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Home / Fayette County / Coker wins DA runoff, Ferguson beats Crane for Congress

Coker wins DA runoff, Ferguson beats Crane for Congress

Tue, 07/26/2016 - 10:44pm Cal Beverly

Fayette County overwhelmingly voted for Mike Crane to be the next 3rd District congressman and Rudjard Hayes to be the next district attorney for the Griffin Judicial Circuit in the Republican primary runoff July 26.

The problem for the two candidates was that the other counties involved in those races voted overwhelmingly for their opponents.

The result: West Point dentist and former mayor Drew Ferguson beat Coweta state Senator Crane across the district 54 percent to 46 percent.

While Fayette chose Tyrone resident Hayes for DA, the other three counties turned out heavily for current Assistant DA Ben Coker, a Thomaston resident, who crushed Hayes for the open seat of district attorney.

With 97% of the precincts counted by 10 p.m. Tuesday night, Ferguson had 22,354 votes, while Crane had 19,115, a difference of 3,239 votes.

Ferguson will face a Democrat in the November general election but the district is one of the most Republican in the state, and the former West Point mayor is expected to be the next congressman, replacing Lynn Westmoreland.

Across the 4-county Griffin Circuit, Coker polled 62% of the vote (8,916) while Hayes gathered 38% (5,459 votes). Hayes was crushed in Coker’s home county of Upson 2,581 votes to 114 votes. It was almost as bad in Pike, where Coker beat the Fayette resident 1,277 to 234. In Spalding it was Coker 3,368 to 1,761 for Hayes.

In other races decided Tuesday, the oldest serving legislator in Georgia, Republican John Yates of Griffin, District 73 state representative, lost his reelection bid to Griffin chiropractor Karen Mathiak 56% to 44%. Yates had served in the Georgia House for two decades. A World War II artillery reconnaisance pilot during the Battle of the Bulge, Yates is one of only two remaining WWII veterans still serving in state legislatures in the U.S. District 73 covers Brooks and a part of south Fayette County.

In a Democrat primary runoff for a House seat partly in north Fayette, Debra Bazemore was in a tight lead over Linda Pritchett 51% (1,027 votes) to 49% (971 votes) for the District 63 Democrat nomination.

Location: 
Fayette County
Regional

Comments

borntorun wrote on Wed, 07/27/2016 - 7:44am
Good!  Not sure why anyone would vote for a DA who lied about his prosecution rates and inflated his resume like Hayes did.  As for Crane, what a whackjob! 
darrylwd's picture
darrylwd wrote on Thu, 07/28/2016 - 7:00pm
Whackjob?  Please provide a reasonable explanation as to how you come to that conclusion, and please separate your illogical emotions while developing your answer.
Spyglass wrote on Wed, 07/27/2016 - 8:47am
Can the robo calls and mass mailings now stop?  They both discouraged me from voting in this run-off, which is very rare. 
kathryne lee wrote on Wed, 07/27/2016 - 9:17am
My recycle bin was half full of political garbage.  You know how expensive that is?  Makes you wonder if you want some elected who puts out two flyers a day!  Wasteful spending.
kathryne lee wrote on Wed, 07/27/2016 - 9:16am
Crane thought he had it in the bag.  Such a foolish move for him to get Cruz to come to endorse him publically.  Would much rather have a former mayor of a small town represent me in Washington than a career politician like Crane.  He went dirty first and that is when he lost my vote.
darrylwd's picture
darrylwd wrote on Thu, 07/28/2016 - 7:08pm
Mike Crane thought he had it in the bag?  Please provide how you came to that conclusion using factual information and reasoning.  You call Mike Crane also a career politician, please provide your definition of a career politician and then provide the evidence that proves Mike Crane fits the real definition of a career politician.  You also state "he went dirty first", please show where Mike Crane went dirty at all, much less first.  If you can't do any or all of these, don't spread disparaging words that are untrue, unfounded and unmerited.
FayetteBorn wrote on Wed, 07/27/2016 - 11:47am
Interested to see the fate of David McDade under the new DA. Googling his name will tell you why I wonder.
AtHomeGym wrote on Wed, 07/27/2016 - 3:15pm
McDade Looks like pretty old news to me! Besides that case was settled by McDade paying $4,000 to have the investigation quashed--and he is no longer t a DA--so why do you think ANYTHING would happen because of this election
Husband and Fat... wrote on Wed, 07/27/2016 - 3:19pm
I guess because he currently works for FC under Mr. Ballard.
Spyglass wrote on Thu, 07/28/2016 - 11:02am
That headline still makes me chuckle.  :)
jbcriswell wrote on Sat, 07/30/2016 - 11:52am
David McDade has got to go. He is bad news and we don't need him in our district. A friend of mine worked with him at Douglas County and he thought he  was the King over there. Nobody had better mess with him or he'd squash them.  He was the worst at abusing power and influence at Douglas. He "paid" his pals for doing nothing for years.  Please tell me how that works if you are the DA. That is a terrible example to set for your staff. I bet an insider turned McDade in to the Eye Team and that is how his world came down. The DA's office has got to be above reproach and clean to all investigations. Ben Coker please do the right thing and get McDade out of the DA's office. McDade is a cancer and will impact others in your dept. McDade's atitude reminds me of a Bruce Jordan that believes he is above the law and answers to no one. That did not work well for Bruce in the long run.

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