After dropping out of Georgia's 9th District congressional race, the field's lone Democrat has jumped back in, but said he wants to be a congressman for only two months.
Mike Freeman said Wednesday that the situation that took him out of the May 11 special election race mostly has been resolved, but it is not resolved enough to allow him to run for the full, two-year congressional seat in November.
Mr. Freeman, a former Episcopal minister and resident of Oakwood, Ga., said he withdrew from the race because of "some stuff that affected my family" but wouldn't elaborate. He made the decision to jump back into the race last week.
Saying he was "not willing to commit another three years of my life" to the seat, he did not qualify for the July 20 general primary or Nov. 2 general election by Friday's deadline. The winner of those elections will serve a full congressional term.
In a congressional district that has been ranked the fourth most-conservative voting district in the country, the Democrat acknowledged he is "a long shot" to win the seat. He said he's counting on his Republican candidates, whom he called "peas in a pod" with "identical" messages, stealing votes from one another.
"They're going to divide up 70 percent of the vote and I'll get the other 30," he said.
Margaret Ball, the Democratic Party chairwoman for the 9th District, is hoping for the same result.
SPECIAL ELECTION CANDIDATES* Chris Cates, Republican, Blairsville* Tom Graves Jr., Republican, Ranger* Lee Hawkins, Republican, Gainesville* Bert Loftman, Republican, Jasper* Bill Stephens, Republican, Cumming* Steve Tarvin, Republican, Chickamauga* Mike Freeman, Democrat, Oakwood* Eugene Moon, independent, Gainesville
"With that many in the race, our hope was that they would split up the vote and he could at least make the runoff," she said.
The race has six Republicans and one independent also running.
"If you take (the) Republicans and one independent, they're going to slice up the vote," she said.
One of his Republican rivals said he was unsure how Mr. Freeman's decision would affect the race. Mr. Freeman's name still would have appeared on the ballot even if he had stayed out, because he already had paid qualifying fees.
"Him getting out and getting back in would not sit well with me if I was a voter," said Steve Tarvin, a Republican candidate from Chickamauga. "I don't know what it means. Who knows what the 9th District electorate will do?"
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