Qualified!

In sports or in politics, if you don't put a team on the field, you can't win. Last week, when the bell rang, and qualifying ended, Georgia Dems had done just that. Was it perfect? No. There are the issues with the Augusta Senate seat and some last minute drama that caught some by surprise, but over all - this year is much, much better than at least the last two cycles. (My day job gets in the way of counting the beans any further back than that.)

Here are some of the interesting numbers:

• We have candidates running in every statewide race. Too many in some, but that's the breaks. Seven Democratic women are running for statewide office. Seven.
• In total, 83, yes eighty-three, Democratic women qualified to run for state-level office. That has to be some sort of record, but again, the day job interferes with the counting.
• We have Democrats running in 119 of the 180 House seats. That's 23 more than in 2008.
• We have 45 Democratic candidates for Republican seats in the House; there are only 12 Republicans for Democratic seats. Republicans are running in 120 House districts, but let's remember that a lot more of them are defending seats currently held or recently held by a fleeing member.
• Before the snafu in Powell's seat, we had candidates in 35 Senate districts, the same as 2008.

It's not perfect, but we made progress. For that, let me send props to WIN endorsed incumbent Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield who led recruitment efforts for the House. I hope that she, who worked from the wee hours of the morning until the wee hours of the morning, is taking a well-earned breather. When you see her, thank her.

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