Oxendine LIES About His Electoral History

John Oxendine and his supporters like to claim that he has had more votes than any Democrat in 3 of the past 4 elections.

From a campaign email on May 8 (that I’ve been hearing his supporters parrot recently):

John Oxendine has received more votes in three of the past four general elections in Georgia than any other single candidate on the ballot of either party.

Note: All numbers come directly from the Secretary of State’s election results page.
By law, Georgia has General Elections every two years. Since this is 2009, the past 4 General Elections would be 2008, 2006, 2004, and 2002.

In 2008 and 2004, John Oxendine wasn’t on the ballot. So he’s already misleading there.

In 2006, John Oxendine did, in fact, get more votes than the Democrat in the Insurance Commissioner race, 1,357,770 to 713,324. Democrats in other races got 811,049 (Mark Taylor for Governor), 887, 506 (Jim Martin for Lt Governor), 862, 412 (Buckner for Secretary of State), 1,185, 366 (Thurbert Baker for Attorney General), 734, 702 (Denise Majette for State School Superintendent), 1, 168, 371 (Tommy Irvin for Commissioner of Agriculture), 1,127,182 (Michael Thurmond for Commissioner of Labor), 994,619 (Burgess for PSC-3), and 823, 681 (Randolph for PSC-5) votes. Note that there were Libertarians in 7 of those races.

So John Oxendine did, in fact, get more votes than any Democrat in 2006.

Using his 2006 numbers for the 2008 race, when he was not on the ballot, we see that Democrats got 1,844,123 (Barack Obama for President), 1,757,393 (Jim Martin for US Senate), and 1,732,147 (Jim Powell for PSC-4).

In other words, every single Democrat in the 2008 election did better than John Oxendine did in 2006.

Jumping back to 2002, the previous time John Oxendine was on the ballot, Ox got 1,274, 831 votes. His Democrat competitor in the Insurance Commissioner race got 657, 754 votes. But we already knew Ox won that race, since he has been the Insurance Commissioner since 1994. But how did he do against ALL Democrats running statewide in 2002?

Max Cleland got 931,857 votes in his US Senate run, Roy Barnes got 937,062 votes in his Gubernatorial bid, Mark Taylor got 1,041,227 votes in his Lt Governor race, Kathy Cox got 1,225,232 votes for Secretary of State, Thurbert Baker received 1,093,734 votes for Attorney General, Tommy Irvin got 1,138,705 votes for Agriculture Commissioner, Christmas got 859,653 votes for State School Superintendent, Michael Thurmond got 1,007, 468 votes for Labor Commissioner, Sizemore got 913, 119 votes in his PSC bid, and McDonald got 911,669 votes in his PSC bid.

So once again, when Ox was on the ballot, he did better than every single Democrat on the ballot.

Again using his his 2002 number for the 2004 General Election, Democrats that year got 1,366,155 votes for John Kerry for President, 1,287,695 for Denise Majette for US Senate, and 1,217, 447 for Barber for PSC-2.

So two of the three Democrats running statewide in 2004 did better than the Ox did in his 2002 run.

In other words, John Oxendine LIED about doing better than any Democrat in three of the last four elections. In fact, we have just shown him to do better than any Democrat only when he is on the ballot – but his claim was in ‘three of the last four elections’, not ‘three of the last four elections when he was on the ballot’.

Now, looking at both 1998 and 1994, to round out the last four times he was on the ballot, in 1998 John Oxendine got 1,017,602 votes compared to 651,891 votes for the Democrat in the Insurance Commissioner race.

Other Statewide Democrats that year got 791, 904 votes (Coles, US Senate), 941,076 votes (Barnes, Governor), 990, 454 votes (Taylor, Lt Governor), 983, 905 votes (Cox, Secretary of State), 883,932 votes (Baker, Attorney General), 1,085, 694 votes (Irvin, Commissioner of Agriculture), 794, 324 votes (Martin, State School Superintendent), 894, 656 votes (Thurmond, Labor Commissioner), and 746, 081 votes (Hargis, PSC).

So in 1998, Tommy Irvin, a Democrat running for Commissioner of Agriculture, got more votes than John Oxendine.

So far Ox has had more votes than any Democrat when he was on the ballot in 2006 and 2002, and was beaten by a Democrat in another race in 1998. For Oxendine’s claim to possibly be classified as misleading rather than an outright LIE, he must have done better than every single Democrat in 1994.

In 1994, John Oxendine got 754, 123 votes compared to 723, 134 for the Democrat for Insurance Commissioner.

Here’s where it comes down to the wire: How did other statewide Democrats do in 1994, and did any of them get more than 754, 123 votes?

Yes, in fact, they did. Zell Miller got 788, 926 votes for Governor as a Democrat, beating John Oxendine’s 754, 123 votes in the Insurance Commissioner race.

So even with John Oxendine’s claim already proven to be an outright LIE, let’s look at the rest of the Democrats in 1994:

Pierre Howard got 808, 664 votes for Lt Governor – also beating Ox.
Max Cleland got 1,041, 928 votes for Secretary of State – also beating Ox.
Wesley Dunn got 489,911 votes for Attorney General.
Tommy Irvin got 1,031, 889 votes for Agriculture Commissioner – also beating Ox.
Werner Rogers got 709, 568 votes for State School Superintendent.
David Poythress got 782,111 votes for Labor Commissioner – also beating Ox.
Earleen Sizemore got 587,237 votes for PSC-1.
Bobby Rowan got 692,739 votes for PSC-2.

Finishing this post up, John Oxendine LIED about beating all Democrats in 3 of the past 4 elections, even counting only those where he was on the ballot. The truth of the matter is that yes, Ox did better than any Democrat in 2002 and 2006. HOWEVER, when he was not on the ballot, Democrats did better than him in 2004 and 2008, and even when he WAS on the ballot, at least one Democrat did better than him in both 1998 and 1994.

In fact, while Ox can legitimately claim to have gotten more votes than two of his Democratic rivals, Roy Barnes and Thurbert Baker, every time each of them have been on the ballot…

The Democrat that is polling DEAD LAST right now got more votes than John Oxendine did.