Thankfully, the name calling and mudslinging that presented itself as a runoff is over and done with. After a race that sank state politics to some pretty low places, Republican Nathan Deal narrowly edged out fellow GOP member Karen Handel to win the right to face Democrat Roy Barnes in November.
More on that in a minute. First, it’s worth mentioning again that the contest between Deal and Handel was as ugly a scene as anyone in these parts — and many other parts, as well — has witnessed in a while. Nobody came out smelling like a rose in this one.
But while neither candidate took the high road, at least Handel had the grace to concede in the end rather than seek to prolong our collective misery.
Of course, some may ask whether anyone cared, given the abysmal turnout at the polls. Just 12 percent of Georgia voters bothered to vote in the runoff between the two GOP hopefuls.
There are various hypotheses and hunches on why this happened. The most obvious in Liberty County is the lack of a local race kept residents at home. But it’s not altogether out of the realm of possibility that the tenor of the runoff may have left voters deciding they wouldn’t want either Handel or Deal as governor, so they simply stayed away from the ballot box.
Whatever the case, it is water under the bridge. The coming election is what matters now, and all voters need to get engaged in the process.
We can start by demanding that both Barnes and Deal stick to issues and explain in detail how they can serve the residents of this state.
That doesn’t seem like too much to ask.