Pubdate: Wed, 21 Aug 2002
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2002 Cox Interactive Media.
Contact:  http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: Melanie Eversley, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?174 (Georgia Barr)

REPUBLICANS PICK LOW-KEY CANDIDATE

U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, a conservative Republican perhaps best known for his 
attempts to drive President Clinton out of the White House, conceded 
shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday to fellow Republican Rep. John Linder in 
their primary election contest to represent the 7th Congressional District.

The Associated Press declared Linder the winner shortly after 10 p.m.

The lopsided results marked the end of a sometimes slapstick race 
characterized by insults, one-liners, a controversy over a cartoon 
character and the accidental shooting of a gun. The district is heavily 
Republican, but Linder will face Democrat Michael Berlon in the November 
general election.

With eyes misting and his wife, Jeri, by his side, Barr hugged and thanked 
supporters who crowded into the 1818 Club in Duluth.

"We've been watching the numbers, and they don't look nearly as good as we 
would have hoped," the 53-year-old congressman told a somber crowd of 300, 
many with tears in their eyes.

Barr congratulated Linder, pledged his support and paid homage to hundreds 
of campaign workers who went door to door, made telephone calls and hung 
Bob Barr literature on doorknobs in the heated, sometimes nasty campaign.

"We've accomplished as a team more than any other congressman accomplishes 
in an entire lifetime and I appreciate that," Barr said.

Linder, a low-key lawmaker known for working behind the scenes, expressed 
his gratitude to supporters next door at the Gwinnett Civic and Cultural 
Center.

"He ran a good campaign. We ran a better one," said Linder, 59.

Barr, the sober-faced and outspoken congressman often depicted as a 
bulldog, watched results come in privately, holed up in a Duluth hotel 
room, and later conceded to supporters quietly.

Linder, a soft-spoken policy expert who almost seems to avoid the public 
eye, laughed with about 200 supporters in the civic center ballroom.

Both incumbents, Linder in office for 10 years and Barr for eight, came to 
do battle after the redistricting process Democrats controlled in 2000 
pitted them against each other.

At first, both kept to their promise to run a clean campaign. But as time 
passed and opinion polls showed the two in a virtual dead heat, the 
nastiness emerged.

Barr made fun of the fact that Linder often declines to give an opinion on 
issues, saying he has no right to insert himself into people's lives. A 
Barr commercial portrayed Barr as a bulldog and Linder as a whining, 
whimpering dachshund. Linder touted himself as a family man, married to his 
wife, Lynne, for 39 years, while he spoke of Barr's three marriages.

Linder teased Barr about an incident in which an antique gun accidentally 
fired in the home of a Barr supporter while Barr and another person were 
handling it. Days later, a Linder supporter dressed as the cartoon 
character Yosemite Sam, known for shooting off pistols, mingled at a 
pro-Barr event, touting himself as Barr's "personal gun safety trainer." 
Adding steam to the fracas was a video on an Internet Web site that showed 
Barr's adult son, Derek, shoving the man dressed as Yosemite Sam.

Late Tuesday night, Linder supporters -- mingling in the ballroom and 
surrounded by red, white and blue balloons imprinted with "Linder" -- said 
they believe the negative campaigning hurt Barr. They also said Barr was 
perceived as an outsider.

"The reality is that Bob Barr appeals to a small number of people who 
believe you get things done by yelling and screaming," said B.J. Van Gundy, 
Linder's campaign manager in Gwinnett County. "John Linder thinks like the 
majority. You work with people to get things done."

Linder's approval ratings were high before the race started, added Ed 
Brookover, a Linder campaign consultant. "In the end, what came through was 
that John was a solid leader," Brookover said.

The contest would have been disappointing to Georgia Republicans no matter 
what the outcome, said U.S. Rep. Johnny Isakson, a Republican.

"We had two good men and we lost one," Isakson said. "Redistricting is a 
process which sometimes has unfortunate results. This time and in this 
case, it resulted in two incumbents having to challenge one another. It's 
just disappointing."
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager