Georgia state elections
By JARED PUTNAM

Lieutenant Governor Elect Casey Cagle.

Decision 2006 will largely be remembered as an election in which voters instigated sweeping change by handing control of congress to the Democratic Party. But voters in Georgia bucked the national trend, electing and reelecting Republicans by significant margins.

Four years ago Georgians made history by electing Governor Sonny Perdue, the first Republican governor since Reconstruction. This year Peach State voters not only opted for four more years of Perdue, but went a step further, electing Republican Casey Cagle to replace outgoing Lt. Governor Mark Taylor, making Cagle the first Republican Lt. Governor in the history of the state.

Cagle is a Gainesville native who ran his campaign focusing largely on better job creation and education reform through block grant funding. He never trailed in the polls after pulling an upset victory over opponent Ralph Reed in the Republican Primary. Cagle himself even acknowledged that his win over Reed was his "biggest hurdle." Voters in Union County overwhelmingly

supported both Cagle and Perdue, as Cagle received 4,498 votes (66.01 percent) followed by Democrat Jim Martin with 2,087 (30.63 percent) and Libertarian Allen Buckley with 228 (3.35 percent). Governor Perdue picked up 4,915 votes (70.95 percent) followed by Taylor with 1,747 (25.22 percent) and Libertarian Garrett Hayes with 261 (3.77 percent). The official statewide tally

shows Cagle with 1,132,343 votes (54.1 percent) to challenger Jim Martin's 886,075 (43.2 percent). Libertarian Allen Buckley received 75,534 (3.6 percent). Governor Perdue outdistanced his challengers even more easily, pulling down 1,227,386 (57.9 percent) votes across the state while Taylor saw his campaign produce a disappointing 809,736 (38.2 percent). Hayes received 81,254 (3.8 percent).