National Democrats who began salivating when one of their own, Shawn Harris, outpolled 16 other contenders in the special election Tuesday for Georgia’s red, red, red District 14 U.S. House seat should get a grip on themselves.
The all-comers primary had 12 Republicans, three Democrats (only one with money), one Libertarian and one independent candidate. Of course, the Republican field would be diluted. We wrote of this potential outcome months ago.
But the April 7 runoff will have two contestants: Harris, who picked up 37.33% of the vote, and Republican Clay Fuller, who got 34.87%. Simple math, though, indicates all Republican candidates had 69,107 votes (59.7%), Democratic candidates 46,111 votes (39.9%), the Libertarian 321 votes (0.28%) and the independent 281 votes (0.24%).
(IN THE NEWS: Fuller and Harris move to April 7 runoff to replace Greene)
National Democrats so far have poured more than $4.3 million into the candidacy of Harris, a cattle farmer and retired brigadier general. They ought to have saved their money for a close race somewhere else in the general election. Fuller collected nearly $800,000.