House District 8 Primary Runoff heats up
The race to replace retiring State Representative Stephen Allison is down from 4 candidates in the May Primary to 2 candidates in the July 26 Runoff. Matt Gurtler, a Rabun County home builder won the primary with 35% of the vote with Rabun retiree Kent Woerner coming in second with 22%. On Tuesday a debate sponsored by the Clayton Tribune highlighted the differences between the two candidates and gave voters a real opportunity to choose between the policies of the future and the past.
Based of the Two Business Day Reports this race is drawing interest outside the district with 80% of Woerner’s reports showing major contributions from special interest groups and other sitting legislators while Gurtler’s funding is from primarily from district voters.
According to an email from the Union County GOP Chair, Dale Allison, one candidate is receiving heavy support from lifelong Democrats in Union County:
For those of you who have lived here for some time will recognize that the Democrats have chosen their candidate for the office with the yard signs placed in their yards on Old Blue Ridge Highway and in Blairsville. I was not naïve enough to believe that our Democratic friends had suddenly ‘seen the light’. They have no candidate so they have chosen to support the candidate who best represents their beliefs.
While Primary runoff elections historically produce a low voter turnout, this race could be an exception to that rule. With no Democrat on the ballot in November the next HD-8 Representative will be the runoff winner. With early voting beginning July 5, there appears a clear choice for those conservative voters who turnout.
About Author
IrishPat
Patrick Malone is a Business Advisor and Leadership Mentor headquartered in Blairsville, Georgia. He co-hosts Mountain Daybreak and Mountain Mornings, weekday news programs, and hosts This Week in Blairsville a weekend program on WJUL/WJRB. He is a mentor in Union County High School, serves on his church council and writes a monthly column on leadership in the animal healthcare industry.
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I have no doubt that the new norm in the North Georgia Mountains is for the Democrats to crash the Republican Primaries. Except for the U.S. Senate race, there was not even a contested primary on the Democrat ballot this past May. It is no wonder they barely cracked a whopping 200 votes in all of Rabun County with the scant number of candidates who even wanted a (D) beside their name. Kent Woerner has been on the public payroll for most of his life and is for BIG GOVERNMENT, as he explained in earlier debates.
I suspect even the most liberal members of the Democratic Caucus at the state capital could come up with something they would cut or trim out of the massive 23.7 billion dollar state budget (a budget that increased over 2 billion dollars from the prior one) but Kent bragged at the The Clayton Tribune debate in May that he would NOT CUT A PENNY from that budget!!!
I appreciate his honesty but why on Earth is this man running as a Republican? He is a big tax and spend Democrat who decided there was not a snowball’s chance in hell of winning as a Democrat. You can rest assured that all of the special interest groups will be dumping money in this race showering Woerner with PAC money as they plot to insert another corporate welfare, tax and spend RINO Republican who will vote the will of deep pocked corporate interests (see our current “Republican” State Senator as a perfect example).
Is Matt Gurtler the perfect candidate? I have no problem with his youth. I am less thrilled with his ties to Josh McKoon who does not have a clue about the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. A $500 donation from McKoon to Matt Gurtler tells me that Matt may not be able to tell Tell Josh McKoon NO when RFRA legislation is brought up in 2017.
I hate to see Stephen Allison go, he was the most approachable, affable, and friendly state representative I have interacted with in over 40 years. Stephen’s life experiences, public school education, and community involvement all helped equip him with the ability to reach out and interact with people from many backgrounds and orientations.
I have resigned myself to the likelihood that whoever wins the District 8 race, I am not going to ever find that level of friendliness again but I do know that Matt will not be down in Atlanta being wined and dined by state lobbyists, he will actually consider the impact of legislation on the 8th District (like the horrible impact that the state transportation bill is having on Rabun County tourism with that $5 hotel tax). Matt won’t drink the kool-aide and he won’t make the same mistake that other Liberty Republicans made in their freshmen years in Atlanta.
Kent Woerner would have been a great candidate for the Rabun County Democrats to have on the ballot in November. He certainly is getting all of their supports in Union County and I suspect he will draw heavily in getting Democrats in Rabun County to back him as well. I would guess he will be about as involved in the Rabun County GA Republicans as some of our “Republican” County Commissioners have been if he manages to win this runoff election.