Athens lashes out
Ironically enough, the last Republican to win a fair election in a district that includes Athens/Clarke County was probably Brian Kemp, when in 2004 he defeated Democrat Becky Vaughn to hold a (previously gerrymandered by the Democrats) competitive state Senate seat that he'd first won in 2002. Facing the prospect of an open seat in 2006 (Kemp vacated to run an unsuccessful campaign for Ag Commissioner) the Republicans engaged in their first (but not last) mid-decade redistricting, cutting Athens in half to dilute Democratic votes. Even star Democratic recruit Jane Kidd (then a state House member, in the future a party chair) wasn't able to overcome the gerrymander.
Since then, Republicans like Bill Cowsert and Houston Gaines who live in Athens have been elected to the legislature exclusively by getting the votes of people who don't actually live in Athens through creative map drawing. On any fair map, Athens should have 1-2 more Democratic state reps and at least a 50/50 shot at electing a Democratic Senator. So should it be any surprise that when the voters finally get to vote in a non-gerrymandered election, like for District Attorney (Clarke's liberal voters outweigh the smaller conservative Oconee voters in the two-county Western circuit), they pick someone not to Gaines, Cowsert or Kemp's liking like Deborah Gonzalez?
It doesn't surprise me. If you put too much pressure on voters via gerrymandering, it's going to bottle up and explode where it can elsewhere. The state Constitution says that DA's shall be elected every four years by the voters, and the Supreme Court has wisely interpreted this to mean that Republicans can't resign and trigger election cancellations like they can with judicial races. So I have my doubts that Gaines and Cowsert's bills to rein in DA's will pass muster. But it's not surprising to see Republicans' love of local control exposed as just another lie once the locals do something they don't agree with. If Gaines and Cowsert want the voters to make better choices for DA, perhaps they could lead the way by passing fair maps that encourage compromise and moderation at all levels.
But that means Houston Gaines would have to move to somewhere lame - like Oconee - if he wants to stay in power, because if he drew a fair district for himself that let Athens voters decide on his future, his career would be over come November '24. I'm sorry to tell Republicans that ultimately there are consequences to all the bullshit majority parties do to stay in power. Democrats learned that lesson twenty years ago and I suspect Republicans will be relearning it to their detriment over the next ten. Houston, if you want a DA you have to make a hard choice - walking to cool bars in Athens as a civilian or driving to Subway in Watkinsville from a suburban neighborhood. We can't have it all.