The Associated Press late Tuesday called the race for the Republican nomination for state school superintendent in Barge’s favor. With 81 percent of precincts reporting statewide, Barge had 209,850 votes, or 51.8 percent, to Irwin County schools official Richard Woods’ 195,500 ballots, or 48.2 percent.
Attempts to reach Barge were unsuccessful late Tuesday.
Joe Martin, former Atlanta Board of Education president, will earn the Democratic nomination for the statewide office without a runoff, the AP reported. With less than a fifth of precincts left to report, Martin had 54.9 percent of the vote. Former Georgia State University administrator Beth Farokhi of Marietta and high school teacher Brian Westlake of Decatur had 27.3 and 17.8 percent of the vote, respectively.
Barge and Martin are set to face off in November’s primary election to succeed interim Superintendent Brad Bryant, who was appointed this year to serve the remainder of Kathy Cox’s unexpired term.
Cox resigned in May to become chief executive officer of the U.S. Education Delivery Institute, a new Washington-based group aimed at assisting states in reaching “Race for the Top” goals. Her resignation came after she qualified in April to seek a third term as superintendent.
See Thursday’s edition of The Daily Tribune News for more coverage.