide candidate & never really got any traction during the campaign & fell into a free-fall these last few weeks. As far as I’ve discerned, he only broke 40% in one county — Dade.
Alright, before I go any further, it’s time to go ahead & address the elephant (pun intended) in the room.
Tim Fleming. HD 114.
Well, I sure blew that one, didn’t I? Then again, I was only off by 37 17 percentage points [Derp!]
I’ll say this. Lifetime, with political prognosticating, I’m probably batting maybe around .400-.450, which if I was a baseball player, would be pretty amazing; however, I am not a baseball player.
As has been the case many times over the years, I tend to get less accurate when I’m emotionally invested, which, naturally I was in this race, mainly in the fact that I very much wanted Tim to lose.
Obviously I do not think Tim is the guy to represent our district. With the millions he’s made in political consulting & lobbying, it’s simply not a good fit. Rest assured, I’ll be watching him like a hawk moving forward.
So, what happened? How did it end up at 65/35 in a number that surprised apparently even the Fleming camp?
Again, the whole hindsight thing. As some of you told me privately, McNeal, you thought, was simply not a good candidate. I’m not completely sure about that. I’ll say he was maybe not an overly effective nor ideal candidate, but I still think he’s a pretty good fella & I’m glad I voted for him. The kicker was this — McNeal didn’t even win his home county. No, Morgan went 53/47 for Fleming, though McNeal did win two precincts there.
I figured Brett Mauldin really didn’t have a shot to beat Strickland but I didn’t think it would be such a bloodbath.
Now, this really was different. I didn’t necessarily have an axe to grind w/ Strickland, I just really thought a lot of Mauldin & that he would do a great job. However, unlike the previous race, Brett did win his home county of Morgan.
I hope to see Brett run for something again.
And to both Brett & Wendell — thank you both for putting yourselves out there & running. Approx 7200 & 3700 people voted for you, respectively. Remember that & keep your heads high. Thanks again for your civic duty.
So I didn’t completely strike out. I was pretty much on it in re GA 10, not that I really needed a crystal ball for it or anything. As expected, Collins finished first, but under 50%, and ole Vernon Jones slid into second. This should be a fun one to watch the next few weeks.
And as of the time of this publishing I’ve noticed that Burt Jones has just dropped again, to 50.08%, w/ 95.6% reporting. Statewide runoff looming? Too close to call.
Well alright, guys, I’ll be putting up the Gone Fishin’ sign up as I’m going to take a few days off.
Until next time,
- MBM