Georgia's United States House elections, 2006

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be updated.
Parts of this article or section have been identified as no longer being up to date.
Please update the article to reflect recent events, and remove this template when finished.

1 General
2 District Candidates
3 See also

[edit] General

Georgia has 13 Congressional Districts, whose lines were redrawn in 2005. Each district is home to approximately 630,000 Georgia residents. At present, seven seats are held by Republicans and six seats are held by Democrats.

[edit] District Candidates

This race is probably highlighted best by the now infamous interview of Incumbent Republican Westmoreland on The Colbert Report during which he stated support for putting the Ten Commandments in every judicial building, wanted to abolish the Department of Education, and admitted to being the do-nothingest of the do-nothing congress as he had presented no legislation the entire time he'd been in Congress.

Colbert Interview

Regarding the Ten Commandments, Westmoreland was asked to name them. He came up with only three, slowly, though aides say he later thought of a few more after the interview.

When Colbert asked, "Are you sure you are really IN Congress?"

Westmoreland replied, "I was sworn in."

[edit] District 4

Loren Collins (Write-In)
- Website: http://www.voteloren.com
Catherine Davis (R)
- Website: http://www.catherinedavis.org
Hank Johnson (D)
- Website: http://www.hankforcongress.com

District 4 is a strongly Democratic district; the winner of the Democratic primary is likely to win the general election. In the primary of July 18, incumbent Cynthia McKinney edged Johnson, a significant figure in DeKalb county politics, 47% to 45%. [1] Johnson subsequently defeated McKinney 59% to 41% in the August 8 runoff election.

[edit] District 5

John Lewis (D) - Incumbent
- Website: http://www.johnlewisforcongress.com

[edit] District 6

Steve Sinton (D)
- Website: http://www.stevesinton.com
Tom Price (R) - Incumbent
- Website: http://www.tomprice.com

[edit] District 7

Allan Burns (D)
- Website: http://www.allanburns.com
John Linder (R) - Incumbent
- Website: http://www.johnlinder.com

[edit] District 8

Mac Collins (R)
- Website: http://www.collinsforcongress.com
Jim Marshall (D) - Incumbent
- Website: http://www.friendsofjimmarshall.com

A Republican mid-decade redistricting made this Macon-based district more compact and somewhat more Republican. Democratic incumbent Jim Marshall faced a very tough challenge by former Congressman Mac Collins, who represented an adjoining district from 1993 to 2005. Less than 60 percent of the population in Marshall’s present 3rd District was retained in the new 8th District. The reconfigured 8th includes Butts County, the political base of his opponent, former Congressman Mac Collins, who once served as chairman of the county commission. On the other hand, the 8th also includes all of Macon, where Marshall served as mayor from 1995-99. [2] The race featured heavy spending, not only by the candidates themselves, but from independent groups. During the campaign, President George W. Bush attended a rally to try and help Collins. Marshall won reelection by some 1,700 votes.

Marshall was reelected with 63% in 2004, but in 2002 won by only 50.5% to 49.5%. This is one of the most competitive House races in the nation.

[edit] District 9

John Bradbury (D)
- Website: http://www.bradburyforcongress.com
Nathan Deal (R) - Incumbent

[edit] District 10

Terry Holley (D)
- Website: http://www.terryholley.us/
Charlie Norwood (R) - Incumbent
- Website: http://www.norwoodforcongress.com

[edit] District 11

Phil Gingrey (R) - Incumbent
- Website: http://www.gingrey.com
Patrick Pillion (D)
- Website: http://www.patrickpillion.com
William Satterwhite (Write-In)
- Website: http://votewilliamsatterwhite.com

[edit] District 12

John Barrow (D) - Incumbent
- Website: http://www.barrowforcongress.com
Max Burns (R)
- Website: http://www.maxburns.com

Democrat John Barrow unseated first-term Republican Max Burns by 52% to 48% in a Democratic leaning district which Burns won over a scandal-tainted opponent in 2002. This year, Burns sought a rematch. Recent redistricting made this southern Georgia district more mixed, but the balance still favored Democrats. Burns ran a tough campaign and made the race extremely close. In the end however Burns lost by 864 votes and ruled out a recount challenge to the certified results. This failure to win the seat byt he GOP sealed the unprecedented gains of the Democrats in which they did not lose a single House seat, Senate Seat or Governorship they held going into the election.