Karen Handel Leads Early Poll to Replace 6th District’s Tom Price
The first polling is out for the soon to be open 6th district seat held by future Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. In a Landmark/Rosetta Stone poll of 500 voters. Former Secretary of State Karen Handel leads at 21.7%, followed by State Rep. and Tom Price’s wife Betty Price at 10%. State Senator Judson Hill, who officially announced his bid, has 8.4%, and State Senator Brandon Beach at 4%. 55.7% are undecided.
There are several caveats to consider when considering the results. First of all, not all potential candidates are listed. Others, including Sen. John Albers and House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones were not included, for example. In addition, it is widely believed by insiders that should Handel run, Betty Price would not, and vice versa. IN addition, there were no Democratic names in the poll.
While candidates can explore their options now, Tom Price is unlikely to resign his seat until after he is confirmed by the Senate, which could be in late January. Between qualifying and the election, which is likely to include a runoff, the race may not be settled until June.
** Update **
Crosstabs are below the fold.
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Jon Richards
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Without “unidentified Dem” this is just starting name id. Moving on.
Thanks for posting, Jon. The Democratic Party stated that they do not have a candidate as of yet, though I’d expect them to at some point, of course. But we won’t just make up a name.
Sen. John Albers is apparently not running, so we didn’t include his name at this juncture. Rep. Jan Jones’ name was not added in time for the survey, but she would do well in North Fulton, I would assume. We’ll add & delete candidate names on the head-to-head ballot question as others exit the race or confirm their entrance, or at least start aggressively calling around to gain support as a potential candidate.
In the 2014 Republican U.S. Senate primary, the 6th District gave Handel 39%, David Perdue 31%, Jack Kingston 14%, Phil Gingrey 9% and Paul Broun 5%. The district cast about 53,000 votes in that contest, with the Cobb portion accounting for about 36% of the district’s total turnout, DeKalb 21% and Fulton 43%.
In the last 40 years, Georgia has had 5 special congressional elections—in 1977 (to replace Andy Young, who became Jimmy Carter’s UN ambassador), 1983 (to fill the vacancy left by death of Larry McDonald), 1999 (to fill vacancy due to New Gingrich’s resignation), 2007 (to fill seat of the late Augusta Congressman Charlie Norwood) and 2010 (to fill seat left vacant when Deal resigned early to campaign for governor).
I thought we were through with Karen Handel.