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.

The Ox has responded to an outraged Inman Park.   Hot out of the Fresh Loaf oven…

“I love East Atlanta, Morningside, Grant Park, Inman Park and that entire wonderful part of our great state,” said Oxendine. “But I know we must find a way to move Georgia forward towards “greener” roads, mass transit, light rail—every option must be on the table.”

I can only assume he means covering all the roads in sod, but that sounds rather expensive.

As Wheatley points out in his analysis of the statement, though there’s little chance this bypass would ever be built, it’s win-win for the Ox, who already has little support on the blue-tinted east side of the metro.  Pissing off Atlanta earns major brownie points with the rest of the state.  Politicking at its finest.

Too bad it doesn’t work the other way around…”Hey rest o’ Georgia, Atlanta needs all your property to create a massive metro parking lot!”

Inman Park isn’t mincing words about gubenatorial candidate John Oxendine’s proposal of building more bypasses and highways around Atlanta.  CL’s Thomas Wheatley has the note to the candidate from Inman Park President Lisa Burnette.

The idea has obviously picked open the old scab that Inman Park has worn since a coalition of in-town neighborhoods defeated the plan of connecting the road with the most laughable 35mph speed limit sign in the city (Freedom Parkway) with Highway 78.

Now in politics, pissing people off is kind of inevitable.  But pissing off people with money?  Oh, that’s bad.  Very bad.

These Atlanta neighborhoods, including Inman Park, most soundly defeated this highway proposal decades ago, at a time when they had little organization and little resources. Today, we are highly organized and closely networked. We have neighbors and friends in many high places, and we have a lot of money, set aside specifically to protect ourselves against these kinds of proposals.

The Inman Park Neighborhood Association demands that you immediately retract your statements that you would consider building a Stone Mountain Freeway through intown Atlanta.

Hells yes.

Hey Inman Park, let Decatur know if you need help.  We don’t have quite the wealth-hoards, but we’re feisty and we’ll volunteer for near about anything.

The AJC reports this morning that Georgia Insurance and Fire Safety Commish – and gubanitorial candidate – John Oxendine announced Monday that the city of Atlanta’s fire safety rating had fallen from a “2″ to a “4″ in a recent insurance services report.  As a result the city has nine months to improve services or the city’s rating will drop to a “3″.

Aside from suffering from poorer service, city residents would also see insurance premiums rise.

Aside from just imparting the news, Oxendine took the opportunity to slam the city for recent cuts in service and asked them to consider making “life safety a priority.”  The Atlanta City Council returned the complement by pointing out the fact that the Fire Safety rating in Oxendine’s own county of Gwinnett was currently a “4.”

Happily, as Steve pointed out in an email this morning, Decatur’s fire safety rating remains a solid “2.”  According to Steve, Alpharetta is the only other entity in the metro area with such a high rating.