Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY
November 8, 2006
Vol. 114, No. 58 | Athens, Georgia
Few showers.
High 66 | Low 47
ONLINE: www.redandblack.com
An independent stude7it newspaper serving the University of Georgia community
ESTABLISHED 1893, INDEPENDENT 1980
WOMEN’S BBALL
>- Check out how the
team did in their final
exhibition game
SPORTS, PAGE 8
ELECTION2006
OTHER RACES
CAGLE
Lieutenant
Governor
Allen Buckley
■ 4%
Casey Cagle
54%
Jim Martin
42%
NORWOOD
U.S. Congress,
District 10
l-Charlie Norwood
66%
Terry Holley
34%
MORE RESULTS
>* Check out what hap
pened in the other races.
NEWS, PAGE 3-5
'Sonny do'... get to stay in office
By GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press
ATLANTA — Even as Gov.
Sonny Perdue's supporters
started to crowd a hotel ban
quet hall Tuesday to watch
election returns, they were
practicing their victory toasts.
And for the Democrat-
turned-Republican, who
stunned Georgia in 2002 when
he upset Gov. Roy Barnes, the
confidence in his latest cam
paign was a sign of how dra
matically the state's political
landscape has changed.
Perdue's victory four years
ago led the transformation of
Georgia from a state con
trolled since Reconstruction
by a solidly Democratic estab
lishment into one of the
nation's most reliable
Republican states. His easy
Garrett Michael
Hayes
■ 4%
l-Sonny Perdue
58%
Mark Taylor
38%
re-election Tuesday over
Democratic Lt. Gov. Mark
Taylor was another sign that
the state's GOP majority in
Georgia was neither flimsy
nor fleeting.
"There may have been a lot
of people four years ago say
ing the election of Sonny
Perdue was a fluke,” said
Republican strategist Ralph
Reed, who lost the primary for
lieutenant governor. “They’re
not saying that now.”
The incumbent never
trailed his Democrat chal
lenger in the polls, and many
Taylor supporters staked
their candidate’s election
hopes on whether he could
deprive Perdue of 50 percent
of the vote and force a runoff.
But those hopes dimmed
almost as the first results
streamed in. With 87 percent
of precincts reporting, Perdue
had 58 percent of the vote,
while Taylor had 38 percent.
Libertarian Garrett Michael
Hayes had 4 percent.
Perdue’s win in the face of
an anti-Republican sentiment
through much of the nation,
as well as his party’s expected
pickup of the lieutenant gov
ernor’s and secretary of
state’s offices, proved Georgia
was insulated from the
national backlash.
Hundreds of Perdue sup
porters cheered on the
See PERDUE. Page 3
PERDUE
TOIVI O’CONNOR | The Red & Black
A Sonny Perdue, incumbent governor elect, gives his
acceptance speech in the ballroom of the Buckhead Westin
Hotel in Atlanta on Tuesday night.
Mayoral race undecided,
candidates face runoff
MADDOX
By JOSH WEISS
jweiss@randb.com
and
By JOE MASON
jmason@randb.com
The race for mayor isn’t
over for incumbent Heidi
Davison or Charlie
Maddox.
The two will head to a
runoff for Athens’ highest
position on Dec. 5 after
none of the four candi
dates received more than
half the vote Tuesday
night.
Davison, the incum
bent, received 45 percent
of the vote, while Maddox
took 31 percent.
Davison, who ran as a
Democrat in 2002 took an
early lead in Athens’ first
non-partisan mayoral race.
“We’ll continue to take
the high-road and remain
positive,” Davison said of
her runoff campaign
efforts.
Maddox said he would
“go back to the voters and
redefine the issues and
present our solutions.”
Davison said as the
incumbent she benefited
from the non-partisan
elections.
“Voters who don’t know
much about the candi
dates probably tend to
vote for the incumbent.”
Though the election
was non-partisan, some
voters already knew she
was a Democrat. A
Davison mailer sent to
local voters featured
Democratic Atlanta Mayor
► See MAYOR, Page 5
CAROLINE C. KILGORE j The Red & Black
▲ Athens Mayor Heidi Davison speaks to supporters Tuesday night at 8e’s
Lounge downtown. Davison will face Charlie Maddox in a runoff.
Hudgens tops Rawson, takes District 47 seat
By BRIAN HUGHES
bhughes@randb.com
There was little worry for
incumbent state Senator Ralph
Hudgens as he partied with
Republican big wigs at the
Westin Hotel in Buckhead on elec
tion night.
He was never in jeopardy of losing
his District 47 State Senate seat,
representing East Athens, as well as
Barrow, Jackson, Madison and
Elbert counties.
With 92 percent of precincts
reporting, Hudgens landed more
than 60 percent of the vote.
Sen. Hudgens could not be
reached for comment at the party.
Far away from the Buckhead
glitz, Democrat and longshot
candidate Mac Rawson, a retired
University faculty member, wasn’t
even watching the voting returns
from his Athens home.
