By Laura Halm
August 11, 2010
Gwinnett Broadcasting Company (GBC)

July 20th Georgia voters hit the polls to decide which candidate would represent their District, County and State, but close calls between candidates in several races lead to the next step – a Runoff Election.

From the beginning all eyes were on the 7th District after veteran Congressman John Linder announced he would be retiring after nearly 18 years. On July 20th the pool of GOP candidates was narrowed from 8 to 2, Rob Woodall and Jody Hice.

Yesterday with 30,920 unofficial votes, Rob Woodall will now be the GOP candidate in the November election competing against Democratic candidate Doug Heckman. Woodall says he could not be happier voters had such a positive response to his message, but says it’s a long road to November…

“So we’ll spend the next 3 months making sure we’re out talking to people. Continuing to share our message, one voter at a time and making sure we’ve talked to as many people as we can.”

Austin Carson, Jody Hice’s Campaign Manager says Hice plans to stay involved with the Republican Party, helping any way possible – that means supporting Rob Woodall in the November elections.

Lynette Howard came out top dog in County Commission District 2 – totaling 4,999 votes out of 9,620. Initially trailing behind opponent Keith Shewbert, Howard she waited until all the results were in before she started celebrating. Howard says being a political newcomer; she tried to run an upbeat and positive campaign…

“I think the mudslinging didn’t work in this campaign, and I think that’s what gave me the advantage.”

Four other candidates in Gwinnett took part in the Runoff Elections:
BJ Pak moves forward to November as the GOP candidate running for Clay Cox’s old seat, State House 102. Pak nabbing 54.32while opponent Linda Carsten held 45.68of the vote.

An extremely tight race for County Commission District 4 now leads to a waiting game until results are official. Just 263 votes between Candidate John Heard and Tim Sullivan. For now Heard is the victor grabbing 7,169 votes while Sullivan collected 6,906 votes.

Georgia’s Secretary of State will make election results official the week of August 16th.