The folks over at Tondee’s Tavern are saying that Democrat James Marlow has conceded the race for Georgia’s 10th Congressional District. But if you look at the statement they actually link to, Marlow doesn’t quite do that. Rather, he says:
We will watch as the final official returns come in, and once all of the votes are in, we will make an assessment about whether further action is appropriate.
That’s because state law permits Marlow – who trails Republican Paul Broun by 187 votes in the official count – to seek a recount so long as the margin separating the two is less than 1%. Right now it’s 0.4%, but that number is only likely to increase, given that the few outstanding precincts are almost all in counties which favored Broun. And no matter what the final tally, there’s no reason to believe a recount could make up the difference.
Ultimately, this is a pretty frustrating outcome, given that two other lesser-known Democrats in the race took 8% between them – more than enough to have put Marlow comfortably in second place. Then again, an overall Dem performance of 28.3% is pretty appalling, given that even John Kerry managed to take 35% in this district. (Of course, in a low-turnout special election, this isn’t much of a surprise.) So even if Marlow were to advance to the run-off, it’s difficult to envision any way in which he could win. Repeating that Hackett magic is hard.
is that Whitehead will probably serve less than 10 years in DC (he’s already 65). While Whitehead will be lousy, he’ll also not have much influence either.
The GA-10 that existed between 1996 and 2002 was basically a swing district. It included all of the Augusta blacks(most are now in GA-12) as well as many black majority counties now in GA-12 as well.
The new district lopped off most all of the Democratic strongholds(save for Clarke county) and extended north to the Tennessee border to pick up some counties that are now the most Republican in the nation.
If Marlow was serious he would have gotten as many votes in Clarke county as Whitehead got in Columbia, since both counties are the same size.
I don’t see what is to be gained from a recount, Marlow looks like he’ll loose in the general anyways.
Do we even want to run for this seat? i was very optimistic up until, well, tuesday night. how many of brouns votes could we hope to get? how liberal/moderate is he? would his voters flock more heavily to marlow, Whitey, or be split 50/50? Marlow would either need increadibly low voter turnout, or almost all of brouns, along with the other democratic votes. would it be better just to let the repubs fight, and not waste any more time/money on this race?
Norwood never topped 60% against sacrificial lambs.