2008 Georgia elections

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Georgia's state elections were held on November 4, 2008. Theprimary elections were held on February 5, also known asSuper Tuesday.

In the general election, Republican nomineeJohn McCain prevailed over Democratic nomineeBarack Obama in Georgia by 52.23% to 47.02%. McCain's five point margin of victory was significantly down fromGeorge W. Bush's seventeen point margin of victory overJohn Kerryin 2004. Though Obama benefited from high turnout byblack and young voters as well as strong performance in Georgia's Urban areas, McCain's comparatively stronger performance in the rural northern and southeastern parts of the state, as well as winning seventy-seven percent of white voters,^[3] gave him the overall victory.

The 2008 Presidential election was particularly interesting in the state of Georgia considering that of the several independent and third-party candidates who ran for president that year, two of them were from Georgia (those being former RepublicanRepresentativeBob Barr (L) (who placed third overall in the popular vote in Georgia) and former Democratic RepresentativeCynthia McKinney (G)).

During the 2008 Congressional elections, Georgia'sClass IISenate seat and all thirteenHouse seats were up for election.

In 2008, incumbent SenatorSaxby Chambliss (R) ran for re-election for a second term. His opponents were former Commissioner of Human ResourcesJim Martin (D) and Attorney andCPA Allen Buckley (L).

Despite holding a substantial lead over Martin for most of the year, however, the race tightened following theSeptember 2008 market collapse and Chambliss's vote for theEmergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, otherwise commonly known as the bailout package. Martin criticized his opponent for voting for the bailout and also, as earlier, repeatedly claimed he supported a supposed twenty-three percent increase in taxes (referring to theFairTax) during his career in Congress. Chambliss accused his opponent, who cast himself as a fiscal conservative, of acting hypocritically for increasing and padlocking his own salary as Commissioner of Human Resources from 2002 to 2003 while the state of Georgia was experiencing a budget crisis. Libertarian nominee Allen Buckley, who on occasion joined Martin in his disapproval of Chambliss's vote for the controversial bailout, campaigned positioning himself as an alternative to both of the major party candidates.

On election day, Chambliss was kept below the minimum of fifty percent plus one vote to win outright, winning 49% to Martin's 46%, and was thus forced into a runoff. Both campaigns sought the endorsement of Buckley, but he refused to endorse either candidate. Chambliss ultimately prevailed over Martin in the December runoff winning 57.4% to 42.6%.

All thirteen of Georgia's incumbent Representatives sought re-election in 2008. Going into the elections, Republicans held seven of Georgia's U.S. House seats and Democrats held six seats.

Despite significant gains by Republicans in Georgia since 2002, such as consecutive Republican victories since in Presidential electionssince 1996, gaining both ofGeorgia's U.S. Senate seats, the election ofSonny Perdue as Georgia's first post-Reconstruction Republican governor in 2002, successful elections of Republicans to other state executive offices, and gaining control of both chambers of the Georgia General Assembly for the first time since Reconstruction, Democrats have succeeded in gaining seats of Georgia's House delegation in recent House elections.

Despite Republican efforts to oust RepresentativesJim Marshall (GA-8) andJohn Barrow (GA-12), who were each re-elected in 2006 by extremely close margins despite that being a bad year for Republicans, both of them were re-elected by significant margins. None of Georgia's House seats changed hands in this election.

In 2008, two seats on theGeorgia Public Service Commission were up for election. Though candidates must come from the districts that they wish to represent on the commission, they are elected statewide.

2008 Georgia Public Service Commission District 1 election

← 2002 November 4, 2008 2014 →

Candidate H. Doug Everett John Monds Party Republican Libertarian Popular vote 2,147,012 1,076,726 Percentage 66.6% 33.4%

Everett:     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90% Monds:     50–60%     60–70%

2008 Georgia Public Service Commission District 4 election

← 2002 November 4, 2008 (first round) December 2, 2008 (runoff) 2014 →

Candidate Lauren W. "Bubba" McDonald Jim Powell Party Republican Democratic First round 1,708,972 47.22% 1,732,147 47.87% Runoff 1,136,217 56.52% 874,112 43.48%

First round county results Runoff county results McDonald:     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90% Powell:     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%

In 2008, two seats on theSupreme Court of Georgia and three on theGeorgia Court of Appeals were up for election. All judicial elections in Georgia are officially non-partisan.

Incumbent state Supreme Court Associate JusticesRobert Benham andHarris Hines were re-elected without opposition.^[5]

Two judges, those beingGary Andrews andCharles B. Mikell, were re-elected without opposition and one,John H. Ruffin, Jr, retired.^[6]

Following Ruffin's retirement announcement, a field of candidates emerged to run for the seat. The seven candidates who would run in the election wereDekalb County prosecutor Mike Sheffield, state Senators (former and then-current respectivelyPerry McGuire (R) (the2006 Republican Attorney General nominee) andMichael Meyer von Bremen (D) (who at the time was the Chairman of the Senate Special Judiciary committee), and attorneysSara Doyle,^[7]Tamela Adkins,Christopher McFadden, andBruce Edenfield. No candidate was able to win the race outright and so the top two vote getters, Doyle and Sheffield, would face each other in the run off. Doyle narrowly prevailed in the runoff to win election to the Court of Appeals.

Three proposed amendments to theGeorgia State Constitution were placed on the ballot for Georgian voters to decide. The proposed amendments were:

• Offer a conservation property tax reduction to property owners to encourage conservation of forests.
• Allow local school districts to use tax dollars for community redevelopment projects.
• Create special Infrastructure Development Districts.

The first two proposed amendments were passed, while the third was rejected.^[9]

• Statewide qualifiers
• Primary election results
• Primary runoff results

• 2008 Georgia (U.S. state) elections
• 2008 elections in the United States by state

• Articles with short description
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• Use mdy dates from September 2023