The facts ma’am, only the facts -- Part II (Court of Appeals race)

Last week on my website under recent quotables I noted:

July 29 -- MORE DEBATES SPONSORED BY THE GEORGIA PRESS CLUB:

-- 7:00 p.m. Friday, Aug. 6: The Democratic runoff for U.S. Senate between Denise Majette and Cliff Oxford.

-- 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 6: The non-partisan runoff for the Georgia Court of Appeals between Debra Bernes and Mike Sheffield. Friends, this race needs our attention.

July 25 -- Seasoned and knowledgeable Dick Pettys of the AP has a good article posted 7-25-04 (I saw it in the Macon Telegraph) entitled "Is Christian right losing its punch in Georgia politics?" that takes us back on memory lane to days of 1988 and Pat Robertson. You need to read this article.

One point that Dick does not make, though, was made in ajc's Political Insider dated 7-22-04 on the Christian Coalition in the context of Court of Appeals candidate Mike Sheffield, and is the reason that this group can never be overlooked:

"SAYS SADIE FIELDS: PLAYING BALL WITH THE CHRISTIAN COALITION WILL GET YOU 200,000 VOTES -- BUT NOT A SUPREME COURT SEAT

Sadie Fields, executive director of the Georgia Christian Coalition, sets her organization's value at 204,899 votes -- roughly 16 percent of all ballots cast on Tuesday.

That's the number of votes that Mike Sheffield got in the six-way state Court of Appeals race. Sheffield and Grant Brantley, the unsuccessful candidate for the state Supreme Court, were the only two statewide judicial candidates who cooperated with the Christian Coalition's summer questionnaire. Their glossy photographs appeared on half a million fliers distributed in hundreds of churches across the state.

Brantley had his own problems, but he had his own resources, too, so it's difficult to determine what oomph the Coalition provided.

But Sheffield is a Democrat, who had no money and little other exposure in the campaign, other than the Christian Coalition fliers.

'That's the watermark for me,' Fields said."