By Elliott Brack
Editor and publisher
NOV. 9, 2018 | Let’s take a look at the 2018 elections.
In many ways, in the still-to-be-called races, matters are going like they should.
While there still votes to be counted, those leading in races say what they should: they claim victory. Meanwhile, the candidates who are trailing maintain that the race isn’t quite over yet, so they’re not conceding.
And yes, we know that there will be at least two statewide runoffs, that for Secretary of State, and for one of the seats on the Public Service Commission.
In the race for governor, on Thursday morning Brian Kemp had 50.3 percent of the vote, while Stacey Abrams trailed closely behind. He had 1,973,099 votes, or 62,000 more than Ms. Abrams 1,910,390.
In the Secretary of State race, Brad Raffensperger leads with 1.9 million votes (49.2 percent), while John Barrow had 1.8 million votes, or 48.6 percent. Libertarian spoiler Smythe Duval polled 86,109 votes, or 2.2 percent to send that to a runoff.
In the Public Service Commission runoff, the incumbent Chuck Eaton has 1.9 million votes, to 1.8 million for Lindy Miller, so the two face one another in the runoff. Ryan Graham of the Libertarian Party scored 102,112 votes, assuring the runoff.
In the other PSC race, incumbent Republican Tricia Pridemore won by 126,000 over Dawn Randolph.
Meanwhile, Congressman Rob Woodall appears to have the most votes (139,804), but challenger Carolyn Bourdeaux (138,904) hasn’t thrown in the towel, wanting to wait until every vote is counted. That’s a Woodall lead of less than 1,000 votes. Look for a recount in that race. Ms. Bourdeaux handily took Gwinnett — by 23,000 votes — but the Forsyth County part of the district was Woodall territory, and may have ensured his victory.
In another congressional race of interest in the adjacent Sixth District, Democrat Lucy McBath came out of nowhere to upset Karen Handel, 159,353 to 156,419. After all the hullaboo of the 2016 election, McBath surprised a lot of people. Ms. Handel finally issued a concession Thursday morning in an email.
LET’S TURN to the local political outcomes.
Yes, what people thought would happen, did: Democrats came roaring back after being clearly in the minority in the council since 1984. It was their best effort since then, mainly because the Democratic Party now seems more energized than the Republicans in Gwinnett.
The Democrats won 10 of 13 contested legislative races. The delegation now totals 17 Democrats and only seven Republicans — quite a flip!
What can we look for in the future? Just after some Democrats jumped to a new party after the 1984 election, who knows? Some Republicans may “see the handwriting on the wall” and suddenly embrace a new vision as a Democrat in future races. It won’t be the first time a candidate has left one party for another after seeing how the cards are counted.
Republicans P.K. Martin and Renee Unterman returned to the General Assembly, but will have quite a cadre of new Democrats to go to the Capitol with them.
Two other changes in local races: Democrats now have two seats on the county commission with Ben Ku and Marlene Fosque winning. Democrats also now have a seat on the school board with EJ Blair’s victory, while Steve Knudsen won a Republican seat.
We also consider it an upset for Brian Whiteside’s victory for solicitor general over incumbent Rosanna Szabo.
It was quite a different political year in Gwinnett. It might point to a new party dominating Gwinnett in years to come.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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