While the above Congressional race saw over 42,000 voters cast ballots, the other runoffs in the state were decided by a much small number of individuals – anywhere between 700 and 5,000 voters depending on the district and race (with some races being decided by just eight votes). There were three state legislators forced into these runoffs due to the outcome of the May elections, and all three lost to their competitors in the July 26th runoff (even though they had garnered more votes than their opponents back in May). One of these incumbents not returning is State Rep. Tom Dickson (R-Cohutta), forced into the runoff by 16 votes in May, and losing outright on the 26th to Chatsworth farmer Jason Ridley by just over 300 votes. Dickson is one of the four credit union board members in the state Legislature, as he serves on Georgia United CU’s board. However, he did not go down without a fight from the industry; on Thursday, July 21st volunteers made get-out-the-vote calls to help support his campaign. The group of 11 people made a significant number of calls in just over two hours of phone banking: More than 1,000 calls were placed with 518 direct contacts encouraging people to vote for Dickson, with a surprise visitor joining in the calls – Rep. Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth), who serves on Peach State FCU’s board.
Credit union volunteers, assisted by State Rep. Brooks Coleman (left center) make pre-runoff calls on behalf of then-State Rep. Tom Dickson (right center)
While the industry will miss having Rep. Dickson in the Legislature, we appreciate the efforts of the credit union volunteers from the phone bank night for the runoff as well as the phone bank night held for him in the primary. In elections nothing is a given, and if you are winning all the time you aren’t taking risks – and taking a risk on a credit union person is never a bad move regardless of the outcome! Thank you to all the volunteers from Associated CU, Georgia’s Own CU, Georgia United CU and GCUA who made calls last week for the runoff, and the volunteers from Georgia United CU, Rome Kraft FCU, and GCUA who staffed the phone bank night held in May before the primary.
