New AJC Poll Results on Gov. and Lt. Gov. Races

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is rather newsy this morning with article on the general election that is five weeks away from today.

The AJC's Jim Galloway reports that the AJC has released a Mason-Dixon poll that it commisioned recently, conducted with the participation of 625 voters across the state of Georgia. The results between Cagle and Martin for Lt. Gov. differed slightly from previous results seen in the last few weeks. This one shows Cagle with 42% and in front by 10 points. However, there is still a rather large number of undecided voters.

With 5 weeks to go, Galloway also reports that Cagle will be pulling out a very big gun when Arizona Sen. John McCain comes to Georgia to help him raise money. I suppose this is further proof that Sen. McCain is cozying up to religious conservatives across the country, perhaps building support for his own GOP run for the presidency in 2008.

In the governor's race, Jim Tharpe of the AJC reports that Perdue's lead over Taylor is 18 points, 52% to 34%, which is consistent with what we've seen so far. However, the Taylor campaign will be cranking up in the next few days and hitting Perdue very hard on several points. While the lead is big, Taylor's best chance of winning is perhaps to swing enough voters to move Perdue's percentage under the magic 50% plus one vote mark. If that happens, a runoff would give Taylor another chance to take Perdue down in a more level fight.

Meanwhile, the AJC's James Salzer has an article in today's paper about Rep. Larry O'Neal coming to Perdue's rescue on the tax bill that landed the Gov. a $100,000 tax break on a Georgia land deal. News of this came on the heels of the governor defending his land acquisition in Florida by saying that investing in land in Georgia might create a conflict. Perdue, the only sitting governor to ever be fined for ethics violations, will have to continue to defend himself on this.

But Taylor's starting to hit him on healthcare, which is smart. I hope to also see him continue to remind voters about Perdue's about face on education. Early on his first term, Perdue made cuts in the education budget, only to replace those cuts this year.

Now, the AJC's Shannon McCaffrey reports that Perdue is looking for "graduation coaches." With such conflicting messages about his support for public education, look for Taylor to come out and ask for the "real Sonny Perdue" to stand up on education. Because frankly, we can only tell which is which by whether or not its an election year.