Intra-Party squabbles and infighting are not atypical for Georgia Republicans during a hotly contested state chairman's race.

But the 2011 race for GOP state chair, which will be decided on May 15 at the Party's bi-annual convention in Macon, has gotten a little testier than normal of late.

Gaffes, finger pointing and he-said-she said rebuttals have dominated e-mails, blogs and even some major market news outlets over the past two weeks.

The race for Georgia Republican Party Chair is a contest between three very different and very well qualified candidates. Running for a third-term is the incumbent Sue Everhart, a 50-year Georgia Republican veteran activist who has the unofficial backing of the state's two powerful Republican U.S. Senators: Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss. The challengers are Gov. Nathan Deal (R) supported candidate Tricia Pridemore, a 9-12 activist from Cobb County, and former Fulton County GOP chairman Shawn Hanley, who has emerged as the Tea Party darling of the race.

EVERHART GAFES NOT UNCOMMON 

One Everhart supporter, a Republican General Assembly leader, says his candidate has done a good job and deserves re-election, but cautioned: "Sue is all elbows."

Everhart has been known to make a verbal blunder now and again.

In 2008 she compared GOP Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain to Jesus Christ.

In 2009 Everhart [pictured below] caught heat from conservative women after publicly questioning Susan Richardson -- former wife of ousted House Speaker Glenn Richardson -- about her timing regarding a tell-all television interview that drove her ex-husband from office.

In the television interview, Susan Richardson said her husband admitted he had been unfaithful. She said she discovered the affair when she found airline tickets to Las Vegas issued to the speaker and the lobbyist.

"It’s not an alleged inappropriate relationship," she said at the time. "It was a full-out affair, and I knew about it." She also said she had obtained "a series of e-mails" that confirmed a lengthy relationship. "They’re very explicit," Ms. Richardson said.

In one message, according to WAGA, the woman wrote that she feared for her job when her boss heard the rumors about the affair. "He will not fire you!!" Glenn Richardson replied. "I can and will bring all hell down on them if they do."

Everhart's public comments on the matter rankled some feathers. 

"I didn't see any reason for her to bring it out now. That was two years ago. That was the time if she had a story to tell," Everhart said, referring to Ms. Richardson's interview.

Everhart's tendency to make eyebrow raising politically incorrect remarks played out again two weeks ago at a Henry County Republican Women's candidate luncheon. While addressing the audience of about 50, Everhart lamented about her involvement in a Henry County GOP internal battle that pitted a former Party officer, Ms. Sahar Hekmati, against other Henry County Republican officials. Henry County Party leaders eventually forced Hekmati, a naturalized American citizen of Afghanistan descent, to resign her position.

Everhart, perhaps in an effort to explain her angst in having to deal with the infighting, said at one point: "I met Sahar who has now become a horror." Ratcheting up the rhetoric a notch, Everhart continued to explain how Hekmati was a tough cookie, and that she played to win. The gaffe occurred when she said: "Sahar doesn't fight like we fight. She has a different culture. We'll send e-mails back and forth, but Sahar cuts your throat. She's going to get to the bottom of it."

Everhart's oratorical combination of "different culture" and "cut your throat" in the same phraseology upset at least several of the women in attendance, and made for an unflattering Channel 11 news report a few days later. Some critics said it was a racial slur, others maintained it was just another one in a long line of what some of Everhart's detractors refer to as: "Sue moments."

One Henry County Republican who attended the luncheon, Joanie Scott, an original Tea Party activist, said she was "horrified" at Everhart's comments. Scott classified them as "outrageous" and suggested that Everhart resign her position as GOP state chair as a result. "I'm speechless," Scott said. "The comments took my breath away and made me gasp. At a time when we are trying to reach out as a Party to [everyone] this kind of remark is inappropriate."

Scott went on to say that it was a judgment issue, and that Democrats could use these types of comments -- especially by the leader of the Party -- against conservatives and attempt to brand some as racists.

"It [hampers] our ability to conduct legitimate outreach," Scott said.

In a subsequent interview with Channel 11, Scott said, "when I heard the head of the Georgia Republican Party say the phrase -- people from this culture would rather cut your throat -- I couldn't believe it. I found it to be reprehensible. Everyone in the room, I think, it just sucked the air out of the room. No one could believe it. It was just irresponsible."

One delegate, a female from Fulton who preferred not to be identified, said that ill-advised comments sunk the National GOP Chairman last year, Michael Steele [pictured right] even though the Republicans won back the U.S. House during his regime. "It's an image thing that reflects poorly on the Party," she said. 

PRIDEMORE, HANLEY REACT

Pridemore said she was dismayed by the choice of words.

"I couldn't believe what I heard," Pridemore recalled. "I put my head down. I was surprised and disappointed. I cringed."

