UPDATED
GOP Has One Less Seat To Defend In State Senate

Update at 4:12 p.m. adds demographic context. New material highlighted.

(5/13/08) It appears there will be one less general election contest on the ballot for Senate Republicans to defend this year. On paper, at least, it looked to be the single most competitive one.

Republican Sen. Johnny Grant’s Democratic challenger, Ben Mitcham of Gray, told The Jones County News last week he was “suspending” his campaign because he’s found he doesn’t live in the 25th District. Click here for the link.

“I am shocked and chagrined to realize that after the latest reapportionment, my residence lies a few yards outside the district,” he told the newspaper in a press release. “I am therefore suspending my campaign and congratulate Sen. Grant on what appears to be his impending re-election without opposition.”

However, the Secretary of State’s office said Tuesday that it had not been formally notified of Mitcham’s action.

The district has a growing Republican presence but still includes large Democratic enclaves and is, therefore, considered a battleground seat. Grant, who is completing his second term, is the first Republican to represent the disrict in the Senate in a seat once held by the late Sen. Culver Kidd.

The district includes Baldwin, Butts, Greene, Hancock, Jasper, Jones (in part), Morgan, Putnam, Taliaferro and Warren (in part).

Grant, who was re-elected with 57 percent in 2006 against Democrat Bruce Gilbert, is the only Senate Republican who represents a district that is over 30 percent black in voter registration. (Democrats represent the other 21 Senate districts with black voter registration of more than 30 percent.)

The district voted narrowly Democratic (51 percent) on Super Tuesday, although the growing Lake Oconee region (Greene, Morgan and Putnam) voted heavily Republican.