Other races of area importance:
The race for Georgia’s contested U.S. Senate seat pits two-term Republican incumbent Johnny Isakson of Atlanta against Democratic challenger Jim Barksdale, a Macon native now an investment consultant in Atlanta.
For a dozen years now, Isakson has served effectively and with integrity. As chair of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, he has been active in addressing some of the terrible conditions in VA health facilities and reforming those agencies’ inefficient and often self-serving bureaucracies.
As important as anything in Isakson’s record – especially in this bitterly, sometimes poisonously divided political culture -- is his effectiveness in working across the aisle for things that matter. The 2010 arms control treaty with Russia, the 2014 effort to restore threatened pension funds for Army officers forced to retire early, the securing of compensation for families of the 1979-80 Iran hostages and legislation to protect Peace Corps volunteers are just a few of the bipartisan achievements in which Johnny Isakson was instrumental.
So it’s little wonder that prominent Democrats are likewise crossing party lines and supporting Isakson – among them former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, former state House Speaker Terry Coleman and former Gov. Roy Barnes, who once said that “if all Republicans were like Johnny, I would be a Republican.”
As we have done twice before, we enthusiastically endorse Johnny Isakson for election to the United States Senate.
Democrat Sanford Bishop, who has represented Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District for 24 years, is challenged again this year by Republican Greg Duke, an Albany optician whom Bishop defeated in 2014.
A longtime member of the “Blue Dog” Democratic coalition, Bishop has represented the interests of southwest Georgia diligently and well, especially in the realm of agriculture. He has been a steadfast champion of Fort Benning and of military matters in general; as co-chair of the Congressional Military Family Caucus he has represented the interests of those serving in uniform and their loved ones; he is also the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies.
His bipartisan approach to governing, like Isakson’s, is well documented. (On the Library of Congress list of bills showing Bishop as a co-sponsor, more than 40 of the most recent 100 list a Republican as the primary sponsor.) Rep. Sanford Bishop again gets our nod for Congress from the 2nd District.
Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District, which reaches from Columbus north to Carrollton and west to near the Atlanta airport, has been represented for the last 12 years by Republican Lynn Westmoreland of Sharpsburg. Westmoreland’s decision not to seek reelection leaves the seat contested between Republican Drew Ferguson of West Point and Democrat Angela Pendley of Grantville.
The clear edge here goes to Ferguson. His civic experience, including stints as a West Point alderman and later mayor, is a useful foundation for service at a higher level.
There is also, from our perspective, the “homer” factor. While Westmoreland has served the district ably and well, Ferguson has a lifetime’s familiarity with the Chattahoochee Valley, its people and its needs. We endorse Drew Ferguson for election to Congress from Georgia’s 3rd District.
At the state level, Sen. Josh McKoon (R) is seeking reelection to the District 29 seat he has held for three terms. He is challenged by Democrat Ben Anderson of Grantville.
We have endorsed McKoon in the past and do so again now, as we likely would do even if he faced a stronger opponent. His leadership on the issue of ethics alone earns him accolades not just for being on the right side of public accountability, but for his willingness to take on the powers in his own party.
That willingness has sometimes gotten him into trouble -- and on occasion deservedly so. (The so-called religious “freedom” legislation effort is a case in point.)
But his active opposition to a misbegotten ballot measure (proposed Amendment 3) – also Republican-sponsored -- that would politicize oversight of the state’s court system is a right-minded statement of principle. It’s that kind of principle that earns Josh McKoon reelection to the Georgia Senate.
This story was originally published November 5, 2016 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Other races of area importance:."