Georgia News1

After state senator and former majority leader in the state senate Charles Walker was convicted of fraud in June, Ed Tarver from Augusta was selected in a special election to fill the empty seat. Receiving 8, 074 votes, Tarver gained the victory over two former state representatives: Ben Allen and George Brown. Allen, defeated by Tarver, was not surprised that Tarver won, stating that "the message that [Tarver] brought forth was [what] people wanted to hear." According to the article, Tarver focused on a message detailing his experience working on economic development. This is an interesting situation, mainly because the senatorial seat was vacated because of a conviction, something that does not happen often. Another surprising aspect is Tarver's margin of victory over his opponents, as his opponents only had 3,814 and 838 votes, respectively.

Link: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0905/21augusta.html