The challenger said the Chairwoman's remarks were ill timed and inappropriate. 

"I'm running for Party Chair to articulate a positive vision and I want the Republican Party to be seen in a positive light," Pridemore explained. "Sue has said some interesting things. This was not our Party's best moment. I'll continue to work hard for our principles and talk about our positive vision for the state"

Former Fulton County GOP Chairman Shawn Hanley, the second of two candidates running against Everhart, termed the incumbents remarks as unfortunate and not well thought through.

"It was an inappropriate choice of words," Hanley said. "While they were surely not meant to be racially divisive comments, it's not conducive to our outreach objectives.

"I'd rather be talking about the future of the Party then discussing this. Our next state chairman will likely be on a national stage in the upcoming 2012 Presidential election," Hanley concluded. 

EVERHART'S DEFENSE

Everhart said her comments were taken out of context. "I tried to solve the rift in Henry County the best I could," said the Chairwoman. "No good deed goes unpunished."

Everhart clarified her remarks, saying what she meant was: "Sahar is a very passionate young woman and she fights to win."

The Republican veteran accused those who took issue with her comments as being "politically motivated," and several of her supporters blamed the opposition camps for releasing a digital tape recording of the event the press.

Editor's note: This newspaper attained the tape from a source not affiliated wth any campaign or candidate.

Both the Pridemore and Hanley campaigns denied any involvement with the tape or leaking Everhart's comments to the media. 

"This has been gross misinterpretation. It's all a political ploy to make me look bad. I didn't say or do anything against anybody or to hurt anyone. They [my opponents] took a couple of words and made up stuff. I said nothing to be ashamed of, and I said nothing wrong. I jumped in to fix the rift," Everhart maintained.

The two-term GOP Chair then summed up the firestorm over her comments this way: "I must be winning this race or they wouldn't be doing this."

Hekmati [pictured right], the subject of Everhart's remarks, did not attend the event, but defended the Chairwoman. "I believe Sue was taken out of context for purely political purposes. Sue wouldn't hurt a fly or ever offend anyone," Hekmati said. "I know what she meant. It's a cliché, and nothing more."

Hekmati said she was not offended by Everhart's comments. "They were not racist in any way, and I know what she meant. She meant to say I am a fighter, which I am. There is not a racist bone in Sue's body. Some have taken what she said and turned it into something it's not."

Bill Simon, an Everhart supporter from Cobb County who pens a poltical blog called "PV", defended his candidate's remarks. "I personally have 14 years’ experience involved in many grassroots level disputes, and from my point of view," Simon said, "I interpreted Everhart's comments to mean: ‘When Sahar makes a decision, she won’t back-down, and she doesn't negotiate with anyone on her position. Sahar gets right to the bottom line of the dispute, and doesn’t play these games of back-and-forth e-mail exchanges so many people in our party spend time doing. Sahar simply cuts her political adversaries off from being able to tell her anything. "Sue’s comment about 'Sahar cuts your throat' is a very short way of telling the audience she was talking to: 'don't waste time trying to win a political fight with Sahar. You will likely lose, and even if you win, you will not feel like you’ve won.' Sue was simply speaking metaphorically," Simon concluded.

KAREN HANDEL'S TAKE: CHILL OUT, Y'ALL

Former Ga. Sec. of State Karen Handel, who lost the 2010 GOP primary run-off election to Deal by a razor thin margin, says the whole affair amounts to nothing more than a tempest in a teapot.

"Sue Everhart was attempting to describe Sahar as a fighter," Handel said. "She used a common phrase, and it was nothing more than that."

Handel said the real issue is the denigration of the campaign itself.

"This Chairman's race has 'de-volved' into something very political and very unfortunate," the former statewide office holder explained. "The whole tenor and tone of this campaign has gotten nasty -- and ugly.  We've witnessed unsavory Robo-call tactics to obscene amounts of money being spent to ugly rumors being spread around. There are many people who support each of the three candidates. The negative tactics being used by some are not a good reflection on our Party as a whole."

Handel says she is concerned that the campaign tactics are over-shadowing what she maintains are significant issues. "As a Party, we are confronted with major issues in the very near future, including the 2012 Presidential race and re-districting. The political silliness that we are now seeing is very distressing."

No stranger to tough political battles herself; Handel said the rhetoric needs to be lowered a few notches.

"This is a tough and bruising campaign that is extraordinarily divisive," Handel observed. "But the stakes are high and the issues we face loom large. The last dynamic we need is one of negativity, name-calling or finger pointing in this race that lingers beyond the May convention.

"As a Party, we're better than that. As people bound together through a common cause, we're bigger than that."

The Beacon now rates the contest a three-way tossup. Any number of electoral scenarios can elect any of the three candidates state chair on the first or second ballot.