Ex-Lobbyist in Abramoff Case Loses Georgia Race
    By Shaila Dewan
    The New York Times

    Wednesday 19 July 2006

    Atlanta - Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition and a former Republican lobbyist involved in the Jack Abramoff scandal, suffered an embarrassing defeat in his effort to win the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor on Tuesday.

    Mr. Reed conceded defeat before 10 p.m., with his opponent leading by more than 10 percentage points.

    Early Wednesday, with more than 92 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Reed's opponent, State Senator Casey Cagle, led with 56 percent of the vote.

    Mr. Reed's candidacy was viewed as a test of the effects of the Washington lobbying scandal on core Republican voters.

    Mr. Reed, the former leader of the Georgia Republican Party, was a close associate of Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist who pleaded guilty to charges of fraud, tax evasion and bribery and who arranged for Mr. Reed to be paid by Indian tribes that ran casinos to coordinate anti-gambling campaigns against competing casinos.

    "It's clear that politicians that put money before their morals should be very worried by these results," said David Donnelly, the director of Campaign Money Watch, which spent $100,000 to campaign against Mr. Reed.

    But some Democrats actually rooted for Mr. Reed, believing that he would be prove to be a liability for the incumbent Republic governor, Sonny Perdue, and that he would have been easier to defeat.

    "It may mean that Democrats lose the lieutenant governor's race," said William Boone, a political science professor at Clark-Atlanta University. "It certainly takes away the issue of corruption that the Democrats nationally have been using."

    Mr. Perdue will be challenged by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, who defeated Cathy Cox, the secretary of state, in the Democratic primary.

    Most Republican office-holders in Georgia endorsed Senator Cagle, who spent most of the race lagging behind Mr. Reed in the polls. Some even asked Mr. Reed to drop out of the race.

    But Mr. Reed persevered, promising the most effective get-out-the-vote operation in Georgia history. In Cobb County, a key Republican area where he had boasted of winning a straw poll by more than 12 points, Mr. Reed lost with 11,600 votes to Mr. Cagle's 14,800.

    Throughout his campaign, Mr. Reed maintained that he did not know that the money he received through Mr. Abramoff came from gambling proceeds and said he was proud of helping to shut down casinos.

    "Tonight my candidacy for lieutenant governor comes to an end, but the ideas for which I stood, the values for which you have fought, and the governing philosophy that we believe in will go on, and it will go on to victory," he said in his concession speech.

    A Wallace Loses Alabama Race

    George C. Wallace Jr., the son of the former governor of Alabama, lost a Republican primary runoff for lieutenant governor on Tuesday.

    With 99 percent of the precincts reporting statewide, the unofficial count showed Mr. Wallace with 45 percent of the vote, while his opponent, Luther Strange, had 55 percent.

    Mr. Strange advances to the general election Nov. 7 against the Democratic nominee, James Folsom Jr., a former governor trying to restart his political career.