By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

Republicans are hailing last week's Super Tuesday Presidential Primary results as evidence that voters are ready to put a Republican in the White House, while Democrats see it quite differently.

Statewide, more than 600,000 voters cast blue Republican ballots, while just over 280,000 used the white Democrat ballot. In Fayette County, admittedly a GOP stronghold, the gap was even wider — 15,000 to 2,500.

Local voting mirrored that of the nine states involved in Super Tuesday balloting. In all, there were just under eight million Republican ballots cast compared to about 6.6 million Democratic ones.

“I don't think you can ignore the fact that Fayette County has spoken, and the voters are more attracted by what a John McCain or a George Bush has to say than they are with Al Gore or Bill Bradley,” said Eric Dial, chairman of the Fayette County Republican Party.

State GOP Chairman Chuck Clay put it more strongly. “Democrats all over the state have to be shaking their heads and wondering what happened. This is a clear rejection of Clinton/Gore by Georgia voters,” he said.

Not so, said Judy Chidester, first vice chairman of the Fayette County Democratic Party. “Bradley didn't really make that many serious attempts south of the Mason-Dixon line,” said Chidester.

Since the race was obviously not going to be close, Democrats were less motivated to go to the polls, she said. “Nobody was very surprised that [Gore] looks like he's going to be the nominee, and Republicans have been going pretty hot and heavy,” she added.

Dial agreed that Gore's commanding lead over Bradley may have skewed the numbers somewhat, but he insisted there's also a ground swell of voter sympathy for the Republican candidates. ”This is an indication of the way people feel about the current administration for one thing,” he said.

“Now it's our responsibility to see that it continues, and we'll be working to get Republican voters to the polls,” he added.

Chidester said Gore's popularity in Georgia is evidenced by the success of the Jefferson-Jackson fund-raising dinner. “We raised a million dollars,” she said. “The state is obviously strongly for Gore. The governor and all the major people in the state are for him.

“I'm pretty confident that, no matter who the Republican nominee is, Al Gore can defeat them,” she added