Republican Party will continue
dominating politics in Gwinnett
By Sunny Warren
Chairman
Gwinnett County Republican Party
Special to GwinnettForum.com

DEC. 14, 2001 - - In a GwinnettForum column on Dec. 4, 2001, the Democrats suggest that our heavily Republican county is on the verge of becoming a Democratic stronghold. Unfortunately for the Democrats, election returns in the county point to the contrary.

Last November, Gwinnett gave President Bush 64 percent of the vote, compared with just 32 percent for Al Gore and three percent for Libertarian Harry Browne. To put this in perspective, no Democratic presidential candidate has been able to garner more than 35 percent of the vote in Gwinnett in the last five presidential elections. Gwinnett gave the president more votes (121,756) than any other county in Georgia save for Cobb (140,494).

Republican dominance of the county is not limited to presidential candidates. Gwinnett routinely votes Republican in statewide races, and usually by substantial margins. In 1998, U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell defeated Democrat Michael Coles 65 to 31 percent in the county, while Republican Gubernatorial Nominee Guy Millner defeated Democrat Roy Barnes by a comfortable margin of 59 to 35 percent.

Five years ago in a U.S. Senate contest, Millner easily defeated Democrat Max Cleland by a 59 to 36 per cent. Not even Zell Miller, elected twice (in 1990 and 1994 as Georgia's governor) could break 42 per cent in Gwinnett either time. Since the beginning of the 1990s, no Democratic candidate for governor or U.S. Senator has been competitive (with the exception of current U.S. Senator Zell Miller's election last year).

The Democrats are correct that re-districting could (but not necessarily will) leave Gwinnett with an increased number of Democratic state legislators. This possibility, however, has more to do with Democratic manipulation of district lines during this past summer's re-districting special sessions than a shift in the voting patterns of most Gwinnett voters.

For example, while Gwinnett will include portions of the new 41st and 55th State Senate districts, two-thirds of each of these districts population will live in heavily Democrat DeKalb County, enhancing the Democrat performance of both districts. Even the new 13th Congressional District that takes the few Democrat precincts in Gwinnett is a grotesque example of the Democrats' manipulations, linking the county with southside Atlanta---two areas with little in common other than political preferences.

We remain confident that these new maps - - the worst case of political and racial gerrymandering in the nation and in the history of Georgia - - will be overturned by the federal courts. They violate the Voting Rights Act and they are an unconstitutional infringement of the integrity of local communities and the principle of one person, one vote.

To the extent that Democrat hopes for electing candidates in Gwinnett hinge on these maps, they hang by a very thin thread. Indeed, a federal district court recently struck down a redistricting plan in Illinois very similar to Georgia's legislative maps on the grounds that it violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution. It is sad that the Democratic Party, a party bereft of ideas and quality candidates, has to rely on rigging districts and gerrymandering communities in order to win elections.

Finally, the accusation that the county's legislative delegation is "hard right" is nonsense. The voting records of Gwinnett's Republican delegation are pro-business, pro-taxpayer, and pro-family. They are mainstream conservatives whose views reflect those of the vast majority of voters in Gwinnett County.

While Democrats can point to a few successes, recent countywide elections only reaffirm continued Republican victories in Gwinnett, a trend that likely will continue well into the coming decade.

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