Election Day

There's actually an election in northeast Georgia today, a special election for Congress to replace the late Republican Charlie Norwood. Jim Whitehead, a Republican state Senator, is favored in this very red district, but some think it will come down to what is on the forefront of the minds of the voters.

In particular, it will be studied for what it portends about the political impact of the two big "I's": immigration and Iraq.

Former state Sen. Jim Whitehead, widely considered the front-runner, is a conservative in the mold of Norwood, who died in February of lung disease and cancer. He's a staunch opponent of illegal immigration and wants to stay the course in the Iraq war.

He said Monday he was taken out of context when he was quoted as saying early in the campaign that Iraq was "not a big thing" in the district. But he was unwavering in his opinion of what is the hot-button issue is in this race.

"If you talk to a hundred people, somewhere in the mid-90s want to talk about illegal immigration," said Whitehead, who resigned from the Legislature to run for the congressional seat.

But if Whitehead can be forced into a runoff July 17, the war could be the reason. James Marlow, the former Yahoo executive who is the best funded of three Democrats in the race, is banking on it being more on the minds of voters than Whitehead and most of the other Republican candidates think.

"At this point, Iraq is the most expensive issue. We've been fighting a war on a credit card, and the card is owned by the Chinese," said Marlow.

It's in Whitehead's interest to play down Iraq and play up immigrant-hating. But immigration didn't have that much of an impact in 2006. We'll see how it plays today; the smart money is for a runoff between Whitehead and Marlow. Actually, it's likely to come down to turn out, because nobody expects that many people to get to the polls.

UPDATE: Marlow has a blog and has some action items up there in case you know anyone in NE Georgia that you can get to the polls.