The votes have been tallied and here’s a smattering of races with a local connection:

• Elena Parent won the Democratic nomination for Jason Carter’s vacated Senate seat, attracting 65% of the vote to Kyle Williams’ 35%
• Decatur former School Board member Valarie Wilson is in a strong position to be the Democatic candidate for State School Superintendent, with the most votes of any Democratic candidate. But without “50% plus one” vote – Wilson will need to enter into a runoff with the second place candidate, which looks to be state Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan to secure the nomination.
• And of course, Gov. Nathan Deal and Jason Carter now officially are poised to go head-to-head in the governor’s race.
• Also, DeKalb Sheriff Jeff Mann and former DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones are headed for a runoff for County Sheriff.

I was intrigued enough by the recent Atlanta Business Chronicle article about metro Atlanta’s new majority at the State Capitol that I asked for a bit more perspective from one of our own state representatives, Stephanie Stuckey Benfield.

She was good enough to provide us with this additional perspective on the whole issue and brainstorm other potential issues that a may be affected by the reappointments due to the 2010 Census.

It’s true there will likely be new metro seats in the Legislature through reapportionment. That does not translate into a power grab. Water is the entire state’s problem, as is transportation. Georgia will only succeed if we recognize that statewide issues require statewide solutions. There will be regional complexities, of course, and legislators will have to resist the temptation to become mired in them.

In addition to water and transportation, another issue of importance to the metro area is trauma care and funding for Grady Hospital. I suspect that we’ll see another effort in the near future to provide a permanent source of trauma care funding in the wake of the failed amendment on this issue. The tobacco tax is one likely proposal.

Every elected official must listen to her or his constituents, but most issues we examine impact all Georgians. The state of affairs in Atlanta impacts those in Albany and as an urban elected official, I must always be mindful of this.

Once the strong front-runner for Georgia Governor, Republican candidate John Oxendine’s support proved quite fragile in the final weeks leading up to Georgia’s Primary, as the news narrative abruptly changed last week with Karen Handel’s Sarah Palin endorsement.

Polls leading up to the primary day showed Oxendine falling out of the race entirely, ceeding a second-place run-off spot to Nathan Deal and ultimately when the fingers met the touchscreen yesterday, Oxendine finished 4th behind Eric Johnson.

On the Democratic side, former Democratic Governor Roy Barnes just can’t seem to get enough of the Gold Dome and Democratic voters across the state didn’t stand in his way.  Barnes secured 64% of the Democratic vote yesterday to avoid a run-off.

Closer to home, U.S.  House Representative Hank Johnson easily defeated Vernon Jones in the District 4 Democratic primary.  He will face Liz Carter, who received 55% of the Republican vote, on Election Day – November 2nd.

In the State Superintendent race, Decatur resident Brian Westlake finished third with 59,687 votes behind Joe Martin and Beth Farokhi for the Democratic nod.  Martin will face Republican challenger John Barge in the fall.

For more election results, presented in a readable format, check out the AJC’s results page.