The dean of Georgia’s Congressional delegation now faces the most formidable electoral challenge of his 30-year House tenure in a race said to be the closest in the Deep South.
Redistricting has put into play Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District, which Sanford Bishop has represented since 1992. The southwest Georgia district, extending from Columbus south to the Florida line and east to Macon, is one of farms and small towns, plus big military bases like Fort Benning and Warner Robins Air Force Base. It’s home to Plains, the birthplace of former President Jimmy Carter.
Bishop, a moderate Democrat, took the seat when it was first drawn as a majority-black district to comply with a Justice Department order. It hasn’t always been majority black since then, said Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political science professor. The original redistricting was overturned by a federal decision against racial gerrymandering a few years later….