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." - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager