GEORGIA
Population (1994): 7,055,000 (up 8.9% from 1990), 2.7% of U.S. total
Voting-age population: 5,159,000; 1994 turnout, 30%
Median age: 31.6 years
Median household income: $31,467 ($797 below U.S. median)
Unemployment: 4.5% (1.1% below U.S. average, March 1996)
Last presidential election: Clinton (D): 43% Bush (R): 43% Perot (I):13%
Congressional delegation: Four Democrats, nine Republicans
A 1995 Supreme Court decision--declaring the Second and 11th Districts unconstitutionally gerrymandered on the basis of race--has made this year's Georgia election something of a peach cobbler. All the state's 11 congressional districts had to be redrawn; African Americans lost their majority in two of three districts. Though conservative Republicans saw this upheaval as an opportunity, Cynthia McKinney is on track to defeat those expectations--and perhaps the odds--in the newly constituted Fourth. And the question much of the nation is asking is whether Newt Gingrich will be gone with the wind.
MAX CLELAND (D) SENATE (OPEN SEAT)
BORN: Aug. 24, 1942, Atlanta EDUCATION: Stetson U, B.A., 1964; Emory U, M.A., 1968 FAMILY: Single RELIGION: Methodist MILITARY: Army, 1965-68 OCCUPATION: Motivational speaker POLITICAL CAREER: Georgia Senate, 1971-75; Georgia Secretary of State, 1983- ADDRESS: P.O. Box 7843, Atlanta 30357. Tel.: 770-452-9696
A Vietnam hero confined to a wheelchair because of his war wounds, Cleland was Georgia's youngest Secretary of State in 1983. He declined to answer the TIME/CQ questionnaire because he considers it "so skeletal and oversimplified as to be distortive." And he has waged a campaign that avoids a complex agenda, emphasizing job security, affordable college education and improved access to health insurance as priorities.
THE ISSUES
Budget NR Medicare NR Defense NR Abortion NR Guns NR Gays NR Bosnia NR NAFTA NR Welfare NR National Service NR (For an explanation of these issues, see the front of this guide.)
QUOTE OF NOTE: "Here I am, once a wandering, lost college kid who came to believe that maybe one day even I might run for public office and even come to Washington. So I'm putting my best foot forward this fall."
GUY MILLNER (R) SENATE (OPEN SEAT)
BORN: Feb. 16, 1936, Holly Hill, Fla. EDUCATION: Florida State U, B.A., 1958 FAMILY: Wife, Ginny; five children RELIGION: Presbyterian MILITARY: Naval Reserve, 1953-61 OCCUPATION: Management-services-company owner POLITICAL CAREER: Republican nominee for Governor, 1994 ADDRESS: 1730 Northeast Expressway, Atlanta 30329. Tel.: 404-248-9696
Millner, a popular Atlanta business executive who nearly won the governorship two years ago, is a conservative Republican committed to lower taxes, a balanced-budget amendment, better health-care systems through free-market incentives and support for local law-and-order crime programs, including tough work requirements for prisoners and mandatory minimum sentencing.
THE ISSUES Budget YES Medicare NO Defense YES Abortion YES Guns NO Gays NO Bosnia YES NAFTA YES Welfare NO National Service NO (For an explanation of these issues, see the front of this guide.)