Southwest Georgia’s congressional delegation qualifies for re-election

ATLANTA —Southwest Georgia incumbent congressional delegation members whose seats are up for decision this year have qualified to run for their respective seats, and each drew opposition on the first day of qualifying.

U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, qualified to run for re-election as representative of Georgia’s Second Congressional District.

Bishop qualified Monday for the seat that he has held since 1993. He is seeking his 13th two-year term of office and serves on the House Appropriations Committee and subcommittees on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies; on Financial Services, and on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies.

Bishop has drawn no opposition from within the Democratic Party. He has picked up a potential opponent in the Nov. 8 general election. Bobby Scott, a Columbus lawyer, qualified Monday to run as a Republican.

U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, whose 8th Congressional District abuts the 2nd District, also qualified Monday.

Scott, who is completing his third two-year term of office, serves on the House Armed Services Committee and its subcommittees on Readiness and Oversight and Investigation, and on the Committee on Agriculture, where he chairs its Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy and Credit, and is a member of its subcommittees on Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology and Foreign Agriculture, and on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management.

He, too, drew opposition that he would meet in November. James Neal Harris, a private investigator from Gray, qualified Monday to run as a Democrat.

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Atlanta, has drawn opposition both from the Democrats and within his own party.

Isakson, who qualified Monday, is seeking his third six-year term in the Senate. Before joining the Senate in 2005, he served three two-year terms in the U.S. House.

He’s the only senator in the 114th Congress to chair two committees — the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. Isakson also is a member of the Senate’s committees on Finance; on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and on Foreign Relations.

He will be challenged in the May 24 GOP primary by fellow Republican Derrick “Tmot” Grayson, a senior network engineer from Redan.

Meanwhile, Cheryl Copeland of Hiram, a project manager, and James Knox, an information technologist whose listing on the Secretary of State’s Elections Office website did not show a city of residence, has qualified to run as a Democrat.

Qualifying continues through noon Friday.

By Tuesday, other qualifiers in Georgia congressional districts were:

District 1, now held by Rep. Buddy Carter: no qualifiers listed;

District 3 (held by Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, who is retiring): Drew Ferguson, a West Point dentist; Jim Pace, a Peachtree City businessman, and Mike Crane, a Newnan general contractor have qualified as Republicans;

District 4: Rep. Hank Johnson has qualified;

District 5: Rep. John Lewis has qualified;

District 6: Rep. Tom Price, R-Roswell, has qualified; Rodney Stooksbury, no city listed, retired from aerospace work, qualified as a Democrat;

District 7: Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Lawrenceville, has qualified; Rashid Malik of Lawrenceville, CEO of Malik College, qualified as a Democrat;

District 9: Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, qualified; Roger Fitzpatrick of Cleveland, an educator, qualified, also as a Republican;

District 10: Rep. Jody Hice, R-Bethlehem, has qualified;

District 11: Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, has qualified; Hayden Collins, no city listed, an analyst, has qualified as a Republican;

District 12: Rep. Rick Allen, R-Augusta, has qualified; Eugene Yu, an Evans retiree, qualified as a Republican; Tricia Carpenter McCracken of Augusta, a freelance journalist and historic preservationist, qualified as a Democrat;

District 13: Rep. David Scott, D-Riverdale, has qualified;

District 14: Rep. Tom Graves, R-Calhoun, has qualified.