Instead, he was talking with
friends and family inside his Cedar
Street house, where the scene
resembled more of a block party
than political bash.
Gracing the entrance of his home
was a small dry erase board.
His supporters tracked votes and
gave Hudgens a less than flattering
nickname — “The Bad Guy.”
Rawson’s bid for election came up
short, but he was still satisfied with
his campaign.
“This was about showing that
elected officials can’t go jerking
around the people they represent,”
he said.
Rawson was critical of Hudgens,
who sponsored a redistricting plan
63%
Mac Rawson
37%
HUDGENS
earlier this year that split Athens’
Senate representation between two
Republican-leaning districts.
But the results came in, even
Rawson’s mother, wouldn’t predict a
victory for her son.
“I’m not sure if he will win,” she
said at the party. “But I’ll still be
proud of him. It’s a requirement for
mothers.”
State Senate,
District 47
l-Ralph T. Hudgens
Redistricting works as
Cowsert downs Kidd
By PEARMAN PARKER
pparker@randb.com
and
By AUBREY SMITH
basmith@randb.com
Although Athens-Clarke County
as a whole voted strongly in favor
of Jane Kidd (D), state Senate
District 46 went to Bill Cowsert
(R).
With 96 percent of the precincts
reporting, Cowsert held 55.3 per
cent of the vote with Kidd receiving
44.7 percent.
“It’s probably a sense of relief as
anything else,” Cowsert said.
“We’ve been working well over a
year.”
He announced his intentions to
run for the state Senate in October
of last year.
“It was a lot of fun and a lot of
work,” Cowsert said.
While Cowsert partied in Oconee
and Walton counties, Kidd held her
election festivities at Trumps in
downtown Athens.
Kidd decisively won Athens-
Clarke County with 9,919 votes.
Cowsert earned only 4,952.
“If we lose, it’s because the
Republicans did exactly what they
wanted to do — which is partisan
gerrymandering,” Kidd said.
Cowsert said he believes he
State Senate,
District 46
Bill Cowsert
55%
Jane Kidd
45%
could have won even without the
redistricting.
“The numbers are strong
enough that I would have probably
won the race in any of the dis
tricts,” Cowsert said.
After announcing her decision to
vacate her state House seat to seek
the state Senate 46 seat, a redis
tricting bill sponsored by state Sen.
Ralph Hudgens (R) passed through
the General Assembly.
Hudgens won in his bid for the
state Senate District 47 seat.
According to Kidd, the redis
tricting divided mostly Democratic
Athens-Clark County in two. The
newly realigned District 46 now
encompasses Oconee and portions
of Walton counties that have histor
ically voted Republican.
Despite having the odds stacked
against her, Kidd decided to con
tinue in her bid for the state senate.
“We ran a good campaign. We
> See COWSERT, Page 5
COWSERT
Democrat McKillip beats
opponents in District 115
By SARA PAUFF
spauff@randb.com
and
By KELLY PROCTOR
kproctor@randb.com
State House Democratic candi
date Doug McKillip narrowly
avoided a runoff to win election as
Athens’ representative for District
115.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled,”
McKillip said in a telephone inter
view.
McKillip garnered 53 percent of
the vote, with Republican Regina
Quick and Independent E.H.
Culpepper splitting the remaining
votes, with 22 percent and 25 per
cent respectively.
A candidate must win more
than 50 percent of the vote in order
to avoid a runoff.
Culpepper — a staunch sup
porter of a proposed commuter rail
linking Athens to Atlanta — could
have been Athens’ first
Independent representative,
University political science profes
sor Charles Bullock said in an earli
er interview.
A group of about 20 McKillip
supporters, mostly University stu
dents, gathered at Arch Bar down-
State Rep., District 115
E.H. Culpepper
25%
22%
53%
MCKILLIP
town Tuesday night to watch elec
tion results come in. Campaign
manager Bo Mabry sat near a lap
top, uploading new results every
few seconds.
“It’s going to be down to the
wire,” Mabry said at about 9:30
p.m.
Meanwhile, the mood among
Culpepper’s supporters — gath
ered in Culpepper’s son’s house —
fell steadily as it became clear their
man was going to lose.
Rusty Brooks, a professor in the
Carl Vinson Institute of
Government and friend of
Culpepper, said it’s hard to get
American voters to look past tradi
tional party names.
“Democrat and Republican is
ingrained in the psyche of this
>- See BRAIN, Page 5
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Find the 2006 election results
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Sports
page 7
Gymnastics coach
Suzanne Yoculan
helped write a book.
Check out why you
need to read it!
m
I V- A J
Gym Dogs
head coach
Suzanne
Yoculan
co-authored
the book
“Perfect
10”
Variety
page 6
Perpetual Groove is
playing a benefit show
for Friends of Georgia
Theatre.
Index
UGA Today 2
Wire 2
Opinions 4
Variety 6
Crossword 5
Sports 7
Sudoku 7