Wilkinson wins the 50th

ROYSTON, GEORGIA – Republican John Wilkinson won over a significant majority of voters to defeat former State Representative Rick Austin in Tuesday’s Runoff for the 50^th District Georgia Senate seat.

Senator-Elect John Wilkinson and his Grandson

Wilkinson’s ended the night with 58.6% of the vote, 7166 ballots out of the total 12,237 cast. Overall turnout was lower than the more than 15000 votes cast in November.

Wilkinson actually added to his General Election performance bringing more than 1000 new voters to his runoff total.

Austin lost votes, pulling 6771 in the General but only 5071 in the runoff.

This was one of the dirtiest local campaigns I have seen in nearly 30 years behind the microphone.

Attacks came from both candidates but the anonymous mailers and illegal campaign calls were all aimed against John Wilkinson. It is impossible to tell for sure if the outcome of Tuesday’s runoff was a rejection of such tactics by the voters.

The loss by Austin is also a blow to the leaders of the Republican Caucus in the Senate. The leadership there gave almost $12,000 to the Austin Campaign directly. They were counting on his support in their attempt to keep Lt Governor Casey Cagle from regaining control of the Senate.

Cagle endorsed Wilkinson, but the Senator Elect says he is beholding to no one in the ongoing power struggle. “He (Cagle) didn’t ask but I wouldn’t have given him such a commitment even if he had.” Wilkinson explained last week, “My only commitment will be to the constituents of the 50th district.”

Wilkinson will report to the capitol in January to serve out the remainder of the unexpired term of Jim Butterworth. Of course, since this was a special election, we will have to go through all of this again next year during the 2012 cycle.

99% of precincts reporting
Total Precincts: 61
Election Day Voting: 61 / 61   (100%)
Early Voting (In Person): 61 / 61   (100%)
Early Voting (By Mail): 61 / 61   (100%)