Republicans

are hailing last week's Super Tuesday

Presidential Primary results as evidence that

voters are ready to put a Republican in the White

House, while Democrats see it quite differently.

Statewide,

more than 600,000 voters cast blue Republican

ballots, while just over 280,000 used the white

Democrat ballot. In Fayette County, admittedly a

GOP stronghold, the gap was even wider -

15,000 to 2,500.

Local

voting mirrored that of the nine states involved

in Super Tuesday balloting. In all, there were

just under eight million Republican ballots cast

compared to about 6.6 million Democratic ones.

"I

don't think you can ignore the fact that Fayette

County has spoken, and the voters are more

attracted by what a John McCain or a George Bush

has to say than they are with Al Gore or Bill

Bradley," said Eric Dial, chairman of the

Fayette County Republican Party.

State

GOP Chairman Chuck Clay put it more strongly.

"Democrats all over the state have to be

shaking their heads and wondering what happened.

This is a clear rejection of Clinton/Gore by

Georgia voters," he said.

Not

so, said Judy Chidester, first vice chairman of

the Fayette County Democratic Party.

"Bradley didn't really make that many

serious attempts south of the Mason-Dixon

line," said Chidester.

Since

the race was obviously not going to be close,

Democrats were less motivated to go to the polls,

she said. "Nobody was very surprised that

[Gore] looks like he's going to be the nominee,

and Republicans have been going pretty hot and

heavy," she added.

Dial

agreed that Gore's commanding lead over Bradley

may have skewed the numbers somewhat, but he

insisted there's also a ground swell of voter

sympathy for the Republican candidates.

"This is an indication of the way people

feel about the current administration for one

thing," he said.

"Now

it's our responsibility to see that it continues,

and we'll be working to get Republican voters to

the polls," he added.

Chidester

said Gore's popularity in Georgia is evidenced by

the success of the Jefferson-Jackson fund-raising

dinner. "We raised a million dollars,"

she said. "The state is obviously strongly

for Gore. The governor and all the major people

in the state are for him.

"I'm

pretty confident that, no matter who the

Republican nominee is, Al Gore can defeat

them," she added

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