A short history lesson by Tom Crawford.

The following is taken from an article by Tom Crawford in Georgia Trend:

There's been a major political realignment in Georgia over the past 15 years as we finally became a two-party state.

For more than a century, the state was ruled by a Democratic Party made up of two mini-parties: white conservatives from the rural counties and an urban group of African-Americans and white liberals. There were tensions between the two factions but in the absence of a credible Republican alternative, they could generally keep the coalition together. Georgia voters largely preferred Republican candidates in federal elections but were content to keep electing Democrats at the local level.

That dynamic changed as the GOP slowly gathered strength in the 1990s, and you could see more of the rural conservatives changing their preference from Democrat to Republican at all levels. This realignment accelerated in 2002 when Sonny Perdue upset Roy Barnes in the governor's race, and the process was largely completed when federal judges tossed out the Democrat-designed legislative election districts in 2004.

Thus we have seen a huge Republican wave flooding out Democrats in rural areas and building on its existing strength in suburban and exurban counties around Atlanta. The GOP now controls the governor's office and the legislature and one day will likely have most of the judgeships as well.

How long this new alignment will hold is the compelling question in state politics. In recent election cycles, Republicans have achieved dominance because they have done a much better job of organizing, raising money and recruiting good candidates. The Democratic Party, by contrast, appears all but brain dead in the face of the GOP onslaught. Small wonder that some Republicans confidently predict they will be in charge for a long, long time.