When HR1162 passed the House on February 22nd, 16 Democrats voted yes. HR1162 as you’ll recall, is the proposed Constitutional Amendment allowing the State of Georgia to approve and fund Charter schools rejected by local school boards.
Of those 16 Democrats…
4 retired: Kathy Ashe, Elly Dobbs, Elena Parent, and Sistie Hudson.
Ralph Long is running again but was drawn into a distict with fellow Dem. Simone Bell who voted no.
Scott Holcomb is unopposed in the Dem. primary but is in a district more Republican than when he first won election two years ago.
4 face primary opposition: Alisha Morgan, Margaret Kaiser, Shelia Jones, and Carol Fullerton. Morgan and Kaiser co-sponsored HR1162.
Only 6 of the 16 Democrats voting yes on HR1162 are assured of reelection: Karla Drenner, Stacey Evans, Bob Bryant, Billy Mitchell, Mary Margaret Oliver, and Rahn Mayo face no opposition.
On a slightly related topic, y’all might be interested to learn what’s happened to the 17 House members targeted by the Peach TEA PAC for defeat for either failing to support HB954 or for not being pro-life enough for their tastes. Amazingly the Republican Senators who voted to weaken the bill by amendment and almost killed the bill altogether received no similar threat of defeat.
Of the 17 House Members Targeted…
1 retired: Amos Amerson, but his retirement had been announced long before the vote on HB954.
4 face Democratic challengers: Mike Jacobs, Jay Powell, Ron Stephens, and Rusty Kidd. The pro-life status of these Democratic challengers is not known at this time therefore we can’t say for sure they were recruited by the Peach TEA PAC.
8 are unopposed: Tommy Benton, Mickey Channel, Sharon Cooper, Harry Geisinger, Richard Smith, Tom Taylor, Joe Wilkinson, and Wendell Willard.
4 face primary opposition: Judy Manning, Don Parsons, Chuck Sims, and Kip Smith. It should be pointed out that the challengers for Parsons and Smith filed their declaration of intent well before the first House vote on HB954 and thus could not have been recruited by the Peach TEA PAC. Additionally the challenger to Manning is the Cobb Chairman of the Ron Paul campaign and not likely to have been recruited.
Therefore it’s possible that somewhere between one and six of the 17 targeted House members face challengers recruited by the Peach TEA PAC. It’s also possible none of them were.
The final incumbent/challenger spreadsheets for the House and Senate are ready for viewing.
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