Pundits have been saying for months that voters are angry and ready to take it out on incumbents, but there was little sign of that Tuesday.
The only incumbents kicked out of office were two backbencher Democrats in the House, the Democratic Stone Mountain district attorney, the Republican DA in the Towaliga Circuit and the nonpartisan superior-court judge in the Griffin Circuit beaten by the popular DA.
Political consultant Todd Rehm says the re-election of Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols illustrates the anti-incumbency sentiment is focused on the top of the ticket this year. Passing up the opportunity to attribute Echols’ 69 percent win to his own skills as a consultant, Rehm says instead that the poorly funded, poorly covered PSC race shows the baseline of support for officeholders.
“Incumbency is probably the strongest influencer on reelection to the PSC from an historical perspective, and individual voters are much less likely to have a personal relationship with a member of the PSC than their state representative or state senator,” Rehm wrote in his morning GaPundit report.
Echols won every county in a year when voters supposedly reject incumbents. Yet, in 2012 re-election races, Commissioner Chuck Eaton didn’t break 60 percent against a primary challenger who had donated to Barack Obama. Veteran Commission Stan Wise garnered 56.5 percent the same year, losing 13 counties including Gwinnett and Hall.
Looking again at this year where two incumbents were tossed out by their own primary, the circumstances are uniquely local.
Augusta Democrat Earnest Smith has been plagued by 88 alleged violations of the state’s campaign-finance reporting laws. He denies wrongdoing with the memorable line given to WRDW-TV, “There is no fire; there is only smoke.” Still, the Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission referred his case to the attorney general’s office, long known for dealing with political smoking of various sorts.
Meanwhile, Decatur Democrat Rahn Mayo suffered from simply failing to work hard enough. Residents of his district say they never saw him, and he was also accused of being absent from work at the House as well.
On the other hand, ethics allegations were made against House Speaker David Ralston, Majority Leader Jon Burns and Banking Chairman Greg Morris that didn’t prevent them from racking up victories of 66, 76 and 54 percent respectively.
Two Republican House committee chairmen were forced into runoffs, Tom Dickson of Cohutta who heads the Education Appropriations Committee and John Yates of Griffin who chairs Veterans, but just barely. Picking up fewer than 100 votes in each race would have meant outright wins.
Two House Democratic incumbents also landed in runoffs against one of two challengers Erica Thomas of Austell, and Darryl Jordan of Riverdale.
Of those Republican chairmen who won, Morris’ 54 percent was on the low end of the scale, with only Howard Maxwell’s 53 and Bruce Broadrick’s 54 percent to keep him company.
So, is the reputed voter anger a fallacy?
Not according to Rick Davies, chairman of the 11th District Republican Party where all four of U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s challengers say Loudermilk incited it by breaking a campaign
promise and voting for John Boehner as speaker of the U.S. House.
“I’ve actually had some folks tell me they feel very powerless,” Davies said. “They want somebody in there — in whatever position, from local up to federal — that more accurately reflects their beliefs and what they should be concentrating on.”
Maybe it’s just harder to focus that anger on a politician you have personal contact with.
