Even though this district in the exurban and rural areas north of Atlanta is R+28 (4th worst in the nation), certainly not the kind of terrain that's going to give us a special election pickup, I'm going to call this good news for two reasons:
Rep. Nathan Deal announced Monday that he will quit his job in Congress on March 8 to concentrate on his campaign for governor of Georgia....
Once Deal resigns, a special election will be scheduled to fill out the rest of his term. It's possible the state could look to hold the special election July 20 to coincide with the regularly scheduled primaries. The state also has runoffs scheduled for Aug. 10.
First, this is good news because one less Republican in the House means that, when it's time for the Democrats to pass health care reform, that's one less Democrat Nancy Pelosi has to rustle up to vote 'yes.' The resignations of Robert Wexler and Neil Abercrombie [and death of John Murtha] set her back two three votes, but Deal's resignation moves the needle back one. And second, Nathan Deal is the last man standing among the Democrats in the House who switched over to the Republicans in the wake of 1994, so there's simply a sense of good riddance.
The special election is likely to attract all the same participants who are already running in the primary for November. On the Republican side, this includes state Sen. Lee Hawkins, state Rep. Tom Graves, and former state Sen. Bill Stephens. Democrats still seem to be searching for a candidate.
